Janice Brewer, Anthony Lester & Prison Mental Health Care

If anybody should know the issues and problems associated with the complexity of providing mental health care to severely mentally ill (SMI) persons it is Arizona Governor Janice Brewer of Arizona. She has a son that ran afoul of the law and was considered to be eligible to be housed in a state hospital rather than the state owned prisons. This was a definite benefit for her as a mother as she was assured her convicted son was going to receive treatment for his illness that was a factor in his crime. According to public records, he is still there at the state hospital getting his medication and treatment as prescribed by a psychiatrist.

News Investigative Reporter Wendy Halloran exposed a very destructive prison culture as she investigated his suicide for months how the Arizona Department of Corrections failed to render aid to inmate Anthony Lester when he was found bleeding from self-inflicted wounds in a detention cell while in a prison in Tucson Arizona. Last Friday, November 5, Channel 12 did a story on Tony Lester that was identified by the ADOC as preventable. The story resulted in mass viewer concerns about the mentally ill as they have no voice in the community and need protection by those who care. http://www.azcentral.com/video/#/Watchdog/Arizona+inmate+suicide%3A+Did+correction+officers+fail+to+administer+aid%3F/40280768001/35389240001/1259212342001 Just another name, another SMI person, Anthony Lester, was convicted of a crime and sent to prison without any considerations for treatment whether inside the state hospital or the state prison. He was discarded, abandoned and left on his own to survive his illness in a most predatory environment and received no help from anyone unlike the governor’s son. The difference between the two is one major fact. Tony Lester was not the governor’s son. Although Janice Brewer was not the governor at the time of this consideration, she was an influential politician in state government and given preferential treatment in the care of her son.

Anthony Lester committed suicide within a few months of his incarceration in prison. His needs were ignored by the agency and he was ignored as an SMI person incarcerated and denied care that was recommended by the judge that sentenced him and a personal plea from his family to high officials inside the corrections agency to allow him to be put in a mental health setting. Tony Lester was diagnosed to be “manipulative and gamey” by the top doctors and officials inside the Arizona Department of Corrections. He was denied care. Tony Lester earned that title of being manipulative and gamey from the behavior of others who are NOT mentally ill but use it as a tool to seek special housing assignments. He was put in a stereotyped class of manipulators inside prison and denied the opportunity to receive care. Since the investigation there is sufficient information that there exists an obvious lack of support within the prison administration and cultural setting that allows the existence and success of prison therapy programs to work and be effectively management without political interference. The dangers associated with these released SMI persons who have not received care while in prison effects our communities and increases their chances of committing crimes again almost assuring society that they will spend the rest of their lives inside a prison with lengthy and determinate sentences to keep them off the streets in the name of public safety and tough on crime mandates or die inside prisons as they are denied the proper treatment and care a mentally ill person deserves in order to survive and cope with the prison term. After all, a prison sentences should be a death sentence as it is to many who are SMI disabled.
Source:
http://www.azcentral.com/video/#/Watchdog/Arizona+inmate+suicide%3A+Did+correction+officers+fail+to+administer+aid%3F/40280768001/35389240001/1259212342001
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9134563/anthony_lester_suicide_preventable.html
http://www.mhcca.org/mental-health-problems-and-disabilities-in-prisons.html

link to Ch 12 video on suicide attached

Anthony Lester Suicide,

Preventable Death, Shoddy Investigation -

link to Ch 12 video on suicide attached

There are many questions still unanswered by there were no administrators disciplined for the death of inmate Anthony Lester, a mentally ill person, incarcerated and sentenced to die at his own hands. Diagnosed with a severe mental illness, his judgment and sentence report contained a recommendation by a judge to be admitted for psychiatric care while in prison. In addition, his medical and mental health files was covered with his treatment needs and were ignored by the Arizona Department of Corrections as he was admitted, classified and sent to a non-mental health unit in Tucson, Arizona.

Several months after his incarceration, Anthony was put on a mental health watch for suicide risks and self-harm statements made to staff and mental health providers. His watch didn’t last long and he was released back to general population but instead of going to the yard, he was placed in isolation via a stay in a detention cell. His needs of the “voices” he was hearing was not addressed nor was he on any medication that was part of his treatment. Soon after, Lester, with the help of a cellmate, took a razor erroneously given to him by an officer and removed the blade. He then cut his body in many places and finally, he wrote the words “voices” in his own blood before he cut his jugular vein and died.

The investigation was personally handled by the director of the agency as he hurriedly appointed an investigator via telephone and gave specific instructions on his expectations and time frames to conduct this investigation. The investigator was given a week to put the case together. Such cases usually take anywhere from two to three months and have a 53 day window for action but the director insisted on limiting this case to one week. Under pressure, the investigator did what he could under the circumstances. It was not a very thorough job but it revealed the staple of the case, unauthorized razor issued to the inmate that facilitated the death. It did not thoroughly glean enough facts of the culture, the practices and the decision making of the unit’s administration and custodial responsibilities. As a result, disciplinary action was limited to those present at the time of the suicide and for not performing first aid on the inmate as they took no action what so ever to preserve life and remained there in the cell until the paramedics arrived thus admitting they stood around for almost 23 minutes doing nothing.

Admittingly, the DOC admitted to it be an “preventable suicide” but did nothing to correct the problem and disciplined staff by taking two weeks pay from their paycheck. The investigative process was tainted the moment the director got involved personally and directed courses of action that negated those the assigned investigator would have taken without being under duress of such administrative pressure. Meeting with the chief executive officer of the facility before any active case work is done, they develop a dialogue with them creating a compromising prejudice in the handling and direction of every investigation as the warden’s input is capricious and often tainted to reflect personal interests thus adhered to as law by these investigators. In some cases, investigators lie to others about the cases and the results of evidence.

Their discovery of evidence is based on their summary and not conclusive evidence based convictions but rather personal conjectures that are flawed and personal as well as restricted by tight time frames. The reality has revealed they will lie and cover up test outcomes or outright refuse to test to validate the truth as it was gleaned during the process. Since their investigators deal with both prisoners and staff, they often mislead about eh reliability of information gathered and cover them up with deliberate omissions within the report.

Thus this practice called “false dichotomy” that includes eliminating conflicting or contradictory information skews the reports and sends an altered message as a final result that has been deliberately botched to protect those politically sensitive in such cases. Basically, this results a finding of information versus meaning and is very confusing. The origins of such problems include unqualified or politically compromised investigators or their supervisors that cause false reports on their test results. This problem could be fixed by hiring qualified personnel, training them properly and providing adequate oversight and separating their authority and supervision from direct administration by executive personnel.

Source:

http://www.azcentral.com/video/#/Watchdog/Arizona+inmate+suicide%3A+Did+correction+officers+fail+to+administer+aid%3F/40280768001/35389240001/1259212342001

The preventable suicide

The original video and first of two part reporting by Wendy Halloran from CH 12 Phoenix TV - The preventable suicide of Anthony Lester..

Gorilla Justice – A War Veteran’s View

Gorilla Justice –

A War Veteran and the mentally ill share prison life side by side with conditions that are hard to deal or cope with for those who are not mentally ill -

Of Solitary Confinement

Channel 12 Suicide video....

The Anthony Lester video - a preventable suicide in Tucson prison