http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/us/30inmates.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
December 30, 2007
Infection Hits a California Prison Hard
By JESSE McKINLEY
COALINGA, Calif. — When any of the 5,300 inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison begin coughing and running a fever, doctors do not think flu, bronchitis or even the common cold.
They think valley fever; and, more often than they would like, they are right.
In the past three years, more than 900 inmates at the prison have contracted the fever, a fungal infection that has been both widespread and lethal.
At least a dozen inmates here in Central California have died from the disease, which is on the rise in other Western states, including Arizona, where the health department declared an epidemic after more than 5,500 cases were reported in 2006, including 33 deaths.
Endemic to parts of the Southwest, valley fever has been reported in recent years in a widening belt from South Texas to Northern California. The disease has infected archaeologists digging at the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and dogs that have inhaled the spores while sniffing for illegal drugs along the Mexican border.
In most cases, the infection starts in the lungs and is usually handled by the body without permanent damage. But serious complications can arise, including meningitis; and, at Pleasant Valley, the scope of the outbreak has left some inmates permanently disabled, confined to wheelchairs and interned in expensive long-term hospital stays.
About 80 prison employees have also contracted the fever, Pleasant Valley officials say, including a corrections officer who died of the disease in 2005.
What makes the disease all the more troubling is that its cause is literally underfoot: the spores that cause the infection reside in the region’s soil. When that soil is disturbed, something that happens regularly where houses are being built, crops are being sown and a steady wind churns, those spores are inhaled. The spores can also be kicked up by Mother Nature including earthquakes and dust storms.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re custody staff, it doesn’t matter if you’re a plumber or an electrician,” said James A. Yates, the warden at Pleasant Valley. “You breathe the same air as you walk around out there.”
The epidemic at the prison has led to a clash of priorities for a correctional system that is dealing with below average medical care and chronic overcrowding.
Last fall, heeding advice from local health officials and a federal receiver charged with improving the state’s prison medical care, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation delayed plans to add 600 new beds out of concern that the construction might stir up more spores.
Officials at the prison blame the construction of a state hospital nearby for causing a spike in valley fever. The construction was under way from 2001 to 2005, and valley fever hit its peak here in 2006, when the disease was diagnosed in 514 inmates.
This year, about 300 cases have been diagnosed among inmates at the prison, which sits along a highway lined with almond groves and signs advertising new “semi-custom homes.” Felix Igbinosa, the prison’s medical director, said “the No. 1 reason” was thought to be the soil disturbance from new construction.
The delayed expansion here was part of a $7.9 billion plan signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last summer to relieve overcrowding in the state’s prisons. Pleasant Valley was built in 1994 to house 2,000 inmates.
California reported more than 3,000 cases of valley fever in 2006, the most in a decade. Explanations for the spike have included increased residential development and changes in weather patterns that have resulted in increased blooms of the fungus.
Other prisons in the Central Valley of California have had increases in the number of fever cases in recent years, but in none has the rate of infection been higher than at Pleasant Valley, where about one inmate in 10 tested positive in 2006.
Even allowing for the nearby construction, experts say they do not know why the disease is so rampant here.
“Is the soil surrounding Pleasant Valley different?” asked Dr. Demosthenes Pappagianis of the University of California, Davis.
“There’s a lot we still need to know about it,” said Dr. Pappagianis, a professor of medical microbiology and immunology who has been studying valley fever for more than 50 years.
Early symptoms of the disease, which is clinically known as coccidioidomycosis, mimic the flu, with symptoms that include a cough, lethargy and a fever. Most of those who become infected recover with little or no treatment and are subsequently immune.
In about 2 percent to 3 percent of the cases, the disease spreads from the lungs and can attack the bones, liver, spleen and skin.
For the 11,000 non-inmate residents of Coalinga, about 200 miles southeast of San Francisco, the disease has been a fact of life for generations. “We just deal,” said Trish Hill, the city’s mayor. “You don’t do stupid things like go out on windy days or dig in the dirt.”
Inmates appear to be especially susceptible to the disease, in part because they come from areas all over the state and have not developed an immunity to the disease. California corrections officials are preparing new guidelines for prison design, including ventilation and landscaping.
“Prisons tend to have a lot of bare dirt, and that has some security benefit,” said Deborah Hysen, the corrections department’s deputy secretary of facility planning. “But in the case of valley fever, you want to really contain the soil.”
At Pleasant Valley, officials say the outbreak of valley fever places a burden on the institution, requiring guards to escort inmates to local hospitals, where stays can last months and result in medical and security costs of $1 million and more, said Dr. Igbinosa, the medical director.
The disease also affects inmate morale, doctors say.
Gilbert Galaviz was convicted of murder and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life. Mr. Galaviz had been at Pleasant Valley for a week or so when he started to feel sick. “I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “My chest starting hurting, I had pain all over like somebody beat me up, and I would sweat bad at night.”
The cause was valley fever. After six months, Mr. Galaviz is still weak, having lost 30 pounds, and is barely able to complete a lap in the prison yard. Earlier this month, he was attacked and his jaw broken.
“It wouldn’t have been like that if it hadn’t been for valley fever,” Mr. Galaviz said, his jaw still wired shut. “They wouldn’t have got me. It would have been the other way around.”
Dan Barry is off. Beginning Jan. 14, the “This Land” column will appear on Mondays.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
C.S.H. Civil Detainees Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, November 23, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Under Increasing Public Scrutiny, Coalinga State Hospital Shifts Into Crisis Mode
Since Thursday's Los Angeles Times article1 on deficient medical care and the denial of basic civil rights to Detainees being confined in Coalinga State Hospital, its Administration has moved fully into crisis mode, confidential sources from within staff report.
They report that the Hospital, unable to attract and retain employees in the drastically understaffed facility, have been hiring “temp agency psychologists” at up to three times the current going rate just to get “warm bodies” into the facility.
In addition to investigators and auditors from Sacramento who have begun to descend upon the Hospital, two representatives from Protection and Advocacy, Sean Rashkis and an assistant arrived at C.S.H. Friday to investigate the circumstances into Detainee Frank Valado's death [Detainees allege that he was left untreated on the gymnasium floor] and to interview patients regarding their medical treatment, including David Smith. Smith, who has alleged that he was denied tests and treatment over a number of months despite disturbing medical symptoms, was ultimately diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. Since its removal, he has also been diagnosed with two brain tumors.
The day after the L.A.Times article appeared, staff arrived at the the gym to install a defibrillator but then discovered that there was already one behind a locked door to the gym, as had been reported by Mike St. Martin in our press release of the week before. Also since Valado's death, Kathy Bryant has made a point of showing Detainees her “Mouth Guard” for use in performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, claiming that she had had it all along. By this, she clearly wishes to refute the allegation by Detainees witnessing Valado's death that she had said “I'm not putting my mouth on his mouth” in reference to performing mouth-to-mouth upon Valado. Other mouth guards suddenly appeared in the gym itself but, strangely, then disappeared again soon after.
Detainees were encouraged when Hospital Director Norm Kramer agreed to meet with representatives of the Detainee Strike Committee and acknowledged in that meeting that Hospital medical care has been substandard, pledging to create a database to track patient illnesses and to begin performing triage. He asked Detainees to bring forward those Patients with immediate medical needs for treatment consideration.
Deirdre D'Orazio, Director of Program Development and Evaluation Services at C.S.H. was quoted extensively in both the Times article as well as in the KSEE-24 segment which aired later that same day. D'Orazio, with a Ph.D. In Clinical Psychology with a proficiency in Forensic Psychology from “Alliant” University, oversees Coalinga's S.O.C.P. (Sex Offender Commitment Program also known as the “Phase” Program) arguably one of the largest and most expensive sex offender treatment programs in the world. She helped to open C.S.H. in September 2005 having just received her license by the State of California in December 2004.
A search using “Google Scholar” and “BASE” for locating published works in academic journals failed to produce any evidence of her scholarship in any area of psychology.
In September of this year, she told the Ventura County Star2 that the five-phase treatment program created in 1996 is too young to determine its long-term effect and that the number of patients is too small to have statistical value, hardly a ringing endorsement for a program costing taxpayers upwards of $200,000 per year per patient.
The centerpiece of this treatment modality is what D'Orazio refers to as "a psychological autopsy." Patients describe this process as part of an overall “deconstruction” of the individual, in which past events or fantasies are recounted endlessly-literally for years-by the Patient at the insistence of therapists. This approach is said to be nothing more than a “recycled” version of the failed “S.O.T.E.P.” program, dismantled years ago, and which was itself a replacement for the failed “M.D.S.O.” program.
Amongst therapists facilitating this process are self-proclaimed “survivors” of sexual abuse who, Detainees report, abuse their positions of power to exact revenge against sex offenders as a class.
As reported in the San Diego Union Tribune3, May 22, 2006, Dr. Gabrielle Paladino, a psychiatrist at Atascadero State Hospital, the facility which housed all Civilly Committed Sex Offenders before the completion of C.S.H. said, "The odds that a participant will be judged suitable for release are greater than 100 to 1.” Those who decline treatment and seek judicial release stand a better chance of winning their freedom.
Nationally recognized experts in sex offending such as Fred Berlin, Robert Prentky and Canada's Karl Hanson, have been scathing in their criticism of state treatment programs, including California's, and its civil commitment laws. One leading expert, well-acquainted with California's S.O.C.P., has described it as “miserable”.
Michael Feer, a psychiatric social worker with more than three decades of experience and who worked at Coalinga until earlier this spring, stated “The Hospital is a setup. Ostensibly, it is a treatment hospital but one built with a wink to a public that has little compunction about locking up sex offenders forever”. Feer said that he believes that many Detainees held in C.S.H. would pose no threat to the public if released.1
Marita Mayer, a Contra Costa public defender, compares the predator law to the 2002 film "Minority Report," in which people were imprisoned for future crimes envisioned by women with a gift for prophecy. “We have lowered the standard so much that we are locking up people who probably won't recommit because of a few who might." 4
According to Detainee Spokesman Michael St. Martin, an Atascadero Psychiatric Technician, Lana Garcia, once told him that she was appointed by God to punish him. “But the more serious reality is this”, he added, “I'm being held for a crime I might commit in the future by people who are committing crimes in the present.”
Howard Zonana, a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and Spokesperson for the American Psychiatric Association has said, “S.V.P. laws are not an attempt to gain treatment or anything close to that... What it really is is an attempt to extend prison sentences.”
"They are using a psychiatric facility to pursue a legal end," said, Mark Graff, a San Fernando Valley psychiatrist who led efforts by the California Psychiatric Association to oppose the sexually violent predator law. The law is about punishment, punishment, punishment.“ 5
Civil Detainee Spokesperson: Mike St. Martin, CO-414-3, Unit 7, P.O . BOX 5003, Coalinga , CA 93210-5003 Telephone: 559-934-0391 / 559-934-0392 email: michaelst.martin@hotmail.com
###
| 1. The Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2007 | 4.San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, July 11, 2004 |
L.A Times Letter to the Editor From Mike St. Martin
To the Editor,
While I believe the piece was, overall, even handed and objective, I do need to take exception to several points in your Thursday, November 15 article "Turmoil Replaces Treatment at Coalinga State Hospital". As one of the people forced to live the nightmare of confinement in C.S.H. and as one of the sources contributing to this story, I know that the paper checked and rechecked the information I, and other Detainees, provided. However, the same diligence does not appear to have been applied in investigating either the backgrounds of, or statements by, Department of Mental Health employees.
Dr. Deirdre D'Orazio was quoted as saying that she believed in her program at C.S.H. and that she wouldn't be working there if it were a scam. However, a more thorough investigation would have revealed that Dr. D'Orazio had, at the time of her appointment to head C.S.H.'s Sex Offender Treatment Program, less than one year of experience following receipt of her Psychologist's license from the State of California. Her Ph.D. is from "Alliant University".
It should be noted that the program of which she is in charge must certainly be one of the largest such sex offender treatment programs in the world. How is it, then, that Dr. D'Orazio emerged as the leading candidate to assume such an important position? What are her unique qualifications which set her apart from a field of candidates, some of whom were educated in institutions whose names we are likely to recognize?
I would like to propose a possible answer to this question: Dr. Deirdre D'Orazio was willing to work for an organization from which highly respected, and self-respecting, psychologists and psychiatrists flee in horror, its abysmal reputation within the psychotherapeutic community dissuading any but the most desperate. As examples of such desperation: those with significant malpractice histories; nationals from India who can tolerate much to gain U.S. Residency; and grossly under-qualified (and in some cases completely un-credentialed) individuals who will, in desperation, jump at the opportunity for a professional-sounding title and salaries at multiples of what they could possibly earn in the private sector.
Having said that, I feel a little bad for appearing to single out Dr. D'Orazio so let me be clear: she is not an exception within C.S.H.; she IS the Rule. Most people working here are grossly unqualified for their positions. We have executive level administrators with final decision-making and policy-setting latitude who possess no more than high school diplomas.
Dr. Mayberg, Head of D.M.H., has stated, "Undertaking something of this magnitude is a growing and learning experience. Where we are right now is a move in the right direction." Only in the D.M.H. can four directors in two years, one-third of the required staff, patients on strike and refusing to participate in treatment, newspapers, t.v. and radio reporting on the death of a patient who was left to die on the floor of a gymnasium for want of medical attention while staff looked on, can such a reality be considered "a move in the right direction."
He also stated that he is disappointed that so few patients choose not to participate in the "Treatment" program but that he also thinks that this is indicative of our illness. In other words, if you don't agree with me, you're sick.
Of course, Dr. D'Orazio's enthusiasm for conducting "psychological autopsies" on still-living patients has nothing to do with our unwillingness to engage in treatment which has itself been roundly derided by leading sexual abuse researchers. No, it must be symptomatic of "our illness".
This isn't the first time Dr. Mayberg has failed to rouse himself to a state of appropriate response. Last year, in testimony before the State Senate following the Justice Department's scathing report on Napa and Metropolitan Hospitals, he stated , "I also noticed that we had a problem about 12 years ago and I've been working on it."
In September of this year, D'Orazio told the Ventura County Star2 that the five-phase treatment program created in 1996 is "too young to determine its long-term effect and that the number of patients is too small to have statistical value", hardly a ringing endorsement for a program costing taxpayers upwards of $200,000 per year per patient.
Coalinga Administration still insists that there is a clear path to release. Yet of the over 800 patients under the law, the courts have only released, on average, one patient every two years. At this rate, it will take about 1,500 years for everyone to get out. But then, that's the idea, isn't it? As Michael Feer stated in your article, C.S.H. "is a treatment hospital built with a wink to the public." D.M.H. has a vested interest in this program never working.
This is a hospital on paper only - it doesn’t treat patients, but warehouses them indefinitely after they’ve completed their prison sentences. Joseph Stalin would be proud of your accomplishment.
Mike St. Martin,
"Hosprisoner"
While I believe the piece was, overall, even handed and objective, I do need to take exception to several points in your Thursday, November 15 article "Turmoil Replaces Treatment at Coalinga State Hospital". As one of the people forced to live the nightmare of confinement in C.S.H. and as one of the sources contributing to this story, I know that the paper checked and rechecked the information I, and other Detainees, provided. However, the same diligence does not appear to have been applied in investigating either the backgrounds of, or statements by, Department of Mental Health employees.
Dr. Deirdre D'Orazio was quoted as saying that she believed in her program at C.S.H. and that she wouldn't be working there if it were a scam. However, a more thorough investigation would have revealed that Dr. D'Orazio had, at the time of her appointment to head C.S.H.'s Sex Offender Treatment Program, less than one year of experience following receipt of her Psychologist's license from the State of California. Her Ph.D. is from "Alliant University".
It should be noted that the program of which she is in charge must certainly be one of the largest such sex offender treatment programs in the world. How is it, then, that Dr. D'Orazio emerged as the leading candidate to assume such an important position? What are her unique qualifications which set her apart from a field of candidates, some of whom were educated in institutions whose names we are likely to recognize?
I would like to propose a possible answer to this question: Dr. Deirdre D'Orazio was willing to work for an organization from which highly respected, and self-respecting, psychologists and psychiatrists flee in horror, its abysmal reputation within the psychotherapeutic community dissuading any but the most desperate. As examples of such desperation: those with significant malpractice histories; nationals from India who can tolerate much to gain U.S. Residency; and grossly under-qualified (and in some cases completely un-credentialed) individuals who will, in desperation, jump at the opportunity for a professional-sounding title and salaries at multiples of what they could possibly earn in the private sector.
Having said that, I feel a little bad for appearing to single out Dr. D'Orazio so let me be clear: she is not an exception within C.S.H.; she IS the Rule. Most people working here are grossly unqualified for their positions. We have executive level administrators with final decision-making and policy-setting latitude who possess no more than high school diplomas.
Dr. Mayberg, Head of D.M.H., has stated, "Undertaking something of this magnitude is a growing and learning experience. Where we are right now is a move in the right direction." Only in the D.M.H. can four directors in two years, one-third of the required staff, patients on strike and refusing to participate in treatment, newspapers, t.v. and radio reporting on the death of a patient who was left to die on the floor of a gymnasium for want of medical attention while staff looked on, can such a reality be considered "a move in the right direction."
He also stated that he is disappointed that so few patients choose not to participate in the "Treatment" program but that he also thinks that this is indicative of our illness. In other words, if you don't agree with me, you're sick.
Of course, Dr. D'Orazio's enthusiasm for conducting "psychological autopsies" on still-living patients has nothing to do with our unwillingness to engage in treatment which has itself been roundly derided by leading sexual abuse researchers. No, it must be symptomatic of "our illness".
This isn't the first time Dr. Mayberg has failed to rouse himself to a state of appropriate response. Last year, in testimony before the State Senate following the Justice Department's scathing report on Napa and Metropolitan Hospitals, he stated , "I also noticed that we had a problem about 12 years ago and I've been working on it."
In September of this year, D'Orazio told the Ventura County Star2 that the five-phase treatment program created in 1996 is "too young to determine its long-term effect and that the number of patients is too small to have statistical value", hardly a ringing endorsement for a program costing taxpayers upwards of $200,000 per year per patient.
Coalinga Administration still insists that there is a clear path to release. Yet of the over 800 patients under the law, the courts have only released, on average, one patient every two years. At this rate, it will take about 1,500 years for everyone to get out. But then, that's the idea, isn't it? As Michael Feer stated in your article, C.S.H. "is a treatment hospital built with a wink to the public." D.M.H. has a vested interest in this program never working.
This is a hospital on paper only - it doesn’t treat patients, but warehouses them indefinitely after they’ve completed their prison sentences. Joseph Stalin would be proud of your accomplishment.
Mike St. Martin,
"Hosprisoner"
Letter from Robert Bates to Los Angeles Times
Re: Turmoil Replaces Treatment at Coalinga State Hospital
As one of the named sources in your piece, I must object to the following statement, one which you did not attribute to any particular source, so that I must conclude that you wish to present it as commonly accepted and factually correct information: “sex offenders tend to be manipulative and charismatic”
It should be noted that, in repeated studies of sex offenders, they (we) do not possess any particular set of personality characteristics. Law enforcement officials have informed the public that a sex offender can be anyone.
Secondly, we have never asked for internet access! Why did you report that it was among our demands as part of the strike?
What we have asked for is:
Basic medical care
Accurate Mental Health Diagnosis and truthful, unfalsified, mental health records
Hospital regulations that are in compliance with Federal and State regulations
Fundamental Civil Rights
Food that is at least as good as that you would feed your dog
We are, after all, civil detainees, not prisoners (even Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has said as much). As such, we are not being punished (wink, wink) so how is that asking too much?
Taxpayers should also demand some results from their greater than $1 Billion investment.
Robert Bates
Unit 6, P.O. Box 5003
Coalinga, CA 93210-5003
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thanks To Our Supporters!
Voices of the Gulag would like to thank the people who have contributed to the early successes enjoyed on behalf of those being held in California's "Hosprisons".
We especially wish to thank those D.M.H. Staff who have taken a courageous stand to defend civil liberty and to uphold their professional standards. We are in your debt. Thank you so much for your help!
We also wish to thank those journalists who have, or are in the process of, shining light on the dark corridors of civil confinement in California and beyond. Reporting the truth in the midst of a witch hunt is what most distinguishes real journalists from the rest. Thank you for your brave reporting!
And we would also like to thank the family members and friends of those Civil Detainees who refuse to leave their loved ones to suffer alone in endless confinement. Without you, there would be little hope. Thanks!
At this time next year, we would like very much to be able to thank political office holders and judges for standing up to hysteria in the face of ignorance, hatred and fear. We remain hopeful that such thanks will be their due.
We would also like to thank those who have publicly advanced the cause of civil liberty for those labeled as sex offenders and for their generosity, encouragement and support. They are, in alphabetical order:
Michael Aye, Robert Baker, Alexander Cockburn, Paul Eberle, Shirley Eberle, Judith Levine, Elizabeth Loftus, Shirley Lowery, Laura Mansnerus, Alex Marbury, Marita Mayer, Malcolm McGrath, Todd Melnik, Debbie Nathan, Richard Ofshe, Camille Paglia, Mark Pendergrast, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Susan Robbins, Michael Snedeker, and Gore Vidal. Thanks!
We especially wish to thank those D.M.H. Staff who have taken a courageous stand to defend civil liberty and to uphold their professional standards. We are in your debt. Thank you so much for your help!
We also wish to thank those journalists who have, or are in the process of, shining light on the dark corridors of civil confinement in California and beyond. Reporting the truth in the midst of a witch hunt is what most distinguishes real journalists from the rest. Thank you for your brave reporting!
And we would also like to thank the family members and friends of those Civil Detainees who refuse to leave their loved ones to suffer alone in endless confinement. Without you, there would be little hope. Thanks!
At this time next year, we would like very much to be able to thank political office holders and judges for standing up to hysteria in the face of ignorance, hatred and fear. We remain hopeful that such thanks will be their due.
We would also like to thank those who have publicly advanced the cause of civil liberty for those labeled as sex offenders and for their generosity, encouragement and support. They are, in alphabetical order:
Michael Aye, Robert Baker, Alexander Cockburn, Paul Eberle, Shirley Eberle, Judith Levine, Elizabeth Loftus, Shirley Lowery, Laura Mansnerus, Alex Marbury, Marita Mayer, Malcolm McGrath, Todd Melnik, Debbie Nathan, Richard Ofshe, Camille Paglia, Mark Pendergrast, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Susan Robbins, Michael Snedeker, and Gore Vidal. Thanks!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Lawrence "Rudy" Kirk Discusses Brutal Attack In C.S.H.
Rudy Kirk recounts the severe beating that could have cost him his life and which did cause lasting, permanent neural damage. Staff did nothing to stop the attack. Now he's won a lawsuit against the State, but what's his future? He suffered nerve damage as the result of severe head injuries; this has affected his speech.
California Healthline
Hospital News Roundup for November 16, 2007
Coalinga State Hospital
Patients and some employees at Coalinga State Hospital say staffing shortages and standoffs between patients and administrators are impeding psychiatric and medical care at the facility, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The hospital was opened in 2005 to treat high-risk sex offenders who have completed their sentences but were not released because of perceived mental illnesses.
However, 75% of the hospital's more than 600 patients refuse to participate in a core treatment program, and not a single patient has completed treatment and been released, according to the latest data from August. Meanwhile, 26 of the hospital's 37 staff psychiatrist positions are vacant, leaving police officers to fill in for roles normally designated for clinicians, the Times reports (Gold/Romney, Los Angeles Times, 11/15).
http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2007/11/16/Hospital-News-Roundup-for-November-16-2007.aspx?topicId=47
Coalinga State Hospital
Patients and some employees at Coalinga State Hospital say staffing shortages and standoffs between patients and administrators are impeding psychiatric and medical care at the facility, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The hospital was opened in 2005 to treat high-risk sex offenders who have completed their sentences but were not released because of perceived mental illnesses.
However, 75% of the hospital's more than 600 patients refuse to participate in a core treatment program, and not a single patient has completed treatment and been released, according to the latest data from August. Meanwhile, 26 of the hospital's 37 staff psychiatrist positions are vacant, leaving police officers to fill in for roles normally designated for clinicians, the Times reports (Gold/Romney, Los Angeles Times, 11/15).
http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2007/11/16/Hospital-News-Roundup-for-November-16-2007.aspx?topicId=47
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Civil Detainee's Death Comes Amid Allegations That Coalinga State Hospital Falls Dangerously Short In Medical Care
News Blaze
Civil Detainee's Death Comes Amid Allegations That Coalinga State Hospital Falls Dangerously Short In Medical Care
Coalinga State Hospital, California's two year old $388 million facility for confining sex offenders after serving their entire prison sentence, is coming under renewed fire in the wake of Thursday's death of patient Frank Valado, age 45.
Valado collapsed while playing basketball with other Civil Detainees in the institution's gynmasium Thursday evening. Patients witnessing the incident said that Staff response to Valado's collapse was completely inadequate and that, effectively, he received little or no treatment after being stricken.
They reported that an officer present in the gymnasium refused to radio in an alarm, despite their requests that he do so, but instead simply left the room. A Patient got the attention of another officer by pounding on a gymnasium window looking out onto the main courtyard. That officer then radioed the alarm that brought other staff to the scene.
One Patient began performing CPR on Valado and others present confirm that Valado partially regained consciousness. Then, a number of staff entered the gym, including two women, at least one of whom, Kathy Bryant, is a Registered Nurse. Officers ordered Michael Cheeks, who had been administering assistance to Valado, to halt his efforts and, along with the other men in the gym, to get up against the wall.
Bryant was then heard to say "I'm not putting my mouth on that man's mouth!" an apparent reference to her unwillingness to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Valado.
Patients also report that the other (unidentified) woman at the scene was searching for an oxygen tank and mask but which she was unable to locate.
A crash cart was brought into the room but it was discovered that it did not include a defibrillator. Patients later stated that they knew that there was a defibrillator on the other side of an always locked door to the gym but staff made no attempt to retrieve it or any other. Throughout this, Valado remained unassisted on the floor.
The other patients were then ordered to leave the gym and a gurney was brought in and Valado was taken to the Medical unit. However, no doctors were on duty at the time so staff then called a doctor to drive to the facility. However, before the doctor arrived at C.S.H., Frank Valado died.
The "Watch Commander" reportedly ordered all police staff to remain for the next shift, even if it were their third continuous shift on duty. The Administration is said to have been seriously concerned for the possibility of Patient anger and unrest due to the poor response by the hospital in Valado's death.
Mike St. Martin, a Detainee Spokesperson who has actively sought to bring attention to what he sees as grossly negligent standards of medical care, said he was "unsurprised" by the lack of appropriate medical response by C.S.H. Staff, stating that, since the beginning, the Institution had demonstrated an utter disregard for the well-being of Patients in the facility. "The only thing about this place that says "hospital" is the sign out in front. But that sign also says 'No emergency services available'. Well, they got that part right! We refer to this place as a 'hosprison', since that is its primary function, to act as a prison, while pretending to be a hospital. The medical department here is a ticking time bomb with irresponsible delays, incorrect treatment, poor training, and medical care grossly deficient for an aging population. One can only hope that more people don't have to die before sweeping changes can be made".
"I wrote to Attorney General Jerry Brown in April of this year detailing the terrible medical conditions here and, to date, I have not received a response from him or his staff".
Since Executive Director Norm Kramer assumed authority in September, Dr. Peter Bresler has stepped down as Chief Physician and Surgeon while remaining as a staff physician. Patients bitterly complained of their treatment by Bresler, with one saying he had been told by Bresler that treatment for his seriously distended hernia would be considered "cosmetic" and thus not surgery that he would approve. It has been alleged that he was fired from a previous job as a result of "dropping a baby".
Deficient medical care and rubber stamped clinical assessments were amongst some of the chief complaints leading to the still ongoing strike by Civil Detainees, now in its third month.
judythpiazza@newsblaze.com
Copyright © 2007, NewsBlaze, Daily News
Civil Detainee's Death Comes Amid Allegations That Coalinga State Hospital Falls Dangerously Short In Medical Care
Coalinga State Hospital, California's two year old $388 million facility for confining sex offenders after serving their entire prison sentence, is coming under renewed fire in the wake of Thursday's death of patient Frank Valado, age 45.
Valado collapsed while playing basketball with other Civil Detainees in the institution's gynmasium Thursday evening. Patients witnessing the incident said that Staff response to Valado's collapse was completely inadequate and that, effectively, he received little or no treatment after being stricken.
They reported that an officer present in the gymnasium refused to radio in an alarm, despite their requests that he do so, but instead simply left the room. A Patient got the attention of another officer by pounding on a gymnasium window looking out onto the main courtyard. That officer then radioed the alarm that brought other staff to the scene.
One Patient began performing CPR on Valado and others present confirm that Valado partially regained consciousness. Then, a number of staff entered the gym, including two women, at least one of whom, Kathy Bryant, is a Registered Nurse. Officers ordered Michael Cheeks, who had been administering assistance to Valado, to halt his efforts and, along with the other men in the gym, to get up against the wall.
Bryant was then heard to say "I'm not putting my mouth on that man's mouth!" an apparent reference to her unwillingness to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Valado.
Patients also report that the other (unidentified) woman at the scene was searching for an oxygen tank and mask but which she was unable to locate.
A crash cart was brought into the room but it was discovered that it did not include a defibrillator. Patients later stated that they knew that there was a defibrillator on the other side of an always locked door to the gym but staff made no attempt to retrieve it or any other. Throughout this, Valado remained unassisted on the floor.
The other patients were then ordered to leave the gym and a gurney was brought in and Valado was taken to the Medical unit. However, no doctors were on duty at the time so staff then called a doctor to drive to the facility. However, before the doctor arrived at C.S.H., Frank Valado died.
The "Watch Commander" reportedly ordered all police staff to remain for the next shift, even if it were their third continuous shift on duty. The Administration is said to have been seriously concerned for the possibility of Patient anger and unrest due to the poor response by the hospital in Valado's death.
Mike St. Martin, a Detainee Spokesperson who has actively sought to bring attention to what he sees as grossly negligent standards of medical care, said he was "unsurprised" by the lack of appropriate medical response by C.S.H. Staff, stating that, since the beginning, the Institution had demonstrated an utter disregard for the well-being of Patients in the facility. "The only thing about this place that says "hospital" is the sign out in front. But that sign also says 'No emergency services available'. Well, they got that part right! We refer to this place as a 'hosprison', since that is its primary function, to act as a prison, while pretending to be a hospital. The medical department here is a ticking time bomb with irresponsible delays, incorrect treatment, poor training, and medical care grossly deficient for an aging population. One can only hope that more people don't have to die before sweeping changes can be made".
"I wrote to Attorney General Jerry Brown in April of this year detailing the terrible medical conditions here and, to date, I have not received a response from him or his staff".
Since Executive Director Norm Kramer assumed authority in September, Dr. Peter Bresler has stepped down as Chief Physician and Surgeon while remaining as a staff physician. Patients bitterly complained of their treatment by Bresler, with one saying he had been told by Bresler that treatment for his seriously distended hernia would be considered "cosmetic" and thus not surgery that he would approve. It has been alleged that he was fired from a previous job as a result of "dropping a baby".
Deficient medical care and rubber stamped clinical assessments were amongst some of the chief complaints leading to the still ongoing strike by Civil Detainees, now in its third month.
judythpiazza@newsblaze.com
Copyright © 2007, NewsBlaze, Daily News
Turmoil replaces treatment at Coalinga hospital
BREAKDOWN: A state facility meant for sexually violent predators gets low marks after two years.
Los Angeles Times, By Scott Gold and Lee Romney
COALINGA, CALIF.
Two years after California opened the nation's largest facility designed to house and treat men who have been declared sexually violent predators, Coalinga State Hospital is described by both patients and staff as an institution in turmoil.
Convinced that they stand little chance of being released and angry about perceived deficiencies at the hospital, patients are engaged in a tense standoff with administrators, according to interviews with more than 40 patients and staff members. ...
Michael Feer, a psychiatric social worker with more than three decades of experience, worked at Coalinga for a year before leaving this spring. He now works in San Diego County with recently paroled sex offenders, men who in some cases committed the same crimes as those at Coalinga but who are being released into the community, he said.
Feer said that although all Coalinga patients qualify as violent predators on paper, he believes that more than a third of them would pose no threat if released.
"They did their time, and suddenly they are picked up again and shipped off to a state hospital for essentially an indeterminate period of time," Feer said. To get out, he added, "they have to demonstrate that they are no longer a risk, which can be a very high standard. So, yeah, they do have grounds to be very upset."
The hospital, Feer said, "is a setup" -- ostensibly a treatment hospital but one built with a wink to a public that has little compunction about locking up sex offenders forever. ...
The core sex offender treatment involves such activities as a "psychological autopsy," a detailed accounting of decisions that preceded an offense. ...
As of August, two years after Coalinga opened, not a single patient had been released because of completion of the treatment program. Of the more than 600 sexually violent predators who'd been committed to the facility as of August, the latest figures available, 17 patients had been released, all of them after petitioning in court. ...
In August, for instance, according to staff members, a group of patients taped small protest fliers to their hospital-issued identification tags. Most read: "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Hospital officials ordered patients to remove them.
"They said they were defacing government property," a clinician said. "But they were just making this up as they go."
It did not end well; officers eventually hauled away one patient who refused to take off his protest flier.
"They made a martyr out of him," the clinician said. "The next day, patients had bigger pieces of paper taped to them that said: 'Please don't hit me because I'm wearing this piece of paper.' " ...
Others, however, have gained the attention of a congressionally charged, federally funded group that advocates on behalf of people with physical and mental health disabilities. Protection & Advocacy Inc. attorney Sean Rashkis said the group was investigating patients' concerns.
"They have done their time and have moved into a civil commitment which is based on treatment," he said. "Some of the patients argue that that's not what they are getting. It may be the case. We'll have to see." Full Story
Los Angeles Times, By Scott Gold and Lee Romney
COALINGA, CALIF.
Two years after California opened the nation's largest facility designed to house and treat men who have been declared sexually violent predators, Coalinga State Hospital is described by both patients and staff as an institution in turmoil.
Convinced that they stand little chance of being released and angry about perceived deficiencies at the hospital, patients are engaged in a tense standoff with administrators, according to interviews with more than 40 patients and staff members. ...
Michael Feer, a psychiatric social worker with more than three decades of experience, worked at Coalinga for a year before leaving this spring. He now works in San Diego County with recently paroled sex offenders, men who in some cases committed the same crimes as those at Coalinga but who are being released into the community, he said.
Feer said that although all Coalinga patients qualify as violent predators on paper, he believes that more than a third of them would pose no threat if released.
"They did their time, and suddenly they are picked up again and shipped off to a state hospital for essentially an indeterminate period of time," Feer said. To get out, he added, "they have to demonstrate that they are no longer a risk, which can be a very high standard. So, yeah, they do have grounds to be very upset."
The hospital, Feer said, "is a setup" -- ostensibly a treatment hospital but one built with a wink to a public that has little compunction about locking up sex offenders forever. ...
The core sex offender treatment involves such activities as a "psychological autopsy," a detailed accounting of decisions that preceded an offense. ...
As of August, two years after Coalinga opened, not a single patient had been released because of completion of the treatment program. Of the more than 600 sexually violent predators who'd been committed to the facility as of August, the latest figures available, 17 patients had been released, all of them after petitioning in court. ...
In August, for instance, according to staff members, a group of patients taped small protest fliers to their hospital-issued identification tags. Most read: "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Hospital officials ordered patients to remove them.
"They said they were defacing government property," a clinician said. "But they were just making this up as they go."
It did not end well; officers eventually hauled away one patient who refused to take off his protest flier.
"They made a martyr out of him," the clinician said. "The next day, patients had bigger pieces of paper taped to them that said: 'Please don't hit me because I'm wearing this piece of paper.' " ...
Others, however, have gained the attention of a congressionally charged, federally funded group that advocates on behalf of people with physical and mental health disabilities. Protection & Advocacy Inc. attorney Sean Rashkis said the group was investigating patients' concerns.
"They have done their time and have moved into a civil commitment which is based on treatment," he said. "Some of the patients argue that that's not what they are getting. It may be the case. We'll have to see." Full Story
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Trick Or Treatment?
Lance discusses his decision to not attend regular "Treatment Team" meetings and his reasons for doing so as well as the punishment meted out to those not attending (in contravention of the law).
Sunday, November 11, 2007
As Frank Valado Lay Dying...
Mike St. Martin reports on the death of Frank Valado at Coalinga State Hospital. His report recounts Valado's final moments and the seeming indifference with which his life was regarded by California Department of Mental Health staff.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Coalinga Strike Update: 10/1/2007
October 1, 2007
Despite Administration assertions to the contrary, Civil Detainees in California's $388 Million Coalinga State Hospital remain on strike in the second month of a non-violent action.
They charge that the Hospital's new Director, Norman Kramer, has also reneged on his recent promises to:
The Administration's repeated denial to media that a Detainee strike is underway at C.S.P. is seen by strike organizers as a means to circumvent adverse press coverage and establish a sense of normality which they hope will prevail by the time of the U.S. Department of Justice's visit there later this month. The scope of the D.O.J. inspection is quite broad and seeks to determine the conditions of confinement and treatment of Detainees in the dramatically understaffed facility. A drastic reshuffling of Administration staff since the strike began including one senior staff member being escorted off the premises by police escort gives little credibility to the Administration's assertion that a strike is neither underway nor having an effect on the Hospital's operations.
Detainees plan further, as yet unspecified, strike actions in the coming weeks.
For background on the strike including the issues leading to it, please go to: http://www.sexgulag.org .
###
Contact:
Despite Administration assertions to the contrary, Civil Detainees in California's $388 Million Coalinga State Hospital remain on strike in the second month of a non-violent action.
They charge that the Hospital's new Director, Norman Kramer, has also reneged on his recent promises to:
- Meet with Representatives of the Detainee Provisional government by Friday of last week.
- Transcribe tape recorded minutes of their prevous meeting with him and to make these available to Detainees and the media.
- Remove Clinical Director Rocky Spurgeon, one of the primary Defendants in a Detainee lawsuit recently reconfirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit Court and sent back to the Federal District Court for trial (1).
The Administration's repeated denial to media that a Detainee strike is underway at C.S.P. is seen by strike organizers as a means to circumvent adverse press coverage and establish a sense of normality which they hope will prevail by the time of the U.S. Department of Justice's visit there later this month. The scope of the D.O.J. inspection is quite broad and seeks to determine the conditions of confinement and treatment of Detainees in the dramatically understaffed facility. A drastic reshuffling of Administration staff since the strike began including one senior staff member being escorted off the premises by police escort gives little credibility to the Administration's assertion that a strike is neither underway nor having an effect on the Hospital's operations.
Detainees plan further, as yet unspecified, strike actions in the coming weeks.
For background on the strike including the issues leading to it, please go to: http://www.sexgulag.org .
###
Contact:
Friends & Family of California Civil Detainees
Allan Marshall, Director
Tel: 702-421-0467
Email: detainees@gmail.com
Civil Detainee Contact:
Mike St. Martin
CO-414-3, Unit 7
P.O . BOX 5003
Coalinga , CA 93210-5003
Telephone: 559-934-0391 / 559-934-0392
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Coalinga Strike Update: 9/29/2007
Despite Administration assertions to the contrary, Civil Detainees in California's $388 Million Coalinga State Hospital remain on strike in the second month of a non-violent action.
Roadblock” for his reputation of deliberately frustrating attempts by Detainees to exercise the few rights they enjoy.
The Administration's repeated denial to media that a Detainee strike is underway at C.S.P. is seen by strike organizers as a means to circumvent adverse press coverage and establish a sense of normality which they hope will prevail by the time of the U.S. Department of Justice's visit there later this month. The scope of the D.O.J. inspection is quite broad and seeks to determine the conditions of confinement and treatment of Detainees in the dramatically understaffed facility. A drastic reshuffling of Administration staff since the strike began including one senior staff member escorted off the premises by police escort gives little credibility to the Administration's assertion that a strike is neither underway nor having an effect on the Hospital's operations.
Detainees plan further, as yet unspecified, strike actions in the coming weeks.
1 Hydrick, et al. v. Schwarzenegger, et al. http://vlex.com/vid/20630509
They charge that the Hospital's new Director, Norman Kramer, has also reneged on his recent promises to:
- Meet with Representatives of the Detainee Provisional government by Friday of last week.
- Transcribe tape recorded minutes of their prevous meeting with him and to make these available to Detainees and the media.
- Remove Clinical Director Rocky Spurgeon, the primary Defendant in a Detainee lawsuit recently reconfirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit Court and sent back to the Federal District Court for trial1.
Roadblock” for his reputation of deliberately frustrating attempts by Detainees to exercise the few rights they enjoy.
The Administration's repeated denial to media that a Detainee strike is underway at C.S.P. is seen by strike organizers as a means to circumvent adverse press coverage and establish a sense of normality which they hope will prevail by the time of the U.S. Department of Justice's visit there later this month. The scope of the D.O.J. inspection is quite broad and seeks to determine the conditions of confinement and treatment of Detainees in the dramatically understaffed facility. A drastic reshuffling of Administration staff since the strike began including one senior staff member escorted off the premises by police escort gives little credibility to the Administration's assertion that a strike is neither underway nor having an effect on the Hospital's operations.
Detainees plan further, as yet unspecified, strike actions in the coming weeks.
1 Hydrick, et al. v. Schwarzenegger, et al. http://vlex.com/vid/20630509
Monday, August 27, 2007
Transcript from a portion of the August 27 edition of the KPFA Evening News
"Sex offender detainees at Coalinga State Hospital are in the third week of a nonviolent strike seeking restoration of their civil rights. The men have served their prison sentences but authorities have judged them likely to offend again, and they're being kept in preventive detention. The men say they're being treated the same as inmates still serving time.
Wendell Harper reports: More than 600 Department of Corrections prisoners, now civil detainees point to what they say is a staff shakeup of the facility wide shut down as evidence of their strike’s effectiveness and the administration's desperation in containing the revolt. Representing the prisoners on the outside, Friends and Families of California Detainees Director Allan Marshall. He said the former inmates effectively have shut down all sex offender treatment.
Marshall: As it is now, sex offenders are an incredibly wide ranging group of individuals, some of whom, doubtless, are dangerous people. Unfortunately, I'm afraid; almost all of them are being tarred with the same brush. And the term sexually violent predator has come into some popularity in this country and has come to mean something quite different from what any reasonable person would expect sexually violent would mean. Factors such as the age of the victim, the number of the victims and whether they are related or not. Those are factors which they take into consideration in calling someone sexually violent -- not at all what we would typically think of [as] violent. So they have sort of redefined terms which I believe is a means to inflame public opinion, and I think that has resulted in very Draconian, citizen based demand for further punishment of sex offenders.
Wendell Harper: In the Coalinga State Hospital the civil detainees have been on strike since August 6th, demanding the restoration of their civil rights having previously served their entire sentences in prison. These former inmates insist that conditions under which they are being held are unconstitutional and inhumane and go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted.
Michael St. Martin: Our number one issue is the assessments which they have never done on any of us. I’ve been here at this hospital for eleven months and I’ve never seen a psychiatrist. They’ve never done an evaluation to determine where I’m at or what I need for treatment or what’s necessary for me to be released or any of that stuff. They don’t have any staff here. They had 11 psychologists. They’re now down to 8 psychologists because three just left. Of those 8 psychologists, only four of them are licensed so they only have 4 licensed clinicians. They have 3 psychiatrists here at the hospital for about 700 people and those psychiatrists have been brought in from India. The second thing is that we have this huge, huge deficit of doctors here - medical doctors.
Wendell Harper: [that was] patient representative Michael St. Martin. The US Supreme Court, according to St. Martin and civil detainee Tom Watson upheld the constitutionality of laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders. But the Court’s order requires that further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same offense. But the detainees have been told, according to the strikers, that they have no rights.
Tom Watson: The patients have got just basically tired of the way they’re being treated. The patients here are civil commitments, and they have been treating them like they were prisoners. So the patients went on strike.
Wendell Harper: During each year for the last generation, Prison Justice Day is observed in Canada as prison rights advocates hold a one-day strike to honor and support inmates in that country.
Woman Reporter: Brenda, a former prisoner - who was not a sex offender but did endure the medical system in a Canadian prison: Even though the Canadian government and the Corrections Service of Canada acknowledges that over-representation, and has made legislation to deal with it through conditional sentencing and alternatives to incarceration, those numbers continue to increase. So today is 1974’s, when Eddie Naylon died in solitary confinement in Millhaven Prison and Eddie was a lifer and he had been on a working unit in the prison. He wanted to transfer to a non-working unit and one of the guards had told him the only way to get a transfer was to sign a [garbled].
Wendell Harper: The Department of Corrections was not available for comment.
The sex offender detainee system is nationwide. As in the state of New York, the National Association of Mental Illness decries the housing of sexually violent former inmates without psychiatric diagnoses in mental health facilities for reasons of cost, capacity, safety and stigma.
Michael St. Martin: One of the major things that needs to be done is Dr. Mayberg needs to be removed as the Director of the Department of Mental Health. He’s been in control of the Department of Mental Health for over 20 years. He made a statement when they had the hearings about two years ago on the Justice Department findings that were scathing, and his response was “well, we noticed we had a problem about 12 years ago and we’ve been working on it.” Well, if anybody in a normal job knew that they had a problem 12 years ago and they continued to fail, none of ‘em would be their position for 12 years to be able to continue to fail. Dr. Mayberg has run a reign over an organization that is almost in total collapse. The medical treatment here is so substandard. The staff shortages in all the hospitals are so far-reaching that people are just in danger for their lives the way that they’re running this place.
Reporting for KPFA News, this is Wendell Harper".
Wendell Harper reports: More than 600 Department of Corrections prisoners, now civil detainees point to what they say is a staff shakeup of the facility wide shut down as evidence of their strike’s effectiveness and the administration's desperation in containing the revolt. Representing the prisoners on the outside, Friends and Families of California Detainees Director Allan Marshall. He said the former inmates effectively have shut down all sex offender treatment.
Marshall: As it is now, sex offenders are an incredibly wide ranging group of individuals, some of whom, doubtless, are dangerous people. Unfortunately, I'm afraid; almost all of them are being tarred with the same brush. And the term sexually violent predator has come into some popularity in this country and has come to mean something quite different from what any reasonable person would expect sexually violent would mean. Factors such as the age of the victim, the number of the victims and whether they are related or not. Those are factors which they take into consideration in calling someone sexually violent -- not at all what we would typically think of [as] violent. So they have sort of redefined terms which I believe is a means to inflame public opinion, and I think that has resulted in very Draconian, citizen based demand for further punishment of sex offenders.
Wendell Harper: In the Coalinga State Hospital the civil detainees have been on strike since August 6th, demanding the restoration of their civil rights having previously served their entire sentences in prison. These former inmates insist that conditions under which they are being held are unconstitutional and inhumane and go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted.
Michael St. Martin: Our number one issue is the assessments which they have never done on any of us. I’ve been here at this hospital for eleven months and I’ve never seen a psychiatrist. They’ve never done an evaluation to determine where I’m at or what I need for treatment or what’s necessary for me to be released or any of that stuff. They don’t have any staff here. They had 11 psychologists. They’re now down to 8 psychologists because three just left. Of those 8 psychologists, only four of them are licensed so they only have 4 licensed clinicians. They have 3 psychiatrists here at the hospital for about 700 people and those psychiatrists have been brought in from India. The second thing is that we have this huge, huge deficit of doctors here - medical doctors.
Wendell Harper: [that was] patient representative Michael St. Martin. The US Supreme Court, according to St. Martin and civil detainee Tom Watson upheld the constitutionality of laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders. But the Court’s order requires that further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same offense. But the detainees have been told, according to the strikers, that they have no rights.
Tom Watson: The patients have got just basically tired of the way they’re being treated. The patients here are civil commitments, and they have been treating them like they were prisoners. So the patients went on strike.
Wendell Harper: During each year for the last generation, Prison Justice Day is observed in Canada as prison rights advocates hold a one-day strike to honor and support inmates in that country.
Woman Reporter: Brenda, a former prisoner - who was not a sex offender but did endure the medical system in a Canadian prison: Even though the Canadian government and the Corrections Service of Canada acknowledges that over-representation, and has made legislation to deal with it through conditional sentencing and alternatives to incarceration, those numbers continue to increase. So today is 1974’s, when Eddie Naylon died in solitary confinement in Millhaven Prison and Eddie was a lifer and he had been on a working unit in the prison. He wanted to transfer to a non-working unit and one of the guards had told him the only way to get a transfer was to sign a [garbled].
Wendell Harper: The Department of Corrections was not available for comment.
The sex offender detainee system is nationwide. As in the state of New York, the National Association of Mental Illness decries the housing of sexually violent former inmates without psychiatric diagnoses in mental health facilities for reasons of cost, capacity, safety and stigma.
Michael St. Martin: One of the major things that needs to be done is Dr. Mayberg needs to be removed as the Director of the Department of Mental Health. He’s been in control of the Department of Mental Health for over 20 years. He made a statement when they had the hearings about two years ago on the Justice Department findings that were scathing, and his response was “well, we noticed we had a problem about 12 years ago and we’ve been working on it.” Well, if anybody in a normal job knew that they had a problem 12 years ago and they continued to fail, none of ‘em would be their position for 12 years to be able to continue to fail. Dr. Mayberg has run a reign over an organization that is almost in total collapse. The medical treatment here is so substandard. The staff shortages in all the hospitals are so far-reaching that people are just in danger for their lives the way that they’re running this place.
Reporting for KPFA News, this is Wendell Harper".
Coalinga Strike Update: 8/27/2007
Now in the third week of a non-violent strike, Civil Detainees in California's $388 Million Coalinga State Hospital point to a staff shakeup and a facility-wide shutdown as evidence of the strike's effectiveness and the administration's desperation in containing the revolt. Detainees, refusing to participate in most programs during the strike, have effectively shut down all Sex Offender Treatment.
More than 600 Former Department of Corrections prisoners, now being held as Civil Detainees by D.M.H. (Dept. of Mental Health) under California's stringent sex offender laws at Coalinga State Hospital, have been on strike since August 6 to demand the restoration of their civil rights. Having previously served their entire sentences in prison, they insist conditions under which they are being held are unconstitutional and inhumane and go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted. The U.S. Supreme Court, while having upheld the constitutionality of laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders, requires that further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same crime. However, the Hospital's Director, Clinical Administrator, Chief Medical Officer, and Police Lieutenant have all recently informed Detainees "you have no civil rights."
More than 600 Former Department of Corrections prisoners, now being held as Civil Detainees by D.M.H. (Dept. of Mental Health) under California's stringent sex offender laws at Coalinga State Hospital, have been on strike since August 6 to demand the restoration of their civil rights. Having previously served their entire sentences in prison, they insist conditions under which they are being held are unconstitutional and inhumane and go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted. The U.S. Supreme Court, while having upheld the constitutionality of laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders, requires that further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same crime. However, the Hospital's Director, Clinical Administrator, Chief Medical Officer, and Police Lieutenant have all recently informed Detainees "you have no civil rights."
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Coalinga Strike Update: 8/23/2007
Acting Director Rocky Spurgeon and Program Clinical Administrator, Gary Renzaglia resigned but may remain in D.M.H. Nighttime surprise searches, including strip-searches, rousted Detainees from bed-many of them elderly, infirm, or in wheelchairs- and herded them into an inner courtyard outdoors while staff conducted searches.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Coalinga Strike Update: 8/22/2007
Detainee James Allen Hydrick, 48, was assaulted by Police Staff for refusing to relinquish a protest leaflet. After a tug-of-war for the leaflet, Hydrick was placed in a choke-hold and nearly passed out. Another inmate's medical emergency was ignored by staff who instead insisted that he remove a "protest tag" from his clothing.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Coalinga Strike Update: 8/21/2007
An unsigned directive to Hospital Police stated "...effective immediately, patients are not to gather in the halls... Patient I.D . tags are to be cleared of any attachments. ...Patients have "no right to assembly" at this time. "Sit-downs" are not allowed."" [NOTE: Many Detainees have been wearing "protest tags" asserting their civil rights since the strike began].
Friday, August 17, 2007
Coalinga Strike Update: 8/17/2007
Memos issued today from administration state that, effective August 20, those detainees participating in the strike for a total of three days will be dropped from the Sex Offender Treatment Program. Detainees will also lose work assignments for participating in the strike. Since the strike began Detainee spokesperson Niles Carr has reported that the Administration has imposed further restrictions on movement and increased punishment, including loss of work assignment, for many participating in the strike. They have also announced that they will disband RPAC (Resident Policy Advisory Council, elected by Detainees). In response, Detainees Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to retain RPAC and its representatives and to stage two days of "non-movement/non-cooperation" scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, August 20-21.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Coalinga Strike Update: 8/16/2007
Sex offender Civil Detainees in California's Coalinga State Hospital strike to demand civil rights
Former prisoners now being held as Civil Detainees under California's stringent sex offender laws at Coalinga State Hospital have been on strike since August 6 to demand the restoration of rights denied them since their transfer to that facility. Now classified as "Civil Detainees", having served their entire sentences in the Department of Corrections and placed into the custody of the Department of Mental Health (DMH), they insist that conditions under which they are being held are flagrantly unconstitutional and inhumane. They argue that restrictions and privations imposed upon them go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted. The U.S. Supreme Court, while having upheld the constitutionality of state laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders, insist that such further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same crime.
Despite a $400 million price tag, Coalinga State Hospital is now widely viewed as an ill-conceived failure. The strike, its organizers assert, had become necessary in the face of an administration unaccountable to the rule of law or its mandate from voters. Strike participants seek to expose medical and mental health abuses in excess of those in California prisons, tax funding fraudulently misspent and a mission subverted to the career interests of officials.
Staff who express concern with the facility's management and "counter-therapeutic" treatment programs are seen by residents to leave the institution quickly and this, at a time when DMH acknowledges staff shortage as a major factor in its failure. The decision to build in Coalinga has been criticized by State officials due to difficulty in attracting qualified professionals to the area. Staffing is less than half of that required so half of the Hospital's units remain unopened while the other half is overcrowded, an exigency due to severe understaffing. As in State prisons, recreational areas are converted into makeshift dorms while more recent detainees languish in other DMH facilities or county jails awaiting a bed space in Coalinga.
Detainees allege they have been lured into treatment programs with the false hope that they may one day reenter society, saying that in the eleven years since civil commitment laws were enacted, only two castrated Detainees have won their freedom while several others have been placed in residential treatment programs. All of those released were through court order.
Key issues leading to the strike:
- Clinical assessments are rarely performed on individual Detainees. State evaluators whose recommendations are critical in civil commitment trials spend little or no time with detainees before issuing their reports, relying instead on aging court or police records. Lacking current information, test results, or objectivity, their reports are routinely skewed against Detainees, who see them as merely tools for the prosecution.
- Abysmal medical care. Life-threatening conditions are often ignored or inadequately treated. Medical staff recommendations for Detainee health are routinely overruled by non-medical staff.
- Many program staff have quit. Detainees say that, amongst those few clinicians genuinely interested in providing effective patient treatment, many have left due to encroachment by administration and police staff into the management of treatment.
- Conflict of interest. Acting Hospital Director, Rocky Spurgeon (the third Director in a little more than a month), is a defendant in ongoing Detainee lawsuits dating to before his current appointment. Clearly, Detainees seeking legal redress continue to be under the authority of those very individuals from whom they seek relief.
- Lack of independent and professional oversight by outside organizations. The Hospital falls short in standards of care and management set by federal guidelines and even by those of California 's Department of Corrections, an agency now under court order to address gross deficiencies in health care, overcrowding, and humane treatment. Coalinga has been left largely unmonitored by either state or federal oversight or by professional organizations, such as the American Psychiatric or Psychological Associations.
- Many custody police are compelled to enforce punitive restrictions imposed by administrative officials. Mandatory searches of each detainee's property are conducted weekly without probable cause. One police complained that, having previously worked in California's prisons before coming to DMH, he found the conditions in DMH to be far more restrictive than those imposed on inmates in state prison, despite the emphasis received in his training that "this is a hospital, not a prison".
- Nutritional deficiency and dreadful food quality. Coalinga meals are widely regarded as much worse than state prison food, itself known for poor quality. Staff discard extra food but deny seconds to hungry Detainees, despite ever smaller portion sizes. Nutritious food purchased by family and friends on the outside to send in monthly packages are forbidden but junk food-chips, cookies, candy, and ramen-are allowed.
- Communication with the outside world. Letters and communications, even those with attorneys, are subject to staff scrutiny. Many believe that staff listen in on phone calls. Staff arbitrarily refuse mail, including treatment and college materials, without notification.
- Absence of Detainee rules for conduct and rights under an appeals process. There is nothing equivalent to CDC's Title 15 delineating rules to which inmates must adhere or rights which they possess. Nor are there precedents that actions contravening Detainee rights will result in discipline for staff or Detainee remedy. Instead, rules are issued arbitrarily by individual staff as directives, many of which are mutually contradictory and have no legal basis. Rules from one housing unit to the next differ widely, with Unit Supervisors making abrupt policy decisions without accountability to the law or administration. Property room staff, while allowing one detainee an item, will deny another an identical item, even when on an "approved" list. This, combined with the capricious enforcement of rules as a form of harassment, has created an atmosphere of constant uncertainty and turmoil for Detainees.
- Inmate library consists largely of children's books and juvenile-level materials. Titles featuring "Cinderella" are well represented in the library's collection and Detainees who desire more intellectual reading challenges find no support from staff. Beyond the library, censorship to absurd levels is imposed on all books, periodicals, and other media which the Detainee wishes to buy with his own money. Also, all items purchased by inmates must be ordered through a handful of institutionally approved vendors, a selection process without transparency and one which effectively imposes trade restraints on legitimate vendors.
- Inmate financial resources, earned as a result of work performed in the prison (averaging about $1.25 a day) are controlled by staff who must approve any expenditure in excess of $100, even if it is cash to be sent to family, and can refuse without explanation. Detainees do not receive interest accrued from their funds.
- Complete lack of privacy. Detainees have no privacy in any aspect of their daily lives, save for stall doors in restroom toilets, and they are in continuous view of staff and other Detainees. As Justice Louis Brandeis, in his now-famous dissent in the 1928 Supreme Court decision of Olmstead v. United States articulated: "the right to be let alone is the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." . How is it then that "Civil Detainees", not being held for the purpose of additional punishment, are shorn of this fundamental right of human dignity?
- Inmates are prevented from experiencing the outdoors or seeing beyond the institution walls. The largest accessible "outdoor" area is a tiny inner courtyard referred to by prisoners as "the terrarium".
- Despite its stated purpose as a forensic investigatory hospital, DMH has published nothing of their sex offender treatment research in peer-reviewed journals.
- Detainee family support. Visitors must be approved by administration and can be denied for any reason. There are very few telephones for use by hundreds of Detainees.
- Bingo, conga drumming, mural painting, and popcorn snacking are often shown in reports to be "treatment" in the continuous challenge staff face in justifying the hospital's existence as a treatment facility. While many suspect outright fraud in these "treatment" expenditures, they have received no scrutiny by State regulators or the Legislature.
- CDC prisoners , not Civil Detainees, have recently been dumped in Coalinga State Hospital alongside Civil Detainees who, after all, are not there for punishment.
- On the use of the term "Sexually Violent Predator " (S.V.P.) to describe Civil Detainees. The term "S.V.P." has a meaning under California law quite distinct from that of any reasonable person. As it is now defined, neither actual violence nor coercion is needed for a crime to meet the statutory definition of "sexually violent". The age of the victim, non-familial victims or past convictions are some criteria useful in branding someone " S.V.P." That this definitional shift has occurred during a period of mass hysteria over sex offenders cannot be seen as coincidental. California prisons and state hospitals have been launched on a wave of distorted public opinion.
- Recidivism rates are no higher for Civil Detainees than for other offenders not detained; between four and six percent. If the state is unable to demonstrate a difference in recidivism rates, then the very existence of the Civil Commitment program is called into question. Public safety would be truly served were funds reallocated to programs demonstrating actual success.
Since the strike began Detainee spokesperson Niles Carr has reported that the Administration has imposed further restrictions on movement and increased punishment, including loss of work assignment, for many participating in the strike. They have also announced that they will disband RPAC (Resident Policy Advisory Council, elected by Detainees). In response, Detainees Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to retain RPAC and its representatives and to stage two days of "non-movement/non-cooperation" scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, August 20-21.
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