Torment, tumult persist for prisoners
By WILLIAM PETROSKI Des Moines Register Staff Writer 06/02/2002
Fort Madison, Ia. - Bam! Bam! Boom! Boom! It's midday inside Cellhouse 220. The
inmates bang, pound and kick on metal cell doors and stainless steel sinks.
They scream, yell and shriek in an angry chorus. The noise is deafening. One
inmate urinates into the aisle where correctional officers pass. Some prisoners
are known to throw feces at prison workers and smear it on their cell walls.
Bedlam still prevails at times in Cellhouse 220 at the Iowa State Penitentiary,
five years after Senior U.S. Judge Donald O'Brien ordered major changes in the
facility's operations and the way Iowa treats mentally ill prisoners.
Cellhouse 220, a maximum-security unit, houses the state prison system's
worst-behaving inmates, including some who are mentally disturbed. In June 1997,
O'Brien criticized state officials for"shameful" conditions in Cellhouse 220,
where some prisoners shouted and screamed at all hours of the day and night, and
urinated and defecated almost everywhere but in their stools.
The Iowa Department of Corrections is now spending nearly $50 million in state
and federal money on new prison facilities that could provide some relief for
those in Cellhouse 220. State leaders have placed a priority on prison
mental-health issues - despite budget cuts in other areas of state government -
to avoid being found in contempt of the federal court ruling.
The state agency is nearing completion of a $26.8 million special-needs unit at
the Fort Madison prison, where some residents of Cellhouse 220 will be sent for
mental-health treatment. In addition, construction is expected to start this
fall on a $23 million special-needs unit at the Oakdale state prison, just north
of Iowa City.
State prison officials say they have revised the way they run Cellhouse 220.
They say they have developed plans to bolster treatment for inmates with
mental-health problems, who represent 17.5 percent of the 8,100 men and women in
the state's prison system.
"I think we have made tremendous changes if you look at what the conditions were
described as before, the length of lockup and the treatment resources. We are
not done, and hopefully, we are never done in making improvements," said Fort
Madison Warden John Mathes.
State legislators and others who hold the purse strings have been "very, very
slow" in addressing how mental-health issues affect the prison system, said
Margaret Stout, executive director of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Iowa.
However, she complimented Iowa Corrections Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky for
"trying to do a very good job in moving forward" in response to O'Brien's
criticisms.
"Judge O'Brien did the right thing by creating awareness and bringing this issue
to our attention," Stout said. "Everybody knows this problem has been there, but
nobody has wanted to do anything about it."
Iowa Prison Ombudsman Judith Milosevich, who independently investigates inmate
complaints, said there have been significant improvements by prison officials in
handling newly admitted inmates with histories of mental illness. Psychiatric
drugs were sometimes taken away from new inmates in the past, leading to
behavioral problems, she said. Those inmates are screened better now, and
medications are not automatically removed, she said.
Milosevich also said she has been receiving substantially fewer complaints about
prison mental-health treatment.
On a recent day in Cellhouse 220, though, the inmates demonstrated that
pandemonium can still reign. Most of the 48 inmates assigned to Cellhouse 220
have committed serious disciplinary infractions, such as assaulting a
correctional officer, fighting or having dangerous contraband, such as a
handmade knife.
The inmates banged on their cells and shouted at the top of their lungs,
claiming abuse by the correctional officers who supervised them. Some of them
had coated the security glass on their cells with toothpaste or toilet paper to
try to prevent correctional officers from peering inside. One of the inmates
told a visitor how two days earlier he had slashed his wrists, trying to commit
suicide.
Some inmates in Cellhouse 220 are so difficult to manage that prison staff have
posted signs outside some cells, warning that the inmates inside will spit on
correctional officers, throw food and flood their cells if the toilet water is
turned on. The most problematic convicts must turn around and put their hands
behind their backs when accepting food trays through cell slots. Otherwise, such
a convict could try to grab the hands of a correctional officer and pull him
into a cell, or throw food or bodily fluids at the officer.
Kautzky said the 200-bed special-needs unit that will open in August at Fort
Madison will permit prison officials to separate inmates with fully developed
mental illness from those who simply have behavioral problems and personality
disorders. The changes should help reduce the chaos in Cellhouse 220 and will
strengthen the prison system's mental-health treatment programs, he said.
"The behaviorally disordered guys get great benefit from disrupting the folks
who are mentally unstable," Kautzky said. "They get them all fired up - and as a
practical matter, the institution stays in a disruptive state a good portion of
the time. Quite frankly, the staff has done a marvelous job under the
circumstances."
The Iowa Department of Corrections has made a major commitment over the past
five years to address the issues raised by O'Brien's ruling, Kautzky said. Those
changes were initially fought by former Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican who
belittled O'Brien as an "ultraliberal federal judge," but state officials have
since complied under federal court pressure.
Residents of Cellhouse 220 aren't bashful about complaining that life is still
hell inside the unit, where they are confined to their cells 23 hours a day,
Monday through Friday, and 24 hours a day on weekends.
Richard Keller, 21, of Des Moines has been convicted of theft in Polk and Dallas
counties. He said he received mental-health treatment before entering prison,
but he claimed that psychiatric medication he has been given behind bars caused
him to lose his temper, prompting him to damage his cell. He said he has had
suicidal tendencies, but he alleged that correctional officers in Cellhouse 220
have assaulted him and sprayed him with a chemical deterrent.
"This place ought to be shut down, or there ought to be an investigation to see
how it is being run," Keller said.
Christopher Meyer, 37, of Ottumwa is serving time for burglary. Prison records
show he has a lengthy record of causing disciplinary problems, including
throwing bodily fluids, making threats, assaulting others and damaging property.
Meyer said he has been diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, but he claimed he has not received treatment in prison.
"It's real bad. The guards lie to you and mess with you all the time," Meyer
said.
Capt. George Carruthers, Cellhouse 220's supervisor, said the prisoners'
allegations of physical abuse and lack of mental-health treatment were false but
not unexpected considering their backgrounds of misconduct and manipulative
behavior.
"We do not use force unless we absolutely have to," Carruthers said. "It is a
last resort."
O'Brien shook the foundations of Iowa's prison system five years ago when he
issued a 118-page ruling that faulted conditions inside Cellhouse 220. He
described how the lower ranges of the cellhouse, known as the "Bug Range," were
dominated by "maddening waves of noise" caused by inmates. Excrement and urine
were found almost everywhere. One expert witness said some of the inmates could
become walking "time bombs" upon their release from prison. O'Brien agreed with
inmates who had sued state officials, contending conditions in Cellhouse 220
violated their constitutional rights.
O'Brien ordered the Iowa Department of Corrections to improve treatment for
mentally disturbed inmates and to find ways to reduce extraordinarily long
lockup sentences for chronic troublemakers. He also instructed state officials
to improve exercise conditions in the winter for the unit's prisoners.
In August 1999, after rejecting three earlier proposals, O'Brien approved the
state's plan to address the issues, although it was two years later than he had
ordered.
"The two-year delay in getting a plan that could be appropriately considered . .
. was almost entirely the fault of the defendants," O'Brien wrote. "However, to
their credit, plan four is now a better plan."
The state's plan responds to O'Brien's ruling in several ways. One was to form a
partnership with the Iowa Consortium for Mental Health, based at the University
of Iowa, to provide additional expertise on mental-health issues. Another
involves training employees throughout Iowa's prisons, including correctional
officers, to work with mentally ill inmates.
Prisoners sent to Cellhouse 220 are no longer ordered to spend decades being
punished in disciplinary detention. Their time inside the unit is now limited to
two consecutive years, and most inmates spend a month or less there, Mathes
said.
In addition, two-day "breather" periods are provided periodically in which
inmates can smoke outdoors in restricted areas, and they can watch television
and listen to a radio, which they are normally not permitted to do. A small
indoor area with exercise gear has been reserved for winter exercise.
Some inmates can move from Cellhouse 220 into a "reintegration" unit at the
Newton Correctional Facility. The goal is to help the inmates make a transition
to the general prison population.
The most significant change will occur when Fort Madison's special-needs unit
will be completed this summer. The facility, which will open in phases through
next spring, will be staffed by three psychologists, five counselors, 68
correctional officers, nurses and activity specialists - positions that are
being added to the existing staff. Some mentally disturbed inmates from
Cellhouse 220 will be sent to the new unit. The rest will arrive from other
places in Iowa's prison system.
The Iowa Legislature also has appropriated $4 million to begin construction of a
170-bed special-needs unit at the Oakdale state prison. About half of the beds
will be for mentally ill inmates. The remaining space will be for medical care.
Mental-health care in prisons is an issue across the nation. Thirteen percent of
all state prisoners in the United States - 150,900 inmates - were receiving
mental-health therapy or counseling in June 2000, according to the U.S. Bureau
of Justice Statistics. Ten percent received psychiatric medication.
In Iowa, about 1,400 inmates, or about one in six prisoners, have a psychiatric
diagnosis, according to a University of Iowa study issued in April. About 14
percent of all inmates are taking psychiatric medication. Even more Iowa inmates
could benefit from mental-health treatment, although they may not have a fully
developed psychiatric condition, researchers said.
Advocates for the mentally ill contend the huge growth of prison populations in
recent decades is closely linked to the shutdown of state mental hospitals
nationwide and the failure of community mental-health programs to pick up the
slack.
"Let's face it, a lot of people do end up in prison because they are
dysfunctional - they are mentally ill. We need to rethink our strategy of
providing community-based treatment to put stronger programming in place," said
Randall Wilson, legal director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union.
Dr. Donald Black, a University of Iowa psychiatrist who has treated Iowa
inmates, said the prison population is so varied in terms of psychiatric
diagnoses, substance-abuse history and other factors that it is difficult to
speculate on the degree of success that can be achieved in treating mentally ill
offenders.
"What I think this special-needs unit will do is get rid of any questions about
inadequate treatment or mistreatment, or whatever has been alleged," Black said.
Although O'Brien's decision focused public attention on mental-health problems
inside Iowa's prisons, state officials still contend - as they did five years
ago - that most of the chaos inside Cellhouse 220 is caused by inmates who are
not mentally ill.
"Those are guys who are just bad characters, and that is how they are acting
out," said Bernard Eaves, the penitentiary's treatment director. Prison staff
use varying techniques with such inmates, including individual counseling and
anger-management programs, he said.
Black said the contention of state officials that most prisoners in Cellhouse
220 are not mentally ill depends upon one's definition of mental illness.
"I believe that what they are saying is probably true. The prisoners may not be
mentally ill in the sense that they are not responding to delusions or
hallucinations. They are clearly not manic. What they are describing is
essentially voluntary misbehavior. The person may have a severe personality
disorder, but these are not otherwise psychotic individuals," Black said.
Larry Smith, 21, who has lived in Iowa and Oklahoma, is one of the more troubled
residents of Cellhouse 220. He was sent to prison from Keokuk County for two
charges of assault with a weapon and one count of escape.
Smith acknowledges lifelong problems controlling his emotions, and he said he
receives medication for a behavior disorder and seizures. He said he has tried
to hang himself twice, and his wrists bear scars from other suicide attempts.
As a youth, Smith said he sexually assaulted a female staff member in a juvenile
home. He also remembers punching out the windows of houses.
"I was doing that to get my stress and anger out, instead of taking it out on
others," he said.
Last year, Smith was convicted of assault with intent to cause serious injury
for attacking a Newton prison correctional officer.
Smith, who has experience in construction work, is scheduled to be freed from
prison on July 5, 2005. A psychologist and counselor will meet with him before
his release to help find mental-health treatment in the community, said Fort
Madison prison spokesman Ron Welder.
Dr. Harbans Deol, medical director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, said
he recognizes the prison system has more work to do to help inmates with
mental-health problems.
"I have been developing a different philosophy for the department," Deol said.
"I tell the staff, 'We don't care where these guys came from. They are not
prisoners to us; they are patients. We need to take care of these people." "
Source:
http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c4788993/18344666.html
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