Archive for the ‘Prison’ Category

by Stephen Lendman

Their story is shocking, disturbing, yet common – African Americans indicted, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned despite their innocence. Nearly always society’s most vulnerable are affected, including Muslims by the “war on terror” and people of color – Jamie and Gladys Scott’s experience explained below.

Updated information on their case and status can be found on Free the Scott Sisters.blogspot.com, accessed through the following link:

http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/

Residents of Forest, Mississippi, they were arrested on December 24, 1993, charged with armed robbery of two Black men. The amount – $11. No one was hurt. The sentence – both given life in prison, a shocking miscarriage of justice if proved guilty. They’re not. They’re innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt and had no prior convictions. They were aged 22 and 19 respectively at the time, and have been incarcerated since October 1994.

On Christmas eve, 1993, their car broke down after leaving a mini-mart near their home. Two young men drove them there, one they knew. The same evening, three teenagers allegedly robbed two men at gunpoint, netting $11. Police falsely accused the sisters of involvement.

Their mother, Evelyn Rasco, now ailing, believes no robbery occurred, saying from her new Pensacola, FL home:

“This has a lot to do with my family giving testimony against the Scott County sheriff for taking bribes and kickbacks that sent him to prison.”

Now it’s payback, two innocent women victimized. The price – their lives. The outrage – America’s racist/prosecutorial injustice tradition, colluding with state and federal courts stacked with right-wing hacks, serving the privileged, damning others, putting a lie to democratic freedoms, endangering the powerless for any reason or none at all.

At trial, witnesses said Deputy Sheriff Marvin Williams “coerced and threatened them to lie.” In addition, Gladys and Jamie were poorly represented, their attorneys Firnist J. Alexander, Jr. and Gail Shaw-Pierson never subpoenaing key witnesses, calling only one to testify when several knew the truth. Also, neither victims or the sisters got to speak for themselves, to set the record straight.

Further, State witnesses gave conflicting testimonies, admitting they disagreed with the sheriff’s account, saying he demanded they sign prepared statements misstating the facts.

Moreover, three affidavits not introduced absolved the sisters of culpability, one written by a trustee of the local jail, explaining that a wallet later found contained one victim’s photo ID and $60. He also said no robbery occurred, admitting he was threatened with imprisonment if he told the truth. As a result, Gladys and Jamie were framed despite their innocence. Sixteen years later, they remain imprisoned.

Three teenagers eventually admitted guilt (whether or not true), recanting false testimony at trial, and accepted a plea bargain in return for 10 months in prison. The victims also absolved the defendants out of court.

Appeals attorney Chokwe Lumumba later presented a Request for Commutation of Sentence and/or Pardon, arguing insufficient evidence at trial, an overwhelming amount exculpating. However, the appeals court found no procedural errors, affirming the lower court’s decision on December 17, 1996.

A Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court followed, also denied on May 15, 1997, then an Application for Leave to File Motion to Vacate Conviction pursuant to the Mississippi Post Conviction Collateral Relief Act. Unsurprisingly, the High Court again was unresponsive, rarely ever affording justice to society’s most disadvantaged, nearly always supporting the privileged even when guilty of high crimes of war or against humanity.

As a result, for years the family’s been “shell-shocked,” yet determined “to fight on,” believing right will eventually triumph over wrong, freeing Jamie and Gladys. Their mother raised their children. A massive heart attack took their father from the strain.

In addition, because of poor nutrition, inadequate healthcare, and inhumane treatment, Jamie now suffers from kidney failure, other life-threatening conditions, and since January, almost weekly setbacks.

Yet she’s gotten sporadic dialysis treatments and shoddy care overall, exacerbating her condition, several times experiencing shock. As a result, she’s gravely ill, her kidney failure at Stage 5, the highest danger level before death.

Imprisoned at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF), she wrote:

“The injustices that have occurred are patterns within this county and their police departments,” symptomatic of America’s racist history. “This type of injustice and exploitation has been done to many African Americans (and others of color) who have lived in this county (and nation) for many years. They have been very successful in destroying many lives.”

“What began as an implication and outright miscarriage of justice, has catapulted to destroy an entire family. Gladys was a 19 year old pregnant mother, and myself, Jamie, a 22 year old mother during the time of our arrest, conviction and sentencing for a crime we did not commit.”

“We are convinced that once this chain of events is exposed and unraveled, the events that occurred, the lives that have been destroyed, the pain and suffering the citizens of Scott County have endured; everyone will be utterly amazed, astonished and compelled to assist us in our plight for freedom. We pray that the people would insist upon an investigation into their misconduct and miscarriage of justice.”

Civil Rights Advocate Dr. Adam Reza said:

“The people of Mississippi demand an investigation into the case of the Scott sisters, and we call on Attorney General Jim Hood to personally look into the health of Jamie Scott. This is (America. They’re) entitled to their civil rights. We shall pursue legal action against the state of Mississippi if matters are not rectified.”

So far, Hood assigned attorney Charles T. Rubisoff to investigate the case. Helpful information should be emailed to chrub@ago.state.ms.us.

Also contact the Committee to Free the Scott Sisters by emailing Mrs. Evelyn Rasco at:

rqueenbee2222@yahoo.com

A Final Comment

America is plagued by prosecutorial and judicial discrimination, Gladys and Jamie supporters sighting their “trial fraught with legal malpractice and witness coercion….Judge Marcus Gordon over(seeing) one of the most blatantly corrupt trials in history, culminating in (a) staggering” injustice.

More than ever today, the pattern repeats across America in federal and state courts, endangering anyone challenging power by revealing truths and defending right over wrong, making us all as vulnerable as the Scott sisters.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

By Humberto Márquez, IPS

“My daughter was brutally tortured, intimate parts of her body were beaten, her head was put in gas-filled bags and electric shocks were applied all over her body,” Vidalina Vera, the mother of Wilmary Brizuela, told the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office.

Brizuela, a professor at the Bolivarian University in the southeastern Venezuelan city of Ciudad Bolívar, was arrested on Jun. 18 and is being held at La Pica prison, some 600 kilometres east of Caracas.

According to Vera’s statements to the press, the judicial police raided her home and arrested and threatened her and other members of her family, while another group of them seized her daughter at the university.

The police are investigating relatives of Wilmary’s brother, Wilmer Brizuela, who is serving time in a prison in southeast Venezuela for kidnapping. He is known as a leader among the inmates and has links with criminal gangs, and the authorities suspect him of masterminding the murder of Professor María Gabriela Casado, the sister of Judge Mariela Casado.

Judge Casado took part in the appeal court trial that upheld Wilmer Brizuela’s 10-year sentence.

Cases like Vera’s complaint “follow a pattern of torture and human rights violations that has persisted for decades in Venezuela, and those responsible can be found in many police forces and several military corps,” Alfredo Ruiz, of the non-governmental Justice and Peace Support Network, told IPS.

“It could have happened in other Latin American countries, too, because unfortunately the practice is widespread in this region,” said Ruiz, who is also a representative of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Health Institutions against Torture, Impunity and other Human Rights Violations (RedSalud DDHH).

In another incident, police in the western state of Lara, enraged by the injuries received by a colleague on Apr. 27, burst into the Paedagogical University in Barquisimeto, the regional capital, fired shots in the air and attacked a group of students.

Nine women and men were punched, kicked, pistol-whipped and beaten with police motorbike helmets. The students were arrested and taken to the police station, where they were again assaulted and made to perform physical jerks for 40 minutes, according to their allegations.

“This is one of the complaints we have documented, and we have asked the Attorney General’s Office for protection for the victims,” psychologist Fiorella Perrone, another member of RedSalud DDHH, told IPS. “In addition to the physical harm they suffered, they face social and psychological harm, and are living in fear and under the pressure of threats to their lives and to those of their families.”

RedSalud DDHH has documented and helped with 473 cases of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment all over the country, but especially in Caracas, since it started its work in 1995.

Of that total, 212 cases were reported between January 2003 and June this year, with three military corps, three national police forces, nine regional police forces and 12 municipal police forces being accused of abuses, as well as some instances of joint military and police operations.

“In 97 percent of the cases, the victims were from low-income sectors, and 79 percent were male and aged between 18 and 38. Most victims are young, poor, dark-skinned men,” Perrone said.

Beatings were suffered in 85 percent of the cases; verbal aggression in 43 percent; death threats in 40 percent; the victim’s head was covered with a bag in 15 percent of cases; 10 percent were given electric shocks; and four percent were illegally transferred to an unknown location.

There appears to be a widespread pattern of this sort of mistreatment in Latin America, according to reports from the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an Organisation of American States body, and from international rights watchdogs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The non-governmental Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights has denounced abuses committed against detainees, even against local police agents captured by the army in anti-drugs operations.

The abuses reported include suffocation with plastic bags placed over the head, electric shocks to the genitals, punches, kicks, bites, threats and simulated executions.

Yet Mexico, said Ruiz, is also an example of good practice, in that emergency room doctors and prosecutors are required to be familiar with the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, otherwise known as the Istanbul Protocol, which was adopted in 1999 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In Colombia, meanwhile, Amnesty International has documented over 80 cases of torture a year, in the context of the civil war between state security forces, far-right paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas.

The Colombian Coalition Against Torture documented 899 cases between 2003 and 2008. Among these, 502 of the victims were murdered after being tortured.

According to human rights organisations, torture and abuse of detainees are common practice on the part of the police and other government bodies in Colombia. Amnesty has expressed concern over the actions of death squads made up of police or military personnel, who abduct, torture and execute people, including children.

“But the main centre in the hemisphere where methods of interrogation with torture are used is the United States base of Guantánamo, on the island of Cuba,” Ruiz said.

RedSalud DDHH has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to call for the closure of the Guantánamo detention centre, and to set up a rapporteurship to prevent and punish torture in the hemisphere.

Rights groups believe these measures are necessary because torture is still being practised 26 years after the United Nations approved the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

In 1997, the U.N. General Assembly declared Jun. 26 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

In Venezuela, RedSalud DDHH and other groups traditionally mark the international day by asking Congress to approve a law to prevent and punish torture.

“We have been working on this since 1995. We have documented nearly 500 cases, dozens of which have reached the Attorney General’s Office, and some of which have made it to court. Unfortunately after 15 years, impunity still prevails, because not a single sentence has been upheld against any offender,” Ruiz complained.

by Stephen Lendman

In July 2008, the Southern California ACLU released a “Report on Mental Health Issues at Los Angeles County” Jail by Dr. Terry Kupers, a practicing psychiatrist, an expert on long-term isolated prison confinement and correctional mental health issues. He’s also written numerous articles on these topics, and been an expert witness on the mental health crisis behind bars, what he wrote about in his book “Prison Madness.”

In May, he toured the LA County Jail system where most inmates aren’t convicted and are awaiting trial – Men’s Central Jail (MCJ), Twin Towers 1 & 2 (TT 1 & 2), and the Inmate Reception Center (IRC). He interviewed 18 prisoners in private, confidential settings; others in more casual, cell-front ones; and discussed issues with mental health and custody staff.

As in all prisons nationwide, many LA County inmates suffer “serious mental illness.” Incarceration exacerbates it. They need treatment, but aren’t getting it.

Besides prison confinement harm, state mental hospital deinstitutionalization took hold in the 1980s, part of Reagan Revolution policies that whatever government can do, business does better, so let it. As a result, large numbers of seriously ill patients were discharged, based on studies indicating community care was superior to state facilities. The consequences were predictable. The promise was never realized because of budget cuts, unaffordable housing, and other priorities.  

In 1955, state and VA psychiatric hospitals had about 550,000 patients. In 2008, there were less than 60,000, but given constraints today on budget strapped states and communities, the numbers are likely lower and dropping.

Yet according to a study by the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, over a million individuals suffer from significant mental illness in jails and prisons. With 20,000 detainees, some call the LA County Jail system the largest psychiatric hospital in the country (the Men’s Central Jail has 5,000), but, like elsewhere, treatment there’s not forthcoming.

Correctional setting mental illness factors:

“are complex, including shortcomings in our public mental health systems, the tendency for post-Hinckley criminal courts to give relatively less weight to psychiatric testimony, the incarceration of large numbers of drug offenders including those with dual diagnoses (substance abuse and mental illness), and the growing tendency for local governments to incarcerate homeless people for a variety of minor crimes.”

As a result, the prevalence of prison mental illness is high and rising – about 15 – 30% according to national epidemiological studies. The 2006 Special Report from the Federal Bureau of Prison Statistics titled, “Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates,” confirms a high, unprecedented mental illness population behind bars, concluding that 64% of jail inmates suffer significantly – based on structured interviews, “not necessarily clinical diagnoses.”

A comparable 1999 study estimated 19%. The 2006 one concludes that previously homeless inmates are twice as likely to be ill, the result of living on streets or in unfavorable environments, unconducive to good mental health.

Other epidemiological studies concur with the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and despite the prevalence of inmate illness, few prisoners get help, what’s provided is inadequate, and medications only for many are stressed. Even then, they’re only given to symptomatic inmates, then withdrawn when they abate, when it’s essential they be continued. Otherwise, those in need aren’t helped.

Overcrowding and Few Inmate Programs – A Serious Problem

When the 1970s prison population was much smaller, studies showed overcrowding caused violence, mental illness, and suicides. Today it’s much worse. “One ha(s) only to tour a jail or prison to understand how violence and madness were bred by the crowding.”

Imagine a small dormitory expanded to house 150 prisoners – the situation in LA County Men’s Central Jail with bunk beds lined up in rows. “A prisoner cannot move more than a few feet away from a neighbor, and lines form at the pay telephones and the urinals.”

It’s the same with four men crammed into small cells with barely enough room to get off bunks for any reason. The cells have no chairs, desks or any space but bunks to sit or lie on. It’s enough to fray anyones nerves, but with “tough men” in small spaces, altercations follow, then disciplinary action, greater anger, and inevitable mental illness for many.

“In general, as an individual prone to psychosis becomes angrier, his thinking becomes more regressed and irrational, and therefore subjecting (these inmates) to conditions that exacerbate irritability and anger (worsens) their mental illness, often precipitating a state of acute decompensation or ‘breakdown.’ ”

For those depression prone, self-imposed isolation to escape violence or unbearable conditions deepens their problem and “leads to thoughts of self-harm.” Open rage and violence pushes some over the edge, especially with no remedial treatment. Also, mentally ill prisoners are prime targets for violence because they’re vulnerabe. “The more violence, the more madness, and the crowding exacerbates both.”

Over the past 30 years, few constructive changes were made in jail architecture. Most cells are windowless. Recreation for most is once a month. For many, none at all, even though they’re supposed to have three times a week minimum. Even the Medical Disability/Stepdown area (6050) is deplorable.

“Men in wheelchairs, on crutches, and otherwise disabled were stuffed like sardines into long interconnecting, dark rooms with far too many bunk beds for them to be able to walk around.” Absent are desks and chairs, and moving between bunks requires others to make way.

Under conditions of overcrowding and little rehabilitation, prisoners are idle – the result being worse traumas and abuse for many. Loners are especially vulnerable, an easy target for rapists or others to vent anger without retaliation.

Imagine a jail complex where 13,000 prisoners enter monthly in overcrowded quarters, others, of course, being released. But with inadequate assessments of mental illness and no treatment, inmates are on their own to survive in a very harsh environment. If they don’t follow rules, they’re in trouble, are punished, are abused by other prisoners, and their condition deteriorates.

“I was stunned by the degree of overcrowding I witnessed (on) May 8 & 9, 2008.” Inmates stay in windowless cells nearly 24 hours a day, with no furnishings except their bunk. They have poor round-the-clock lighting. It disturbs sleep and hampers reading. They’re noisy, fraying nerves. They eat there with no programs or mental health treatment possibilities. A combustible environment is inevitable, and it erupts daily.

In one Administrative Segregation Unit (2904), cells are also small (about 5 x 6 feet) with no windows and solid doors always closed. Isolation produces claustrophobia, suffering, and serious psychiatric harm.

“Throughout the Men’s Central Jail (MCJ), the cells and dormitories violate minimum standards in terms of both social and spacial density (including) compensatory out-of-cell time for jail prisoners confined in substandard cells or dormitories. (It’s) intolerable to leave prisoners in harsh, crowded conditions that we know cause psychiatric breakdown.”

Conditions also affect staff. They get impatient, angry, and take it out on inmates for minor infractions. They, in turn react, and the longer they’re incarcerated awaiting trial (at times years), the worse their condition becomes.

Like the MCJ, conditions in the Twin Towers are poor. Yet some positive mental health programs are in place, including inpatient beds in the Forensic Inpatient Program (FIP), crisis intervention/observation capabilities in TT 1, a step-down or subacute mental health unit, mental health housing, pre-release linking with community mental health services, and Jail Mental Evaluation Teams (JMET). The latter are “excellent in concept,” but inadequate in implementation, prisoners outside mental health housing units saying they’re not helped.

For the most part, little besides psychotropic medications are provided. Yet prisoners complain about not getting them or having them discontinued, their charts corroborating their accounts. Most inmates needing help wait weeks or months to be seen, that at best lasts a few minutes. Others are never seen because of too few staff to handle large numbers in need.

“I was told repeatedly by prisoners that there is nothing available in the way of mental health treatment except the prescription of psychiatric medications. This is far from adequate mental health treatment….There is a Pattern of Failure to Diagnose and Inappropriately Down-grad(e) the Diagnoses of Prisoners who Cannot be Accommodated in Mental Health Housing.”

Some inmates are never diagnosed despite complaining of “significant psychiatric history.” Others, seriously ill, are “un-diagnosed;” for example, Schizophrenia to a personality disorder, an “adjustment disorder,” or “malingering.” Without treatment, symptoms inevitably worsen, often jeopardizing inmate safety.

“It is important to note that serious mental illnesses are, mostly, lifetime conditions that pursue a waxing and waning course. An individual suffering from Schizophrenia might go into remission,” especially if properly medicated, but it doesn’t mean he’s cured. Future eruptions can happen anytime and do. Under LA County Jail conditions, a complete breakdown or suicide can result.

“It is striking how indifferent mental health staff are to evidence of serious mental illness by history – past hospitalizations, Social Security Disability benefits, or even competency evaluations.” Instead, they focus only on current symptoms, and do it poorly by misdiagnosing.

Disciplinary Housing Exacerbates Mental Illness and the Potential for Suicide

A “disproportionate number of prisoners with serious mental illness predictably wind up in punitive segregation.” Besides harming them further, it contributes to a greater pandemonium level throughout the prison population because of their screaming and irrational actions like throwing feces at guards.

“Human beings require some degree of social interaction and productive activity to establish and sustain a sense of identity and to maintain a grasp on reality.” Absent these, paranoia and an inability to control rage increases.

Segregated inmates do what they can. Some pace relentlessly. Others read and write letters, but many are illiterate. They fare worst in isolation. Anxiety, hallucinations, anger, obsessions, and/or despair result.

In isolation, previously healthy inmates develop psychiatric symptoms, including anxiety; rage; claustrophobia; panic attacks; headaches; lethargy; heart palpitations; violent fantasies; depression; and/or trouble focusing, remembering or sleeping.

Conditions “that cause emotional distress in relatively healthy prisoners cause psychotic breakdowns, severe affective disorders and suicide crises in prisoners who have histories of serious mental illness, as well as in (some) who never suffered a (previous) breakdown….”

Enough stress can break anyone, and “once an individual crosses a line into psychosis or depressive despair, it is very possible that (removing harsh isolation won’t be able) to bring him back to a normal mental state.”

Staff abuse is also a major problem. Based on widespread inmate reports, they’re excessive, including severe beatings, compounded by the stress of overcrowding and inmate-on-inmate violence.

Recommended Remedies

They’re often made but ignored, including:

– reduce overcrowding;

– increase mental health treatment by competent staff;

– provide diversion for seriously ill prisoners;

– institute early release programs for outside treatment;

– address forced idleness, lack of recreation, and the need for more time out of cells – in day rooms, cafeterias, anywhere for needed relief;

– improve lighting and provide desks and chairs;

– remove mentally ill prisoners from overcrowded, toxic environments;

– create more housing for treatment and improved safety for the mentally ill;

– keep them out of segregation and disciplinary housing; they need mental health treatment in a proper setting;

– greatly expand mental health housing;

– halt harmful diagnosis down-gradings;

– properly evaluate psychiatric histories;

– improve JMET interventions and provide better outpatient services in the general prison population and other jail areas;

– provide a range of mental health services;

– have enough competent staff to serve needs;

– increase substance abuse treatment;

– provide more comprehensive post-release planning, including housing, medication, and other social services;

– increase staff training;

– take steps to reduce custodial abuse; and

– other remedial measures.

Whatever the cost, it’s small compared to readmissions, a larger inmate population, and the toll on society when ill or abused prisoners return to communities.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.