Nevada Prisoner Rights: State AG Ombudsman proposed.

Something like this would seem to be in order for Arizona. All the AG's office here does now is defend the AZ Department of Corrections against civil rights complaints, not investigate them. When I went to them last year, after pestering them for months they finally told me to hit the US Department of Justice instead.

--------------------from Nevada Prison Watch---------------

Bill would create ombudsman in Nevada AG's office to hear inmate's complaints

[BY: Deb Weinstein, Associated Press, in: The Republic (Columbus, IN)
March 08, 2011

CARSON CITY, Nev. — A state Senate committee heard testimony Tuesday favoring the appointment of an ombudsman to hear complaints from prison inmates, though some questioned whether it's affordable given Nevada's budget crisis.

Citing class-action lawsuits and accounts of abuse within the state prison system, Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, and Rebecca Gasca from the American Civil Liberties Union spoke in favor of SB201 at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

The proposal would empower an independent ombudsman within the Nevada attorney general's office to vet inmate complaints and determine whether they should be pursued or disregarded. It would protect prisoners from retaliation for filing complaints and require the ombudsmen to report regularly on the complaints received and reviewed.

Parks said such accountability would lift the cloud that seems to hang over the Department of Corrections concerning allegations of abusive treatments and other accusations. He noted costly lawsuits and settlements, such as a recent lawsuit over inadequate medical care at Ely State Prison that cost over $800,000.

Gasca said the ACLU supports the measure because of a history of lawsuits and what she called an overwhelming number of requests from inmates for help.

She said an ombudsman charged with ensuring proper medical and dental care could also drive down medical costs by keeping inmates healthy.

Although the concept of an ombudsman received support from Sens. Don Gustavson, R-Sparks, and Allison Copening, D-Las Vegas, questions about the budget dominated concerns from opponents.

Greg Cox, acting director of the Department of Corrections, said he opposes the bill because it would require the state to meet costly standards that would have a huge fiscal impact.

Read the rest here.

Health Care at Ely, NV: From the Family.

We're still concerned about what's been happening to the guys at Ely State Prison in Nevada - both the medical neglect and the abuse they've been experiencing. I'll be posting more on that soon with a request I'll be writing to the DOJ for a CRIPA (Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act) investiation due to a pattern of civil rights violations - but they don't need an official request from anyone to start such an investigation. We'll know it's happening once the prisoners tell us and the DOJ requests the letters held (most published on the blogs, guys) by several prisoner rights activists - so far no one seems too interested in what they have to say but the ACLU. 

 Anyway, here's a link to their stories on Ely prison - this will take you to the mother of a prisoner who died of esophageal cancer due to lack of medical care. It's only eight minutes: give a listen. Hear her voice. Shoot an email or drop a postcard in the mail to the DOJ Civil Rights Division and ask for a CRIPA investigation of the Nevada Department of Corrections. Refer them to Arizona Prison Watch, Nevada Prison Watch, and Make the Walls Transparent. Most of the prisoner letters are there - some Ely prison letters (like the recent one from Ikemba) have also been published by the San Francisco Bay View. If they know that a few people (other than the usual suspects) are paying attention, maybe they'll do something. We'll keep you posted.

Challenging Grossly Inadequate Medical Care At Ely State Prison

The Struggle Ain't Over: Ikemba from Ely State Max.

Thank you, Mary and the SF Bay View, for bringing us Ikemba, for shining some light on Ely, Nevada, and for all you do throughout the year to embrace our prisoners and families as part of the larger community- it makes all the difference in the world.

Peace and Blessings for the New Year to You All.

And to you, Marritte, my brilliant comrade, and your brothers in Ely, and your sisters raising hell on the internet. You got it right: this struggle is far from over. Thank God we aren't in it alone.

Those of you with friends and family in prison: cut, paste, and print Ikemba's letter (from here or the original article it links to), and send it far and wide. Get it inside.


- Peg

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

The struggle ain’t over

SF Bay View

Posted By mary On December 31, 2009 @ 8:16 pm In Prison Stories |
by Ikemba S. Mutulu

So long as millions are forced to live like this in the U.S., many of them our best and brightest who could be leading us to freedom and justice, the struggle ain’t over.

Every day I see it, from the block to the college campus, on the idiot box (TV) and in the music. “My president is Black, my Lambo is blue, and I’ll be god damned if my rims ain’t too.” OK and I’m diggin’ this renewed sense of community as well, brought on by a Black man in the White House – especially one of Mr. Obama’s background, which is a step forward for all Americans to take pride in.

But the struggle ain’t over. Those who’ve given in to the euphoria of the moment need only speak with young people in the hood. Try telling them how far we’ve come from the lynchings, trained attack dogs, our leaders murdered and shut up in these pens on trumped up charges. Those youngsters will tell you that’s the same shit they see every day.

One Time just smoked a brotha at a liquor store last week. And their mothers and fathers are in the pen right now for some shit they didn’t do. Check what’s happening in the prisons throughout the country. The criminalization of religions identified primarily with people of color, and all of our true teachers and s/heroes from the slave rebellions on up to the civil rights era – we get slammed in the hole just for speaking their names.

Stanley Tookie Williams, who through his writing from San Quentin’s death row, had, he said, “redeemed” himself and become a hero to young people, was nevertheless executed by Gov. Schwarzenegger – once his rival as a body builder – because he had dedicated one of his books to George Jackson, among many other Black heroes.

Here at Ely State Max in Nevada, they’ve removed all Islamic literature from the library. But you can read up on witches and warlocks all day. No shit! And here it is I’ve never been part of a gang, but I am labelled a gang leader for teaching these young brothers about the history of struggle and rebellion against oppression among our people in America who our true teachers and leaders were: men and women like Marcus, Malcolm, Assata, Huey and George.

Back in California, the Terminator said it all when he gave the OK to murder Bro. Tookie, condemning him for acknowledging his teachers who helped to redeem him as a man, transforming himself from a destructive force in the community to a positive force for peace and unity. The fact Mr. Obama felt he had to bite his tongue and apologize for being critical of the Cambridge police who unlawfully arrested his friend, Professor Gates.

It’s all testimony to the fact: The struggle ain’t over. We must understand the momentum of this feel-good moment will not carry us – just as MLK needed Malcolm X for people to know what the alternatives would be if people of color in this country were not given their civil rights...

We need that same warrior spirit now – which is why even though I retired my G-hand long ago to push for peaceful means of change and working together, I refuse to repress or hide my anger at the brutality and barbarism I see every day, a lot of it taking place in our name. And I will not condemn the young Gs out there who carry that spirit of rebellion, or who maybe feel the way Bro. Lovelle did when he held court in the street.

These are not monsters; these are young men who have been failed and betrayed by a corrupt system that doesn’t work.

It troubles me so many people actually believe somehow racism died upon the election of a Black president. But these courts are still falsely convicting and excessively sentencing Blacks and Browns by the thousands, the prisons are still implementing these archaic policies to strip us of our strength and humanity, the police are still murdering us like wild animals in the streets.

 And the government’s foreign policies dealing with nations of color are still as racist as ever. They ignore the plight of our friends and neighbors, Haiti and South America, living in extreme poverty, while pursuing the mythical terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan – sending these unmanned drones to drop 200-pound bombs on the heads of innocent women and children, that are ironically navigated from a joystick right here in Nevada.

Shit, we still got judges in this country who refuse to marry interracial couples. And it is troubling still to hear some Whites speak as if Blacks and Browns owe them something for electing a Black president and allowing us to put a Latina on the Supreme Court. As if these things were given to us as a gift from the goodness of their hearts, rather than won from the blood and sacrifice of our own.

Ikemba, aka Marritte Funches, is legendary in Nevada prisons 
as a beloved teacher and has long been a friend and supporter 
of the Bay View.

That’s how you know the struggle ain’t over. Nothing in the history of America has ever been given to people of color. And, truth be told, the future of this country depends on us – on our efforts to bring America from under the shadows of its past.

But we as a country must shake off the fog and understand there are no magic bullets or symbolisms that can kill the stink of racism in America. We must continue to be conscious and work together to remove the flaws in our system that foster the divides of race, class, gender etc. We must clean up the courts, reform the prisons and bring personal accountability to the police departments, so that if a cop kills an innocent civilian, uses excessive force or lies to falsely incarcerate someone or cover up a mistake, they’ll be prosecuted just like anyone else.

There are no magic bullets or symbolisms that can kill the stink of racism in America.

Maybe when we do this, and we as a country have learned to reconcile our past, not only in our minds and monuments, but in our schools and textbooks, when politicians are no longer allowed to be bribed or bought off, when health care and higher education are respected as rights rather than privileges for rich people, then real progress can be claimed. But for now, the struggle ain’t over.

Send this brave and brilliant soldier in the struggle some love and light: Ikemba S. Mutulu, s/n Marritte Funches, #37050, P.O. Box 1989, Ely, NV 89301, and check out his work on the August Initiative at Augustinitiative.org.

More on Nevada's Death Row

Upcoming Events

December 13-19: AZ Week of Humanity and Action.

December 14: 5th Special Legislative Session Convenes. Be There.

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

December 18: Sex Workers Outreach Project Protest at the AZ DOC, Noon, in Phoenix.

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

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this article , except perhaps that it's good the "mainstream media" has acknowledged other voices (and witnesses) weighing in someplace, and is picking up that the Nevada activists are calling for a federal investigation. The rest of the story is kind of pointless - they don't even report what the letters from prisoners have been saying - in fact the reporter seems to almost justify Redman's demise.

Redman's crimes should be irrelevant to the way he was reportedly tormented in his final hours: we have minimal standards of humanity by which we treat even the worst among us, or else we become too quickly like them. But his history there explains why the guards would be so contemptuous of him - making the version of his death told by prisoners even more credible. Clearly there are a lot of folks in the Ely area who disagree with that notion and think Redman got what was coming to him; I guess they'd have to in order to fully embrace the prison culture that so clearly degrades them. Sounds like everyone with a badge and uniform in Ely has already been acquitted, and the "investigation" is hardly even underway.

 

The feds should be in on this one - no sign so far. Guess they have too many migrants to round up.

Ely State Prison, Nevada Department of Corrections

October, 2009.

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

Prison reform groups call for federal investigation after former Ripley man’s suicide in his Nevada death row cell

By Greg Matics

The Jackson Star-News

Thu Dec 10, 2009, 12:13 PM EST

Ely, NV - 

Prison reform groups are calling for a federal investigation in the aftermath of a former Ripley man’s suicide in his death row cell at a Nevada prison.

Timothy L. Redmen (AKA Timothy Lee Redman), 45, hanged himself with his shoelaces in his cell at Ely State Prison on November 18 to culminate a standoff with guards.

Reports allege Redmen had barricaded and jammed his cell door preventing its opening and brandished a “shank (a homemade weapon composed of a sharpened metal rod with a bedsheet handle)” in an altercation with guards.

However, additional reports published online by prison reform groups on web-sites like Prison Abolitionist, Make the Walls Transparent, Nevada Prison Watch and Nevada Prison Voice claim information received from fellow inmates at the maximum security prison at Ely, Nevada, alleging that prison guards emptied several canisters of chemical mace into Redmen’s cell over a two-hour period of “torture” prior to him taking his own life and further allege they did nothing to prevent his suicide.

In the aftermath, the cell door had to be removed by maintenance workers for a cororner to get to Redmen and for his body to be removed from the  cell.

An autopsy was ordered performed and an investigation initiated.

A three-judge panel sentenced Redman to death in 1990 for the brutal murder of former West Virginian Max Biederman, then of North Carolina. Biederman was vacationing in Las Vegas when his path fatally crossed that of Redman.

Biederman was shot by Redman near a low budget motel. Redman was preparing to flee the scene when he discovered Biederman still alive. He then fired more bullets into his victim, mutilated his face, pried out teeth and cut off his hands. Investigators believed Redman brutalizing the corpse was an attempt to conseal the identity of his victim.

Biederman’s severed hands were later found along a highway to Idaho where Redman and a junvenile female companion were pulled over for speeding in Biederman’s stolen motor home.

Redman was arraigned on charges of first degree murder, robbery and a use of a deadly weapon enhancement in Clark County, Nevada, District Court on March 21, 1990. He was convicted of all charges on November 28, 1990 after a jury tial, A three-judge panel sentenced Redman to death by lethal injection for the murder and added two, 15-year prison terms—one each for for robbery and for the use of a deadly weapon enhancement.

Former Jackson County Deputy Sheriff Paul Clark remembers Redman all too well. Clark was a Jackson County Jail corrections officer and deputy when he was assaulted and beaten by Redman and two other jail inmates during an escape from the courthouse lockup. Redman was in jail for breaking and entering at the time of the escape.

Clark was moving the prisoners from one side of the jail to the other when the trio jumped him.

Clark said Redman had a knife he had made from a Bic pen and a razor blade from a disposable razor. After beating him, the inmates dragged Clark into a small air conditioning room, took his keys and escaped.

Redman was the last of three to be recaptured. He was returned to the jail three days after the escape by a family member.

Clark was one of the Jackson County witnesses who testified about Redman’s violent past at his murder trial and again at his sentencing hearing.

Redman had a considerable list of criminal activity in Jackson County aside from his jail break. He was charged with assault and/or battery and carrying or concealing a dangerous weapon on four occasions.

Redman’s direct appeal of his death sentence was denied by the Nevada Supreme Court in March, 1992. A subsequent federal appeal was denied in in October, 1992.

Since then, Redman was charged with beating two prison guards with a deadly weapon in March, 1993. He was tried, convicted of two counts of battery by a prisoner with a deadly weapon and sentenced to two more consecutive 20-year prison terms.

Subsequent appeals of his convictions and death sentence were denied—the last one by the Nevada Supreme Court this summer.

How Life Ends on Nevada's Death Row

 

Something's going on in Nevada, folks. This is symptomatic of the bad stuff that's been going down there for awhile - they desperately need transparency. Guards and administrators routinely taunt, abuse, neglect, disrupt, and mess with prisoners there. Whatever the sentence or the crime, we have as a society some minimum standards for how prisoners should be treated, and the way Tim Redman spent his last few hours violates all of them - including the one that provides for a process by which prisoners are finally executed. 

No one wants to believe the prisoners (or even question them as witnesses) when this kind of thing happens, in part because it makes the rest of us wonder if we're punishing the right people the right way, and also because it makes us responsible for demanding that something be done about it. Who wants to go out on a limb for justice for a dead murderer? 

It's not just about Redman, though. It's about all Nevada's prisoners. Spend some time at the activist websites below - prisoner abuse and neglect is why they came into being. AZ Prison Watch came about because of Marcia's death. We read again and again about how corrupt and malevolent some guards are, and it seems that even the ones who aren't overtly malicious end up complicit when sucked into the culture. How is it that 16 people ended up being responsible for killing Marcia Powell over the course of 4 hours? I doubt any of them had that intent in mind. 

Anyway, the feds should be on top of this - but probably aren't. They should be placing agents in all the Nevada prisons themselves to weed the garbage out (starting at the top). If they fail to pursue an investigation of Tim Redman's death with all the testimony contradicting the official account of what transpired, then they will share responsibility for further abuse and negligence at Nevada's Department of Corrections.

You know, it's funny how the guards had a different story from the inmates when Marcia Powell died, too - how 20 inmates heard her ask for water and get refused, while every single guard (except maybe two?) swore she had water. I believe the prisoners in both cases - they would be crazy to make something up that may involve perjury and would set them up for treatment of a similar nature to what Marcia and Tim got. Only a compelling reason - perhaps survival, since they are all subject to abuse as well - would have caused them to take that risk to speak up. Survival, and a demand for justice for those with no voice - other prisoners.

This story is being written by folks at Make the Walls Transparent, who are in direct contact with prisoners at Ely prison. It's also being followed on Nevada Prison Watch, who first tipped us off to what was happening.

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

Lies, Corruption, and Death in the Nevada Department of Corrections 

Posted By MTWT - Lucy On November 29, 2009 @ 12:08 pm

Newspapers within Nevada picked up the story about Timothy Redman’s death and, as we at MTWT and others, knew their “journalism” would be in the defense of the NDOC and would not be the truth in its entirety. The NDOC gives the public what they want us to hear, what they want us to think is the truth. The employees of the NDOC don’t want the public to know what goes on behind the walls of these prisons. The truth will never be heard unless a complete and total federal investigation into the death of Mr. Redman is done. Even then we have to wonder if the entire truth will be told. It is the nature of the NDOC to start a cover-up as soon as an incident happens.

Some of the local newspapers wrote short articles to satisfy the public because of what our site and other sites have published in aftermath of Mr. Redman’s death. People wanted to hear the “official” story. The “official” story has not been touched in the four articles that I have read. All we see in these articles are reporters, Sheriff Watts, and Suzanne Pardee giving the spin we knew would be published. 

Does anyone really think that the Warden, the administrative staff, or the guards are going to tell you, “Yes we sprayed Mr. Redman with 5 or 6 large cans of pepper spray in a locked cell that had no ventilation”. “Yes, he said to us that if we didn’t stop he was going to hang himself”. “Yes, with even knowing he was telling us this we continued to spray him with mace.” “Yes, we saw him hang himself and instead of trying to stop him, we sprayed him again”. No! They are going to tell you just what they want you to hear: Mr. Redman brandished a prison made “shank” and barricaded his door so no one could get in to stop him from hanging himself.

When the stories appeared in the Las Vegas Sun, The Reno Gazette Journal, Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada Appeal, and The Ely Times we weren’t at all shocked they said an investigation is pending but at the same time, only one paper mentioned the pepper spray used to start the wheels in motion that caused a man to die. We were also not shocked when they focused on the crime that Mr. Redman was convicted of instead of talking about and asking important questions that the public would like to know the answers to...

(finish at Make the Walls Transparent)

DOJ - Investigate Death of Timothy Redman

Here's the latest on Timothy Redman from Nevada's Ely state prison, as taken from the Nevada Prison Watch website (which is receiving updates from Make the Walls Transparent, linked below):
-------- 

2009/11/22

Update on Timothy Redman's violent death

Tim, early 2009 (courtesy of Tim's family)

Hereby more updates on Make the Walls Transparent, dated November 23rd 2009.

MTWT has received mail from inmates at ESP and their family members regarding the 11-18-09 death of Timothy Redman on unit 3-B.

One inmate tells us, “Investigator General Thompson was on the unit to “investigate” but he never once asked any inmate what they had seen in the hours and minutes leading to Mr. Redman’s death,” even though, clearly those inmates are the eye-witnesses, not E.K. McDaniel and Debra Brooks, who both came on the unit after the death and stood around laughing about it.

One inmate’s sister received a letter from her brother that said: “The cops let this guy hang himself and watched him do it and did nothing to help him but to keep gassing him after he was hanging.” Brooks was here at his door laughing at it and so was E.K. McDaniel. The cops even came from Ely. It was a big deal and no one wants to let anyone get to a phone to report what happened here yesterday”.

On The Ely Times, someone who calls himself Winsan, and who obviously works for the prison stated that officers “…tried to save this inmate’s life…by using any means available to subdue and incapacitate the inmate when trying to save his life and protect others.” No one disputes that Redman was locked in his cell. Who were the officers trying to protect? Certainly not Redman. And certainly not the other inmates all locked in their cells and breathing in the poison being sprayed.

Winsan’s claim that the guards used any means available to try to save Redman’s life rings hollow. All the reports from inmates tell a different story. In reality, officers were able to reach the inmate, but chose not to – or more realistically – were ordered not to, according to one officer who alleges that E.K. McDaniel ordered them not to enter the cell.

What possible reason can there be to use 5,6 or 7 hairspray-sized cans of chemical agent on a man locked in a tiny cell with no ventilation? How did Mr. Redman even have the strength to hang himself after being poisoned for hours on end? And an even more pressing question: Whose safety were these officers trying to protect by spraying chemical agent for hours on end?

This incident is hard to stomach, even for some of the the guards hardened by working at possibly the most abusive prison in the country. It is understandable that they want to believe this incident did not take place. It is understandable that citizens want to believe this also, especially considering that as citizens, we are taught to hold a special level of trust for law enforcement. It is unfortunate, but the sooner we face reality and get a federal investigation regarding this incident and many other incidents of great cruelty and abuse, even death, at Ely State Prison, the sooner we will be able to trust our public servants. Meanwhile, the lies and cover-ups at ESP continue unabated.

From Make the Walls Transparent: