AZ DOC Race war update: Battle at ASPC-Lewis/Stiner sends ten to the hospital; one is critical.

UPDATE: MAY 27, 2014: This is actually what appears to be what was behind the race riot at Stiner. We arent just seeing a few fights here and there. It's a war.

http://www.arizonaprisonwatch.org/2014/05/former-dw-brown-on-black-doc-race-war.html

--------------original post (2/21/14)----------

Very troubling, but not surprising. Look up the other racialized fights and riots at Yuma/Dakota, Tucson/Santa Rita, Tucson/Whetstone, and Kingman since Jan Brewer's man Chuck Ryan took over AZ Department of Corrections. 

 AZ DOC Director Charles Ryan

Hate and fear are rampant, too many officers are corrupt or indifferent, and racialized gangs are running those places, making a killing of of their own prison drug trade. Almost no one is given any kind of access to substance abuse treatment, despite the widespread heroin addiction and Hep C epidemic behind AZ bars. In fact, get busted with drugs in prison - or seek protection after being beaten down five times for owing a debt or flushing the drugs the gang threw in your bed during a search - and I guarantee that "help" for your problem will not be forthcoming - you can just look forward to sitting in the hole and losing contact with loved ones. 

Not offering critical care for addictions  is one of the ways that Corizon stands to profit from their AZ DOC prison health care contract, of course. Unfortunately, while judges seem to think they're doing some folks a favor by getting them off the street to where they supposedly get three meals a day and "help" for their problems, addicts are among the most vulnerable people we throw in prison just to become collatoral damage and target practice for the bad guys on both sides in the battle for power between the DOC and the gangs...

Sorry, folks I don't know who was injured or how badly - contact ASPC-Lewis  if you are concerned about your loved one. Check out Prison Talk for the chatter from families of those imprisoned there. And please contact me now or a year from now if you have more information about what went down here (Peggy Plews 480-580-6807 or PO Box 20494 PHX 85036 or arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com)

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Several inmates injured after fight at Arizona prison 

 

by azfamily.com

Video report by Steve Ryan

Posted on February 20, 2014 at 5:45 PM

Updated yesterday at 10:50 PM

BUCKEYE, Ariz. -- Several inmates were injured Thursday after a fight broke out at the state prison in Buckeye.

Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Doug Nick said fewer than 100 inmates at the Stiner Unit of the Lewis complex got into a fight about 4:15 p.m.

"This was because of some racial tensions that had been recently exposed and ... came to a boil," Nick said.

Ten inmates were taken to local hospitals, one of whom had critical injuries, according to Nick.

Authorities said the fight in the medium-security dormitory area was quickly brought under control with the help of distraction devices.

"Those distraction flashes ... are non-lethal rounds," Nick said. "They are very disturbing and they get people's attention very quickly."

No prison staff members were injured trying to break up the fight.

The prison was on lockdown Thursday night and the Stiner Unit will remain on lockdown until at least next week, according to Nick.

He also said the investigation is ongoing, and any inmates identified as instigators will be moved to a higher level of custody. They could also face additional charges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

AZ DOC needs new management, not more money.

Until the AZ DOC shows us an analysis of the victims' and perpetrators' characteristics and motives regarding the increase in prison assaults, I don't think their planned interventions with our $18 mil can be trusted. Their budget is already $1billion, and they still don't have control over their prisons. Simply throwing more guards at the problem isn't going to solve it. Some of the violence I hear about, for example, is arising out of mentally ill prisoners' anti-psychotic medications being stopped or abruptly changed to lees-effective (cheaper) drugs. A lot of other violence is related to the heavy drug trade.

Actively psychotic prisoners are not only more likely to be assaultive towards others under stress, they're also more likely to injure themselves. There have also been a number of instances where the prisoner who is ill has been attacked by others due to his symptoms - Shannon Palmer's and James Jennings' cellies both said their victim's psychotic symptoms pushed them to kill them (Shannon Palmer's murderer's psychosis was also not being treated at the time they were placed in a one-man temporary cell together). 

The AZ DOC says they don't conduct the kind of analysis I'm asking for, though I don't know how they can possibly begin to resolve issues pertaining to the violence on their yards if they can't identify who is perpetrating it against whom, and why. I hope the legislature thinks to ask them for more detail about that to compel them to look more closely at the characteristics of the victims, suspects, and motives in these assaults - that will at least tell them where they really need to be putting their people. From what I hear, the medium and minimum security yards are being run by gangs and flooded with heroin, too, so this focus on just fixing the higher security units is problematic. 

Minimum security prisoners are free to go to worksites during the day and mingle with the rest of us - so why do we really need them to go back to prison at night when $10 a day could keep them at home with their families on an ankle bracelet? I think the DOC needs to focus on turning non-violent offenders back over to their communities, and making sure they succeed when they get there. That means better treatment programs for prisoners while they're behind bars, and more resources for assisting them upon release.  

The prevalence of heroin is a huge problem, too: that's how the gangs maintain control, and perhaps how the DOC has kept everything from erupting into more riots than they've already had, keeping their prisoners sedated. Everyone in AZ prison has access to that garbage, but only 4% of all state prisoners get to access treatment to get and stay clean. What does that tell you about priorities and their capacity to employ "evidence-based practice" to get the most for our money? 

Right now, if you're busted with drugs by the DOC - or confess to having had any - all they do is ticket you, throw you in the hole, take away your good time, and maybe even street charge you for possession - they sure don't rush you into substance abuse treatment. So, how are more security guards in close and max security going to solve that problem? They're the ones bringing in most of the drugs and cell phones in the first place.

Most of the detention cells are full of prisoners trying to escape the violence, too, who are being ticketed for refusing to house in General Population anymore and being sent off to Max and Supermax themselves - not the perpetrators. There really needs to be an audit of just who is in those higher level custody cells these days, because it isn't the gang leaders or drug dealers - they're still running the yards with the consent of the DWs. Increasingly, the close custody and maximum security calls are filling with low-level burglars and drug addicts with snitch jackets and mentally ill prisoners who are being exploited and abused in GP. The DOC needs to do something different with the money they have, not just more of the same with another $18mil.

Please, AZ legislators - stop giving DOC more money until you really know how they're spending it all, then make sure they use it responsibly,  or this monster will eat us alive.

AZ Department of Corrections' Central Office, Phoenix (2013)

---------from ABC15.com--------

Arizona Department of Corrections asks for $18M to hire more officers

November 20, 2013
ABC15.com
By: Navideh Forghani


The Arizona Department of Corrections is asking for millions of more dollars to hire more correctional officers.

They say without the extra money, the officers and the inmates they oversee are in danger.

The DOC's budget it already at $1 billion dollars. They’ve proposed an extra $18 million to fund 296 officers to work at Arizona prisons.

The department is trying to make up for the more than 500 positions lost during cuts made in 2006.

Colen Young, a former corrections office at the Lewis Prison, worked for the DOC for 18 years. During his term, he was attacked more than six times by inmates.

But it was March 1 that changed his life.

“I was attacked from the front. Someone grabbed me from the neck. I was dog piled and I kept getting hit until I couldn’t feel it any more. But I could just feel myself getting punched and kicked,” said Young.
He sustained multiple injuries and doctors say he will be permanently blind in his left eye because of the attack.

Young says at the time of the attack, four officers were watching 200 inmates at a level four prison which houses some of the most dangerous and violent criminals.

Shyla Ross, another former DOC officer, oversaw the most violent sex offenders. She was attacked August 21, 2010 after only nine months on the job. At the time of the attack, two officers were on duty watching 100 inmates.

“Two inmates being five feet away from me and being punched in the face. One inmate said he grabbed me to get me out of the way, but he ended up holding me and punching me.”

Ross also received multiple injuries. She now has a metal plate on part of her face and has had extensive dental work.

Ross and Young both say if there had been extra backup, their injuries might not have been that severe.
“The whole situation could have been avoided if they had the staffing. Every day someone goes to work and gets hurt," said Young.

Since 2009 an average of 335 officers a year are assaulted or injured on the job at Arizona state prisons.
“The close custody and the maximum custody inmates make up 21 percent of the inmate population but they are responsible for 72 percent of assault of our staff,” said Doug Nick with the Arizona Department of Corrections.

As spokesman for the DOC, Nick says the $18 million would help provide extra officers at 11 facilities where the most violent inmates are held.

But Peggy Plews, an inmate activist, says while she understands the officers need backup, she believes the money could be better spent.

"We could throw more guards at the problem but I'm not sure if that's going to solve the problem because people are being under medicated who are mentally ill and assaulting others,” said Plews.

She believes more money should go to substance abuse and transitional programs to keep inmates out of jail.

Witness: Yuma prison May "Melee" was another race riot.

UPDATE (OCTOBER 21, 2013)

From a witness to May's "Yuma Melee" (statement dated October 9, 2013)

"I was an inmate during the time at the Dakota Unit when the riot occurred and I was fortunate to not be invovled, but I happened to see the ordeal at its entirety. The initial issue stemmed from a black inmate who sold a Chief (member of the Native American gang) inmate some black tar heroin cut with coffee - the other races had requested for the blacks to "clean up their back yard" and smash that black guy for his actions, but they continued t refuse so during recreation on May 29th, 2013, I had a birds' eye view out of my cell window when all the Mexicans (New Mexican Mafia) Whites (Aryan Brotherhood) and Chiefs went after all of the blacks.

Now be assured this consisted of over 400 inmates for almost 8 minutes. There are two rec fields that consist of 200 inmates, two housing pods were staging/lining up for the chow hall which consissted of another 100 inmates, two chow halls had 50 inmates in each one, the kitchen workers and education building all sturck full force at the same time. The CO's were in complete panic firing off tear gas from the gun tower. Several inmates were even stabbed. I seen it with my own two eyes. It was ugly and nerve-wracking...

The state/DOC seems to be working with the AB and the EME (New Mexican Mafia) gangs which somehow stems to money. The drug trade in here thrives before ANYTHING else - no other thing matters or comes first - drugs of all kinds flood the GP yards statewide and lots of money is made..."

 ---------------------

 
see also:

ASPC-Tucson/Santa Rita: September Prison Riot.

ASPC-Tucson/Whetstone Race Riot Update: Ryan has lost control.

AZ DOC's Protective Custody fight: tend to both body and soul.

ORIGINAL POST OF MAY 30, 2013

FYI: I'm compiling a report for the US Department of Justice right now about the violence in AZ DOC prisons and the problems with the protective custody process (805), whereby it's impossible for male prisoners to refuse to "join" the gangs (which often involves assaulting another prisoner)  - much less just refuse to follow their stupid racist, homphobic, patriarchal rules - without being victimized themselves, yet many guys still refuse. All reports of violence that folks are aware could be useful as I put this thing together, so please send them to me at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com.

---------------from the Yuma Sun-----------------

Six inmates injured after prison melee

Yuma Sun

BY CHRIS McDANIEL

May 29, 2013 22:48:01

Six inmates at Arizona State Prison Complex–Yuma were transported to the hospital Tuesday after being injured during a melee. None of their injuries were life threatening.

According to Andrew Wilder, Arizona Department of Corrections director of communications, at about 2:30 p.m., two inmates began fighting inside the close-custody Dakota Unit yard.

“This fight escalated to involve additional inmates,” Wilder said. “There were a total of about 100 inmates in the outdoor yard area at the time – however it's not the case that all of these inmates participated in the incident.”

AZDOC officers responded quickly to stop the fight and were able to secure the unit within three minutes, Wilder noted, adding there were no injuries to prison staff reported.

The Dakota Unit will remain locked down while this incident continues to be investigated. No other details were available as of press time Wednesday.

ASPC–Yuma is located at 7125 E. Juan Sanchez Blvd. near San Luis, Ariz., and houses over 4,000 inmates in five separate units.

ASPC-Tucson/Whetstone Race Riot Update: Ryan has lost control.

Visiting the AZ Department of Corrections' Central Office...

(June 2012)

Since that little "fight" broke out at the AZ Department of Corrections' Tucson prison on the Whetstone unit last Sunday, I've heard a bit about what's been going on there from several sources, all of whom are afraid to be identified, understandably. Here's the best I can piece together about the riot - which was indeed a race riot, from what I'm told.

Whetstone is a level 2, minimum security yard, rife with drugs. It's apparently full of a lot of prisoners with mental health issues who aren't getting appropriately treated, and are consequently self-medicating - being provided with their drugs by the dealers and gangs instead of the mental health or medical staff. No "recovering" addict there has much of a chance of staying clean, either, as the supply of drugs like heroin is so plentiful and there's hardly anything going on in the way of jobs, programming, mental health or substance abuse treatment programs. 1200 men just roam the yards, then, over which a pervasive sense of boredom and restlessness hangs, driving the sane to use drugs as well. Too many AZ prisoners are being released with addictions these days that they didn't have when they were sentenced to the DOC's "care".

The medical services on Whetstone, which one person I spoke to describes as a "medical yard", are reportedly worse than negligent, and even dampens morale further. So is the deliberate indifference shown by guards to the vulnerability of prisoners they keep forcing into harms way onto general population yards despite them begging for protection from all the violence and extortion - many of those particular prisoners are the ones who appear to be mentally disabled in some way, which makes it harder for them to safely navigate the politics of prison life.

I suspect the DOC gets those kinds of "troublemakers" (the SMI prisoners who refuse to go into GP dorms or yards out of fear) off of Whetstone by disciplining them repeatedly for "refusing to house" and re-classing them all the way up to maximum security and sent to SMUI (where they must be chained and caged 24/7 because they are the worst of the worst, of course. Besides, if we didn't already have our current Supermax prison full of them, how would we justify building that new one at ASPC-Lewis that Governor Brewer wants?)

Whetstone society  is definitely organized by race, there appears to be no getting around that much - that's pretty much the rule across the AZ DOC's men's prisons. If you're a white guy and you step out of line - which means violating their rules and codes, not the DOC's - the white guys will check you  (or smash or kill you, depending more on how vicious the guy is that takes your punishment upon himself than on how serious your offense may have been). The same goes for the Black guys, Native American prisoners, and the Latinos - everyone checks their own.

I get a lot of mail from guys across the DOC system seeking help getting protective segregation due to threats or assaults from members of their own race, region, or ethnic or tribal group, but the only time I hear much about cross-racial violence is when there's a big fight or a riot like the one here at Whetstone, the one in September at ASPC-Tucson/Santa Rita, and the beat down of several black prisoners by about 100 white guys while MTC guards looked on in May 2010 at ASP-Kingman...

Hmm. See how these "fights" and "disturbances" keep getting bigger and more violent, the longer Director Ryan has been in office? What is he doing about the racial violence, I wonder, other than try to build more prisons to spread the same problems to?

One witness said the Whetstone riot actually started soon after 8am as a small fight between a few of the Black guys and Latinos "over the disrespect" one group showed the other the night before  - it just wasn't contained right away, and was allowed to rage on and spread until late morning. It's my understanding that the officers on Whetstone were actually "warned that the yard was going to pop off if they didn't get those black guys out of there" before there was any fighting. But they didn't take heed, and thus that AM the two groups came into conflict - after which the white guys all jumped in. It's a miracle no one ended up dead.

I'm told that the Black prisoners took the brunt of the beatings, as well as the looting that went on of the dorms during and after the unchecked melee - they got all their stuff trashed and stolen, while they themselves got zip-tied and locked down in the visitation areas all day. Some folks I've heard from are really concerned that the DW or warden there seems determined to re-integrate almost all the same prisoners on that yard to show that she's regained control that way - but this riot involved estimates of up to 700 guys (400 was reported by the DOC) actively fighting with not only fists, but also with tools and other improvised weapons for a prolonged period.

That tells me that no one at the DOC had control of that yard from the get go - the prisoners have been running it all along (the leaders handling the gambling, drugs and extortion rackets, not the ones who would help their comrades sue for their health care rights or anything. If those guys were running the place, prison might actually end up rehabilitating some people....)

That's all for now - let me know if anyone out there has more info, though, or different insights. I hope this at least gives the feds and media something more to go on - there's real trouble brewing in AZ prions these days, and if there isn't some meaningful response to the institutional dehumanization, the profound boredom and despair, and the need for mental health and substance abuse treatment, the violence  - racial and otherwise - will only get worse.

AZ DOC Director Ryan doesn't need more prisons and more protective segregation yards - he needs to  insert non-violence training into the prisons - along with rehabilitative programming - and respond meaningfully to all the grievances prisoners have. Arizona also needs to expedite bringing our low-risk prisoners back home to our communities and offering them a life after felonization that they can actually build on - not one which drives them into dead end jobs and high risk housing (if they're lucky to get that much once they get out of prison).

In the meantime, Arizona's Superior Court Judges need to listen up - PLEASE stop sending vulnerable and mentally ill people to prison thinking you're doing them the favor of putting them where they'll get medical and mental health care, substance abuse treatment, job training, or anything else but raped or beaten or left outside in a cage to die in this state. Be a little more creative and compassionate instead, and stop draining our communities of the resources we need to educate our kids, tend to our our ill and disabled, and prevent crime and victimization in the first place.

Youth on Fire: Heroin and Hep C everywhere.

I read this last night and wept. This thing is going after our kids with a vengeance. It's already bigger than AIDS. What's it going to take for us to step up the to fight with everything we've got? How will kids get help while they still have hope if they're too afraid of arrest?

We can't just keep throwing addicts into prison and leaving them to die there, but in America, chains and cages for our people seem to be all we're willing to invest our resources in. How is that either good public health policy or justice?

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

Hepatitis C Spikes Among Young Heroin Users

By Martha Bebinger

WBUR

Sep. 9, 2010, 6:27 AM

BOSTON — Heroin, a drug that claims nearly two lives in Massachusetts every day, killed a young woman in Cambridge late last month. She had just turned 18 when she overdosed alone in a bathroom.

“It was a real tragedy, it always is,” says Michael May, the outreach coordinator at Youth on Fire, a teen drop-in center in Cambridge. “She was really young, had been using for a long time and was a pretty key fixture in the community around here.”

May worked with the girl he can’t name and worries that the epidemic he fights every day is gaining steam.
“This summer has been very intense for heroin use in this area,” May says. “And we’ve been getting a lot of kids who, rather than a slow progression into injection drug use, have kind of jumped right into it.”

Needle Use On The Rise

This signals trouble for diseases transmitted through needles, which are also on the rise. The Department of Public Health says infection rates for Hepatitis C in 15- to 25-year-olds have almost doubled since 2002. But there’s no money in this year’s budget for Hep C prevention or to treat new patients.

Hepatitis C is passed through blood in needles, on cotton and on other equipment drug users share. It is 10 times more infectious through a needle stick than HIV. If untreated, Hep C inflames, scars and can ruin your liver.

Dan Church, an epidemiologist at the Department of Public Health, says a spike in Hep C among young heroin users is an urgent matter.

“It’s very alarming to see these numbers of cases with a disease that we really have not seen in this age group for quite some time.” So I think it’s very important that we start thinking about how we can prevent Hepatitis C and provide them education so they will not continue to transmit this disease unknowingly to other people,” Church says.

That is happening. Heroin users and counselors say Hep C is everywhere.

“Once I found out about Hep C, it was just like, yeah, everyone has Hep C,” says Gabe, a 23-year-old who fears arrest if he gives his last name. He started shooting heroin nine years ago but says he only uses occasionally these days.

Gabe does not have Hep C. He tries to keep a few clean needles on him as he moves between Boston and his other home base, Chicago, hopping freight trains, but it doesn’t always work out.

“I’ve definitely gone back and grabbed my old needles off the ground; I don’t know if someone used them, or somebody else’s got dropped there,” Gabe says.

“I generally kept them hidden in one spot but sometimes, you know…”

In Cambridge, and in the the state’s three other needle exchange programs, counselors work Hep C into their prevention talks even though state funding was eliminated this year. May, from Youth on Fire, has a list of precautions he urges users to take. But he knows they may not stick to them in the heat of the moment.

“If somebody’s in a hurry, if they’re sick, it’s just now, now, now,” May says, “and then after they get well is when the rational thinking comes back into play.”

What’s also scary, May says, is that many users aren’t too worried about Hep C.

Johnny, a 24-year-old who also won’t give his last name because he worries about being apprehended by police, sleeps in the woods and hangs out at “Youth on Fire” during the day. He has Hep C.

“It just makes you tired, that’s it. I mean, people can live with it for the rest of their lives right and not die,” he says.

Johnny may be able to manage Hep C with a good diet, rest and no drugs or alcohol. But even if he gets worse, he says he won’t seek treatment because “I heard it makes people really sick and it can kill you.”

Treating Hep C

Hepatitis C is difficult to treat. The drugs won’t kill but they can make patients feel like they have the flu on and off for six months to a year and are only effective in 30 to 40 percent of cases. But on the medical side, things may be looking up.

“We’re really on the dawn of a new era of treatment for Hep C,” says John Ward, director of the division of viral hepatitis at the Centers for Disease Control. “The drugs we have now aren’t specific for the virus.”
Ward says new drugs that are specific to Hep C could be on the market next year.

“When those [new drugs] come on, it will probably double the likelihood of being cleared of this virus and having to go through about half the weeks of treatment,” Ward says.

Ward is understandably excited about better treatment options. In addition to the new wave of young people infected with Hep C, one in 30 Baby Boomers have it, according to the CDC. They could have been infected through a blood transfusion if it occurred before 1992 or in a non-licensed tattoo parlor, but the main way people get Hep C is through intravenous drug use. Cynthia Jorgesen, who runs education and training programs at the CDC, says many people don’t want to recall a past that might have included Hep C.

“Because of that association with negative connotations,” she says, “a lot of people don’t assume they’re at risk because they’re not ‘one of those people.’ ”

Baby Boomers And Hep C

Sixty-five to 75 percent of Baby Boomers who have Hep C don’t know it. Ward says that’s because “they call Hep C the silent epidemic. You can live for decades and don’t know you are infected. The liver doesn’t complain much until it is very, very ill. So you don’t get sick often until it’s too late to help the liver.”

The CDC says death rates are expected to triple in the next 10 to 20 years if the Boomers don’t find out they have Hep C before they get seriously ill.

Most health insurance plans cover a Hep C screening if there’s reason to think you need one. The Department of Public Health is hoping word about Hep C will spread faster than the virus until there’s money again for prevention and new treatment.