Category Archives: TOTALLY ALONE

Review of Solitary Confinement Practices

U.S. Bureau of Prisons to review solitary confinement

Feb04
2013 Written by admin
 

NEW YORK |
Mon Feb 4, 2013 9:54pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Bureau of Prisons has agreed to a comprehensive review of the use of solitary confinement in its prisons, including the fiscal and public safety consequences of the controversial practice, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin said on Monday.

A spokesman from the bureau confirmed that the National Institute of Corrections plans to retain an independent auditor “in the weeks ahead” to examine the use of solitary confinement, which is also known as restrictive housing.

“We are confident that the audit will yield valuable information to improve our operations, and we thank Senator Durbin for his continued interest in this very important topic,” spokesman Chris Burke said in a statement.

Prisoners in isolation are often confined to small cells without windows for up to 23 hours a day. Durbin’s office said the practice can have a severe psychological impact on inmates and that more than half of all suicides committed in prisons occur in solitary confinement.

In Durbin’s state of Illinois, 56 percent of inmates have spent some time in segregated housing.

“The United States holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other democratic nation in the world, and the dramatic expansion of solitary confinement is a human rights issue we can’t ignore,” said Durbin, who chaired a Senate hearing on the use of solitary confinement last year.

“We can no longer slam the cell door and turn our backs on the impact our policies have on the mental state of the incarcerated and ultimately on the safety of our nation.”

The federal prison system is the largest in the country and includes some 215,000 inmates.

News of the review was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union – a strong critic of the nation’s use of solitary confinement.

“We hope and expect that the review announced today will lead the Bureau to significantly curtail its use of this draconian, inhumane and expensive practice,” David Fathi, director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said in a statement.

(Reporting By Edith Honan; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)

 

Federal Bureau of Prisons to Undergo Review of Solitary Confinement Practices

February 5, 2013 By

Cell at ADX federal supermax

On Monday, the office of Illinois Senator Dick Durbin put out the following press release, announcing that the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had agreed to submit to a review of its solitary confinement practices.

In 2010, a spokesperson for the BOP said that federal prisons held approximately 11,150 prisoners in some form of segregated “special housing.” This figure includes the 400 men held in ultra-isolation at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum (ADX) in Florence, Colorado, which is currently the target of federal lawsuits claiming conditions there lead to mental illness and suicide, and violate the Constitution.

The planned review follows on the first-ever Congressional hearing on solitary confinement, held last June by a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee chaired by Durbin. It is described as a “comprehensive and independent assessment,” though it will be carried out by the National Institute of Corrections, which is an agency of the BOP.

Solitary Watch will report further on this story in the coming days, including the BOP’s assertion that it has already “reduced its segregated population by nearly 25 percent.”

DURBIN STATEMENT ON FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS ASSESSMENT OF ITS SOLITARY CONFINEMENT PRACTICES

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement today announcing that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has agreed to a comprehensive and independent assessment of its use of solitary confinement in the nation’s federal prisons. This first-ever review of federal segregation policies comes after Durbin chaired a hearing last year on the human rights, fiscal and public safety consequences of solitary confinement. Last week, Durbin and Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels discussed the assessment, which will be conducted through the National Institute of Corrections.

“The announcement by the Bureau of Prisons that it will conduct its first-ever review of its use of solitary confinement is an important development,” Durbin said. “The United States holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other democratic nation in the world and the dramatic expansion of solitary confinement is a human rights issue we can’t ignore. I am confident the Bureau of Prisons will permit a thorough and independent review and look forward to seeing the results when they are made public. We can no longer slam the cell door and turn our backs on the impact our policies have on the mental state of the incarcerated and ultimately on the safety of our nation.”

In his hearing last year, Durbin emphasized the importance of reforming the way we treat the incarcerated and the use of solitary confinement in prisons and detention centers around the country. Following that hearing, Durbin has twice met with Bureau of Prisons Director Samuels to push for additional reforms and encourage a sufficiently robust assessment of the Bureau’s segregation practices.

Since Durbin’s hearing, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has reportedly reduced its segregated population by nearly 25 percent. In addition, it has closed two of its Special Management Units, a form of segregated housing, due to the reduction in the segregated population.

The National Institute of Corrections, through which the assessment will be conducted, assisted states like Mississippi and Colorado in reforming their solitary practices. After assessing its practices, Mississippi reduced its segregated population by more than 75 percent, which resulted in a 50 percent reduction in prison violence.

During the last several decades, the United States has witnessed an explosion in the use of solitary confinement for federal, state, and local prisoners and detainees. Today, more than 2.3 million people are imprisoned in the United States. This is – by far – the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the world.

Solitary confinement – also called supermax housing, segregation and isolation – is designed to separate inmates from each other and isolate them for a variety of reasons. Originally used to segregate the most violent prisoners in the nation’s supermax prisons, the practice is being used more frequently, including for the supposed protection of vulnerable groups like immigrants, children and LGBT inmates. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the United States holds over 80,000 people in some kind of restricted housing. In Illinois, 56% of inmates have spent some time in segregated housing.

Prisoners in isolation are often confined to small cells without windows, with little to no access to the outside world or adequate programs and treatment. Inmates are confined to these cells for up to 23 hours a day.  Such extreme isolation can have serious psychological effects on inmates and can lead to mental illness, self-mutilation and suicide. According to several state and national studies, at least half of all prison suicides occur in solitary confinement.

In addition to the impact solitary confinement has on inmates, there are also public safety and fiscal concerns with the practice. The bipartisan Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons found that the use of solitary confinement often increased acts of violence in prions. Further, it is extremely costly to house a prisoner in solitary confinement. In Tamms, Illinois’ only supermax prison, it cost more than $60,000 a year to house a prisoner in solitary confinement while it was operational, compared to an average of $22,000 for inmates in other prisons.

Video from Durbin’s June hearing on solitary confinement can be found at www.judiciary.senate.gov. /  

SOLITARY WATCH

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Birthday Poster for February – for Political Prisoners

English: Photo of Lynne Stewart by Robert B. L...

English: Photo of Lynne Stewart by Robert B. Livingston Friday February 23 Women’s Bldg., 3543 18th St. San Francisco (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Political Prisoner Birthday Poster For February 2013 Is Now Available

January 29, 2013

 

birthdayHello

Brooklyn Museum - A Political Prisoner in Chains

Brooklyn Museum – A Political Prisoner in Chains (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Friends and Comrades,

Here is the political prisoner birthday poster for February. As always, please post this poster publicly and/or use it to start a card writing night of your own. We’re still experimenting with the format a little, so this month is also a double sided 11×17 that can also be used as a poster to promote your local letter writing night.

This month’s poster is dedicated to Aaron Swartz. Here is an article we posted about his life and death.

 Luke O’Donovan has been released. His bail was 35K. He is in very high spirits and is currently resting with his friends and family. Luke has still not been indicted and there is still need for much more money to cover lawyers and legal costs.

Accused Earth Liberation Front arsonist Rebecca Rubin has been transferred again. Please write her letters of love and support. Remember, she is still pre-trial so please avoid writing about anything to do with her case.

Rebecca Rubin #770288
Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC)
1120 SW Third Ave.
Portland, OR 97204

Activist lawyer and political prisoner Lynne Stewart’s breast cancer is spreading to her lungs and shoulders. She needs immediate treatment NOW. The prison authorities have known this since September. Please send her letters of love and support.  More info here.

Lynne Stewart 53504-054
Federal Medical Center Carswell
Post Office Box 27137
Fort Worth, Texas 76127

Lastly, here is a link to the latest Political Prisoner/Prisoner Of War every-other week update by the  NYC-Anarchist Black Cross. There are lots of good updates on many political prisoners.

Until Every Cage Is Empty,

The Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective

pending executions february 2013

Judge Thomas J. Devine

Judge Thomas J. Devine (Photo credit: SMU Central University Libraries)

Got this information by e-mail from LOST IN THE SYSTEM – thank You!

Pending Executions February 2013

by LOST IN THE SYSTEM

See on Scoop.it – CIRCLE OF HOPE

Pending Executions February 2013

Circle of Hope’s insight:

13* Chris Sepulvado        Louisiana

21* Carl Blue Texas

26* Paul Howell Florida

27   Larry Swearingen Texas

 

CHRIS SEPULVADO  – LOUISIANA EXECUTION DATE 13TH JANUARY 2013

Gov Contact details

http://www.gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=form&tmp=email_governor

 

Louisiana Board of Pardons

504 Mayflower Street, Bldg 6

Baton Rouge, LA 70802

Phone: 225/342-5421

Fax: 225/342-2289

 

———————————————————-

 

CARL BLUE – TEXAS – EXECUTION DATE 21ST February 2013

Gov Contact details

http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/

 

 

 

 

Office of the Governor

P.O. Box 12428

Austin, Texas 78711-2428

 

 

 

Information and Referral Hotline [for Texas callers] :

(800) 843-5789

 

Information and Referral and Opinion Hotline [for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers] :

(512) 463-1782

 

Office of the Governor Main Switchboard :

(512) 463-2000

 

Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

8610 Shoal Creek Blvd

Austin, TX 78757

Phone: 512/406-5852

Fax: 512/467- 0945

 

please sign the petition

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/stop-the-execution-of-carl-blue-commute-his-sentence-to-life-in-priso

 

——————————————————-

 

PAUL HOWELL – FLORIDA – EXECUTION DATE 26TH FEBRUARY 2013

 

http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/

 

 

Florida Governor Rick Scott

The Capitol

Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

Fax:(850)487-0801

Tel:(850)488-7146 11/02

 

 

Florida Parole Commission

4070 Esplanade Way

Tallahassee, Florida 32399

Phone: 850/488-2952

Fax: 850/488-0695

 

————————————————————

 

LARRY SWEARINGEN – TEXAS – EXECUTION DATE 27TH FEBRUARY 2013

Gov Contact details

http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/

 

 

Office of the Governor

P.O. Box 12428

Austin, Texas 78711-2428

 

Information and Referral Hotline [for Texas callers] :

(800) 843-5789

 

Information and Referral and Opinion Hotline [for Austin, Texas and out-of-state callers] :

(512) 463-1782

 

Office of the Governor Main Switchboard :

(512) 463-2000

 

Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

8610 Shoal Creek Blvd

Austin, TX 78757

Phone: 512/406-5852

Fax: 512/467- 0945

Bringing people out of shadow – of nameless shadow: Annamaria

FADP Update: Pauls Howell Execution scheduled for Febr. 26th: PETITION!!!

The execution of Olympe de Gouges

The execution of Olympe de Gouges (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

FADP Update
Friends,
Paul Howell execution scheduled for Tuesday, February 26th at 6pm ET.
Execution moratorium petition needs your help.
Huffington Post on FL effort to speed up executions.
NAACP’s Ben Jealous on abolition.
Shine the light,
—Mark
Gov. Rick Scott has ordered Paul Howell be executed on Tuesday, Feb. 26th at 6pm ET. Please contact the governor’s office and ask him to suspend executions to investigate Florida’s Death Penalty program that now has 24 Death Row exonerations – far more than any other state. Just last month Seth Penalver was freed after almost 18 years.
Governor Rick Scott – Phone 850-488-7146. Rick.Scott@eog.myflorida.com.
Please sign and share the Florida execution moratorium petition.
Incredibly, instead of suspending executions to find out how so many wrongfully convicted people could be sentenced to death, Florida legislators are looking at ways to “speed up” executions. This would virtually guarantee the execution of innocent people. The average time the 24 exonerees spent on Death Row prior to exoneration is 7.5 years and some were there almost 20 years. Read the Huffington Post story here.
This 1 minute video of NAACP President, Benjamin Jealous, speaking about the Maryland effort to repeal the Death Penalty is well worth watching. The inspiring points he makes are even more so for Florida.
Please contact your Florida legislators and ask them to support Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda’s HB 4005 that would end Florida’s use of the Death Penalty.
2013 is shaping up to be an absolutely critical year for our movement. Efforts are afoot in Tallahassee to “speed up” executions. There will be intense challenges and new opportunities. We will be working VERY hard on both offense and defense and MUST be positioned with the means to beat back these challenges and seize opportunities. FADP is an all-volunteer coalition. We need your help for the basic necessities of an effective campaign. Please help.
“If not us, who?  If not now, when?” – John F. Kennedy.
Shine the light,
—Mark
 
Sent by:
Mark Elliott
Executive Director
 
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, fadp.org
P.O. Box 82943
Tampa, FL 33682
 
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty is a coalition of organizations and individuals united to abolish the Death Penalty in Florida.
 
FADP works to build a strong, diverse, statewide grassroots movement which:
* Opposes executions
* Supports reforms aimed at reducing the application of the Death Penalty until it is abolished
* Protects the humanity of all persons impacted by the Death Penalty
* Educates Floridians about the Death Penalty
* Provides concrete action steps for individuals and groups
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Texas Woman, Kimbery McCarthy, to die next week looses CLEMENCY BID

  1. http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/188418361.html

    Texas woman to die next week loses clemency bid

     
    Posted on January 26, 2013 at 1:34 AM
     
     
    HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has unanimously refused a clemency request from a Dallas County woman set to die next week for the slaying and robbery of a retired 71-year-old college psychology professor at her home.
    Attorneys for Kimberly McCarthy had sought a 120-day reprieve from her scheduled Tuesday execution and that her sentence be commuted to life in prison.
    The seven-member board Friday turned her down.
    The 51-year-old McCarthy faces lethal injection in Huntsville for the 1997 stabbing and beating death of Dorothy Booth. Booth was a neighbor in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. Evidence showed McCarthy called her to borrow a cup of sugar, then went to get it and attacked Booth.
    McCarthy would be the fourth woman executed in Texas in modern times.
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life & death II

 

Mental Health Awareness Ribbon

Mental Health Awareness Ribbon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Suicide in Solitary: The Life and Death of Armando Cruz (Part 2)

Jan 18th, 2013 @ 09:00 am › Sal Rodriguez
↓ Leave a comment
 

On December 26th, 2008, Armando Cruz was admitted to Mercy Hospital of Folsom following an attempted self-castration. He had “wrapped strips of sheets/shirts around base of scrotum and has been tightening them over the past three days because ‘I am on a mission,’” according to a Clinical Report by a physician who examined him.

Cruz would go on to say that he did it “to prove he was tougher then the voices.”

Housed alone in the PSU, he would participate in few groups.  However, no disciplinary issues are noted in his documentation. On February 5, 2009, his custody was reduced from Max to Close Custody. His SHU term was suspended and he was allowed to participate in EOP Programming, which included more social interaction.

He would remain disciplinary free throughout much of 2009.

He was transferred back to Salinas Valley State Prison, being placed back in the Department of Mental Health, on September 29, 2009.  The goal was to make him competent to stand trial for the January 18, 2008 incident in which he bit an officer. Within a month, on October 16, he would be cited for possession of dangerous contraband.

Two months later, he would participate in his first, and only, parole board hearing. The parole board noted that “Cruz has not been released from Discretionary Program Status (DPS) due to his erratic behavior and therefore, has not participated in any group activities.” The board also indicated that Cruz had spent some time before the board emphasizing that he wished to stay away from the El Cajon Dukes, a gang he had claimed he was a member of since his arrest, a claim his mother disputes.

On February 2, 2010, the board would deny parole for seven years, telling him he needed to stay disciplinary free and that he had not yet taken full responsibility for his actions.

Cruz would remain at Close Custody security until December 2010.

His mother believes that quietly, Cruz was agonizing over his February parole denial. “He thought that he would serve 8 years and come home,” she says.

He would have a cellmate for most of 2010, and remained relatively discipline free. In May 2010, he was transferred to Vacaville, at the California Medical Facility.

On July 27, 2010, a Department of Mental Health/Vacaville Psychiatric Program Discharge Summary indicated that he remained incompetent to stand trial. Quoting a court ordered psychological evaluation, the Discharge Summary reads “it was noted he has made some improvement since his last evaluation in that he is now aware of the charges against him whereas previously he was not…he is still experiencing psychotic and manic symptoms which interfere with his ability to be an effective participant in his own defense.”

Further, the report indicates that the nature of Cruz’s diagnosis of schizophrenia “often leads the patient to misinterpret reality and engage in behavior which may be dangerous to him or others. It is therefore recommended that the patient be transferred to a facility that can continue to provide further mental healthcare within a safe environment.”

The Discharge Summary cites a visit by family—his mother and his sister.  He was reportedly “overjoyed on account of that” and indicated his desire to be “placed at a facility which could be closer to his family.” This would be the last contact visit. The last time that Cruz was able to hug and kiss his family.

At this time, Cruz was diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder, bipolar type. He also was noted to have hypothyroidism.

He would be discharged back to Salinas Valley State Prison, and then was sent back to CSP, Sacramento in the EOP program.  The assault charge against him would be dropped in favor of administrative measures.

On September 27, he was admitted to the Mental Health Crisis Unit due to having bruising on his neck.  According to a Mental Health Interdisciplinary Progress Note, “He reports (vaguely) a psychotic episode in which he was feeling tremendous pain in his neck and put his hands around his neck to stop the pain, causing bruising.”

In October, he was again admitted to the Mental Health Crisis Unit for “self-abuse by choking himself out.” It was noted that he has “chronic thoughts of impending doom and an internal feeling of senselessness…which he explains as a perception that everything in the world is dull and boring.”

While there, two psychologists evaluated him by request of the Mental Health Crisis Bed Interdisciplinary Treatment Team. Cruz was noted to have a fourth grade reading ability and indicated that a neurological examination might be necessary to determine if Cruz’s frequent self-asphyxiation has caused any brain injury. His attention was found to be in the “Profound Impairment” range. His memory, language, and executive functioning were also noted to be impaired.

On November 26, while out on a yard, he “committed the act of Battery on a Peace Officer Resulting in a Use of Force. Armando slapped at Correctional Officer R. Miranda’s face while he was crossing the main yard,” reads an Institutional Classification document. He was placed in the Administrative Segregation Unit and assigned to the Walk Alone yard. One month later, this determination was that Cruz would receive 180 days in the ASU. He would be allowed to have a cellmate, which he would have from December until April 2011.

The Final Year

By January, Cruz was taking several medications. Divalproex (anti-convulsant), lithium (mania), benzatropine (to counter antipsychotic medication effects), promazine (antipsychotic), propranolol (beta blocker), and risperdal (antipsychotic).

In January 27 he told a mental health worker “I’ve been slacking off with the groups some. I go to some. I went to only one group this week…I haven’t seen the Dr. about the Risperdal. I still get the same amount. She was supposed to stop it. I don’t care. I have all kinds of moods today.” He also reported a reduction in hallucinations.

In March, he was allowed a visit from his mother. Behind glass, they saw each other for the last time. Phone privileges were taken away and for his final months, his only contact with his family would be through letters.

On March 26, he was observed “anxiously tossing his bedding around and acting irrationally.” When guards inspected his cell, he was found to have “a piece of metal approximately 5 inches in length attached to a toothbrush with plastic wrap.” Cruz admitted, “It was mine, I was hearing voices.”  For this, he would be placed in Administrative Segregation. He would spend his final six months in solitary confinement.

On April 4, Senior Psychologist M.L. Hoffman, in writing about the weapon incident, remarked that “his behavior and thinking at the time of the incident were likely sufficiently disorganized that he does not accurately recall nature or quality of his actions.”

At some point in April, he began to talk about an imaginary friend named Michelle in his cell. “I see and hear things. I feel all alone in my cell. I created my own kid…We say we’re going to chop your arm off. If you told me I would be immortal, I don’t want to be in a coffin. I want to go home. I want to go to the hospital and kick it. I think it is like a dragon. A thought is just a thought for me.”

On April 18, he reported sleeping between two and six hours a night. “I would rather have a celli. I like to be alone but I liked to have a celli at times. I’m talking about a parallel universe…I have weird dreams. My dreams are very emotional. Demons tell me what. I listen because I want to tell them to shut up,” he is reported to have said.

“I’m kicking back with Michelle,” he told a mental health worker on April 28. A suicide risk document written that day notes that he “appears to be decompensate with symptoms of mania, imaginary child, elevated mood, threatening to spit on staff, loud music from his cell, banging on the cell door and yelling at all hours and strange laughter at odd times.”

On April 29, a clinician asked to see his neck to check for bruises. He “became abruptly engaged and began yelling at this clinician. He said, ‘You’re really stupid and dumb. Get the fuck out of here bitch!’ He attempted to spit on this clinician and several custody officers that arrived ten minutes later….he continued yelling loudly ‘You fucking smelly ass bitch! If you treat people like that, you’re going to get fucked up!”

For this he would continue to remain in solitary, as well as lost  of any appliances, phone privileges, personal property, and access to the prison canteen to buy things.

He would be placed in a suicide watch unit from April 29 until May 10. He would be checked every fifteen minutes. According to these records, he would spend most of his time pacing his cell, laying down, and standing still.

On May 9, he became irate after an officer came to pick up his empty breakfast tray. “Speech became rapid, loud and pressured, rambling, very hostile and Armando did not want to take his medications, swearing non-stop and he remained on spit net status. Was placed in holding cell for time to calm down,” reads a mental health document.

Cruz would be ordered back to the Psychiatric Services Unit on June 7, 2011. He was single celled and assigned to the Walk Alone Yard.

On July 7, a Psychiatrist Progress Note indicated that he was taking Risperdal, lithium, Inderal (for blood pressure/tremors), and Prozac (depression). According to the note, “he was cagey about discussing [auditory and visual hallucinations. Feels people plot against him.”

An interdisciplinary note the same day indicates that Cruz was participating in his assigned groups, and particularly liked one that had to do with anger management.

Cruz would continue participating in groups and was not cited for disciplinary problems in his final months of life. As such, there is no clear record of his final two months.

His mother reports having received letters from Armando. Contained were references to his imaginary family that he believed lived with him in his cell? In the months leading up to his death, he wrote “I wish I could see you guys, I miss you so much” and frequently told his family that he loved them.

“He knew for a long time that he was going to take his life,” his mother says. “After the parole rejection, he lost hope. He thought he was going to come home.”

Armando Cruz’s September 20, 2011 suicide was the culmination of a decade in California’s corrections facilities.

Over thirty other California inmates committed suicide the same year as Armando. At least two others that Solitary Watch has reported on died amidst mental health crises. Johnny Owen Vick, who had spent time in segregation units and had a history of mental health issues, committed suicide on September 16, 2011. On October 24, 2011, Alex Machado committed suicide following a year of increasingly psychotic mental health problems while held in the isolation units of Pelican Bay State Prison.

According to Amnesty International, between 2006 and 2010, there was an average of 34 suicides in the California prison system a year, with 42% occurring in solitary confinement units.

As far back as 1890, the US Supreme Court Samuel Miller in re Medley wrote of solitary confinement: “A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community.”

In 2001, federal judge William Wayne Justice, writing as part of the case Ruiz v Johnson, found that “[Solitary confinement] units are virtual incubators of psychoses–seeding illness in otherwise healthy inmates and exacerbating illness in those already suffering from mental infirmities.”

The evidence of the serious harm that prolonged solitary confinement has been heavily documented over a century. This has been especially true of inmates who have been institutionally determined to be “mentally ill” and a “danger to self.” Despite this, Armando Cruz, like 80,000 others in prisons across the country, was subjected to isolation for months at a time. Cruz, who entered the prison system with a long record of severe mental health problems and a history of self-harm, was placed in isolation typically for actions committed during clear mental health crisis episodes. In isolation, Cruz ruminated, choked himself, and hallucinated a family. It was in this bleak environment that he died.

His mother demands answers. “He loved and valued his family, his church, his life. It was the system that killed him. Why did the system fail my only son?”

“Until the day I die, I will tell my son’s story to see to it that there are changes to this broken system, so that no other family should ever have to suffer the great loss my family and I has endured and suffered. To see that no other man or women is treated as poorly as my brave heart Armando suffered. No one paid attention to my son’s cries. To see that once and for all, the system does away with Solitary Confinement, and hears the cries of all the mentally ill. And to see that the [needs of the] severely mentally ill are addressed through continuity of care…to be given a chance to rehabilitate and have closer placements to their immediate family because in my son’s case he did better when he was able to see us more often. Love heals everything.”

Individuals who would like to get in touch with Yolanda Cruz are encouraged to send an email to this author of this article  sal_solitaryw@yahoo.com. The author would like to acknowledge Dolores Canales, of California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, for bringing this case to Solitary Watch’s attention. 

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LIFE & DEATH of Armando Cruz (I)

Official seal of County of San Diego

Official seal of County of San Diego (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

New post on Solitary Watch
 

Suicide in Solitary: The Life and Death of Armando Cruz (Part 1)

by Sal Rodriguez   SOLITARY WATCH

0010557353-01-1.jpg_20110926

On September 20th, 2011, at 10:55 pm in the Psychiatric Services Unit of California State Prison, Sacramento, a guard was completing his rounds checking on patients in the unit. Locked in solitary confinement, but allowed 10 hours of recreation a week as well as some group activities, prisoners held in these units have been diagnosed with a litany of severe mental health problems. In cell number 104, Armando Cruz, 28, was found facing “toward the opposite side of the door window…[a] rope from his neck to the ceiling…his tongue protruding.” His face was purple and there was no pulse. At 11:35 pm, he was pronounced dead.

On a dozen Post-It notes he scribbled his final words, telling his family he loved them. His final message was “REMEMBER ME!”

 The death of Armando Cruz was the culmination of years suffering from hallucinations, engaging in self-harm and escalating problems. It also exemplifies what can and does happen to people with severe mental health problems when they are locked into the prison system.

Entering the California prison system on February 25th, 2003 following three years of legal wrangling, he would spend at least four years in solitary confinement units, including the final year of his life. Housed alone, his hallucinations and delusions would fester as he ruminated in cells no larger than a bathroom to the point where, in the final months of his life, he invented a family that lived with him. For a vulnerable young man with a fear of “being alone in a cell,” the protracted isolation amounted to psychological torture. Ultimately, he became one of 33 California prisoners who would commit suicide in 2011.

In order to understand Armando Cruz’s death, it is important to understand the tumultuous life that he led.

Troubled Youth

Armando Emmanuel Cruz, Jr. was born on April 23, 1983 to Armando and Yolanda Cruz in Fontana, California. He was a relatively quiet child who enjoyed playing sports, participated in karate, and was well liked by his peers. He was a decent student in elementary school.

Says his mother, Yolanda, of her son, “What I want the broken system to know and the State of California is, that Armando…was a sensitive son who worried about the less fortunate and the injustices in our world.

Things began to change when he entered adolescence. When he was thirteen, he began to use marijuana and methamphetamine and engaged in inhalant abuse (“huffing”). He began experimenting with cocaine and LSD and also began to drink alcohol, which he reportedly did to the point of losing consciousness.

In August 1997 at the age of 14, he was arrested for possessing marijuana at school. The following month he was arrested for burglary. He had stolen several thousand dollars worth of tools.

In 1998, he began to exhibit early psychotic symptoms, yelling at his mother that he was feeling forgetful, that he “felt out of place” and that he was “losing his language.”

In January 1998, according to legal documents, he was examined at County Mental Health and diagnosed as suffering from Inhalant Dependency. Two months later,”[Cruz] had a juvenile forensic evaluation and was diagnosed as suffering from a psychotic disorder, probably a hallucinogen induced psychosis, and also suffering from Borderline Intellectual Functioning.”

Though he was placed in various diversionary programs to keep him out of juvenile detention facilities, his problems continued to escalate.

Friends commented that they felt that the various psychiatric drug combinations Cruz was on “made him slower,” “made him seem more dazed” and that “it felt like Cruz was getting farther away.”

In July 1999, records indicate that he threatened: “I’ll kill a cop and cut off his hand” while in a mental health facility for young people and was seen by a psychiatrist. One doctor thought that he suffered from a psychotic disorder, while another thought that he suffered from a paranoid schizophrenia. Others still claimed it was schizophrenic form disorder.

In January 2000, a drunken Cruz got into a yelling and shoving match with his mother. At the time, he was medicated with Zyprexa, Welbutrin and Tenax. He told officers “he doesn’t have anything to live for and he wanted to die.”

The Attack on the CHP Officer

On April 30th, 2000, California Highway Patrol Officer was conducting a routine traffic stop in Lakeside, California, an unincorporated area of San Diego County. Suddenly, an individual wearing only underwear ran behind the officer and with a large knife, sliced the throat of the officer and ran away.

Cruz, medicated with Zyprexa, Guanfacine, Wellbutrin, and also drinking alcohol that night stated that he recalled the lead up of events as follows: “I was in my house…listening to a song by Sublime about the riots in LA which suggested committing 187 (Murder) on a cop. I was depressed; I looked across the street and saw the CHP officer writing a ticket. I wanted to save the world. I went across the street and hid behind a stop sign. I sliced the guy’s throat with a kitchen knife. I just wanted to be a demon…I felt dead on the inside.”

Neither the officer who sustained a superficial injury required tape stitches, nor were there witnesses in either the stopped vehicle or the surrounding area able to immediately identify the suspect. However, in the subsequent weeks Cruz began to speak about his actions to a friend, who told his father, who notified the police about what Cruz had said. Cruz was arrested on May 24th, 2000 and quickly admitted to the attack on the officer.

Legal Wrangling 

Nearly three years of legal wrangling would be a very difficult time for Cruz.

Following his arrest, he would be held at a University of California San Diego psychiatric unit for evaluation. He is noted to have “jumped off a balcony” in an apparent suicide attempt. Upon being transferred to another psychiatric unit, an examining psychiatrist would tell his mother: “Armando’s schizophrenia has gotten worse.”

In the next years, his father would die of a terminal illness that had ailed him for many years. Cruz, then being held in the county jail was allowed to attend a service for his father. He was brought in arm and leg restraints and was constantly under guard and was not allowed to embrace family.

He would be incarcerated at the San Diego County jail from April 2001 until being sentenced in 2003. At some point in this period he would attempt suicide by hanging at the jail, something that only came to his mother’s attention after his death.

While in jail he was kept in segregation for periods of time for his own protection. He had reported being taken advantage of by inmates who, as his mother said, took advantage of his kindness and naïveté.

The legal battle that culminated with his pleading guilty in January 2003 and being sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after eight years for the Attempted Murder of a Police Officer.

Says Cruz’s mother of the legal proceedings, “The system took complete advantage of a young, naive, scared, incompetent schizophrenic teenager, who in his mind was trying to protect himself and his family. Starting from the sheriff’s department that questioned him without my permission in order to get a statement and confession from him in his mental incompetence. My son was declared at the 707 hearing as severely mentally ill suffering from schizophrenia. He was talked into a plea deal of 8 minimum to life which would after all the legal wrangling, send my naïve son into a level 4 adult prison setting.“

Cruz was among the first juveniles to be charged and sentenced as an adult under the overwhelmingly passed Proposition 21 in California, which had been approved by California voters just one month before the April 2000 attack on the CHP officer.

At this point, 17-year old Cruz would become one of the countless numbers of prisoners in the United States suffering from debilitating mental health problems.

Early Years in Prison (And Isolation)

Upon arriving at Richard J Donovan Correctional Center in San Diego, he was assigned a Classification Score of 62. In California a score of 52 or over results on one being placed in a Level IV facility, defined by California as facilities that “have a secure perimeter with internal and external armed coverage and housing units or cell block housing with cells non-adjacent to exterior walls.” Inmates in these facilities typically are incarcerated for crimes against persons. He was also assigned to the Enhanced Out Patient (EOP) level of care, which allows for interaction with mental health staff.

According to a 2003 Human Rights Watch report, between one-third and half of prisoners in solitary confinement are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. In 2011, Dr. Craig Haney testified that: “In short, prisoners in these units complain of chronic and overwhelming feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and depression. Rates of suicide in the California lockup units are by far the highest in any prison housing units anywhere in the country. Many SHU inmates become deeply and unshakably paranoid, and are profoundly anxious around and afraid of people (on those rare occasions when they are allowed contact with them). Some begin to lose their grasp on their sanity and badly decompensate.”

In his already fragile state, Cruz would quickly enter this bleak feature of California’s prison system.

In April, Cruz would experience isolation in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU). Used throughout the California prison system, the ASU houses thousands of inmates in segregation, often in solitary confinement. Due to Cruz’s mental health, he would always be held in solitary confinement while in the ASU.

“Every time they put him in isolation he would decompensate,” his mother says, “Can you imagine being in one of those units, with all the noises echoes and clanking, banging about all around you, while being mentally ill?”

On April 22, 2003 Cruz was placed in the ASU for “exhibiting bizarre and threatening behavior.” In this case, this involved looking at a prison guard in a manner that was perceived as threatening. Prison officials also decided that he would “be placed on single-cell status and the walk-alone yard due to mental health concerns.” In May, was retained in the ASU for having a “high risk of victimization.” He was also noted to be frequently “attending to internal stimuli” and only taking three showers in a three-week period of time.

His mother visited him at RJ Donovan. “He had lost a lot of weight…he had gone from being 180 pounds to 150 pounds,” she recalls. “He was coherent, very coherent. He told me, “Oh, Mom, don’t cry I’ll be home soon.”

In June, he was transferred to California State Prison, Los Angeles County. He was initially held in a Level IV facility but ended up being placed in the ASU on August 21 for “threatening to kill a peace officer.” The incident involved Cruz screaming “Let me out!” and “I want to murder somebody!” Upon an officer coming near Cruz’s cell, Cruz said to the officer: “If I had a knife I’d stick it up in you!”

He was then transferred to Correctional Men’s Colony-East (CMC-E) and placed in the ASU for EOP inmates. Upon his being discharged from services at CSP-LAC, mental health staff indicated he sometimes “choked himself because he feels that it will get rid of the voices in his head.” CMC mental health staff also noted that he was experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations.

Visiting him at CMC, his mother recalls that during his time at CMC, Cruz was visibly paranoid and agitated.

On September 4th, 2003, his custody was established at “MAX” and he was retained in the ASU. The Institutional Classification Committee, however, noted that he “is likely to decompensate if he remains in Ad Seg for a lengthy period…” In this context, to “decompensate” is to experience worsened symptoms. In Cruz’s case, these symptoms increasingly meant more aggravating auditory and visual hallucinations.

He would remain in solitary confinement and the ASU until being transferred to Salinas Valley State Prison for placement at the Department of Mental Health Immediate Care Facility on January 5th, 2004. He was sent due to “recent and continued decompensate since placement in ASU. He repeats increased [auditory hallucinations] and decreased ability to cope with the voices. Mood is depressed…”

“I don’t know what’s wrong…I have so many thoughts I can’t tell what’s real. I don’t know who to trust…It’s like a scary dream,” Cruz is reported to have said.

Improvement and Decline

At Salinas Valley, he was noted, according to a January 22nd, 2004 health document, as “having fears of being alone in cell and paranoia of others wanting to inflict pain on him.” And that, “since incarceration, [he] states that he has been bored to death and losing his mind.”

A month later he was determined to be a “very high risk for suicide and self-mutilation behavior…a deep seated dysphoric mood…”

Despite these issues, Cruz appears to have made an effort to adapt to his situation. Over the course of his custody, Cruz lived with three other inmates, and generally he seemed to have grown more comfortable and was deemed safe enough to house with other inmates. In June he completed a “Survivor/Processing Group” and a “Coping Skills Group.” In September, he completed a Big Brother Group.

However, Cruz continued to engage in auto-asphyxiation. He was noted to frequently have “bruises on the back of his neck from squeezing himself so hard.” Following one of these incidents, he was placed in a solitary confinement in October 2004.

On November 22nd, while an officer was in the process of handcuffing him through a slot in his cell door, he jerked forward, resulting in the officer sustaining an injury to one of his hands.

A mental health staff member, in evaluating Cruz following the incident, reported “he continuously perseverates about choking to death, wanting to save the world, hallucinating, with flight of ideas and derailment.”

Cruz explained that “I was in shock at the time, I was hearing voices, everything was closing in, I pulled back and I heard he broke his finger.”

Repeated Transfers

Cruz was charged for the Salinas Valley incident resulting in the guard injuring his hand. Upon his discharge from Salinas Valley, the Rehabilitation Discharge Summary reads: “Identified Problem Areas: Hallucinations, Substance Abuse, and Suicidal Behavior.”

Cruz was transferred back to CMC-E on December 17th, 2004. A mental health worker reported that he was “still hearing voices.”

He would be transferred back and forth between CMC and Salinas Valley numerous between the December 17th, 2004 transfer and July 2005. He was incarcerated at CMC from July 13, 2005 until December 28th, 2006.

In August 2005, he was found guilty of “Battery by Prisoner on Non-Prisoner.” He was sentenced to four years consecutive with his life sentence.

During this period, his mother made a point of visiting him often. Every few months his mother made the 300-mile long drive from El Cajon to visit him. Records from the Department of Corrections indicate that his time at CMC, as part of the EOP program, Cruz would largely remain out of trouble.

In 2006, he was assigned as a porter in his unit, engaging in cleaning and other tasks. He was housed with other inmates and allowed to interact with others and participate in in-group activities during his term at CMC. He enrolled in a second Adult Basic Education class in June.

His mother recalls this time period as being the best for Armando. Allowed to have two-hour long contact visits, Cruz was able to maintain vital family relationships.

However, things began to change in the second half of 2006. In July, he was found with marijuana and paraphernalia. A clinician noted, “Armando has a long history of paranoid and delusional thinking. When under pressure he makes wrong decisions. He is taking responsibility for his behavior.”

On November 15, 2006 he reported to his therapist: “I want to be unconscious, not living anymore.” In December, he was admitted to the Inpatient Unit because he “had expressed bizarre persecutory ideation.” On December 14th, he disrupted his classroom, saying: “He keeps looking at me. He’s reading my mind. He’s in a parallel universe. No it’s the same universe…”

On December 28th, he was transferred to California Medical Facility to be stabilized for return to CMC.

On January 29th, 2007, he was ruled by the Office of Administrative Hearings to be a “danger to self” and said to suffer from “a mental illness that, absent medication, renders him unable to control his violent and self-injurious behavior as well as unable to control hearing voices.”  He would begin involuntary medication.

He would be transferred back to CMC on April 18th, 2007.

Escalating Problems and Return to Isolation 

Back at CMC, Cruz was allowed to live with other inmates and had a relatively disciplinary free year until October. On October 28th, 2007 Cruz got into a fight with a fellow inmate. The incident was deemed “mutual combat” and neither received significant punishment.

The following month, November, he was again found with marijuana paraphernalia.

On December 18th, 2007 according to a Mental Health Services Delivery System document, he exhibited a “poor attention span” and was “confused/disoriented…nervous, unable to follow basic verbal instructions.”

2008 would be a turning point, for the worst.

On January 18, 2008: “…Cruz began yelling loudly from inside his cell, and inciting other inmates on the tier to help him commit suicide.”…He also said “[Officer M] can’t do shit to me,” reads an incident report dated January 29th.

Prompted by these statements, Officer M approached Cruz’s cell and it was decided to escort him for psychiatric evaluation. Cruz complied and was successfully cuffed and led out of his cell. However, he “suddenly began to resist” by moving side to side. Knocked to the floor and sprayed in the face by pepper spray, Cruz “began kicking his legs” and bit Officer M’s middle finger.

Cruz was immediately placed in the ASU and was to “remain in the ASU pending his transfer to an alternate facility where his mental health and custody needs can be met.”

Cruz, one week later, explained: “I’m very slow and that day I had been choking myself out….He told me to cuff up…I wasn’t thinking. My systems were bad. I was choking myself out, hearing things. I was in a different state of mind and wouldn’t do that. Tell [Officer M] I’m sorry.”

On May 26th, Cruz would be involved in another incident.  While waiting outside the prison infirmary for an injection of medication, he “suddenly bolted from the chair and ran down the hallway toward the stairwell.” He was forced to the ground and placed in leg restraints in order to be injected with medication.  A report indicates that he “had abrasions/scratches to his facial area, the inside of his mouth, his right shoulder, left knee, ankles” and was “housed on suicide precaution and Administrative Segregation status.” When asked about the incident, Cruz replied, “I’m just fed up man.”

Cruz would spend nearly five months in the ASU before being transferred to California State Prison, Sacramento (CSP-SAC) to serve a Psychiatric Services Unit term on June 11, 2008. He was sentenced to an 18 month SHU term.

According to the California Code of Regulations, Title 15, Division 3, the PSU “provides secure housing and care for inmates with diagnosed psychiatric disorders not requiring inpatient hospital care, but who require placement in housing equivalent to Security Housing Unit (SHU)…”

The second, and final, part of this story will be published tomorrow. Readers who would like to send their regards to the Cruz family may contact the author at sal_solitaryw@yahoo.com. The author would like to acknowledge Dolores Canales, of California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement, for bringing this case to Solitary Watch’s attention.

Archbishop Garcia Siller Shares Christmas Message with Inmates!

http://www.kens5.com/news/local/Archbishop-Garcia-Siller-shares-Christmas-message-with-inmates-184507251.html

by Jeff Goldblatt / KENS 5

kens5.com

Posted on December 21, 2012 at 7:54 PM

Updated yesterday at 11:00 AM

 
Gallery and video – watch please at kens5.com:

See all 9 photos »

SAN ANTONIO — Joyous melodies carried through the modestly lit halls of a place synonymous with a lack of joy.

And although song flowed freely on a Friday afternoon, the men singing these Christmas carols know little freedom.

It was a special afternoon for 90 minutes at the Bexar County Detention Center, where inmates got the opportunity to attend a Christmas Mass ministered by Archbishop of San Antonio Gustavo Garcia-Siller. 

“God has given us the ability to share his grace with the world,” Garcia-Siller stated during his impassioned homily, which exhorted the 60 inmates in attendance not to give up on God, despite the circumstances of their incarceration.

“There he stands, calling to us, ‘Let me see you. Let me hear your voice.’ God wants to hear us,” Garcia-Siller said.

“He took on all our limits, all our pain, all our suffering. He took on humanity, so we would never have to be alone again.”

The archbishop told the inmates a blessed Christmas is within their reach, even though presents and family are not. 

“Christmas is not only time spent with loves ones. It’s allowing the word of God to take flesh in our lives. Remember, he’s in love with you.”

Coincidentally, Garcia-Siller turned 56 years old today. After the mass, he sang ‘Happy Birthday’ with the inmates and blew out candles on a cake.

“It’s a privilege to be here,” he stressed.

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