Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Visits resume at state hospital
By Eddie Jimenez / The Fresno Bee
Visitation for Coalinga State Hospital residents will resume this morning, four days after visitors were banned from the facility.
A spokeswoman for the hospital for sex offenders would not discuss a news report that visits were curtailed to allow hospital police to investigate claims that visitors were smuggling drugs, electronics and weapons into the hospital.
In an e-mail late Monday afternoon, Deborah Ireland, the hospital's external affairs director, would only confirm that visitations would resume today.
"We cannot discuss hospital security issues," Ireland wrote.
Hospital patient Greg Peters said visitations were banned beginning at midday Friday to punish patients for a planned demonstration by family and friends two days later at the hospital.
The protest involved about 40 relatives and friends who say patients are being held unlawfully, said Jaymmie Stallworth, whose husband, Lavell, is a hospital resident.
The state Department of Mental Health houses sexually violent predators in Coalinga after they finish their prison sentences under a procedure called civil detainment, in which criminals can be held indefinitely after completing their sentences if they're still considered a threat.
"They shut down the hospital because of the protest," Jaymmie Stallworth said.
She believes the smuggling allegations were a smokescreen.
Peters agreed, saying, "Put two and two together. The demonstration was Sunday." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Many Possible Explanations For No Visiting During the Demonstration at C.S.H.
That's a good one. Previously, we have heard, variously, that visiting was closed due to:
A. The need to clean the visiting room (it must have been awfully dirty!)
B. That the camera in the visiting center was broken.
C. That a "shank" had been found buried in the yard.
D. Lost keys (yes, again with the lost keys!)
E. "The outside activities planned for this weekend"
The last explanation, and the one I am most inclined to believe, came directly to us from a Lieutenant Walters (sp?) who, when asked by demonstrators why visiting had been suspended, offered just that, referring directly to the demonstration which had nearly wrapped-up by 2:00 p.m. Sunday, March 2nd.
Immediately after the rally, several carloads of demonstrators as well as two or three local t.v. news crews attempted to gain access to the facility grounds with the intention of interviewing whichever administrators might be available. While no one had high hopes of actually entering the facility, as expected they did get to verbally engage with the Hospital police who blocked them from venturing beyond the parking lot, at which time the Lieutenant offered the sole plausible explanation for closing all visiting of Detainees by their family and friends from Friday afternoon until Tuesday morning.
Less convincingly, he asserted that the "Patient's privileges" had been temporarily suspended for this reason. When challenged by one of the demonstrators who reminded him that visiting was not a "privilege" but a "right" (indeed, the Detainees are Civil Detainees who are assured by the U.S. Supreme Court that they are not being punished but instead retain their civil liberties) he seemed unprepared to respond and instead turned and walked away.
It is reported that several Detainees' families are considering legal remedy to compensate them for the long trips they made to Coalinga and the C.S.H. only to be refused the right to visit their family members.
The unavoidable impression we are left with is this: Executive Director Norm Kramer decided to punish the Detainees as well as their family/friends for exercising their Constitutional rights to assemble and to speak on their own behalf. This impulse towards "group punishment" and "message control" comes easily to the Department of Mental Health as it is a habit exercised daily in their administration of C.S.H.
We do commend Lieutenant Walters for his candor and to assure him that the whole criminal/civil distinction thing is dreadfully confusing when discussing the laws under which California's sex offender Civil Detainees are held. So it is not surprising to us that he, too, should blur those lines.
Perhaps Nancy Kincaid (C.S.H. media flack) should lead a workshop for C.S.H. employees on just that topic. She has, so far, been able to convince the credulous media that Coalinga's Detainees are uniformly "the worst of the worst" and "sexually violent predators". I believe that will begin to change, and rather soon.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Public Demonstration To Protest Against Coalinga State Hospital
(see maps, below)
WHEN: Sunday, March 2, 2008 at NOON
MAPS (2):
California, showing routes and distances to Coalinga from major cities / Coalinga area (detail)
ORGANIZERS:
Demonstration Coordinator: Jaymmie Stallworth, Friends & Family of California Civil Detainees
Tel: (916) 628-7201, (916) 670-0022
Detainee Spokesman: Mike St. Martin, Tel: 559-934-0391 / 559-934-0392
Friends & Family Spokesperson: Allan Marshall, Tel: 702-421-0467
Anyone needing transportation may be able to carpool. Please let Jaymmie Stallworth know if you need a ride and she will try to provide it. Also, she can provide any recommendations about hotel/motel accommodations or any logistical questions.
This is a non-violent demonstration. It will be a peaceable event to show solidarity with those being wrongly held in C.S.H. and to communicate the conditions under which they are held. Please do not attend this event if you are unable to abide by accepted rules of civility.
We do request that you email or call us to let us know if you can attend but you do not have to provide your name. This is only to help us better plan the event, you can remain entirely anonymous. If you cannot contact us ahead of time, that's fine, too.
We look forwarding to seeing you there. More importantly, this event will give an enormous boost to the spirits of the Detainees who have little to hope for. Indeed, the anticipation of this demonstration has already had a dramatic effect on their morale. Please attend the demonstration and show you care!
Thank you!
Allan Marshall
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Jan. 11, 2008 Press Release, C.S.H. Civil Detainees
California Department Of Mental Health Explains Why Gang Members Who Rape Women Do Not Need Treatment
For Immediate Release, January 11, 2008
Coalinga State Hospital Detainee, John Lofton, spoke by phone with Brenda Epperly-Ellis, Chief of the Sexual Offender Commitment Program, from her office in the California Department of Mental Health in Sacramento on November 19, 2007.Lofton had called Epperly-Ellis to discuss D.M.H. criteria for selecting candidates for involuntary civil confinement after completing their prison sentences. His question to her follows:
"Of those people who are detained here under the S.V.P.A. (Sexually Violent Predator Act) since 1996, its year of enactment, it has become clear that there are few, if any, gang members convicted of sex crimes within our commitment, despite high rates of sexual offense among gang members.
Why are gang members, who usually are violent, excluded from S.V.P.? Instead, sex offenders with gang affiliation are free to return home after serving their prison terms while we face lifetime confinement in the Department of Mental Health even though many here are not violent at all?
(Epperly-Ellis letter: http://detainees.googlepages.com/BrendaEpperly-Ellis_LTR.gif )
November 26, 2007
To: John Lofton
Coalinga State Hospital
24511 West Jayne Avenue
Coalinga, CA 93210
From: Brenda Epperly-Ellis, S.O.C.P.
Subject: SVP/Gang Affiliation
Dear Mr. Lofton,
I am writing to you in regards to the questions we discussed by telephone regarding gang members in the Sexual Offender Commitment Program. I have checked with both our Legal Department and our experienced evaluators to provide a response to your concern.
There are no statutes that protect gang members from a sexually violent predator commitment. Gang affiliation is considered in the evaluation because it is a significant risk factor for sexual re-offense. The sexual offenses of gang members are one of many types of criminal offenses they commit. Gang members often commit a rape in concert and it is motivated by violence not by deviance. Generally, this is not due to a mental disorder and they stop doing those types of offenses as they get older.
I hope this letter has addressed your concerns. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me via mail at the address above.
Sincerely,
Brenda Epperly-Ellis, Chief
Sexual Offender Commitment Program, 1600 9th Street, RM 250, Sacramento, CA 95814, 916-653-1843
Response From Detainee Mike St. Martin to Brenda Epperly-Ellis:
Statistics consistently show that our rate of reoffense goes down with age, too. But that doesn't keep you from holding us here until our 70's or 80's while gang members often get out of prison while still in their 20's or 30's. And gang members have a rate of recidivism of more than 70% while ours are less than 5%. What's more, the average age of Detainees here is nearly 60 and most committed their crimes more than twenty years ago. Thirty people have died in custody, three times as many as the courts have released after completion of the program.
So how is it that those gang affiliated sex offenders with a documented history of violence who have raped and abused women are not considered "Sexually Violent Predators"?"
It's very telling that you find “deviance” to be more of a threat to society than “violence”. The public has been lead to believe that the offender profile most to be feared is that of the socially isolated sex offender, not of the violent gangster who, amongst all other things, is a rapist.
By excluding the “violent” and focusing on “the deviant”, you simultaneously appease the public and avoid the difficult custody problems encountered by the Department of Corrections when incarcerating gang members.
Those not conforming to your preferred offender profiles find no place in your program and do not appear in the statistics which purport to demonstrate its value. Indeed, it has been suggested that you would find their introduction to be a contamination of your narrowly-focused study of offenders, although I find the suggestion that your treatment teams are capable of conducting any “scientific study” laughable on its face.
The demonstrated statistical reality is that the dangerousness of gang members who rape is far greater than that of the individual pedophile who, alarming headlines to the contrary, is rarely violent. But keeping gang members in cages is far more difficult, isn't it?
The California Legislature's Greatly Revised Dictionary of the English Language (Abridged)
Prisoners in California's Department of Corrections, upon completion of their prison sentences for sexually related crimes, are evaluated for consideration as "Sexually Violent Predators". At that point, State Evaluators make a recommendation to have the individual detained in Civil Confinement under the authority of the Department of Mental Health if they consider him to be “S.V.P.”, or to be allowed to leave the prison system onto parole and out into the community if they do not.
What is a "Sexually Violent Predator (S.V.P.)" under California law? The State's criteria for determining "Sexual Violence" is very different from the definition for the word "violent" found in any dictionary or any reasonable person's understanding of the term. As it is now defined, neither actual violence nor coercion is needed for a crime to meet the statutory definition of "sexually violent" under California law. In the case of child sex offenders, all that is needed to classify an offender as "violent" is that they have “substantial sexual contact” with a person under the age of 14, regardless of consent. Even if the "victim" had been perfectly willing to engage in sexual contact with the "perpetrator", he will be considered, for the purposes of classification and consideration for lifetime commitment, a "sexually violent predator".
What's more, "Sexual contact" can consist of mere touching, even through clothing and even if what is being touched is not genitalia (such as feet or back or shoulders). In this case, the "thoughts" of the perpetrator are what matter, since any physical contact whatsoever is a felony given "sexual intent". "Thought Crimes" are punishable under California Criminal Code 288 with the very real possibility of a life sentence!
The term "predator" itself is also intended to mislead. According to California's "dictionary" a "predator" need not employ actual violence, force or coercion. In this context, a "predator" may simply be someone who is unrelated as family to the "victim", such as a friend or "casual acquaintance". It is for this reason that those convicted of incest are less likely to find themselves being civilly committed after serving their prison sentence than those who had a friendship (a voluntary relationship) with their "victims".
The "Static 99" is a scoring system which purports to estimate risk for reoffense and is used in further determining eligibility for civil confinement. In practice, it especially penalizes men (and it's only used on men) who are unmarried and homosexual (with male "victims") and not related by family to their "victims". Such an offender will receive two additional "points" indicating reoffense risk. He will receive one more point if he has not known his "victim" for at least 24 hours before sexual contact. The maximum number of points that can be scored on the Static 99 is only 12.
Ironically, one of the definitions for "violent" which is found in Webster's dictionary is the following: "of, pertaining to, or constituting a distortion of meaning or fact." Does this sound like a Legislature we know?
###
Contact:
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
this document is also available from: http://detainees.googlepages.com/whygangmemberswhorapewomendonotneedtreat
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Coalinga State Hospital Refuses U.S. Mail To Detainee
**UPDATE**: Coalinga State Hospital has today (Jan. 11, 2008) released the brochures without comment to Mike St. Martin (see below)Administration has Civil Detainee, Mike St. Martin, reports today that Hospital administration has refused to give him brochures from Friends & Family of California Civil Detainees sent by the U.S. Mail. (download brochure)
He was told that his mail would have to be further "reviewed" by the Administration before a determination could be made if he would be allowed to receive it.
The ostensible reason for this "review" was stated by Officer Wallace to be that the words "Coalinga State Hospital" and a stylized depiction of the institution (which is part of the "Friends & Family" logo) appear in the brochure.
"This is an ongoing policy of the Hospital which claims that Detainees have no civil rights and that we only have the civil rights that they (the Hospital) gives us', said St. Martin. "This is according to Lieutenant Sharon Rogers and previous Clinical Director Gary Renzaglia."
"Hospital administration is having a really hard time coming to grips with the fact that we DO possess civil rights including the right to send and receive mail and to keep it from being read without a court warrant. The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that we are not to be punished and that we are to be held in the least restrictive manner possible. What part of 'No, you won't abrogate our rights' don't they understand?".
Not only is this latest abridgment of Detainee civil rights in contravention of U.S. Federal Statutes but is also in defiance of California Department of Mental Health's own rules governing mail:
"Unit staff will deliver the mail to the Individual to whom it is addressed and, in accordance with the hospital's rules, open and inspect incoming mail for contraband, without reading written material, and in the presence of the Individual". California Department of Mental Health Administrative Directive: "SUPPORTIVE SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTIVE NO. 624
The Federal Law on the subject reads as follows:
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Valley Fever Outbreak Blamed On Coalinga State Hospital
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.
Friday, November 23, 2007
C.S.H. Civil Detainees Press Release
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
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!
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.
California Healthline
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
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
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