Despair Behind Bars: Suicide in Arizona Prisons

Today being International Suicide Prevention Day, I thought it would be a good time to remember both the victims and survivors of the kind of despair that drives one to take one's life. For some reason, Arizonans are much more prone to suicide than most of the rest of the country. As reported by the Arizona Republic last year:

"Arizona perennially finishes in the top 10 nationally for suicides per capita, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2007, 986 Arizonans died by suicide, twice the number of those who were murdered, according to Magellan. The rate of suicide was 15.9 per 100,000 people; in New York, the rate was 6.9 per 100,000.

Among people with serious mental illnesses, the risk of suicide is roughly six times higher than for people who have not been diagnosed, according to academic research..."

Considering that suicides in this state far outnumber homicides, one has to wonder why we allow life-saving mental health services to be cut each year while we busy ourselves with feeding increasing numbers of people - and public funds - to the criminal justice system.

Because of the nature of my blogs, my focus here has been on prisoners. My Arizona Prison Watch archives are not exhaustive of all prisoner suicides in the state over the past 15 months, but I believe I have accessed all those who were reported by the AZ Department of Corrections. They are as follows:

23 y.o. Lasasha Cherry (9/08/10) ASPC-Perryville/Lumley

28 y.o. Patrick Lee Ross (8/31/10) Great Plains Correctional Facility, OK (Cornell under contract with AZ)

28 y.o. Geshell Fernandez (7/23/10) ASPC-Perryville/Lumley

26 y.o. Anthony Lester (7/12/10) ASPC-Tucson/Manzanita

29 y.o. Robert Medina (7/11/10) ASPC-Eyman/Browning

17 y.o. Jerry Kulp (5/11/10) ASPC-Tucson/Minors' Unit

46 y.o. James Adams (3/14/10) ASPC-Eyman/Browning (Death Row)

28 y.o. Jesus Cota (1/10/10) ASPC-Eyman/Special Management Unit

47 y.o. Monte McCarty (12/26/09) ASPC-Eyman/Special Management Unit

18 y.o. Hernan Cuevas (10/10/09) ASPC-Phoenix, Baker Unit

32 y.o. William Englebert (8/22/09) ASPC-Tucson

30 y.o. Erick Cervantes (8/14/09) ASPC-Eyman/Special Management Unit

33 y.o. Dung Ung (6/25/09) ASPC-Lewis

37 y.o. Caesar Bojorquez (6/28/09) ASPC-Eyman/Browning


Another tragic loss this year was the life of 17-year old Presley Austin, who killed himself at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections' Adobe Mountain School in Phoenix in May. By accounts of other kids there, Presley was bullied to death within a week of being placed in a unit with more violent youth after he was in a fight on the mental health unit. His was the first suicide at the AzDJC in seven years.

My condolences to all those loved ones left behind in the wake of these tragedies.

Prior to Marcia Powell's death in May, 2009, notices of inmate deaths were seldom posted at the ADC news site. Now they seem to be pretty consistently updated, regardless of cause of death, which I give Director Charles Ryan some credit for - as far as I know, they don't have to do that.

The high number of prisoner suicides is disturbing, however, and should be investigated more closely, if the ADC hasn't already done so - especially those in the Special Management Unit, where I believe there is a higher concentration of prisoners with mental illness held in solitary confinement. At Perryville, both of the women who suicided were on the maximum security unit, where prisoners with serious mental illness are also frequently held. Theoretically, while it may be a higher-risk population, the environments should be better controlled and the staff should have some specialized training.

The national average for suicides in prisons is 14/100,000. The Arizona Department of Corrections warehouses about 40,000 prisoners at any given time, with about 20,000 new ones replacing those departing each year.

There are several good resources on suicide in jails/prisons in the side column of Arizona Prison Watch. I'd also recommend the following posts/articles, for those interested:
Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System

Man's Death in Private Immigration Jail Bares Difficulty of Detention Overhaul

Suicide Among Incarcerated Veterans

The other way we tend to die in custody

Top Ten Places to Suicide: Arizona.

(this post includes a link to a moving slide show of quilt panels made to memorialize suicide victims in Arizona)

Real Lives Loved and Lost: "Criminals" and Suicide.

SOS: Suicide in Massachusetts state prisons.

Teen Kills Himself After Being Put in Solitary for…Trying to Kill Himself

Illinois Youth Prisons See More Suicide Attempts


I should also note that corrections officers themselves are also at increased risk for suicide - far higher than that of prisoners. Two that I know of occurred over the course of the past 15 months. The first was an officer at Perryville prison for women, who shot himself on the prison grounds - along the perimeter - not long after Marcia Powell was killed. The second was a youth corrections officer at Adobe Mountain School in May, the same week Presley died. I'm sure there were more, however, and that all left heartbreak in their wake.

I know far less about the above officer's suicides than I do about the prisoners I've covered, but my condolences go out to their families, friends and colleagues as well. I have also survived the suicide of a loved one - my ex-partner, who was also my friend and colleague through the many years I worked with people who were homeless in Michigan. He sat down in front of a train. Losing him - particularly that way - was devastating to our entire community. I imagine the officers' deaths hit their respective communities hard as well.

This post is for those still here and struggling to survive. Don't give up hope, no matter where you are or where you're heading. Even in prison there is always a role you can play to make this a better world - and we need all the help we can get these days.

May 2010 at Adobe Mountain: PHX New Times

Sorry folks: this is from almost two weeks ago. I've been caught up in my own personal and family crises since the night of the 19th; unless someone was covering this for me, we didn't post this from the New Times - Amy Silverman does pretty good work. 

I'll look for follow-up, and post updated info on the ADJC as soon as I can. I probably won't come in for a landing myself until sometime next week. Once I'm settled, I'll be more on top of things again.

 Folks particularly interested in Juvenile Corrections should check out Juvenile Prison Watch - it's new, can use some more research and development; we'd love to have a few family members work collectively on maintaining it. Contact myself or the International Prison Watch staff listed on their websites for more info.

- Peg

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

Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections Death Was Suicide, Inside Sources Say

By Amy Silverman,

Wednesday, May. 26 2010 @ 12:19PM

Staff at Adobe Mountain School in Phoenix are reporting that the death of a youth yesterday was a suicide.


And they wonder if the incident is tied to the "hush, hush" suicide earlier this month of a corrections officer from the same facility.


The boy was found in his cell at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections' Adobe Mountain at 6:30 am May 25, according to Laura Dillingham, spokeswoman for the department.



She would not reveal any other details. Next of kin has not been contacted yet, she said, adding that an investigation is under way by the Department of Public Safety, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and the Department of Juvenile Corrections.

Dillingham refused to respond to questions regarding whether the incident was possibly a suicide.

Two current employees of Adobe Mountain and one former employee of ADJC have contacted New Times to say the boy likely took his own life.

According to the employees, one of whom works on the unit Crossroads, where the boy was living at the time, the boy was found with a plastic bag tied over his head and a blanket over that. He was reportedly dead for quite some time when the morning shift staff found him.

Dillingham said department policy calls for welfare checks every 15 minutes through the night, and said the checks were, in fact, done in this situation. She said the childrens' faces cannot be kept covered, raising questions about whether the checks were done correctly.

She also said that Adobe Mountain School is fully staffed. Employees strongly disagreed.
Until very recently, the employees said, the boy had been placed at Triumph, the mental-health unit at Adobe Mountain, where he'd been for at least a year. The Crossroads employee said the boy was moved to Crossroads -- Adobe's unit reserved for violent kids -- after he was involved in an assault.

The employee said it was well known that the boy had "suicidal ideations" and added that the boy reportedly told the school superintendent recently that he wanted to be moved from Crossroads and would "do something" if he was not. The employee said that Crossroads staff wasn't informed of that conversation until after the boy had died.

Within the last several days, a youth corrections officer at Adobe Mountain took his own life.

Dillingham confirmed this but refused to release details. She said the staff and kids have been receiving counseling since the officer's suicide, but employees said the event has been kept "hush, hush" and there has been no counseling, though word has gotten out. They also say that ADJC director Michael Branham came to the facility and told them not to fly the flags at half-staff, saying the man did not die honorably.

It is unknown whether that suicide led to the possible suicide yesterday, but experts stress the importance of providing immediate counseling in such situations. ADJC's statements emphasize the counseling they are providing in the wake of yesterday's youth death. The statements do not mention the older man's death.

In 2002 and 2003, there were three suicides at Adobe Mountain School. The suicides, along with an investigative series by Phoenix New Times, led to a federal investigation into conditions at the agency's facilities, including Adobe Mountain. Last year, New Times published a story about continuing problems -- including mental health issues -- at ADJC.

Suicide Among Incarcerated Veterans

Here's a recent article on suicide and jailed vets at the The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (pdf) - lengthy and clinical, though.

Officer Down

There is a press release on the AZ DOC website about the suicide of the corrections officer last week. I do not know what unit he was from or if his action had anything to do with the investigation - I know only that his family must be experiencing profound, inconsolable grief.

Donations can be made to the 100 Club in the memory of J. Barker. The 100 Club of Arizona helps support the families of public safety officers who are seriously injured or killed in the line of duty.

Governor Brewer, and Death by Incarceration

Governor Brewer will presumably be fighting with legislators this week, but she can also be found speaking at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, June 24, at noon. The event will be held at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, 7200 N. Scottsdale Road.

The Governor's speech at this affair is of the utmost importance, and will likely go on as planned, no matter who else dies.

Not that I'm necessarily advocating any kind of protest or demonstration at that time and place - that would be terribly disruptive and rude, and might make people uncomfortable. I just think it's good to keep up with our elected officials. I don't have a grievance with the Governor so much as I think she has the most power to take meaningful action on these issues, and I can't tell if she's not listening, doesn't care, or just doesn't agree.

Maybe someone out there has some better ideas, but short of crashing various parties or throwing one of our own, I'm not sure how else ordinary, non-elite Arizonans become visible or relevant to government officials or get to ask the questions that the press fails to.

Are we not also entitled to access our elected officials, or do only Chamber of Commerce members and political insiders have that right? Do only certain people speak for the interests of prisoners and their families, such that everyone else's voice becomes null and void? Has either the Governor or Director Ryan even entered a room full of people directly affected by the policies and conditions of incarceration that they are responsible for? Aren't those the people the Governor should be directly addressing? And shouldn't the legislature be engaged with them - with us - as well?

Since the Governor does so much public speaking, perhaps she and DOC Interim Director Charles Ryan would grace the rest of us with their presence at a town hall meeting to discuss Marcia's death, prison policies on cages, overcrowding, budgetary effects on inmates and families, privatization, notoriously poor health care for women - with serious consequences - and the creation of an independent oversight citizen's committee to address issues with the DoC, for starters. I would think the local PBS and NPR stations would also be happy to interview them on call-in shows.

Seventy-nine prisoners have died in DOC custody since July 2008. That's a lot of families affected. Three were considered suicides, three were homicides, two are under investigation, one was a drug overdose, and the rest were "natural causes". I wonder: is heatstroke a "natural cause?", or would they call it an "accident"? How often do inmates die from accidents? How do they characterize death from a heart attack after being tasered, or a stroke while being held down by six guards? What is choking on one's vomit while seizuring in 4-point restraints in an unsupervised cell considered?

How about cancer that became terminal because an inmate couldn't afford the cost of their medical care (which is soon to rise, even as inmate wages are being lowered), or because diagnosis and treatment were delayed by understaffing and misplaced priorities? Is that a "natural cause", or "neglect"? Or the folks who contract Hep C while incarcerated due to unsanitary, overcrowded conditions, then get inadequate care - is that "natural"? What would it be if it was our own family member?

Who investigates every time a prisoner dies, and who decides how to classify for the DoC what killed them? Why don't we ever hear about it? There's a whole day and a ceremony set aside every year for fallen peace officers; the Governor attends that, too. What about people that are killed by the state without due process? What about the innocent caught up in the system too? Who honors them? How do we even learn their names? Why should dying in custody reflect shame on prisoners instead of on their keepers - or on the society that created the conditions in which they died?

Why do only rich criminals get to die at home?

And who will ever know why that officer shot himself on prison grounds last week? Did he fall in the line of duty? Or did the DOC's policies and practices kill him, too? We know prison takes its toll on guards. Was his voice ever raised? Was he ever heard? Are there other COs concerned about how things are going down out there? Are you organizing? Do we have some of the same things on our wish lists (prisoners and COs)

For those not inclined to engage in public protest, guerrilla theater or the like, please write to your local papers and national media outlets and urge more in-depth investigation into these issues - and call legislators continuously. They need to know we are still waiting for answers, and while they probably threw the Perryville 3 in the hole for setting those fires, we have a wider range of tools available to us than prisoners do, and cannot be simply locked away and ignored.

Hopefully not, anyway.

WTF???

It has been over a month since Marcia Powell died, and there's still no public information about the Department of Corrections investigation into the incident, nor has there been a coherent articulation of the policy of using outdoor cages as holding cells - or the alleged practice of using them for punishment (see also this interview). Preliminary results of an investigation were originally expected at the end of May. What is taking so long?

Exactly what the policy is on the use of cages at present is rather confusing, in fact. First they were going to be retrofitted with shade. Then the governor ordered them mothballed permanently. Then, days later, the DOC announced that the cages would be used again, only guards would be required to sign a log showing that they checked on inmates every 30 minutes (which is what they were supposed to do when Marcia died...). And yet, since that last announcement the news has still circulated around the globe that Arizona is ending the use of these cages permanently (except in cases of riot).

The DOC should clearly, publicly post their policy on the use of outdoor cages if indeed they are to be used. Clearly the rest of the world thinks Arizona just moved into the 21st Century by abandoning the practice of caging people in the desert sun. If we in fact have not evolved in that direction, we should at least issue a clear press release informing the rest of humanity as to why we are the only state in the country that does this. Maybe then Amnesty International will take up the case of Arizona state prisoners - citizens and immigrants alike - with the same fervor they have shown over Guantanamo.

The DOC should also explain what necessitates the use of these cages. Some argue they are necessary to accommodate the recreation needs of maximum security prisoners. But that's the kind of semi-supervised arrangement made when there are problems with short-staffing, or a loss of recreational space due to over-crowding. Space indoors can easily be freed up by releasing the elderly, the critically and terminally ill, and other low-risk offenders. How is society served by incarcerating a 60 year old pharmaceutical addict who may well die of cancer before their sentence is up?

If these cages are to be used, how will Ryan assure they aren't abused again? The routine use of harsh environmental conditions as punishment comes into practice out of an institutionalized disregard for human dignity, not just the pathologies of individual guards. What, in that regard, has changed? Was an investigation conducted in 2007 when complaints were made about prisoners being kept in them for up to ten days? By failing to close the cages at that time - or any time since then - don't administrators share responsibility for Marcia's death with whomever was working the yard that day?

Some insight into how this incident occurred could be critical at this point in time, given the threatened DOC budget cutbacks, the failure of the legislature to address excessive sentencing this session, the number of inmate deaths that have occurred since July 2008 (seventy-nine), and the increasing use of prisons to warehouse the seriously mentally ill, whose community treatment and housing are grossly underfunded by state and local entities. Chances are, the judge who gave Marcia 27 months for prostitution thought he was helping her stay "safe" (i.e. off the streets) for awhile. I doubt he/she would have sent Marcia to prison if there was a suitable community-based alternative.

And then, of course, there is the recent suicide of the DoC officer out at Perryville, throwing more red flags into the mix

DOC employees deserve a full, independent investigation of how their employer's policies failed them as well as Marcia, and how the AZ legislature's longstanding mean-spirited politics and indifference to prison conditions contributed to Marcia's death and a criminal investigation of DOC line staff. Most legislative discussions regarding prisons in recent years, in fact, have had to do with how to spend less per prisoner and incarcerate more people, not how to decrease staff or prisoner mortality or address human rights violations.

Now the state's even trying to balance their budget by decreasing the wages of people who only make 40 cents a day, or by raising the price of vitamins in the canteen (which even prisoners dying of cancer have to purchase in order to receive, if they are well enough to work and lucky enough to make more than the prison reclaims for its expenses like clothing and toothpaste...) Is everyone aware of how it works in there? There is no dental care apart from tooth extractions. Hepatitis C - treatable on the outside - is ignored as a fatal illness on the inside, presumably because of the expense of treating it and the prevalence of the illness in prisons. Why prolong a drug addicted criminal's life with even moderately exceptional means?

We killed Marcia before she even stepped foot in that cage. All of those women are under a potential sentence of death because health care is so notoriously lacking, as are decent cleaning supplies and blood-borne pathogens protection and education. Some of those women are going to leave prison with Hep C even though they never engaged in using needles or risky sex just because conditions are so poor. Surely they and their families don't "deserve" that.

We may think we're saving money if we incarcerate on the cheap by withholding medical care, charging inmates outrageous prices for toiletries and essentials, cutting officer salaries and benefits, double and triple-bunking in cells meant for one person - or turning dining and recreation areas into large congregate dorms - and increasing medical co-pays so those who can't afford it go without, but we'll end up paying an even higher price by turning the sick into the disabled and dying. By failing to provide even a minimally humane foundation from which people can reconcile with the community, rebuild their lives and recover from their addictions and compulsions, we virtually guarantee that a large portion of them will be returned to prison for violating parole - requiring us to spend more on warehousing them in snake pits than we would spend if we paid for their dorm rooms and tuition at ASU (which has a greater potential for rehabilitating non-violent criminals than prison does...).

This is in part a reflection of the indifference and ignorance of so many Arizona citizens about the consequences of being caught up in the criminal justice system, whether one is guilty or not. On Saturday, June 27, there will be a rally at the capitol for the wrongly-convicted; they, too, are subject to all the abuse and exploitation that the "guilty" are. Shall we walk away from them, too, rationalizing that they are probably getting what they deserve?

It took Marcia nearly an hour and a half to die after she was removed from life support by Director Ryan. That's a long time to lie there dying. That sounds like a soul reluctant to leave this planet, though we had all pretty much concluded that her life wasn't worth living based on the few things we knew from her criminal record and her missing front teeth. I believe if she had been executed by lethal injection and it took an hour and a half for her organs to finish shutting down and her heart to stop (she probably never really stopped cooking), that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

No one deserves to go that way.

Based on the numerous reports I've read from prisoners, former prisoners, their families, and even guards, plenty of people have been stowed in a cage in the sun and forgotten before, fearing they would die. That's cruel and unusual punishment, too - threatening to boil someone to death when you have the power to really do it.

Damn. A lot of these people are just doing a short stretch for non-violent crime, hoping they can still get back to their families before their kids grow up and their parents die. Prison is hazardous enough to try to survive - especially if you have some kind of health problem in the first place. Ryan's investigation needs to give those folks answers about how Marcia died and a meaningful guarantee that none of them are next. If anyone had been listening to prisoner complaints before this happened, Marcia might still be alive today. So any recommendations coming out of this investigation need to include amplifying - not silencing - the prisoner's voice.

Perryville Takes Another Life

Officer commits suicide at prison complex in Goodyear

by Rosha Safarmehdi - Jun. 19, 2009 01:10 PM
The Arizona Republic

A Department of Corrections Officer committed suicide Thursday night at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville, said Bill Lamoreaux, spokesman for the DOC.

The officer reportedly killed himself a little before 9 p.m. in the outside perimeter of the prison.

The officer had been with the DOC since 1999.

An investigation is being conducted regarding the circumstances of his suicide, Lamoreaux said.

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

Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems. In March of this year, just a few months ago, another officer from Perryville (the count/movement officer at Lumley) also took his own life.

That makes 2 officer suicides, 1 prisoner death, and 3 fire-setting protesters all in the span of 3 months. And that's all we know about.

What was the reason the Governor didn't order an outside, independent investigation of what's going on at that prison?