Mental Illness in CJ System Commission: Maricopa County.

TUESDAY, MAY 10, 10am
125 W. Washington St. (Old Courthouse), PHX
6th floor conference room

Come to this meeting, folks. Ask the CJ SMI Commission to solicit public testimony from families and prisoners - they need to go visit the prisons these folks are being held in.

Here's the agenda and the minutes from the last meeting where the ADC made their presentation...if you can't make it, contact the members, listed in the left hand column below.

Hope these are all legible.

(double-click documents to print)

Catching up to a corrupt cop: Joe Arpaio.

This is a little more encouraging; I came across this Friday after my last tirade. Interesting how he can victimize us and our communities without real consequence - even if we die as a result of his negligence or spite - but if he goes after the wrong person in power, he just might get indicted for some sort of crime.

I guess you have to admit that Romley really stepped up to challenge those guys. He should be allowed to be a write in candidate in November. I didn't realize how big the risk was that he took on Thomas and Arpaio until he lost that primary. Bill Montgomery's place on the ballot was paid for with dirty money and intimidation by a criminal syndicate operating within the Republican Party, and when the rank and file finally see the evil ends these men have in mind, I do believe they'll want to drop the candidates they sold them in a second. In the meantime, I do believe Romley's going to keep cleaning house - I sure hope he is, anyway.

It's a disappointment that MCSO deputies haven't already begun to walk off the job en masse in protest of Arpaio's continued leadership there. That tells me that both complicity and terror are widespread - no one's been untouched if none of them are talking to the press. Hopefully some of them have already stepped up to talk to the FBI and DOJ, though, and have been told to lie low until an indictment comes.

The Maricopa County Sheriff is a corrupt, fascist thug, and every additional day he remains armed and in charge, Joe Arpaio hurts people - harassing and arresting and incarcerating us does profound violence to individuals and communities - we've all been violated by this man. We better see some charges dropped and convictions thrown out once Arpaio is arrested - people shouldn't have to keep sitting in jail waiting for a successful prosecution - that could take years. The DOJ needs to get an indictment and arrest him this week so we can start cleaning up the mess. Shackle him and Andrew Thomas together in court - they're in bed with eachother anyway.

-------------from the Daily Beast (good news site)---------------

Crackdown on a Renegade Sheriff

by Terry Greene Sterling

September 3, 2010 | 10:26pm

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Joshua Lott / Getty Images)

The federal civil-rights case against notorious Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio may not be his biggest legal headache.

Terry Greene Sterling on the abuse-of-power probe that could end his career.

Arizona’s notorious “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday for not cooperating in a 17-month racial-profiling probe stemming from his immigration raids. But that isn’t the only potentially career-ending battle the lawman is having with the feds these days.

A separate Justice probe—one largely overshadowed by the racial-profiling investigation, and little-noticed outside of Arizona—could lead to the sheriff’s indictment for violating the civil rights of political foes by launching well-publicized but ultimately unsuccessful criminal investigations and, in some cases, fruitless indictments, of his perceived enemies. If indicted and found guilty of a felony, the man branded “America’s Toughest Sheriff” by the press—infamous for parading inmates in pink underwear and introducing voluntary chain gangs—could be removed from office under Arizona law.

A federal grand jury in Phoenix began investigating allegations of abuses of power in the offices of Arpaio and his political sidekick, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, several months ago.

The feds’ investigation was bolstered in late August by a court-ordered release of grand jury documents, spearheaded by acting Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley. The 61-year-old Vietnam veteran and moderate Republican has for years been Arpaio’s nemesis, and he handed over the released records to the feds.

The records show that a Maricopa County grand jury in March chose to “end the inquiry” of a conservative Republican county supervisor, a judge, and other county officials who had opposed Arpaio and Thomas. Nevertheless, Romley reported, Thomas’ office shopped around for out-of-county prosecutors to take the case, and Arpaio’s chief deputy threatened to release “incriminating evidence” on a foe after the grand jury’s vote to end the inquiry. (Thomas says Romley is lying and Eric Dowell, who was referred to The Daily Beast by a sheriff’s spokesman for comment, did not return a phone call.)

“It is hard to know what will happen, but there could be an indictment of a number of individuals involved in this case,” says Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney who represented Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon—one of those who spoke out against Arpaio, only to become the target of a criminal investigation that went nowhere. Charlton also represents a county supervisor facing a criminal indictment that’s been halted pending a state bar investigation of Thomas.

There’s “something very Nixonian” about Arpaio and Thomas, who were tremendously popular for their stand on “a single monolithic issue—immigration” and yet were driven by “arrogance and a sense of impunity” to seek revenge on political foes, Charlton says.

“There could be an indictment of a number of individuals involved in this case,” says former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton.

Legal scholars and lawyers say the feds have to show a pattern of abuse of power, and the grand jury documents add to the pattern. There was “nothing to the allegations” and that’s why the grand jury ended the inquiry, says Lee Stein, a former assistant U.S. attorney who represented Gary Donahoe, a county judge who ruled against Arpaio and Thomas in a case and was subsequently indicted and charged with bribery, hindering prosecution, and obstructing a criminal investigation. (The charges were later dismissed.)

Romley contended in August that Arpaio and Thomas engaged in “improper, unethical, and corrupt” behavior, and added that “it may be judges and elected officials who are targeted today, but tomorrow it could be any of us.” Romley himself was the next target—of pre-primary TV ads and mailed flyers depicting Romley as “too risky for Arizona families” and a “dangerous” foe of Sheriff Joe’s immigration enforcement policies. Those ads may have resulted in Romley’s loss of the Republican primary for county attorney to an Arpaio ally, Bill Montgomery.

The ads, which cost about $400,000, were bankrolled by Arpaio’s 2012 reelection committee, which has amassed more than $1 million in campaign contributions from donors across the country. The TV ads were deemed legal by a deputy county attorney, but the flyers were not. A legal battle looms. “We’ll fight it tooth and nail,” says Chad Willems, who is managing Arpaio’s campaign for reelection to a sixth term as sheriff in 2012. Romley, who had served as county attorney from 1980 to 2004, has long clashed with Arpaio, first over jail conditions and over zealous searches, then over immigration enforcement policies.

He was appointed interim county attorney in April to replace Thomas, who had stepped down in what turned out to be a failed bid to win the Republican primary for attorney general.

Arpaio, who became a national celebrity with publicity stunts that include bunking convicted inmates in outdoor “Tent City” jails, forcing them to wear pink skivvies, initiating a voluntary chain gang, and raiding heavily Latino neighborhoods in the Phoenix area, might also be declining in popularity. Once seen as the most viable Republican candidate for governor, his popularity in Arizona has waned even as he strengthened his populist illegal-immigration-fighting persona outside of Arizona. In the federal lawsuit filed Thursday, the Justice Department says the sheriff and his employer, Maricopa County, failed to cooperate in a 17-month civil-rights investigation “of alleged national origin discrimination” in “police practices and jail operations.” In that suit, the Justice Department seeks court-ordered access to Arpaio’s employees, jails, and relevant documents to investigate alleged racial profiling and other violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act related to the sheriff’s immigration-enforcement.

Arpaio portrayed himself as the victim of federal harassment in a press release put out Thursday afternoon. “The Obama administration intended to sue us all along, no matter what we did to try to avert it,” Sheriff Joe wrote. “Washington isn't playing fair and it's time Americans everywhere wake up and see this administration for what it really is.” At a press conference Thursday, the sheriff said the Justice Department had “no proof” that “alleged racial profiling” occurred in the streets of Phoenix. The sheriff’s former chief deputy, state Sen. Russell Pearce, who has spearheaded Arizona’s increasingly harsh immigration laws that the sheriff has enthusiastically enforced, stood by his side and called the suit a “witch hunt.”

Given the nature of the abuse-of-power allegations in the other investigation of Arpaio, it was an interesting choice of words.

Arpaio knows he would lose.

He withdrew his consideration for the gubernatorial race yesterday, saying he doesn't trust the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to appoint a new sheriff who would be like him (fascist, racist, corrupt...hopefully he's right, they wouldn't). So, we should see our sitting Sheriff indicted before his term is up. My bet is that the Republican Party leadership here begged him not to run. It'll be interesting to see what he does with that $1.2 m he has for his next campaign - by which time he should be 79 and in prison...

Some abolitionist, huh? I want to see him locked up and subject to the conditions in his own jail. Fortunately, once I vent and settle, I still want to see others free more than I care what happens to him.

RULE 11: Maricopa County, AZ Legislature, and Competency.

An informative - and troubling - reprint from the Winter 2007 journal issue of "CorrectCare," by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. People should not be so brutalized for having a mental illness and being too poor to bond out to see a private shrink. We're far too casual about stealing chunks of people's lives like that - it's as if we assume that because they're mentally ill and/or poor their time is of no value to them, their community, or their families anyway - as if their lives have no value, essentially.

THAT's criminal.

This article came out three years ago, by the way - before the county jails lost their health care accreditation. And we know that mental health services in this state just took a huge hit. What a bunch of short-sighted, self-interested idiots we have in the legislature, "saving" our money by selling both our public property and our people's welfare to the highest bidder.

Expect the jails and prisons to swell even more folks - we're going to pay a hell of a lot more to store people there than we would have to treat them in the community or hospital and assure that they have housing (one big reason people are arrested for trespassing is lack of their own home and bathroom).

So much for our government's commitment to keeping us "safe" - it's the Arizona state government we're most endangered by now. Perhaps some of them should be detained for competency hearings...I have an idea of who to start with.

Those of you who have more recent experience with Rule 11, please contact us so we can make sure others are informed on current conditions.

----------------------------

Restoring Competency: One County’s Solution
By Lindy Funkhouser, JD

In the spring of 2003, Ruben D.* appeared in a Maricopa County Superior Court room. Ruben was chronically mentally ill. His illness got particularly bad one day, leading to an arrest for disorderly conduct and trespassing. Ruben couldn’t make the $300 bail so he had to remain in jail until the court disposed of his charges.

On this day, after Ruben had spent about 60 days in jail, he and 15 other inmates were pulled from their cells to attend 2 ½ hours of a court calendar for defendants with “legal competency” issues. Some months ago, Ruben’s attorney had asked the court to evaluate his ability to understand his charges and to assist in his defense. In Arizona this is called a Rule 11 evaluation, for the Arizona Criminal Rule of Court that governs competency determinations.

In the Maricopa County justice system, Rule 11 was so well-known that it became a colloquial expression, as in “My attorney said I should go Rule 11 to see if it can get me off [criminal charges].” Unfortunately, Rule 11 was not a promising environment for Ruben or anyone else unlucky or gullible enough to be there. Think of George Orwell’s “1984” or Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.”

You see, Ruben’s attorney triggered a cumbersome and lengthy evaluation process. Ruben had to wait in jail for a court-appointed expert to prescreen him and determine whether he was appropriate for an evaluation. In other words, Ruben had to wait for an evaluation of competency to determine whether he needed an evaluation for competency. Chalk up at least 7 to 10 days for the prescreen evaluation.

As in about 75 percent of all referrals, the prescreen evaluation showed that Ruben needed to be evaluated for competency. This meant that Ruben had to wait for the court to schedule a status conference and appoint a psychiatrist and psychologist to perform a full Rule 11 evaluation. At that time in Maricopa County, the evaluators were contract providers who would arrange to meet with Ruben, review his records and write a recommendation to the court. Add another 60 to 90 days for the recommendation to land on the court’s desk.

Three Possible Findings
A competency evaluation typically leads to one of the following three recommendations:

1. Competent. This finding would mean Ruben was capable of understanding his charges. The court would assign his cases back to a trial judge without any further evaluation.

2. Incompetent/restorable. This finding would mean that although Ruben was not capable of understanding his charges, his condition was treatable. In the spring of 2003, this would mean committing him for treatment at the Arizona State Hospital.

3. Incompetent/not restorable. This finding would mean that Ruben was not capable of understanding his charges and that he could not be treated or “restored” to competency.

The evaluators in Ruben’s case picked not one but two of the recommendations; one said he was incompetent/not restorable and the other said he was incompetent/restorable. This meant that Ruben had to wait for a third evaluation, a tiebreaker. This drastically delayed Ruben’s case, adding about 45 to 60 days to his stay in the jail.

By this time, Ruben had waited in line for the court to consider the prescreen report, appoint the initial evaluators and then appoint a third evaluator. In all, Ruben had to wait six months before the court could determine whether he needed competency restoration treatment. Already, Ruben’s incarceration was longer than his likely sentence for disorderly conduct and trespassing.

The tiebreaker evaluation found Ruben was incompetent but restorable. The court promptly committed Ruben to be treated at the Arizona State Hospital.

But Ruben would not be treated soon. His name was placed on a list of 50 inmates who were waiting for an open bed to commence treatment at the hospital. This meant Ruben would likely wait another 60 to 90 days.

State Hospital was no picnic for mentally ill patients like Ruben. The hospital did not classify or restrict mobility of inmates based on their dangerousness or the nature of their charges. Ruben would be placed in the same dormitory setting as dangerous inmates who had skillfully faked a mental illness to avoid trial and sentencing. These patients occasionally attacked and injured other inmates and hospital staff.

Treatment at State Hospital was expensive. The average cost to restore a Maricopa County inmate was about $30,000. Multiply that cost by 250 inmates for the fiscal year and the full cost for Maricopa County restorations was $7,500,000.

The county had been relatively indifferent to this cost because the state paid half of the bill. But the 2003 legislature decided to eliminate the subsidy to make up for shortfalls in the state budget. In the 2004 fiscal year, Maricopa County projected that 300 inmates would need restoration services. This demand, coupled with elimination of the state’s subsidy, threatened to increase Maricopa County’s costs by $5,750,000.

Exploring the Concepts
Many excellent articles and legal opinions have explored and debated the concepts involved in legal competency. The authorities generally agree that legal competency concerns certain fundamental rights in the United States judicial system. For example, a defendant accused of crime is entitled to competent counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. This right to effective assistance of counsel means very little if the defendant is mentally incapable of using that counsel in the criminal case. Also, the Sixth Amendment provides that a defendant is entitled to know the nature of her charges. This right is meaningless if the defendant is mentally incapable of understanding her charges.

The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the accused the right to a speedy and public trial. This typically means that the court must meet legal deadlines to resolve the criminal trial as expeditiously as possible.

But speedy trial rules do not apply to a competency determination. So unless the courts and policy makers address competency in a timely manner, incompetent jail inmates will be effectively disenfranchised. Justice will be denied for the inmate who, like Ruben, is charged with a minor offense, needs mental health treatment and is unable to advocate for better treatment. All of this would happen for the cause of protecting Ruben’s constitutional rights. In such cases, justice resembles “Alice in Wonderland” and courts do not like it.

Award-Winning Solution
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors addressed the problem on June 15, 2003, and provided funds to restore inmates in the county jails. County staff established a forensic team within the Department of Correctional Health Services (CHS) composed of a psychiatrist, psychologist and three masters-level social workers.

The county developed working relationships with the county sheriff, superior court and public defenders. The presiding judge of the Superior Court authorized CHS to restore inmates on the State Hospital waiting list and worked with CHS to change court forms.

CHS implemented the Restoration to Competency (RTC) program on August 15, 2003, less than 60 days after funding by the Board of Supervisors. Social workers contacted each inmate, performed a psychosocial workup and administered a preliminary competency examination. A psychologist met each inmate and evaluated the inmate’s condition. The program employed standardized tests to identify the inmates’ cognitive deficits and strengths. The team used this information to develop a restoration plan tailored to each inmate’s needs.

In the early months of the program, the forensic team used jail staff psychiatrists to prescribe medications. The forensic team met weekly to review and discuss all the cases, assess each inmate’s progress and make adjustments to the restoration plan. By October, staff began attending all court competency proceedings to keep court communication at maximum levels. This process kept the staff up-to-date on all time-sensitive matters.

By late November, the program hired a psychiatrist and added a psychologist and three masters-level social workers to increase the program’s capacity.

By December, the program had diverted 63 cases from the hospital, saving the county more than $2,000,000. The waiting list shrank from 67 inmates in November 2003 to 38 in January 2004. Waiting time for treatment decreased from 90 days to less than 60 days.

By July 2004, Maricopa County assumed virtually all restoration cases and brought all restoration costs under budget, including costs of State Hospital admissions. The Maricopa County RTC program received a National Association of Counties 2004 Achievement Award “in recognition of an innovative program which contributes to and enhances county government in the United States.”

The Maricopa County RTC experience suggests that an organization can adopt innovative solutions to manage and control its costs. Providing services in the jail allowed the county to implement management strategies that improved timeliness and effectiveness of the services. It proved that customized services for the mentally ill could be cost-effective.

In the meantime, the rights of inmates, like Ruben, are better aligned with the spirit of the law.

* This person is fictional.

— About the author: Lindy Funkhouser, JD, is the director of Maricopa County Correctional Health Services, Phoenix, AZ.

[This article first appeared in the Winter 2007 issue of CorrectCare.]

Look what Copwatch just passed on...

The time seems right to indict...

----------

Sheriff Joe Arpaio investigated by grand jury, officials confirm
by JJ Hensley and Yvonne Wingett - Jan. 8, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Two Maricopa County executives said Thursday they will appear before a federal grand jury next week to testify about allegations that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and others in his office have abused their power.

County Manager David Smith and Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson said they met with representatives from the U.S. Attorney's Office on Wednesday to prepare for the grand jury.

Arpaio denied knowledge of the grand jury. "I'm not commenting about the grand jury or what's occurring," he said. "If people are saying it, let them say it. We're going to continue doing our job."

Federal grand juries composed of local residents meet in secret to hear testimony to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to hold a trial.

Witnesses, however, are not prohibited from talking about the grand jury, which uses subpoenas to gather evidence.

If the grand jury hands up an indictment, a trial would determine guilt or innocence.

Smith and Wilson are scheduled to appear at the federal courthouse in downtown Phoenix at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday. They were told that their testimony may take several hours over several days. "We were told that we are now federal witnesses, and we will be protected," Wilson said.

Based on their discussions with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Smith said the grand jury appears to be focusing on a variety of issues.

Among them are budget negotiations, the county's courthouse project, deputies questioning county employees at their homes, threats of investigations of county employees, and a fight over a criminal-justice computer system.

"I'm certainly gratified that the system is starting to work, where this kind of abuse of power is looked into by a competent authority," Smith said. "A lot of people have suffered; now I think that from the U.S. attorney, with respect to Sheriff Arpaio, justice will be served."

The Justice Department announced last year it was also conducting a civil investigation into allegations of racial profiling against the Sheriff's Office.

Representatives from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, the Department of Justice in Washington, D..C., and the FBI office in Phoenix would not comment on the grand jury.

Since at least May, county employees have regularly met with FBI officials about Arpaio and allegations of misuse of power, according to Republic sources interviewed by federal agents.

However, sources said Thursday it's unclear if the grand jury is a result of those conversations.

Over the past year, county leaders have fought over money and authority.

The fights originated among top officials at the county, the Sheriff's Office and the County Attorney's Office but have recently enveloped midlevel employees in other departments..... (hit the AZ Republican for the rest)