A community resource for monitoring, navigating, surviving, and dismantling the prison industrial complex in Arizona.
Retiring Arizona Prison Watch...
This site was originally started in July 2009 as an independent endeavor to monitor conditions in Arizona's criminal justice system, as well as offer some critical analysis of the prison industrial complex from a prison abolitionist/anarchist's perspective. It was begun in the aftermath of the death of Marcia Powell, a 48 year old AZ state prisoner who was left in an outdoor cage in the desert sun for over four hours while on a 10-minute suicide watch. That was at ASPC-Perryville, in Goodyear, AZ, in May 2009.
Marcia, a seriously mentally ill woman with a meth habit sentenced to the minimum mandatory 27 months in prison for prostitution was already deemed by society as disposable. She was therefore easily ignored by numerous prison officers as she pleaded for water and relief from the sun for four hours. She was ultimately found collapsed in her own feces, with second degree burns on her body, her organs failing, and her body exceeding the 108 degrees the thermometer would record. 16 officers and staff were disciplined for her death, but no one was ever prosecuted for her homicide. Her story is here.
Marcia's death and this blog compelled me to work for the next 5 1/2 years to document and challenge the prison industrial complex in AZ, most specifically as manifested in the Arizona Department of Corrections. I corresponded with over 1,000 prisoners in that time, as well as many of their loved ones, offering all what resources I could find for fighting the AZ DOC themselves - most regarding their health or matters of personal safety.
I also began to work with the survivors of prison violence, as I often heard from the loved ones of the dead, and learned their stories. During that time I memorialized the Ghosts of Jan Brewer - state prisoners under her regime who were lost to neglect, suicide or violence - across the city's sidewalks in large chalk murals. Some of that art is here.
In November 2014 I left Phoenix abruptly to care for my family. By early 2015 I was no longer keeping up this blog site, save occasional posts about a young prisoner in solitary confinement in Arpaio's jail. I'm deeply grateful to the prisoners who educated, confided in, and encouraged me throughout the years I did this work. My life has been made all the more rich and meaningful by their engagement.
I've linked to some posts about advocating for state prisoner health and safety to the right, as well as other resources for families and friends.
When I started Arizona Prison Watch 5 years ago, one of my main reasons for doing so was my lack of confidence in the mainstream media's interest in publishing the truth about Power and their police in this state. I've always been highly critical of TV news, for good reason, I think. They mostly serve the interests of the power I fight, particularly police power, by being the primary medium by which the state exploits racism and xenophobia and oppression through outright propaganda.
Furthermore, the state leaks information about arrests and misrepresents "facts" they cant prove in court all the time to tip the scales of justice against the accused, and the media so often plays along. Once you're condemned there, a plea deal favorable to the prosecution is much easier to obtain - as are a conviction and severe sentence if the defendant dares go to trial. Never mind that "innocent until proven guilty" standard you learned in civics class - you're pretty much done in America's injustice system if the news gets a hold of you before the jury ever hears a word.
No, as far as I was concerned, despite an occasional exception, neither the liberal "alternative" press or conservative local media could be trusted to get to the bottom of what this state was doing to those of us it accused or held in custody any more than Joe Arpaio could be counted on to care who died on his watch. The only stories that would ever play here would be those who served the corporate media's own interests - or the state's.
After the death of AZ state prisoner Marcia Powell in 2009 I began blogging and trying to figure out how to get at the truth and put it out there myself, cursing the cowardice of journalists and news outlets in this state (except for the guy who followed her case more closely, Stephen Lemons at the PHX New Times, that is...). My favorite target of criticism for pandering to police and political power was the Arizona Republic - albeit a favorite target of the right, as well, for not being loyal enough to conservative mores. As far as I was concerned, they did the dirty work of the state whenever bidden to do so by publishing their press releases as if they were "truth", which was all I needed to know. The only people I could really trust were fellow bloggers, it seemed.
Since then, this blog has resulted in literally hundreds of letters and phone calls from prisoners and their families with information about abuses in the state prison system, as well as local jails and police departments. Unfortunately, no matter what I learned in my work with prisoners (and their survivors, in cases where they died in custody), I didn't have enough audience to ever impact a state policy or liberate someone wrongfully imprisoned, so I nevertheless often appealed to mainstream journalists to help those I couldn't. They seldom ever did. I really resented Arizona's media for awhile for whitewashing the DOC with silence on the state's real crimes, in fact. Big media, especially, was wholly knowingly complicit, as far as I was concerned. Then I noticed investigative journalist Wendy Halloran covering what was happening in the prisons, the courts and the larger world of crime and punishment that I'm now tuned into. She exposed the gross neglect of Tony Lester as he lay bleeding to death, unassisted in any way by the first responders of the AZ Department of Corrections. Her investigations into the DOC's, Wexford's, and Corizon's shoddy treatment of the sick and mentally ill has helped bring the problems of prisoner's health care to the forefront, such that there is now a class action suit alleging system-wide negligence and abuse. And she's gone after corruption, racism and shady cops in the Mesa, Phoenix, and Goodyear police departments fearlessly in the past few years. She sticks up for the underdog behind the scenes, too - she's not just out for her own glory, she's out for justice.
Because of their willingness to believe the unbelievable about the conduct of state agents, Wendy Halloran and the folks at 12news/KPNX have now helped bring about a criminal investigation into the conduct of the "crack" Phoenix arson squad, demanding justice for those wrongfully targeted by them. She and her station went out on a limb doing so, too. I even worry for Wendy's safety due to the heat she's brought down on powerful people in this state, so when you see her out and about in the Valley of the Sun, dear People, please watch this woman's back. After all, she's been watching ours...
Here's the latest in Wendy Halloran's coverage of the Phoenix Fire Department's Arson Squad, followed by links to the rest of her work on that case. Thank you, KPNX/ AZCentral and Gannett News, for supporting this kind of journalism, and Wendy Halloran for your courage and commitment to pursuing the truth.
DPS recommending criminal charges against two for acts of dishonesty during investigation.
Wendy Halloran, 12 News
11:05 p.m. MST July 25, 2014
"Three members of the Phoenix Fire Department's once highly touted arson
squad were put on leave Friday in the face of the release of a state
criminal investigation, according to a departmental news release
released to the media.
Capts. Sam Richardson and Fred
Andes and unit director Jack Ballentine were placed on paid
administrative leave a day after the Arizona Department of Public Safety
reported it had concluded a criminal investigation into the members'
alleged misconduct and improper investigative techniques.
A final, redacted review has not yet been released to fire officials.
The DPS review came at the request of the department after a series of 12 News reports into the squad.
What follows is an interview with a Corizon whistleblower/former employee, Teresa Short, and the results of extensive research by KPNX investigative journalist, Wendy Halloran. Wendy has even posted critical evidence for us from her research below. Teresa worked in the infirmary at ASPC-Tucson/Rincon, and was deeply troubled by much of what she saw while there. If you or a loved one of yours has been mistreated at ASPC-Tucson/Rincon in the past year, please get in touch with me. And to anyone out there who is or will be litigating Corizon: you need to send this article to your attorney. AZ DOC prisoners and their families owe both Teresa and Wendy a debt of gratitude for their willingness to risk retaliation by the powerful to bring the truth to light. Even our state's legislators are afraid to call DOC and Corizon out for what they've been up to. This experiment has not only been a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars that could be used to prevent crime and incarceration, but will be sucking resources out of the state budget long after Corizon has run away with its profits. At great cost to Arizonans - with the blessing of our Republican legislature and governor - Wexford and Corizon have perpetrated additional harm on the very people the DOC is supposed to be "rehabilitating", costing the lives and livelihoods of far too many individuals who do not deserve to be thrown away.
Rather than whitewashing things like this poor man bleeding out due to negligent care, DOC Director Ryan should be pounding down the Governor's door saying "THIS ISN'T WORKING!!!!", and begging the legislature to reverse their order to privatize state correctional health care. He owes them the truth - he owes that to all of us.
To all the rest of you at the DOC and Corizon who are trying to do the right thing by the patients you serve: thank you for all your acts of kindness and professionalism, but your silence still makes you complicit with the real bad guys. Please talk to SOMEONE about what you have seen and been ordered to do as well, if it goes against yours or your profession's ethics. Otherwise, they will most surely get away with this fraud, waste and abuse. You might want to start with contacting Wendy Halloran at KPNX. If anyone can put the info you may have to good use, it's her. Wendy Halloran, KPNX/12News 200 East Van Buren Phoenix, AZ 85004 602-444-1212
Arizona
taxpayers are footing a $10.2 million per month bill for healthcare a
12 News investigation has found leaves some patients untreated.
Arizona taxpayers pay $125 million a year to Corizon,
a company contracted to provide healthcare to Arizona's inmate
population. A 12 News investigation revealed there are questions about
whether the company is driving up its profits at the expense of
taxpayers.
What's more, billing records show the Department of
Corrections is spending millions more to defend itself from a 2012
class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and the Prison Law Office out of Berkeley, Calif.
That filing accuses the department of not providing adequate medical care, mental health care and dental care to prisoners.
The state hired Struck, Wieneke & Love PLC,
a private law firm in Chandler, to handle its defense. Legal billing
records show taxpayers have already paid the firm $2,988,910.68 as of
April, 2014.
In an interview, Dan Pochoda, the legal director for
the ACLU of Arizona, says the defense of the lawsuit was given to a
private firm too quickly. He questions why the Attorney General's Office
is not defending the case.
"The Attorney General's Office, they
have a section that does the defense for this specific agency, in this
case the prison systems, as they do for other agencies and presumptively
it should start off obviously with the AG," he said. "You know it's
going to be a significant expense once we go outside. These are
profit-making firms just like the health-care provider is a
profit-making provider. Their bottom line is making more money."
That's
nearly $3 million in public money to a private firm defending the
Department of Corrections against allegations its private healthcare
provider is doing an inadequate job.
Questions about inmate care
We
reviewed records from March through October 2013 and found at least
16,000 medical delays, ranging from not treating an HIV-positive
prisoner to inmates not getting antipsychotic medication.
Why should taxpayers care? Every day Corizon is on the job, we pay on average $339,000, whether it does its job or not.
Teresa
Short worked as a patient care technician for Corizon at the state
prison in Tucson. She resigned in March and has since had trouble
dealing with the death of an inmate she cared for.
That inmate was James Copeland. Copeland was serving time for failing to register as a sex offender.
Copeland
was diagnosed with dementia and kidney disease. He was a dialysis
patient housed in the medical unit where Short worked at the prison.
Copeland had a vascular catheter inserted in his chest, which is a port
for dialysis.
That device prompted Short to warn her colleagues on
several occasions after she caught Copeland disturbing its cap. Short
was nervous and believed due to his dementia he needed constant
supervision or he might compromise the catheter. She was very skeptical
about Corizon's decision to house Copeland there rather than in a
hospital.
A
Corizon nurse's progress notes on Copeland on November 19, 2013 reveal
signs of dementia. The nurse wrote that Copeland became agitated and
stated "he wants to go that way, pointing to the other end of the unit,"
and pulling on the lines attached to medical equipment such as his
vascular catheter and blood-pressure monitor.
On November 23, the nurse writes of Copeland's state, "confused and needs frequent directions and orientation."
Short says
Copeland would pull on oxygen lines during dialysis treatment, would
pull on his vascular catheter lines and would stand up all the time when
he was supposed to be sitting down receiving treatment.
Reports
show Short checked on Copeland at 4 a.m. on November 28, 2013. That was
Thanksgiving Day. He was hungry and asked for food.
The security
check log shows a corrections officer accounted for all inmates being
alive and well in that wing of the prison at 4:46 a.m.. Copeland
displayed no unusual behavior.
At 5:25 a.m., Short went to Copeland's cell to give him some food and discovered him lying on his bed in a pool of blood.
"When I walked into the room, I was stepping on blood clots that were the size of livers, I mean they were huge," said Short.
Copeland had done what Short predicted, ripping off the cap which covers the catheter opening.
Short says she could see blood on the walls and even Copeland's shoe print in blood near the door.
"I felt like I failed him," she said.
The Department of Corrections Inmate Death Notification
says medical responders performed life-saving techniques on Copeland.
Pictures taken by DOC's investigation team show patches from a heart
defibrillator on the inmate's chest.
The report shows an AED
(automated external defibrillator) was utilized, but did not recommend
shock. Medical staff determined not to perform CPR due to the fact that
Copeland had bled out and there was not a sufficient amount of blood
left to try to resuscitate.
According to
the DOC's criminal investigative report, Nurse Brenda Hinton and Nurse
Robin Sheppard pronounced Copeland deceased at 5:45 a.m. Nurse Hinton
was directed by the on-call doctor, a Dr. Barciaga, to call 911.
The
report states there was a disagreement among Hinton, Sheppard, and
Barciaga. The Tucson Fire Department, which has a station across the
highway from the prison, did not arrive on scene until 6:58 a.m. and
pronounced Copeland deceased.
The report does not detail what the
disagreement was about, but makes it sound like the two nurses were
arguing about whether to call 911 or disobey the instructions of the
on-call doctor.
On December 30, 2013 the Pima County medical
examiner listed the cause of death as exsanguination - fatal blood loss -
due to an uncapped vascular dialysis catheter. The manner of death was
ruled accidental.
In a statement to 12 News, DOC Director Charles
Ryan says, "All inmate deaths are investigated criminally and
administratively. This process involves a review conducted by Corizon, a
review by ADC, as well as an independent report by the county medical
examiner. This investigative process determined conclusively that the
death of inmate Copeland was accidental; a fact independently
corroborated by the Pima County medical examiner.
"At the time of
the incident, the unit was appropriately staffed and inmate Copeland's
welfare was documented on a regular basis. He was discovered
unresponsive by a certified medical technician who immediately alerted
an ADC correctional officer and the on-duty RN and LPN. Each of these
investigations determined that the death of inmate Copeland was
accidental and none raised any concerns about the medical protocols for
inmate Copeland either prior to or following his death."
According
to DOC monitor reports, prepared monthly by staff in the Department of
Corrections' Department Health Services Contract Monitoring Bureau, a
problem with infirmary staffing was identified on October 30. Just weeks
later, Copeland died at a time when staffing levels at the infirmary
were still inadequate, according to Short.
Related documents
• DOC monitor report - Tucson, see page 71 for staffing comments (PDF, 9.91 MB)
• DOC monitor reports - All prisons, April-October, 2013 (Zip, 319 MB)
"We're the ones who have to carry the burden
when something is preventable and we cannot prevent it because we don't
have enough people to supervise the ones that need supervision the
most," she said.
Teresa Short says she was compelled to blow the whistle. If not for Copeland, for the people footing the bill.
"The
taxpayers need to really see what's happening to people," she said. "I
think most people would be disgusted. They care about the bottom line,
they care about the dollar."
Copeland's death just the tip of the iceberg
According
to the Department of Correction's own monitors, Corizon failed to
deliver timely medical care at least 16,000 times during an eight-month
period in 2013.
In fact, some of the documentation shows the provider was not providing any healthcare. These cases include:
At the prison in Tucson, an HIV-positive inmate received no treatment.
Chemotherapy for two other inmates was delayed.
An inmate had to have a craniotomy after falling 33 times because he wasn't supervised in the infirmary.
At the Eyman facility, Corizon failed to reorder chronic-care medication for dozens of prisoners.
No timely treatment for an inmate with prostate cancer.
In Yuma, mentally ill prisoners had not been seen by doctors since December, 2012.
Psychotropic medications were not renewed.
At Perryville, the women's prison, long delays to see the doctor once prisoners were referred by nurses.
"They're
examples of what you see month after month after month," said Corene
Kendrick, an attorney for the Prison Law Office in Berkeley, Calif.
"If
I were a taxpayer, someone who feels very tough on crime, I would be
outraged by this because it's taxpayer money that's going into the
pockets of a corporation," she said.
Kendrick
is one of the attorneys behind the class-action lawsuit filed by the
ACLU and the Prison Law Office against the Arizona Department of
Corrections. The suit alleges inadequate medical, mental health, and
dental care.
Kendrick contends no effort is being made by the
Arizona Department of Corrections to hold Corizon accountable for the
violations when the evidence, she says, is overwhelming in the reports
being made by DOC's own monitors.
Which brings us to four inmates
who've been granted medical parole in the last six months by the Arizona
Board of Executive Clemency.
Name
Medical parole date
Dean Vocke
10/31/13
Glen Huggins
12/11/13
Nishma Kanabar
2/28/14
Margaret Van Wormer
4/18/14
Huggins and Kanabar have already died.
Dean
Vocke was given six months to a year to live. Before he was medically
paroled, Vocke had ten months left on his sentence for vehicle theft
when he complained about back pain in October, 2012.
Vocke gave 12
News permission to review his medical records for our reporting; we are
not publishing them due to the amount of personally identifying
information they contain.
His first appointment was cancelled
because no provider was available. X-rays taken at the end of February
showed bone abnormalities consistent with cancer. The nurse requested an
MRI.
"They wouldn't do an MRI, they kept denying an MRI, denying an MRI," Vocke said. "They didn't want to spend the money."
At
the end of May, 2013, medical staff ordered CT scans, but Corizon
denied it. Finally, at end of July, 2013 a CT scan was performed.
It confirmed Vocke had cancer which now had spread to his hips and his spine.
"And finally [the cancer] ate my pelvis and my hip away," said Vocke.
In September a second CT scan showed the cancer spread to his abdomen and one of his kidneys.
Medical records show there was an eight-month delay in treating Vocke, because of Corizon's actions.
"It
was kidney cancer that could have been 95 percent survivable and now
they're saying I can't survive it whatsoever," Vocke told us.
Vocke's physician sent a request to the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency for early release due to imminent death.
From that request, the clinical summary and prognosis read:
"Inmate
Vocke has been diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma with metastasis to
the bone. He underwent a right nephrectomy and will start chemotherapy
in a few weeks. This is a very aggressive form of cancer and his
oncologist and onsite Medical Director for ASPC-Tucson have both
recommended clemency. Since inmate Vocke is wheelchair bound and in the
advanced stage of the disease, he is not considered a threat to society.
"Because
of the aggressive and advanced nature of his cancer, he is not expected
to survive this illness. The oncologist has indicated that for this
type of cancer, about 50% of patients may survive up to six (6) months
while about 35% may live up to one year."
The physician indicated Vocke has a life expectancy of six months or less.
On
October 31, 2013 the Board of Executive Clemency commuted Vocke's
sentence. He was granted medical parole, so he can die surrounded by
family. His wife Laurie says it's torn them apart.
We tried to seek comment from Corizon on the many issues outlined in our reporting.
Susan
Morgenstern, a spokeswoman for Corizon asked us to supply her with the
documentation we obtained under Arizona's Public Records Law. We
requested the quarterly and monthly monitoring memos and reports
referred to above, known as MGAR (short for Monitoring-Green-Amber-Red)
reports.
In response to our questions, Corizon provided these answers via email:
Mr.
Copeland. You asked about the investigation into the tragic death of
Mr. Copeland. As I believe you know, it has been investigated and
officially determined to be an accident. It's been thoroughly reviewed
by several agencies; and the care provided and protocols followed were
all appropriate.
As you know, HIPPA [sic] prevent health care
providers such as Corizon from providing any medical details about
specific individuals to you or anyone else. But I can assure you that we
are always willing to review individual care plans to be sure
appropriate care is provided.
As for your very general
allegations, we would be happy to check into them and provide
information if you could give us enough detail to do so. You referenced
delays in care and prescriptions; can you give us the specific instances
you are talking about (date/time/location/documentation)?
You've
also talked about four unnamed inmates who were medically paroled and
alleged they did not receive proper care. If you will give us the names
of these individuals, we will review their medical records to ensure
they received proper care.
Finally, you've alleged there are
staffing shortages, but that is simply not accurate. When the transition
to Corizon occurred in March 2013, we immediately assessed the staffing
and began an aggressive recruiting and training program. Today all
current staff levels exceed the contract requirements.
We
believe that Corizon is providing quality care to the patients we treat
every day, and we stand behind our medical professionals who work inside
the correctional facilities.
Corizon responded with a second statement after we provided more specific information.
Teresa Short: A former Corizon employee alleges lack of care, staffing shortages, and that she was "set up to fail."
Corizon
is first and foremost a health care provider, whose top priority is the
health and safety of patients. To that end, we practice evidence-based
medicine as prescribed by licensed medical professionals and focus on
providing quality health care.
The vast majority of our current
staff levels exceed the contract requirements. For example, since the
time of the MGARs provided you, the staffing for mental health care at
the Yuma facility has increased substantially.
We not only
empower our employees to succeed in fulfilling our mission, we also
require them to meet the highest standards of conduct and
professionalism.
MGAR Reports: Various allegations
As
you know, MGAR reports are monitoring tools meant to raise issues that
are then addressed and resolved. By design, they capture issues
requiring attention at a specific moment in time, some of which are
immediately resolved. The MGARs provided you are now 8-9 months old.
In
addition, Corizon is prohibited by HIPAA from discussing individual
patient cases, just as any other health care provider or hospital is
restricted.
But it's important to note that Corizon care follows
the guidelines of the NCCHC and the ACA, which are the correctional
industry standard.
Complaints from patients who were medically paroled
Again, HIPAA prevents Corizon from discussing details of individual patient care.
As
a health care provider focused on quality, we stand behind our
dedicated medical professionals and the treatment plans they provide to
patients.
The process for inmate compassionate discharge is
initiated by the inmate or the family and is considered by the Board of
Executive Clemency, not Corizon nor the ADC.
Expired Licenses
Our staff has all necessary and appropriate licenses, so this allegation is simply not true.
The following flyer was made with the consent of my friend, C, who was brave enough to out himself on the line for the cause, more than most anyone else would ever do..
(JUNE 7, 2013 UPDATE: "C" was re-classed back down to a 4/4 and moved to a level 4 GP yard, apparently as of 5/20/13. For his safety, in light of that, I'm removing identifying infomration about him. His request for protective custody has clearly once again been denied. I think he was probbly happier -or at least felt safer - in the Supermax than where he is now, which is an especially scary place. Think good things for my friend, people. I think he's being set up to be hurt for being so outspoken...)
So, here's the battle plan (for now):
First, check out this video of a leading AZ legislator calling
for an inquiry into the running of the AZ Department of Corrections.
Now is the time for us to organize and show our strength, and hit the
legislature hard with support for them to follow up. Contact KPNX, please, after you watch Tony Lester die, and thank them for covering it. Thank Wendy Halloran in particular for being so persistent and giving Tony's family a voice and a glimmer of justice -she got an Emmy for the series on Tony's death. Please Email those remarks to connect@ad.gannett.com. We need them to do in-depth investigations into the larger issue of violence and despair and mismanagement in AZ prisons. That's how we get them to do so. Then let's go after our state legs...
1. Click here or on
the flier above for good talking points on why we DON'T need 500 more
Supermax beds in AZ. If we're going to invest some $25,000 per year in
housing people who really need psychiatric care and basic support, let's
give them housing and services in the community, not warehouse them in
prisons where they are simply being neglected and repeatedly victimized.
Furthermore, the DOC is being sued in a class action, Parsons v Ryan,
for putting too many mentally ill people inappropriately into the
current Supermax prison, ASPC-Eyman, and NOT providing them with the
psychiatric care they need.
2. Please go find your AZ state legislator
(and the one in the district your loved one's prison is in), and email
your objections to the 50 million dollars being spent to build a
Supermax yard at Lewis. Tell them our communities need that money more
to treat mental illness and drug addiction and keep more people from
being inappropriately criminalized. Be sure to put the AZ House Minority
and Majority Leaders (Chad Campbell and David Gowan) in your email to your own legislator.
Make
it clear you expect them all to work together to open hearings into the
running of the DOC under Charles Ryan - from the doubling of the
homicide and suicide rates to the decision to increase incarceration
instead of supporting sentencing reforms as a way of coping with
over-crowding, his leadership has been bad for Arizona. Evidence-based practice (use that term) in corrections isn't a partisan issue - the DOC has a responsibility to return their prisoners to the community in batter shape than they got them in, otherwise they set them up to re-offend. That means the Director needs to be current in his profession - Charles Ryan is a relic of an abusive past at the DOC. If you are a former prisoner or a family member, ask to be
involved and informed of hearings so you can offer testimony, if you have some to
give. That tells them you expect them to follow through with this.
Please send me (Peggy Plews at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com) a cc of your email to your legislator, and
their response, if you get one, with permission to publish it - you and
your loved ones can remain anonymous, if you wish. We need to put
prisoners' families narratives on the internet for others to find - and
if your letters are disseminated widely, the recipients kind of have to
respond, since they have more than you in their audience.
Most readers will remember the story of Tony Lester, a 26-year old seriously mentally ill Native American AZ state prisoner who cut his throat in Tucson prison in July 2009. He bled out over the course of at least ten minutes as five AZ Department of Corrections officers stood around and watched without making the slightest effort to render first aid. The family filed a massive lawsuit against the AZ DOC for their failure to act (and for giving Tony the razor in the first place), but the critical part that was lodged against those five officers was dismissed last month. Once I have a copy of Judge Talamante's ruling on that, I'll be writing my own response to him. Thanks to the work of Wendy Halloran and Channel 12 News at KNPX, those officers actions are at least visible for the rest of the community to see now. The names of the brave and noble AZ Department of Corrections officers watching Tony die are: Orlando Pope, Humberto Hernandez, Rene Barcelo, Dale Brown, and Danielle Pedroso. The judge apparently agreed with experts who said that since these officers couldn't have saved Tony's life if they tried, it's alright that they didn't even bother.
I wonder if five police officers did nothing at an accident scene but film the dying victims, for example, if that kind of abdication of a first-responder's duty to care would have been okay with this judge as well. That's not equal protection under the law if it's acceptable for officers to withhold first aid from a dying prisoner just because they're too freaked out to render it, but it's not alright for a first responder in the community to do so. These peace officers should all lose their AZ POST certification
for their gross neglect of duty - they shouldn't even be allowed to be
security guards for McDonald's: children would end up choking to death
while these idiots record it for Youtube. Please, after viewing this report, reach out to KPNX at connect@ad.gannett.com and thank them for caring enough about mentally ill prisoners to air it. We want them to cover such human rights violations in the prisons more in the future.
Here are the Arizona Department of Corrections' finest at work...
What follows is the argument that the lawyers made defending the inaction of these officers to Channel 12 News before the above video was released - presumably this was what they pitchedto Judge David Talamante, who fell for it and threw the case out.
I wonder if the good Dr. Harvey W.
Meislin, the Director of the Arizona
Emergency Medicine Research Center at the University of Arizona
Health Sciences Center, would have also argued that since Tony was already so far gone, it was even pointless for the emergency personnel to try to help him, and that they should have also shown Tony their indifference as he lay dying....I think not. I suspect
his slant on this was just swayed by the sweet check he'd get for his expert testimony,
and his own faulty presumption that prisoners are not entitled to the
same standard of medical care that the rest of us are. That's certainly not someone I want in charge of teaching our next generation either the science or the ethics of emergency medical care - for which he receives my tax dollars....
-------------------- From:
David Cantelme [mailto:David@cantelaw.com]
Sent:
Friday, February 22, 2013 9:18 AM
To:
Halloran, Wendy
Subject:
Inmate Anthony Lester and Arizona Department of Corrections
Dear
Wendy,
I
understand that you are doing a follow-up on Inmate Anthony Lester
and the response of the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) after
Inmate Lester’s cellmate notified ADC officers that he was
bleeding. As you know, my law firm represents the State of Arizona
and ADC in the lawsuit brought by Inmate Lester's mother. I am
available for comment, as is Aaron Brown, my law partner. In case we
do not connect, here are some points that should be conveyed to the
public to make sure it has all the facts:
Plaintiffs
could not produce any evidence indicating that the actions of the ADC
Officers in responding to Inmate Anthony Lester’s injuries in any
way fell below their standard of care or that they in any way caused
or contributed to Inmate Lester’s death. Accordingly, Superior
Judge David Talamante granted judgment for the State of Arizona on
the claim that ADC Officers failed to render proper aid to Inmate
lester.
Sometime
before 7:35 p.m. on the evening of July 11, 2010, Inmate Lester’s
right carotid artery and right internal and external jugular vein
were completely severed while he was in his cell. These wounds would
have caused immediate significant blood loss. As Dr. Terrence
O’Keefe, the emergency treating surgeon, indicated during his
deposition, the blood exiting the neck wounds would have initially
been visibly pulsating (arterial wound) and briskly flowing (jugular
wound) out of the wound. There is no evidence indicating that any of
the first responders observed Mr. Lester actively bleeding from his
neck wounds.
Moreover,
the treating paramedics placed a gauze bandage over Mr. Lester’s
neck wound and the bandage did not immediately saturate with blood.
The video recording of Mr. Lester shows at its first footage that he
was unconscious and in profound hypovolemic shock, which would have
resulted from severe blood loss. Additionally, Mr. Lester’s left
arm was in a decorticate posture, which is indicative of possible
brain damage.
All
this indicates that, before the ADC Officers arrived at the scene,
Inmate Lester’s body had lost too much of his blood supply to allow
him to survive. At that point, there was little anyone could do to
save his life. While en route to UMC, Mr. Lester went into cardiac
arrest because of hypovolemic shock.
The
ADC Officers that responded to the emergency involving Mr. Lester
immediately summoned Tucson Fire paramedics, which were located
directly across the street from the prison grounds, and, by all
accounts, appear to have done everything possible to assist in
transporting Mr. Lester to UMC so that he could receive advanced
medical care. Once Mr. Lester arrived at UMC, physicians performed an
emergency ED thoracotomy followed by open cardiac massage. He was
placed on rapid transfusion protocol and received multiple units of
blood products, all to no avail. Mr. Lester was then transferred to
the operating room for operative intervention for the thoracotomy and
the neck wound. Mr. Lester’s neck wounds, including his internal
right carotid artery and jugular vein were ligated. However, Mr.
Lester was highly coagulopathic and continued to bleed from his
wounds. Despite the heroic efforts of the trauma team at UMC, Mr.
Lester's life could not be saved.
The
response made by the ADC Officers was reviewed by Dr. Harvey W.
Meislin, who is board certified in Emergency Medicine, is a Professor
with tenure in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University
of Arizona, College of Medicine, and is the Director of the Arizona
Emergency Medicine Research Center at the University of Arizona
Health Sciences Center.
Had
Judge Talamante not thrown out this claim, we would have called Dr.
Meislin to the stand and he would have testified that ADC employees
responded reasonably and appropriately to the emergency on July 11,
2010, and met the applicable standard of care in providing first aid
by doing everything reasonably possible to summon paramedics so that
Mr. Lester could be immediately transported to definitive care at
UMC. Mr. Lester’s survivability was dependent upon transportation
and arrival to the trauma center where definitive management of his
wounds could and would take place. Dr. Meislin would have testified
that under the specific circumstances of this case, application of
pressure to Mr. Lester’s neck wounds was not called for and would
not have served any useful purpose. Dr. Meislin was also of the
opinion that no act or alleged omission by ADC employees in
responding to Mr. Lester’s emergency caused or contributed to his
death. Thank you for your attention to these facts.
David
J. Cantelme
Cantelme
& Brown, P.L.C.
A
Professional Liability Corporation
3003
N. Central Avenue, Suite 600
*Please
note our new address*
Phoenix,
Arizona 85012
djc@cb-attorneys.com
Telephone:(602)
200-0125
-------------------------------------
Finally, the links below will take you to the full report on Tony's death - follow them and please thank Wendy and KPNX for caring enough to bring this to light...
How We Did It By Wendy Halloran 12 News | azcentral.com
Fri Feb 22, 2013 11:59 PM
12 News investigative reporter Wendy Halloran has been asking
questions for more than two years about what happened to Tony Lester.
Halloran’s public records’ requests to the Arizona Department of
Corrections began in the fall of 2010, just months after Lester died. In
June 2011, she requested a copy of a video that captured how
corrections officers responded when they found Lester bleeding in his
cell. ADOC denied the request, citing the privacy interests of Lester’s
surviving family members, who had filed a wrongful death lawsuit
alleging officers stood by and and did not render first aid.
In July 2012, Halloran renewed her request for the video. It was again denied.
In September, Halloran tried again with the permission of Tony
Lester’s family. ADOC denied her request a third time. Later that month,
Halloran was allowed to watch the video at the law firm representing
the state. She then requested the first 12 minutes of the video that
showed how the officers responded. She was again denied.
12 News filed a special action in Superior Court in October asking
that a judge review the matter. The following month, ADOC was ordered to
produce the video to the station. The judge found ADOC wrongfully
denied Halloran’s public records request, and the department agreed to
pay more than $26,000 in attorneys’ fees to the station.
Watch Wendy Halloran’s previous reports on Tony Lester:
Most readers familiar with the crisis of violence and despair in Arizona's state prisons in recent years are aware of the story of Tony Lester. If you aren't please watch Wendy Halloran's emmy-winning investigation at the top of this page on KPNX/Channel 12 News / PHX. They have a follow up episode coming up tonight, February 22, at 10pm...
Tony was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2010 for hurting two ex-girlfriends who tried to prevent him from cutting his own throat when suicidal and psychotic on his 23rd birthday. He had been struggling increasingly with symptoms of mental illness, which went untreated until the crisis that sent him to jail instead of a psychiatric hospital. There they found him to be so severely mentally ill that it took over a year to restore him sufficiently to sanity to prosecute him as if he'd been sane all along. Then it took another nine months for him to recover from the trial enough to be sentenced.
This state is exceptionally cruel. Once sent off to prison, despite recommendations from the judge that he be placed in a special mental health treatment setting, Tony's illness still wasn't treated properly. He was left to suffer in prison without his anti-psychotic medications while his paranoia mounted. He was placed on a general population yard where he was soon confronted by the Warrior Society, a prison gang which informed him he wouldn't be allowed to live safely on the yard, in part, due to being a known bi-sexual. Tony's assault convictions had been tagged as domestic violence, which was another big strike against him...
Violating each other in our honor is not how to reduce violence against women, by the way, gentlemen. It diminishes us all. Not surprisingly, facing 12 years like this, the next opportunity Tony had to cut his own throat - when handed a razor by DOC staff - he was sure to do the job right. He was no doubt fearful that what the other prisoners had in mind for him was far more traumatic than any death he could bring on himself.
When Tony was discovered by AZ DOC staff, they just stood by and watched him die...
Tonight Wendy Halloran will be following up on this story with some of the footage of the last minutes of Tony's life, while five corrections' officers stood around and watched him bleed out. Please watch KPNX Channel 12 PHX Friday Feb 22 at 10pm, then send your comments to connect@ad.gannett.com.
Let Channel 12 know we need to see more of what's happening behind prison walls, because what happened to Tony isn't the exception - this kind of deliberate indifference to - rather, outright contempt for human life is all too common at the AZ DOC.The suicide and homicide rates in state prisons doubled once Chuck Ryan took over, and haven't abated yet. Something is seriously wrong in there.
Ask them to look into the other deaths in custody, the practicality of a new supermax prison, the problems with privatizing the health care services for prisoners, and so on. Le tthem know there's an audienc eout here or that stuff, or the tone they'll hear from the community when they cover a prisoner's suicide will be left at "good riddance - give them all rope!". Let's not let those kinds of people dominate the dialogue on life and death for the most vulnerable in prison. Please watch the show AND give feedback.
American Indians make up 4.6% of Arizona's residents, according to 2010 census figures. 5.0% of Arizona's prison population is Native American. The highest concentrations of them are at Perryville women's prison in Goodyear (7.6% of women are native American). There the highest concentration of indigenous women is being kept in the Lumley maximum security Special Management Unit - they constitute 14.3% of prisoners under lock down in that unit.
Indigenous men are most heavily concentrated in the supermax complex, ASPC-Eyman, in Florence (6.4% of that population is Native American). In SMUI, where many of the seriously mentally ill are confined and neglected, often in solitary cells, they make up 9.7% of those locked down.
One has to wonder if we aren't just trying to break the resistant and deviant ones, which is part of the genocidal pattern.
The author of the article below is the uncle of Alfonso Farmer, who recently committed suicide in prison as well. Our condolences to him and all of Alfonso's loved ones...
As a Lakota, I was taught to respect life and death. Living on the
reservation, death is all too common. From young to old, we have all
felt the pain of losing loved ones before their time. Death on our
reservations in one way or another touches each and every one of us,
even if we live elsewhere. The death of a young Indian man also tells
me, we mustn’t forget Tribal members who are out of sight out of mind in
shockingly high proportions in the criminal justice system and that
their deaths touches us, too.
When I was contacted in reference to a young Indian man, Antony
“Tony” Lester, 26 years of age, who lost his life by suicide while in
prison in Arizona, it brought back memories of my 23-year-old nephew,
Alfonzo Lee Farmer, who also lost his life by suicide in an Arizona
prison and whose funeral I attended just last month.
According to the 2010 Census, there are 5.2 million Native American Indians,
and we make up 0.9 percent of the total population. In many states, we
are incarcerated in great disproportion to our population numbers. In my
state, South Dakota, we make up we are 8.8 percent of the population
and yet we make up 23 percent and 35 percent respectively of all inmates
and 50% of female prisoners are Native American Indians. In Wyoming, we
are 2.4 percent of the population and we make up 7 percent of
prisoners. In Montana, we are 6.3 percent of the population and we are
18.8 percent of men and 29.6 percent of women in prison. According to
the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Native children make up 50 percent of youngsters in the federal prison system.
Let’s place these percentages in prospective and make one of these
numbers a real person. Antony “Tony” Lester was an only child. His
father was an enrolled member of the Salt River/Pima Reservation who did
not have contact with him and his mother. His mother Eleanor is a
Sioux/Assiniboine from Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tony’s
mother devoted her life to Tony, raising him as a single mom and always
providing the best. He graduated from Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Catholic School in Scottsdale, Arizona, and then later attended Brophy
College Preparatory in Phoenix.
Tony was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was in high school,
struggled with his condition, and was a self-harming as a teenager. He
told his family that the voices were “getting worse.” Tony was loved and
cared for by his family throughout his illness and it was this illness
that gave the state of Arizona a reason to send him to prison.
Tony Lester never had any prior convictions and yet he never stood a
chance. In 2010, he was sentenced to 12 years in state prison on assault
charges stemming from a suicide attempt during a psychotic episode the
previous year. Two of his very close friends who tried to stop him from
cutting his throat got hurt while grabbing the knife.
Tony was mentally ill and the state of Arizona knew this. Instead of
being admitted to a psychiatric hospital, Tony was put in jail. Nine
months of medication restored him to sufficient competency to be deemed
fit for trial. He was found guilty by a jury. During this time, it was
discovered that Tony was struggling with seven voices telling him to
kill himself or he would not go to heaven and that his family would be
harmed. Worse yet, says his family, the voices were not just talking to
him but to each other, and he felt he could no longer control them.
The judge and court-appointed psychiatrist advised that Tony should
be housed in a facility where he would receive the necessary mental
health treatment. Yet this was ignored, and he was sent to the Arizona
State Prison in Tucson.
Tony was placed with the general prison population; he went off his
medication and was sent to a unit for behavioral problems. He was on and
off suicide watch. The family recalls vividly that at 11:45 pm on July
11, 2010, they received a phone call informing them that Tony had been
taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A few hours
later, at 3:15 am, they received a call saying Tony had died from
injuries he had sustained. They learned he had cut his wrists, jugular
vein and groin with a razor he was mistakenly provided in a prisoner
hygiene pack.
The Lester family battled the state of Arizona for almost two years
to gain access to footage filmed by one of the guards, Umberto
Hernandez, on the day Tony died. The video shows that the guards did not
at any time provide medical assistance. The video is very graphic and
watching it, my prayers go out to Tony’s family. A year-long inquiry by
Wendy Halloran, investigative reporter with KPNX (Channel 12 Watchdog
News), in Phoenix, uncovered much shocking information surrounding the
passing of this young man. Click here for the story.
Tony’s aunt, Patti Jones, along with his family throughout Indian
country, are now his voice. His family is asking for your help in
exposing the inhumanities Tony suffered. They ask you to view Ms.
Halloran’s investigative report and post comments to
connect@ad.gannett.com and to Brian Williams at nightly@nbc.com. You may
also contact Ms. Jones at tonysvoice26@gmail.com.
This story is far from over, looking at the statistics listed above
many more Native prisoners must have met this fate as well. The
statistics show extreme disproportionality from the beginning of the
contact with the justice system, more apprehensions, more arrests, more
adjudication’s, more convictions, harsher sentencing, deficiencies in
legal advice. Getting involved in helping the Lester family is the first
step in learning what we need to do in order to help all of our people.
I leave you with a comment placed on msn.com by a person who
self-identified anonymously as one of the jurors: “We could see that he
was ill, and we thought that he would get probation and get the help he
needed.”
Oliver J. Semans is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
From KPNX, Channel 12 - Wendy Halloran kicks the AZ Department of Corrections' butt over the scathing Amnesty International report on solitary in AZ prisons that I blogged on earlier. Pay particular attention to the story of Mark Tucker...
Most folks who have been reading here any amount of time know about the highly preventable suicide of young Tony Lester, whose tragic story has been revealed in several parts since he died in July 2010 at ASPC-Tucson of self-inflicted wounds to his neck. For those needing to catch up, I've compiled links below to the previous posts I've made about Tony.
Below
is the third part of the CH12 / KPNX investigative series: "Watching
Tony Die". Wendy Halloran has done an outstanding job challenging the
Department of Corrections' treatment of prisoners with serious mental
illness, and even dug deeper to look at the sentencing reforms needed to
spare people like him inappropriate terms of
incarceration...unfortunately, our legislature has pretty much
obliterated chances for that again this year, however.
Those folks with loved ones in prison need to watch this clip and please email connect@ad.gannett.com to register your feedback. Especially with the current conditions in
the state prisons, it's important for the media to know that these lives
matter.
Because of their willingness to believe the unbelievable about the conduct of state agents, Wendy Halloran and the folks at 12news/KPNX have now helped bring about a criminal investigation into the conduct of the "crack" Phoenix arson squad, demanding justice for those wrongfully targeted by them. She and her station went out on a limb doing so, too. I even worry for Wendy's safety due to the heat she's brought down on powerful people in this state, so when you see her out and about in the Valley of the Sun, dear People, please watch this woman's back. After all, she's been watching ours...
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