http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20000929/t000092556.html
Friday, September 29, 2000
Imprisonment Should Not Be Revenge
By B. CAYENNE BIRD
We're all responsible for ignoring the inhumane conditions that amount to nothing less than torture in California's prisons.
Our group of 4,600 doctors, nurses, teachers, college professors and social workers receives hundreds of pleas weekly from the families of inmates asking for help. Here are three:
* James Diesso, a mentally ill inmate in the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, was put in a double cell with another mentally ill person. Both inmates had violent histories of acting out their mental illnesses. Now, Jeffrey Ford, Diesso's cellmate, is dead. Diesso is on trial for murder. Who takes the responsibility for careless double-celling practices when there are 18,500 mentally ill people housed with others throughout the system?
* Charles Wesley, an inmate serving time at Chino for auto theft, now has permanent nerve damage because of medical neglect. He asked officials and staff of the prison's medical clinic for help 61 times and was denied it until it was too late. Seven months later, he had back surgery, which found seriously herniated discs. He was made to work for less than 20 cents an hour while suffering excruciating pain. Wesley will be released from prison soon, permanently disabled.
* James Rookwood, a 33-year-old inmate serving an 11-month sentence for parole violation, is now sitting in a 5-by-7-foot cell in Vacaville in a wheelchair. He suffered a stroke, which has paralyzed 80% of his right side. He was denied access to a doctor or physical therapy and will be released from prison permanently disabled and much sicker, mentally and physically, than before he went in.
Reports of medical neglect, rape, murder, psychological torture and intimidation by guards comparable to that in a Third World country are well-documented in our files. If the inmates speak to the press, there is retribution in the form of lost visits or worse.
The Department of Health Services has asked for money to handle the constant conveyor belt of thousands of inmates being sent to prison by the courts. Gov. Gray Davis has refused. Instead, millions of taxpayer dollars are paid out in medical lawsuits. Where's the "correction" part of Corrections?
Cells were built for one person, yet the inmates are jammed together because of overcrowding. To get a taste of living in a cell, go into your 8-by-10-foot bathroom for a month. Take a mentally ill person with you. Some prisons have been on lockdown, in which inmates are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day, for a year or more.
It puts great stress on inmates when their "cellies" are mentally ill, so great that they must sleep with one eye open and be afraid for their lives at all times. There is little if any education, rehabilitation or counseling.
At Mule Creek, the so-called model prison in Ione, prisoners in the dormitory live under a heavy cloud of second-hand smoke. And treatment for cancer is virtually nonexistent for prisoners, except for a brand-new oncology arrangement just beginning at Vacaville. The wait for medical care is six weeks at most state prisons. If an inmate is allowed to see a dentist, there is an eight-month wait.
Is this inhumane treatment of prisoners really lowering crime? If statistics were to be believed, there's more evidence to support alternatives such as rehabilitation, community service and after-school supervision of youth.
Somebody needs to sit down and think this crime thing through because the current system is causing more crime than it is preventing. The right thing to do is to release nonviolent prisoners--70% of California's total prison population; institute alternative sentencing for the mentally ill and drug addicts; and send dying prisoners home on compassionate release. Otherwise, all we get is revenge against wrongdoers that results in them going home to their communities sicker.
B. Cayenne Bird Is a Sacramento Journalist and Volunteer Director of United for no Injustice, Oppression or Neglect. Web Site: Http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/home.html
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U.N.I.O.N. MEMBERS PUBLISHED ARTICLES ON MISTREATMENT OF THE MENTALLY ILL FOCUSING ON JAMES DIESSO CASE
Published Sunday Forum Section of the Vacaville Reporter, April 2, 2000 main hed: System gone awry
subhed: Vacaville inmate cannot get a fair trial
By B. Cayenne Bird
How it is possible that a recent commentator, who responded to the mother of a Vacaville prison inmate, could be so well informed about all the facts of the James Diesso case?
Could the writer be one of the prison guards or administrators who purposefully double-celled together two known mentally ill, violent prisoners in the psychiatric segregration unit?
Since the writer is preaching a holier-than-thou sermon to James Diesso's mother, with her mind already made up before a trial even begins, it makes me wonder who really penned that editorial essay.
The case for Mr. Diesso's long history of mental illness is very well-documented since he was age 14. Double-celling him and another inmate was a reckless, irresponsible act, and prison officials should not be enabled to commit more of these murderous decisions without being held accountable.
There are two documents in the hands of the top criminal justice reporters in the state that prove the inmate whom James Diesso killed had several fights with prison guards just before he was killed. They know that few people care when one inmate kills another.
When unmedicated, inmate Diesso has blackouts. Anyone could have blamed this on him, and who would know or care, except his family?
Judge Harry Kinnicut has already shown prejudice toward the defendant by calling him an animal in court, having him chained to a wheelchair with a mask placed over his head. But the judge claims he is sane. Oh yes, this man swallows razor blades and beats up his reading glasses and swallows them too, but he's sane? The judge chose to ignore all the documentation, all the detailed medical records and will put him on trial as a sane person.
What was James Diesso doing in the psychiatric unit at Vacaville prison in the first place if he were sane? Where is justice?
This inmate was dispatched out of Vacaville Medical Facility because the abuse of the mentally ill there was exposed in the media. Now he is in Folsom Prison, which is not a hospital.
Prisons aren't hospitals, and prison guards aren't nurses. The mentally ill are innocent; there is a certain way to handle them, and not with retribution, which makes them even sicker. A bloodthirsty approach to handling crime has never worked, is never going to work.
The system is so corrupt it is advisable not to believe anything you didn't personally witness. Our organization does not believe James Diesso will get a fair trial in the court of Harry Kinnicutt, who rated among the lowest in a recent survey of judges conducted among attorneys by The Reporter.
The Vacaville prison is being sued over this case by the family of the dead inmate, and we support that lawsuit. It is clear where the blame really lies, and those in the prison administration are the ones who should be on trial here.
The author is director of United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect, a prisoner rights organization. The address is P.O. Box 22765, Sacramento, 95822-0765.
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/2398/home.html
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The author is a representative of UNION, United for No Injustice,
Oppression or Neglect, a Bakersfield-based statewide organization promoting prisoner rights.
When Jimmy Diesso's devastated mother came to our prison rights group,
United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect, asking us to review his
case in January, her son had been held in 11-point restraints for nine days. Restraints violate international law, and the most usually used are five-point devices.
What is the California Department of Corrections achieving by pinning a mentally ill person down so that he cannot move for days at a time?
A Vacaville prison associate warden readily admitted that Mr. Diesso was in these restraints when I telephoned him and demanded he be released from them. He not only admitted this practice to me, but to several other UNION members laying the blame for the cold room and restraint tortures on a Vacaville prison doctor.
The associate warden said, `I've been doing this for 25 years and no one ever complained.''
When James Diesso came to Vacaville's California Medical Facility in 1994-95, his doctor explained that he suffers from a form of brain epilepsy, a serious neurological condition he has had since childhood.
Without medication, he loses control, blacks out, and does not remember what transpires. He also has Hepatitis C and is seriously physically ill.
We have obtained not one, but two, prison documents that reveal an inmate Mr. Diesso is accused of murdering had fought twice with the guards within a few months of being placed in Mr. Diesso's cell. The guards know that few people care when one inmate kills another. We believe it was no accident that Mr. Ford was housed in the cell with someone who has a long history of mental illness and is known to be violent when not medicated.
The symbol drawn in blood on the cell wall was not a pentagram, it was a Wiccan symbol. Wicca is not devil worship, as astute Religious teachers will tell you. Guards who would put an inmate into a dangerous situation like the one in which they placed both Mr. Ford and Mr. Diesso are capable of anything. They should not be trusted. Wicca is Mr. Diesso's religion, as far as he can understand the concept.
The prison has blocked Mr. Diesso from his mother, tortured him by placing him in cold rooms and in restraints, as well as other forms of abuse, for days on end. In spite of his long history of mental illness, which is extremely well documented over the years, the prison called his mother last week and told her, ``Mr. Diesso isn't mentally ill; he's more of a deliberate behavior problem.''
Mr. Diesso beat up and swallowed his reading glasses in one suicide
Mr. Diesso has a mother who knows he isn't safe inside the Vacaville prison. They treat the mentally ill with retribution. The mentally ill are innocent. If Mr. Diesso had been given his medication and not forced into a double celling with another inmate (who was also documented to be violent), this crisis wouldn't exist.
There are too many people in prison who should be in a real hospital, undergoing treatment by compassionate people. Prisons are not hospitals, and prison guards are not nurses.
It isn't fair to imply that the tattoos represent any sort of a gang affiliation. Mr. Diesso hates those tattoos and doesn't know how he got them in the first place. Getting unwanted tattoos is just one of the way mentally ill inmates are exploited by other inmates.
In prison, the mentally ill are victimized by rape, by guards and inmates who steal their property. They are beaten and left for days at a time in restraints and in cold rooms. Last year, California executed a mentally ill person. How does this benefit anyone? The real criminals are the ones who would treat the mentally ill in such a manner.
UNION, which comprises citizens of California, wants the cold room and restraint tortures stopped at Vacaville and all California prisons statewide. If cold rooms aren't meant as torture why are they freezing cold. It is so inhumane to punish someone for being mentally ill, especially when the outburst are the fault of prison mismanagement,
We want Mr. Diesso sent to Reno to a hospital so that his mother can supervise his medication. The medical association ought to hold all prison doctors just as accountable as they do others outside the walls.
Every prisoner is some mother's child. Every mother in the state of California ought to be shaking in her bed for the injustice and abuse
To contact UNION, e-mail can be sent to :
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/2398/home.html
website
[email protected] email address
Prison reinforces criminal behavior
Reporter Editor:
If an ordinary citizen had a mentally ill child and it was discovered that instead of giving him his medication, that parent would tie him up at the arms, legs and neck for days at a time, force him to sleep on a freezing cold concrete floor without a mattress, blanket or clothes, and ridicule and beat him, that citizen would be charged with child abuse and sentenced to prison.
The staff in Vacaville's California Medical Facility, however, have been committing these atrocities against James Diesso without question, even after being advised by Dr. Paul Remis of his epileptic brain disorder.
When an inmate breaks up his reading glasses and swallows them in a suicide attempt, it ought to be a clear indication that this is a life-and-death situation.
While I realize Mr. Diesso has problems and he needs to be protected from himself at times, it appears the Department of Corrections staff has not been doing that, given all their abuse to this man. In fact, it appears that the abuse meted out worsens the situation.
This young man needs treatment. He needs his medication, which has been withheld from him. He has been mentally ill since he was a young boy and prison is not a place of treatment for such diseases. Due to his illness it is easy for CMF to blame anything they want on him. He needs to be transferred to a facility equipped to treat someone with his illness. Obviously CMF is ill-equipped.
Mr. Diesso has been beaten and tattooed when he didn't know what he was doing and kept in deadly restraints for days at a time. He is made to sleep on a cold concrete floor with no clothes, no blanket, no mattress and denied human contact to the degree that his problems are greatly magnified.
Is this the way the prison system treats the wards in its care? Is it any wonder that people leaving the confines of California prisons come out angry? That anger created by mistreatment is one of the causes of why more crimes are committed by these people.
If nothing is done to instill positive into their lives, we cannot expect anything more.
Linda C
Prison treatment nearly inhuman
Reporter Editor:
If an ordinary citizen had a mentally ill child and it was discovered that instead of giving him his medication, that parent tied him up at the arms, legs and neck for days at a time, forced him to sleep on a freezing cold concrete floor without a mattress, blanket or clothes, and ridiculed and beat him, that citizen would be charged with child abuse and sentenced to prison.
Yet, the warden and staff at Vacaville's state prison have been committing these atrocities against James Diesso for five years without question, even after being advised by Dr. Paul Remis of his epileptic brain disorder.
Of what value has placing Jimmy Diesso in "the hole" for months at time been to his "correction?" The group United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect will picket Vacaville if necessary if Mr. Diesso isn't given his medication and released from the deadly restraints immediately. There shall be no more freezing floors without a large outcry either.
It is too easy for California Medical Facility management, who has tortured someone to this degree, to blame anything they want on the inmate. He needs to be transferred out of this facility immediately. Obviously, torture is not a cure for mental illness and Mr. Diesso's condition worsens daily. When an inmate breaks up his reading glasses and swallows them in a suicide attempt, it ought to be a clear indication that this is a life-and-death situation.
There are some Eighth Amendment violations at issue here. Jimmy needs to be moved to a hospital in Nevada where he can receive regular visits from his mother, who loves him, and medication required to control his epileptic outbursts.
Thousands of UNION members don't intend to sit by and watch these conditions happen to any inmate in Vacaville or the rest of the state for that matter. You will find it difficult to ignore us as we intend to decry these conditions most vociferously.
Catharine Davis, Council Bluffs, Iowa
Published: Tue, Mar 9, 1999
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Reporter Editor:
It was recently discovered that a mentally ill man had his medication withheld by those in charge of his care inside Vacaville's California Medical Facility. This inaction is negligent, inhumane and shocking.
Yet it does not stop there. He has also been stripped of his clothing, placed in deadly restraints (arms, legs, and neck-bound), and forced to sleep on a cold concrete floor without a mattress, blanket or clothing.
Left alone for days on end with little human contact, his condition has become worse. Recently he became so distraught that he broke up his reading glasses and tried to swallow them in a suicide attempt.
You may ask yourself why this man's abuse is not reported in the media.
Perhaps they feel it is not newsworthy or that people don't want to hear it because Jimmy Diesso is an inmate. Well, we need to hear it. This is an outrage that needs to be brought to light.
The recent hearings on the horrible things that have occurred, and are in fact still occurring, at the Corcoran State Prison are just the tip of the iceberg.
Judy S
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Our prisons are now filled with the mentally ill with no consideration of prisoners being treated differently
Jimmy Diesso, because of these degradable methods used by the Vacaville Prison cannot be held accountable for any dead person in his cell. Torture an animal, like Jimmy has been tortured, and that would drive anyone insane, even if you were not a mentally ill person to begin with. This is a very serious matter that needs to be investigated by someone not connected with the prison or CDC. Otherwise no one will be found guilty except the prisoner who doesn't know what he is doing.
Respectfully,
Jesse Boyar
This commentary is appeared Sunday, March 14, 1998 in the Vacaville Reporter
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By B. Cayenne Bird
attempt. Last year, he swallowed a razor blade, which required surgery. The year before, he stabbed another inmate 17 times. I wonder what they consider mental illness if this isn't it?
happening to our young people in California prisons in order to bring profit to the state.
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Published: Wed, Mar 10, 1999, Vacaville Reporter
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Published: Tue, Mar 9, 1999
He has been bound in five-point restraints, which is against international law. As a citizen, a taxpayer and a human being, I am outraged at a system so cruel that it punishes a mentally ill young man for being sick. How many other prisoners in Vacaville are treated in a similar manner? What kind of a monster is in charge of this operation?
Stand up, protest prison scurrility
Letter to the editor:
because of their illness. Using violence and force to control these prisoners instead of the proper medication is outrageous. Putting another prisoner with one who
has been classified as violent and suffering from mental illness is beyond cruel and unusual Punishment.
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While we watch the war in Kosovo, we forget that we are fighting a war right here at home. The war I am writing about is in prisons, and various incidents occur every day in this country.
No less esteemed an organization than Amnesty International is concerned
about the treatment of prisoners in this country. Prisoners such as James Diesso, in Vacaville, who has been forced into 11-point holds, in violation of international law. Prisoners such as Patrick Boyar, held in the most restrictive part of Corcoran Prison, accused of gang membership when all he really did is practice Christianity.
California, with the nation's largest prison system, has 33 prisons and 160,000 inmates. Most of these prisoners are routinely denied their civil rights. For example, when pregnant women are incarcerated, they are forced to give birth while their legs are shackled, even if they are in prison for non-violent offenses.
Write to Cal Terhune and Gray Davis and demand an end to these and other
restrictive practices.
Prisons can't be totally isolated
Reporter Editor:
In response to your reader regarding her lack of sympathy for the prisoner living in a violent world, I would like to say that while this particular prisoner may be serving life without the possibility of parole, the vast majority are going to come out to her world again.
For a great majority of these men and women the TV is the only thing that gives them a bit of contact with changes that have gone on in this world of hers since they left it.
Return to the outside world is difficult for any person leaving prison. If a person leaves prison and has no earthly idea of all the changes that have taken place the difficulty of readjusting is compounded. She wants her world to be less violent and so do I but this won't be accomplished by removing every diversion from the prison walls.
At least if these men and women are able to stay a bit informed in the changes taking place in society then perhaps there is a chance that when they leave prison her world won't become more violent.
Linda Chiancone
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Published: Wed, Apr 7, 1999
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No more prisons
I read with interest that Assemblyman Bill Leonard wants to place a $2 billion bond on the March 2000 ballot to construct six new prison facilities throughout California.
It seems to me that the taxpayers of California could spend their money in much more meaningful ways, such as on education or preventive programs or drug rehabilitation before incarceration occurs.
Linda C
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Response to War on Drugs - by Barney Bratingham
Thank you for your view on the "Drug War." After all these years of engaging in the "Drug War"drugs are still with us as well as the problems that go with them. Most of us have battle scars. Perhaps neatly covered so no one can see them. Ashamed to admit the pain of a loved ones addiction. But, no family is immune to the nightmare of addiction. How many of us can honestly say, they don't have any family members or friends that have been affected by substance abuse? I know alcohol has plagued several generations in my family as well as my husbands family. There has also been problems with drug abuse in our families. I know most of you have been touched to some degree. If you say you haven't, you either don't get out much or your are in denial.
The "Drug War" has left our families and society limping in agony by treating addiction solely as a criminal matter. It has left behind many casualties. Death, scars, broken families and huge bills for prison that have become the dumping ground. These are our family members and our neighbors.
The "Drug War" is a joke that is costing us billions and getting us nowhere. Why? Because we have yet to focus on the problem instead of just the symptoms. Until we are ready to start there and spend our money on treatment, education and training the only thing this "Drug War" will do is build more prisons and tear apart families and with that, society. Most Three Strikes offenders are nonviolent addicts convicted of property crimes or possession not murders or rapists.
I am actively participating in getting changes to this law passed. I encourage anyone else that feels change is needed to join me by writing to your representees and letting them know how you feel. Write to the newspapers to educate others and to bring attention to these laws that should be reserved for real threats to our society. It seems to me that property crimes and drug possession come nowhere near murder or rape, and yet they are treated as equal under this law. Where is the proportionality? If the punishments are not proportional to the crimes, then where is justice?
I am in support of Restorative Justice. Make the offender take full responsibility by making them accountable for there offenses whenever possible. Let the offender first receive long term treatment. Where they can also learn living skills and rebuild their broken family relationships if they are addicts. Have them repay double (this is right out of the Bible), whatever they have taken or participate in community service work if there is no victim. In these ways everyone benefits. The victims are not used by the prosecution and then forgotten. Amends are made to them by the offender. Instead of spending $20-50 thousand dollars a year to house them in prison for 10, 15, or 20 years, why not spend $8-12 thousand for a couple years of treatment and aftercare. Then they can return to society with something to give back. Many recovered addicts go back and help those that are suffering. This is how the "Drug War" is won. Treatment, education and training is the answer. Or we just keep building prisons until all of us have family in prison. I see no victory in sight if we continue with our present battle plan. I think it is time now to call a ceasefire.
Judy
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