Marcia Powell, Ridgeway, and Mother Jones

 UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 10: International Human Rights Day.

December 15: Begin 5th Special Legislative Session.

December 17: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (Tucson Memorial).

December 18: SWOP-Tucson Demonstration at the AZ Department of Corrections HQ in Phoenix.

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I'm resurrecting this story from Mother Jones that Jim Ridgeway did on Marcia Powell in September, when the report on her abuse was released. This is honor of International Human Rights Day today.

Thanks Jim, for doing right by Marcia.

Dog Days Turn Deadly in America's Prisons

By James Ridgeway | Tue Sep. 1, 2009 3:27 AM PDT

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The summer of 2009 hadn't even begun when Marcia Powell, a 48-year old inmate at Arizona’s Perryville Prison, was baked to death. Powell, whom court records show had a history of schizophrenia, substance abuse, and mild mental retardation, was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution. At about 11 a.m. on May 19, a day when the Arizona sun had driven the temperature to 108 degrees, she was parked outdoors [1]in an unroofed, wire-fenced holding cell while awaiting transfer to another part of the prison. A deputy warden and two guards had been stationed in a control center 20 yards away, but nearly four hours had passed when she was found collapsed on the floor of the human cage. Doctors at a local hospital pronounced Powell comatose from heat stroke, and she died later that night after being taken off life support. Two local churches [2]stepped in to provide a proper funeral and burial.

Arizona Department of Corrections director Charles Ryan said the guards had been suspended pending a criminal investigation. But just yesterday, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner ruled the death an accident [3], caused by "complications of hyperthermia due to environmental heat exposure." This despite the fact that Powell had blistering and first and second degree "thermal injuries" on face, arms, and upper body.

Ryan also expressed “condolences to Ms. Powell’s family and loved ones”–a strange statement, considering Ryan had made the decision to quickly pull the plug on his comatose prisoner because, he said, no next of kin could be found. In fact, as Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times has reported [4], Powell was judged an “incapacitated adult” and placed under public guardianship–but her guardians were not consulted before the ADC elected to let her die. Lemons also noted [5]some unsavory chapters in Ryan’s recent career:

Ryan’s own bio on the ADC Web site touts that he was “assistant program manager for the Department of Justice overseeing the Iraqi Prison System for almost four years.” Ryan was contracted by the DOJ to help rebuild Iraqi prisons, one of those being the notorious Abu Ghraib.

Following Powell’s death, Ryan banned most uses [6]of unshaded outdoor holding cells in Arizona, except in “extraordinary circumstances.” Most Southern states already restrict their use. But baking in the sun is only one of many ways to die in America’s prisons in the summertime. Recent years have seen scattered reports of heat-related prison deaths in California [7] and Texas [8], among others. The prevalence of mental illness among the victims may be linked to anti-psychotic drugs, which raise the body temperature and cause dehydration, and at the same time have a tranquilizing effect that may mask thirst.

In 2006, 21-year-old Timothy Souders, another mentally ill prisoner, died of heat exhaustion and dehydration [9]at a Jackson, Michigan prison during an August heat wave. For the four days prior to his death, Souders had been shackled to a cement slab in solitary confinement because he had been acting up. That entire period was captured on surveillance videotapes [10], which according to news reports clearly showed his mental and physical deterioration.

The vast majority of U.S. civilian prisons and jails are not air conditioned. (In contrast, the U.S. made a point of building new air-conditioned facilities [11]for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and phasing out the older structures.) In Texas, only 19 of 112 prisons have air-conditioning. Earlier this summer, the chair of Texas State Senate’s Judiciary Committee, John Whitmire (D-Houston), told the Houston Chronicle [12]that enduring the heat is “part of the reality of going to prison. There are a lot of inconveniences to serving time. There’s no question it’s hot.” He said he thought few Texans would be sympathetic to the prisoners’ suffering.

Apparently anticipating a similar lack of sympathy, the Florida Department of Corrections proudly advertises [13]the absence of air-conditioning in most of its prisons. On a web page that debunks a host of “misconceptions” that might indicate soft treatment of Florida’s prisoners, it assures readers that the majority of inmates live without air-conditioning or cable television.

In a 2002 report on the risks of heat-related illness at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, compiled for the ACLU, a physician who reviewed conditions on Death Row wrote the following [14]:

An individual free to respond to the stress created by a hot environment would normally take steps to cool his body. If no air conditioning were available, he would at least respond by seeking a cooler location, blocking out radiant heat from the sun by positioning himself in the shade or screening himself from the sun, maximizing evaporation by wetting his body and clothes with water and using fans to create cross-ventilation, and moving away from physical structures which absorb and radiate heat.

None of these natural survival responses to excessive heat are available to the Death Row prisoners. The prisoners’ cells, especially Willie Russell’s Plexiglas covered cell, are stifling hot yet prisoners have to close their windows and cover their bodies at night despite intense heat in order to protect themselves from mosquitoes and other insects. Many of the prisoners have no access to fans, either because they are too poor to buy fans or because their fans have been confiscated as punishment. They have infrequent access to cooling showers, and sometimes, even access to water is extremely limited. The prisoners are not allowed to shade their windows from direct sunlight. They have extremely limited access to the outdoor exercise-pens and in any event those pens provide no relief from the heat because they are not shaded….

It is my opinion, based on my observations during my visit to Unit 32-C, Death Row and on my training, experience, and familiarity with the extensive body of medical literature on the subject of thermoregulation, that all of the inmates on Death Row are at high risk of heat stroke and heat-related illness.

A first-hand account of enduring the summer heat at the nation’s largest maximum-security prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, was provided by Kenny “Zulu” Whitmore [15]. Whitmore, who has served more than 30 years of a life sentence, much of it in solitary confinement, kept a journal during a 2007 August heat wave:

August: It was so hot in here last night…I looked for the open flame in the cell. During the day you expect it to be 100 degrees, but not at night. More is yet to come.

9 August: The fire inspector came on the tier today doing the same fake B/S, but he was soaking wet b/c it is so hot in here. He was RED RED in the face like he was going to pass out. He was looking at us like Lord, give me their endurance.

12 August: I could not sleep last night. It had to be at least 98 degrees in here. I passed out around 2.20 am and got up at 5.14…I have not stopped sweating since yesterday….

31 August: The last day of hell month. This had to be the hottest for August in 200 years.

More recently, in letters to a friend, Whitmore described this past summer at “the Gola”:

June 11, 2009: Heat is on in the Gola, 93 degrees. I would have replied yesterday, but man it was so hot in here and I sweated all day. So I am writing before it gets too hot. And it’s just June. It was 76 degrees that morning at 5.30 am and 94 degrees after twelve noon. It should get that hot today too….

June 27, 2009: Hot n Humid Gola 99 degrees. If you heard that it’s getting hot in Angola, you heard wrong, because it have been steaming hot in Angola for the whole month of June but I know H will be alright, even at his age he can stand the heat. Plus: he knows what to do to cool down some: put some water on the floor and lay in it or put a wet sweat shirt on to stay cool….

July 12, 2009: The sweatbox Louisiana. With temperature 98 degrees everybody is on the floor. All you need is to wet it or your clothes. It’s all about survival in this man made hell….

August 10, 2009: I ran like a wild horse in that 96 degree heat today. I sweated all my body liquids so I had to replace it by drinking water the whole of the day. Only the strong survive.

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Source URL: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/dog-days-turn-deadly-americas-prisons

Links:
[1] http://www.abc15.com/content/news/westvalley/goodyear/story/Inmate-dies-after-being-held-in-outdoor-cell-in/nmeJotS42kODcNNLB_MEHg.cspx
[2] http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/EJMontini/56354
[3] http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/08/marcia_powells_autopsy_toxicol.php
[4] http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/05/medical_examiner_holds_marcia.php
[5] http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2009-05-28/news/the-lumley-vampire-attacks-arizona-department-of-corrections-charles-ryan-for-the-death-of-marcia-powell-arpaio-s-goons-zip-tie-a-12-year-old-and-the-jail-lockdowns-are-over/
[6] http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090614_Death_in_a_cage_spurs_Ariz__probe.html But baking in the sun, it turns out, is only one way for prisoners to suffer and die in the summer heat.
[7] http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-06/news/mn-1565_1_heat-waves
[8] http://lonestar.texas.net/~acohen/
[9] http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/07/state_settles_325_million_laws.html
[10] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/08/60minutes/main2448074.shtml
[11] http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/759432/guantanamo_detainees_going_to_new_prison/index.html
[12] http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-heat_05int.ART.State.Edition1.4be339a.html
[13] http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/myths.html
[14] http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/prison/vassallo_report.pdf
[15] http://freezulu.co.uk/

Should Director Ryan Resign?

This would be the coverage to follow, and posits some of the questions I'd ask: 

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Marcia Powell Cage Death: Charles Ryan Fires Three, Disciplines Others, but When Will He Resign?

By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard

Phoenix New Times

Tuesday, Sep. 22 2009 @ 7:13PM

Less than a month after the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Arizona Department of Corrections inmate Marcia Powell's May 20 human cage death an "accident," ADC honcho Charles Ryan has fired three employees, forced the resignations of two others, and disciplined 11 more. This according to an ADC news release issued today.

Specifically, the release states that Ryan "dismissed five employees, two of whom resigned in lieu of dismissal, demoted a captain to an officer and suspended another 10 employees" because of Powell's death from being left in a shadeless, waterless outdoor cage at Goodyear's Perryville Prison. Powell collapsed May 19 after at least four hours in the blazing Arizona sun. Ryan later made the decision to suspend her life support, even though Powell, 48, had been assigned a guardian by the court  -- Maricopa County's Public Fiduciary.

None of the names of those fired and disciplined have been released. In addition to news of the firings, ADC also announced that it had "completed a criminal investigation into the matter," which had been reviewed by the Department of Public Safety, then submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office on August 20.

Ryan's quoted in the release as saying of those disciplined, "These supervisors and officers to varying degrees failed to properly perform their duties." Left unsaid is any mention of the fact that Ryan ordered Powell's plug pulled before consultation with her guardian. Ryan has stated that he did not know Powell had a guardian at the time.

Should Ryan fall on his sword in this matter? After all, couldn't it be argued that Ryan failed to do his duty by not ensuring that Marcia Powell was treated safely and humanely during her 27-month stint in prison for prostitution?

Donna Hamm of the advocacy group Middle Ground Prison Reform said she wasn't ready to demand Ryan's resignation. Hamm said she first wanted to see the results of ADC's internal investigation, which is not yet public.

"The critical thing for us is whether there are going to be criminal charges brought," Hamm told me this evening. "Everything we know about this incident seems to point to the elements for negligent homicide. It's very hard to imagine how Michael Jackson's death is ruled a homicide and this one is ruled an accident. I don't really understand the difference, except in politics and coroners."

Powell's cremains were eventually turned over to Middle Ground after an investigation by the fidiciary's office could not locate next-of-kin willing to take custody of them. (Powell's adoptive mother is alive, but she told the fiduciary's office she did not wish to get involved.) Powell's cremains were committed June 28 at Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix.

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.

Women Behind the Wall

Came across this Blog Talk Radio show, Women Behind the Wall (4justicenow), on women in prison. This week's episode is on compassionate release issues. Next week they'll be featuring a piece on Marcia Powell:

Tuesday, June 23 at 6pm. The call-in number is (646) 378-1432.

Below is info from their website:

"Women Behind the Wall is the only show in the country that is by, for and about incarcerated women. Your co-hosts are 2 women who share the mutually horrifying experience of being sent to prison for crimes that they did not commit. Mary Ellen served 5 years in Florida State prisons and Gloria Killian spent 17 1/2 years in a California prison. Women Behind the Wall brings you the real truth about women in prison, who they are, why they are there, what should be done about them, and why many of them deserve their freedom. The costs, the conflicts, the politics and the payers will all be covered in this unique program...

Staked out In The desert and left to die: What happened to Marcia Powell? An Arizona prisoner named Marcia Powell was put into a human cage in the broiling desert sun and left there to await transfer; 4 hours later she collapsed. Where were the guards? Where was the Water? Why did the DOC immediately take her off life support if she had family? We search for the answers in this grisly case of prisoner abuse and torture. We will try to find the answers in this human tragedy."

The Weight

Though I may be complicit in the conduct of my government when I don't actively resist, I have never personally taken someone else's life, and can't imagine how that must be to live with. I've been thinking about that a lot lately - not just about what it meant to Marcia or to the community for her to die that way, but what it meant to those on duty in that guard station that day.

It must be an incredibly heavy weight to carry. It's the worst burden I can imagine. Working with people who were homeless for so many years, that was one of my greatest fears: not that I would be held liable, but that I might be responsible, for doing or not doing something that resulted in someone losing their life. Their health was so fragile, and in the streets they really had no place to hide from either cops or criminals; they were often brutalized or arrested, sometimes both. So, I feel for whomever carries even a portion of this weight.

Added to that is the probability that someone will face criminal charges - especially if this post about the "punishment cage" is true, and its author is able to produce eyewitness testimony, rather than hearsay on a website. Someone may well be criminally liable; I just hope that doesn't divert us from what created an atmosphere where treating prisoners with such disregard for their basic human rights - for their life - is so acceptable, or at the least, so routine.

So what will we do with Marcia's murderer? How about the one who gave the orders? And the ones who just watched her die? And anyone with information who has stood idly by? Shouldn't we keep at least a few prisons open for them? How does restorative justice work for people like them? How does it work for killers? How do you restore a life?

We don't. We can't, no matter how much violence we inflict in kind. We can contain and confront the killer, and move on, I think, if we're lucky. We can "pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living", as Mother Jones would say. A lot of people, I would imagine, die with the individual they killed. The guy who killed one of my best friends - and one of his best friends - by speeding and losing control of his car ended up blowing his head off.

It was an accident. Chris would have been the first to forgive him. He couldn't live with it. Prison would have been nowhere near as harsh as the punishment of this guy's mind. It would have also been unnecessary to protect society or exact "justice": he judged and executed himself.

A compassionate society would not only have embraced Marcia more readily; it would embrace those covered in her sweat and tears, hands dripping with her blood. It would have loved Bill R. back to life after Chris died, not driven him to suicide. We would not lynch Marcia's killers, or even call for their execution. We would learn from them about our own willingness to punish - to seek retribution - and we would learn about our own capacity to withdraw and detach from the secret suffering of the people we call criminals, those we banish to steel cages and the sadistic whims or quiet indifference of guards.

And from that insight, we would change, and in turn help others change. By working with people on what is essentially spiritual transformation and political and economic empowerment, rather than time-limited behavior management, we might reduce our reliance on the carceral regime, as well as reduce the risk of repeat offending. We certainly contribute to the spiritual development of humanity by attempting to speak to the condition and needs of each individual soul when they transgress. And we learn and practice mercy in the process, perhaps the only thing that helps crime victims truly find "resolution": getting their hands on the bad guy, and not becoming worse than him by seeking vengeance in the name of justice...

Our commitment to prisoner rights - and especially to prison abolition - isn't sustainable simply from the compassion we can muster for a woman who died so brutally. Until we can love the best in the worst of us, we don't really know love at all, and can't put up an effective, convincing fight. Only when we begin to seek alternatives to prison for them - including those we count among the oppressors - will we come to see the fascist that lives within each of us, and take another step in our collective moral evolution towards the end of this world full of prisons, spinning on fear.

As for myself, I'm not sure I'm ready to take that step. I still want somebody to pay...