Parsons v Ryan: Suicide Prevention Day, 2012, AZ DOC.

Remembering the suicide victims of Jan Brewer 

and Charles Ryan at the Arizona Department of Corrections.

 

 "SOS from Arizona's Other Death Row"

Firehouse Gallery and Cafe, Phoenix

June 2012

This is the state of suicide prevention in Arizona's Department of Corrections, under Director Charles Ryan. I hope the DOC responds to this critique with a detailed description of what else they're doing to reduce the rate of despair and violence that's driving Arizona prisoners to kill themselves at twice the rate than the national average for state prisoners. I want to know what the training consists of. So do the families who have already suffered a death in custody - as well as the loved ones of those mentally ill prisoners fighting to be safe and well in custody now. How have the conditions described below changed since Parsons v Ryan was filed?

If you have a loved one in prison with a serious mental illness whose safety or sanity you fear deeply for, please feel free to contact me. I'm just an artist and activist - I'm not a lawyer or professional anything, but I can refer you to resources in your community, and connect you with other families who share your struggle. 

Have your loved ones write me as well. 

Arizona Prison Watch  /  PO Box 20494  / PHOENIX, AZ 85036

thank you again to all the attorneys working on this case...but most of all, to the prisoner-litigants who had the courage to put their names and faces to the abuses and neglect going on behind bars in this state...

Peggy Plews 

480-580-6807

arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com

Parsons V Ryan (p. 47)

2. Defendants Deprive Suicidal and Self-Harming Prisoners of Basic Mental Health Care

82. Defendants have a policy and practice of housing prisoners with serious mental health needs in unsafe conditions that heighten their risk of suicide. In FY 2011, there were 13 suicides in ADC prisons, out of a population that averaged 34,000 during that time. That is a rate of 38 suicides per 100,000 prisoners per year, more than double the national average suicide rate in state prisons of 16.67 per 100,000. Three prisoners committed suicide in one week in late January 2012, including a 19-year-old woman.

83. One factor responsible for such a high suicide rate is Defendants’ policy and practice of maintaining suicide watch facilities that offer no meaningful treatment. Usually the only people who interact with prisoners on suicide watch are correctional officers who check on them periodically, medication assistants who dispense pills, or psychology assistants who talk to them through the front of their cell. Plaintiff Swartz did not receive psychotherapy for more than two months in the summer of 2011 while on suicide watch at the Lewis facility. After he swallowed glass and was taken to an outside hospital, the hospital psychiatrist recommended that he be taken to an inpatient mental health unit. These units are in the Phoenix complex. Instead, Mr. Swartz remained at Lewis where he continued to harm himself. He finally was moved to the Phoenix inpatient unit almost three months after the hospital psychiatrist had made that recommendation, but after a short period of time he was again returned to Lewis. Plaintiff Thomas did not see a psychiatrist for 11 months despite being placed on suicide watch multiple times.

84. Defendants also have a policy and practice of holding suicidal and mentally ill prisoners in conditions that violate all notions of minimally adequate mental health care and basic human dignity, and are not compatible with civilized standards of humanity and decency. Suicide watch cells are often filthy, with walls and food slots smeared with other prisoners’ blood and feces, reeking of human waste. Mental health staff show a lackof professionalism and little compassion for prisoners enduring these conditions: for example, prisoners in suicide cells are taunted for being in “the feces cells.” When Plaintiff Swartz complained to a LPN about the unhygienic conditions of the suicide cell at Lewis, the LPN described him in the mental health notes from the encounter as “bitching about cleanliness – germs and disease.”

85. Defendants have a policy and practice of keeping suicide watch cells at very cold temperatures. Prisoners are stripped of all clothing and given only a stiff suicide smock and a thin blanket, making the extreme cold even harder to tolerate. Plaintiffs Rodriguez and Verduzco report that the suicide smock used in Perryville barely comes to the top of female prisoners’ thighs, so both their legs and arms are exposed to cold air. Many prisoners are also deprived of mattresses and as a result must sleep on bare steel bed frames, or on the floor made filthy with the bodily fluids of prior inhabitants. Plaintiff Brislan spent several weeks in a frigid suicide cell with no mattress.

86. Defendants have a policy and practice of exposing prisoners on suicide watch to gratuitously harsh, degrading, and damaging conditions of confinement. Prisoners are given only two cold meals a day, and are denied the opportunity to go outside, brush their teeth, or take showers. The only monitoring prisoners receive in suicide watch is when correctional officers force them awake every ten to 30 minutes, around the clock, ostensibly to check on their safety. In some suicide cells, bright lights are left on 24 hours a day. The resulting inability to sleep aggravates the prisoners’ psychological distress.

87. Mentally ill prisoners on suicide watch complain of correctional staff behavior that interferes with any therapeutic effect of being on suicide watch, including harassment, insults and taunts, and the excessive and practically sporting use of pepper spray. Prisoners at the Perryville suicide watch units, including Plaintiff Verduzco, have jerked awake when awoken by staff on the “safety checks,” and are pepper sprayed for allegedly attempting to assault the officers. Guards in the Perryville suicide watch units also frequently pepper spray female prisoners in their eyes and throats when they are delusional or hallucinating. Plaintiffs Rodriguez and Verduzco have asthma and rely upon inhalers, and they have had asthma attacks from the regular use of pepper spray in the women’s suicide watch unit. On multiple occasions after she was pepper sprayed in the eyes, nose, and mouth, Ms. Verduzco was dragged to a shower, stripped naked, and sprayed with extremely cold water to rinse away the pepper spray; she was then left naked to wait for a new vest and blanket. A prisoner in the Florence prison’s suicide watch unit reports that while there he was handed razor blades to swallow by other prisoners, and told “just die right away.” He started to swallow the blades, and security staff pepper sprayed him while he coughed up blood, and did not provide other emergency response.

88. Defendants’ policy and practice of holding suicidal prisoners in excessively harsh conditions does not prevent but rather promotes self-injurious behavior. Plaintiff Brislan has cut himself numerous times with razors and pieces of metal while on suicide watch at multiple prisons, including Tucson, Lewis, and Eyman’s SMU 1 and Browning units. At the Tucson prison, staff put him on suicide watch in a cell with broken glass on the floor which he used to cut himself. During another stay in suicide watch, Mr. Brislan was given a razor blade that he used to deeply lacerate both of his thighs. While on suicide watch in the Lewis prison during the summer of 2011, Plaintiff Swartz, on separate occasions, swallowed multiple foreign objects, including two large staples, plastic wrap, a piece of glass, a lead-head concrete nail, a spork, two pens, sharpened paper clips, a metal spring, a steel bolt, and two copper wires. As with Plaintiff Brislan, Mr. Swartz’s repeated suicidal gestures and ability to access dangerous objects while on suicide watch confirms that he was not being properly monitored and that any mental health treatment he might have been receiving was inadequate.

89. Defendants also have a policy and practice of improperly using the suicide watch cells to punish prisoners for alleged disciplinary infractions. An Eyman prisoner who went on a hunger strike to protest prison policies, but did not display signs of mental illness or distress, was put in a suicide watch cell for several weeks and was told by a mental health provider, “If you weren’t on this hunger strike, you wouldn’t have to live in the feces cell.”

Help Stop Prison Violence at the AZ DOC.

Just received this press release this AM. Please come support if you can. The mom, Julie, is a friend of mine, and Davon was our poster boy for the "Hard Time Hep C in AZ State Prisons" Campaign.. She planned this event herself and will stand alone if need be - and really needs support now. This is all bigger than just her family, though - the assaults at the ADC have tripled under Chuck Ryan, and prisoner murders have doubled, as have the suicides....

one of Davon's letters home...

 

------from the Desk of Julie Acklin-----

 

  URGENT PRESS RELEASE

Date: MONDAY April 9
Time: 9:00 am
Location: AZ Dept. Of Corrections
1601 W. Jefferson St PHX
(park at Wes Bolin across from Capitol)
Media contact info:  julie.acklin@yahoo.com

Demonstration of community outrage because of assault of prison advocate Julie Acklin's son recently at ASPC Lewis. Her son is chronically ill and mentally ill. Her son was victimized by a beating that resulted in 17 stitches to the face by another inmate and transported to local hospital. No intervention in the beating took place. Her son was in protective custody where most inmates and families think is a safe place. Most inmates are denied protective custody and shipped to general population to be beaten bullied or worse disfigured or end up on a ventilator. Prison official says he clearly was the instigator even though he was the only one who sustained injuries. He will possibly be ticketed and punished as a victim in this case, leading to isolation and or deterioration under Dept. Of Corrections rules. Gathering will send a message that the punishment and treatment and abuses of our mentally ill still are happening, and we want action taken and a community oversight committee for the prisons formed. Community says."This is gross outrage."

Julie Acklin, Dir. Of The National Association Of HCV Task Force, prison reform, Rep Az.
Co-Founder Dream OF Life Coalition

Office 623-594-4433
julie.acklin@yahoo.com

The long way home: Catching up to Davon Acklin.

Some of you may recall Davon Acklin, the Arizona state prisoner who let us use him as a poster child when his mom, Julie, was fighting to get him treatment for Hepatitis C. I corresponded with him for a year while he was in Tucson prison, and had the wonderful experience of greeting him with his family as he was freed this spring. Then my own life fell apart and we lost touch.

Today I saw Davon for the first time since the day he headed home. Sadly, it was to visit him at the 4th Avenue Jail. He's facing at least four felony charges, and - needless to say - violated his probation. He's going away for a long time this time; it may be more than ten years before we see him walk free again...except that he was once a free man in prison. I keep telling myself that, hoping that wherever he lands he can find himself again - what's he's been wearing lately are the worst kind of chains, anyway.

I still don't know just what happened over the course of the past five months, and will leave that story for him to tell when he's ready. I can say, though, that when I saw Davon today he was calm, rational, and appropriately remorseful for hurting those who love and believed in him. He reports that he's getting his psych meds, at least; the place is just a miserable place to be, and he's sick as a dog right now. I suspect he's going through withdrawal. He denied being suicidal, expressed appreciation for those who have tried to help him, and apologized "for being such a fuck-up". I tried to reaffirm that some folks still haven't bailed on him, and that his mom isn't about to give up.

Despite his effort to begin to make amends, I don't think Davon has any idea of how badly he really hurt people this time - I'm figuring out just how to tell him, though. The hurting from this binge has only just begun, too. He didn't just break Julie's heart and devastate his sister, he invited violence into his family's home that may not leave with him when he goes. He compromised the fight to overcome all the barriers to getting Hep C treatment for people with psychiatric disorders and addictions by giving the state a reason to say "I told you so." He may lose his own battle to get interferon now. His mother may well have to recover his body from prison, or see him buried there.

Davon is not responsible for having a mental illness, or even for being an addict any more so than if he had diabetes. He is responsible for his recovery, though, and made decisions when he was well that compromised his ability to make good choices in a very short period of time. Whether or not he was competent at the time he committed the crimes he's accused of is for him and the courts to work out - we didn't discuss any of that. Today he seems to be in his right mind, though - and almost relieved at the prospect of going back to prison. I think he copped out on us all early on, frankly, and I'm mad as hell at him. I'm also angry that I wasn't able to be there for him when he came home myself, though. There were a lot of things I had wanted to share with him, and before I knew it he was gone again. I know it's my egocentricity that makes me think I might have changed this outcome had I been more present for him upon his release; I wish I had been, though.

I never really expected a fairy tale ending to Davon's relationship with the criminal justice system. He grew up in it - he even accidentally referred to returning to prison as going "home". There's absolutely no meaningful treatment or rehab in prison for the vast majority of dually-diagnosed young men like Davon - or for the women, for that matter. He had a lot of good community support - the probation department was awesome, I guess - but few new tools for coping with stress and expectations when he got out. That's not to excuse him from what he needs to own here, but that's the way it is for far too many prisoners I see who have cycled through the system more than once, so I think there's more at work than just Davon's pathology here.

This isn't the end of this young man's story or his struggle to keep from succumbing to either despair or Hep C - nor is his life yet over. In recovery from addictive disorders - especially for those with mental illness as well - relapse is common, and is often so much worse than before because one has to be sicker in order to go back into denial. But Davon doesn't necessarily forget what he learned before - he matured once, and can continue in that direction wherever he lands. Even in prison he can be a positive influence in the lives of others, if he's given the right support so he's able to make informed and capable decisions. Psychiatric disability or not - in prison or at home - Davon can still choose what kind of human being to be. Only when he surrenders that will I believe he's really lost his freedom.

Anyway, I'll let you know when he moves, but will otherwise be giving Davon and his family a break from my blogs while they sort things out. If you've been a correspondent of his, I think it would help him to know that even in back prison he's accountable to his fellow beings for his behavior and commitments. You can trust his mom and I to kick his ass over this, so to speak, but feel free to do so as well if you've been hurt, too. Just try to keep a door open for him if you can; he should be safe, but he really doesn't deserve exile. He needs to make amends and reconcile with not only his family but the community that supported him in order to grow and reduce the chances of this happening again.


Summer Solstice 2011
Firehouse Gallery and Cafe'
Phoenix, AZ

Mental illness in Arizona's state prisons: Chuck Ryan on the carpet, again.

The following is a cross post from Arizona Prison Watch and the Prison Abolitionist blogs, to give those of you who have been following the concerns about Hep C in Arizona's Department of Corrections' facilities some context.

Sorry for the redundancy, my Facebook friends who are already getting feed, and those of you picking up my other tweets.

To those of you for whom this is all news, follow the links for more background.

---------------------------

The following was posted to another site on Friday, November 19, 2010 by the former AZ Department of Corrections deputy warden who was interviewed by Channel 12 this summer and called for Chuck Ryan to resign. It's being reprinted here with Carl's permission. 

As some of you may know, one of the corrections' officers unions also called on the governor to fire Ryan in a letter of no confidence two weeks ago. I shouldn't have to point this out, but prisoners aren't the only ones behind bars at heightened risk under current conditions. The front line staff also have good reason to be concerned.

Needless to say, none of us are making friends in Arizona's high places. In fact, since the people we're antagonizing have badges and guns on their side - as well as the keys to the prisons - it would help if the public and media really watch our backs out here.

Other witnesses to the institutionalized neglect and abuse of prisoners with mental illness in Arizona are urged to contact the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division; send them what you know and request that they initiate a CRIPA investigation before the next ADC suicide or homicide goes down. If you need to you may remain anonymous while doing so.

--------------------------

Arizona's Prison Problems - Open Letter to the Director

Mental Health Treatment for Offenders

By Carl ToersBijns

Open Letter to Charles Ryan, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections

Mr. Director, when are you going to address the horrific mental health conditions of confinement inside your prison? Have you really taken a look into the need to implement a mental health "program" that is realistic and objectively driven by individuals who really care about doing the job and doing it right? Arizona is way behind in providing mental health care for those incarcerated with mental health illness and other disorders.

The very first thing I noticed when I came onboard five years ago was the long lines of inmates waiting to be seen by mental health professionals obviously overwhelmed by the number of offenders on their caseload, and the lack of priority this task has been demonstrated by the administration for the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC). Speaking to both mental health professionals and providers, it became obvious to the spectator that these inmates are not receiving the type of care they need during their stay of incarceration or when they are released with a thirty day blister pack. Witnessing this lack of organized effort to create and deliver a sound mental health treatment program in spaces designed for much less tasks, I am astonished how these inmates are able to conform and maintain their individual demeanor under such stress and lack of care.

Certainly, I have gleaned that apathy has set in with some treatment professionals as they are just merely overtaken by the sheer number of "clients" they see daily and the need to provide follow up treatment is dominated or even sabotaged by the lack of cooperation by the administration to provide security escorts to and from such activities to ensure a completion of services. Right now, as we speak, except for a few individuals down there in Tucson, you are warehousing mentally ill inmates in the special management units that receive no attention, no care and no hope of ever coming out with some degree of normalcy when released. It's almost like you are doing it on purpose so ignore their needs. I have witnessed abandonment of several mental health sponsored programs that enhanced the detection of inmate suicides and the willful destruction of morale among your providers. Lacking such structure to create and provide a meaningful treatment environment is almost impossible as there is no dedicated space to do this most urgent task.

Fragmented services are wasteful as there is no continuity in the delivery or the provisions to ensure the medication is successfully delivered or taken. Even New Mexico Corrections has you beat Mr. Ryan for they had the insight and intelligence to begin separating these types of offenders from the general population and provided them treatment instead of repetitive uses of force to make them comply into an environment they don't understand. Being very familiar with their treatment programs, I am astonished that Arizona is no way near the level of care provided in our neighbor's prisons. Located in a secure and orderly treatment center staff with the resources to maintain a sound treatment program for the criminally ill, it has been successful in design and operations.My history with them goes back to its birth as a treatment center and given the task to be the chief of security for a task force of men and women who volunteered to work in such a difficult and multifaceted place called the Mental Health Treatment Center (MHTC).

As a concerned citizen and former corrections professional, I am writing to you regarding the urgency to find in your organization, a legitimate means to address mental health treatment for your incarcerated inmates who are currently void of treatment and the necessary care to function within the parameter expected of them while incarcerated. I have witnessed as an ADOC correctional administrator, the warehousing of such inmates housing them side by side and allowing their psychotic conduct feed to the next inmates housed on the run as the entire pod becomes a bedlam pod of psychotic criminals yelling, shouting and begging for better care.

You need to prioritize your issues inside your prison because you are violating these inmate's rights by not treating them. Chemical restraints are draconic in every way and cruel. Your staff in uniform are doing the best they can with what they have but need professional help in the area of treatment, not confinement. It takes a team effort to be effective. It will only be a matter of time before you are brought into the federal courts and held accountable for the severe shortcomings of a sound and humane mental health program for the many inmates you are responsible for and up to this point, neglected.

• Allocate more security staffing to the lockdown units in Florence Eyman and Tucson so that everybody who works there are safe and the institutions are operating at a safe and sound level by meeting mandated conditions of confinement.

• You need to allow more time and structure for these so called PMRB (prescribed medication review board) for the mental health professionals to gain insight of inmate behaviors before you order them on involuntary (forced) medication creating excessive use of force situations and physical harm to both staff and inmates. Most administrators sitting in on these reviews are called for the task but really have no insight of the inmate's history or medical / mental health needs.

• Allocate more mental health professionals to these units so they can be functional and purposeful and legally in compliance with the civil rights you have sworn to protect.

• Update your Mental Health Treatment Department Order 1103 dated August 22, 1997 as it is a sure indicator of its priority of this administration by being neglected to be revised for such a long time now.

Thank you.

Carl ToersBijns

Arizona: Mercy, Mercy Me...

Davon's clemency board hearing was yesterday - the decision to turn him down was clearly made before we walked into the room, however. The chair made only passing reference to the thick stack of mail that had arrived in support of Davon's application, and cut me off when I was speaking on his behalf. He made a special point of reading things into the record to justify their determination against him. The county attorney's office can be expected to oppose such applications, but they went out of their way, it seems, to damn him - which was precisely what the board needed and asked for. Not that I'm accusing them of any impropriety - I'm sure they did what they felt was right - just as I'm doing. We just come from different places, and they don't know Davon like I do. As evidenced by their decision yesterday, They don't know him at all.


Pardons in Arizona have nothing to do with mercy or grace, by the way - or even justice for that matter, even when sincere people try to deliver it. Look at what our good governor did to Bill Macumber, the innocent man who has already spent 35 years in prison for murder and may well die there. Convinced beyond any doubt that his conviction was based on perjured testimony and manufactured evidence, the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency unanimously recommended him for a full pardon, which would have gone into effect if Brewer had simply left it alone for 90 days. Instead she quashed it, in the interest of her kind of "justice". Affirming Bill's innocence would have implied his ex-wife's guilt. As she worked for the Maricopa County Sheriff's office at the time she framed him, I suspect Brewer was doing someone with history there a favor. But what do I know?



Sadly, despite his story saturating the media across the country before November 2, the voters in Arizona elected that woman anyway.



As for Davon: the outcome of his hearing was no surprise, really - probably least of all to him - but it was still a disappointment; his little sister left the room abruptly in tears. We did, however, raise awareness about the prosecution of the seriously, mentally ill for their symptoms rather than their criminality, and built a network for prisoners with Hep C and their families. We also entered our objections to the prison industrial complex into the public record (that was the part I think they didn't want to hear). One of our legislators even turned out to corroborate Davon's mom's assertion that Arizona's prisoners aren't getting the medical care they need in there - and that came from a self-described "conservative Republican". I suspect he will pay a price for having done that, which is why I won't name him here. I doubt he would endorse my own take on the system, but he's still one of the few politicians I've ever met with real integrity. I can't think of a single Democrat in this state who would put themselves on the line like that for a convicted violent, crazed felon seeking mercy - much less another Republican.



I'm convinced that clemency boards exist largely to reinforce the illusion that the system we have of doling out punishment in our country is a "just" one that serves the best interests of society at large. By allowing room for pardons and commutations, we suggest that the legal system we live under, as a rule, delivers justice to criminals and victims alike, and that any abuse of power or injustice perpetrated by the state in the process is an exception that needs to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. If that was the reality, however, our prisons would not be packed almost exclusively with the poor - most of whom have the least ability to do great harm. In a truly just and morally evolved society it is the money-lenders, warmongers and rogue sheriffs of this land who would be doing time for exploitation, mass murder, and kidnapping - not making the rules the rest of us have to live by. They certainly wouldn't be retiring with honors and drawing down our collective dime.



But ours is neither a just nor a moral society - it isn't even a democracy. It is a capitalist republic in which the wealth and power of the few still depends on their ability to co-opt, terrorize, and restrain the many. We literally replaced our plantations with prisons when overt slavery went out of style. America's governments exploit and injure far more innocent and vulnerable people than all our lone criminals combined do. We've even made the perpetuation of victimization and crime an attractive, acceptable industry from which savvy investors can profit.



Thanks, everyone, for all your support through this. Stay with us, please - this fight is much bigger than one young man, and has only just begun. Keep an eye on what's happening with Davon for awhile longer - he went further out on a limb in the interest of prisoner rights and health care than any of the rest of us had to - and risks paying a much higher price now than the one extracted from him at sentencing. We'll see if he's allowed to keep his good time - and make it successfully through the 4 years of probation he has yet to serve -in light of his and his mother's public defiance. I guess we'll also see if the Arizona State Legislature shows any mercy for the honesty and courage of one of their own.

Suicide/homicide rates skyrocket at AZ Department of Corrections

I obtained prisoner death records last week from the AZ Department of Corrections, and the stats on suicides and homicides since Brewer took office are mind-boggling: they're twice the rate as they were when Janet was governor; this fiscal year (beginning July 2010) the suicides are on track for being three times the annual rate.

In no instance of the recent suicides has there been documentation that ADC staff had any culpability - though I've had more than one family member tell me that their mentally ill loved one had been taken off of their psychiatric medications in prisons before their suicide or homicide. That sounds to me like a pattern of institutional neglect.

Anthony Lester's death remains a mystery to me, by the way - the ADC record detailing his death lists his injuries as self-inflicted (his jugular, his right wrist, and his leg were all cut with a razor) , but a document compiling the deaths for the year calls it a homicide. Tony's family was told it was a suicide - a "highly preventable" one, which they tried to warn the ADC he was at risk for. They have other information suggesting that he believed he was in imminent danger from a gang, though. Until I get confirmation to the contrary, I'm leaving him in the suicide category.

Tony suffered from schizophrenia, and was sentenced to more than a decade in prison due to two women being slightly injured trying to prevent him from cutting his throat (both required band-aids at the scene) during a psychotic episode. He had to be restored to sanity before he could go on trial, of course. That's par for Maricopa County's treatment of people with mental illness who needed psychiatric hospitalization before or at the time of their "crime". If I could sick the DOJ on every responsible judge and prosecuting attorney, I would, because that's a violation of the Olmstead Decision, as far as I'm concerned. The Olmstead Decision was a Supreme Court verdict that determined that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires states to deinstitutionalize and place people with disabilities in the least restrictive setting possible.

Arizona, after 20 years of Arnold v. Sarn litigation, is still underserving the seriously mentally ill in the community. Here they're just criminally prosecuted for the symptoms of their illness and thrown into the most restrictive setting possible - state prison (often maximum security) - largely because the state lacks adequate outpatient and inpatient alternatives for individuals at risk of harming themselves or others (we spend it all on corrections instead. If ADC Director Ryan had any courage, he'd call that what it is and tell the state where to put their money and the courts where to stuff their convictions).

Why else would a judge give a man with schizophrenia three years for climbing a utility tower in a thunderstorm to be closer to God? Why would he even be prosecuted for that in the first place? I think they actually believed they were protecting him from himself. Sadly, Shannon Palmer ended up being murdered by his cellmate two years in.

The deaths by "natural causes" are also extremely young - go to the ADC's website, under ADC in the News, for death notices. There's an archive on that page, too. I suspect that it's complications from the effects of the Hep C virus that's killing people so young inside. I'll be analyzing the documents I obtained further to confirm that, and post it when I compile it all.

Here are the links for the APW posts about the more recent suicides:

Special Management Unit: Prisoner suicide at ASPC Eyman (11/4) - James Galloway

Prison suicide and gangs at Florence Central (10/01) - Duron Cunningham, Rosario Rodriguez-Bojorquez


Additionally, I missed a couple of suicides in my compilation that I didn't have info on until now:

Douglas Nunn 33 (8/29/09) - ASPC-Florence/Central

Patricia Velez 25 (4/28/10) - ASPC-Perryville/Lumley

All 3 of the women who have killed themselves in the past year and a half hung themselves and were housed in Lumley, where the maximum security yard is. All three were in their 20s. I don't know if Patricia had a mental illness or not: a psychological report was sealed by the court when she was sentenced to 7.5 years for aggravated assault and fleeing a law enforcement vehicle. Geshell and Sasha, the other two women from Lumley who killed themselves, did have evidence of a serious mental illness when sentenced.

Two of the men who killed themselves recently were both from ASPC-Florence/Central. The largest number of male suicides in any one prison have occurred at ASPC-Eyman, however.

Sometime in the next couple of days I'll break down the suicides and homicides by race and age, and tell you how they compare to stats for the overall prison population, as well as to rates in the general population. It seems to me that if all the violence boiled down to a gang war, the Aryan Brotherhood is winning.

Dual diagnosis treatment as reasonable accommodation

The following article seems to state the obvious, and applies to why access to treatment for alcoholism/addiction in prison is so essential, especially for those prisoners with Hepatitis C. Alcoholics not actively engaged in a recovery program are very often excluded from treatment for their Hep C because they're considered a poor risk for getting and staying either sober or healthy. Many HCV treatment protocols require people who are chemically dependent to complete a substance abuse treatment program and demonstrate at least 6 months of clean time before they are considered as candidates for Hep C treatment.

Although the Arizona Department of Corrections has identified that some 75% of prisoners have significant substance abuse histories at intake (and acknowledges that most of their Hep C patients fall into that category), and approximately 25% require on-going mental health services (which they don't all get) only 2,067 prisoners in 2009 completed some kind of substance abuse treatment program in prison, out of a constantly changing population of about 40,000 at any given time.

Over 6,000 Arizona state prisoners in Jan 2010 were identified as HCV+; clearly not all are getting the substance abuse, mental health, or medical treatment they need to have a chance at clearing this virus before returning to the community - which for many may be the streets.

Hep C rates are highest among individuals who are dually diagnosed with both addictive and psychiatric disorders - those individuals have the hardest time gaining access to meaningful treatment resources of any kind, both in and out of prison. Therefore, they end up having higher relapse and recidivism rates, which make them even less likely than other prisoners to be considered for Hep C treatment.

Providing the HCV+ population with adequate substance abuse treatment appropriate for their psychiatric needs - prioritizing those with HCV as soon as they're diagnosed - seems to be a reasonable accommodation for helping them to be able to participate in treatment for their Hep C while they are still healthy enough to benefit from it, and have the necessary support and stability to succeed. Otherwise, it would seem, excluding them from consideration for Hep C treatment - which is a standard practice - is discriminatory, and condemns all dually diagnosed HCV+ prisoners to a lifetime of chronic (and infectious) hepatitis and its grisly outcomes...

----------------from Hepatitis C Research and News-------------

Alcoholic Liver Disease More Aggressive

Tuesday September 7, 2010

Although many advances have been made in the detection and treatment of chronic liver disease in the past 40 years, the prognosis for patients with alcohol liver disease has not improved significantly. While advances have improved the outcomes for non-alcoholic liver disease patients, outcomes for alcohol liver disease patients remain bleak.

Researchers believe the prognosis for alcohol-related liver patients would improve if as much effort was placed in treating their alcohol dependence as is spent treating their liver disease.

Advances in treatment for hepatitis C and autoimmune hepatitis have improved outcomes for those patients in the past 40 years, and new diagnostic tools have increased early detection of the development of cirrhosis. These changes have been effective in improving outcomes for non-alcohol-related chronic liver disease patients.

Prognosis Unchanged for Alcohol Liver Patients

A new Swedish study of 36,462 patients hospitalized with alcoholic liver diseases and 95,842 patients hospitalized with non-alcoholic liver diseases found that the prognosis for alcohol-liver disease patients has remained basically unchanged.

The main difference is the alcohol dependence of the alcohol liver disease patients, said lead researcher Knut Stokkeland, of the Visby Hospital in Sweden. Since almost all alcohol liver disease patients are also alcohol dependent or alcoholics it affects their prognosis.

"Alcohol dependence increases the risks of social problems, being a smoker, and severe psychiatric diseases," Stokkeland said in a news release. "It also inhibits staying sober, which may stop disease progression."

Need Treatment for Alcoholism

The researchers believe that patients with alcohol liver disease should receive more attention, specifically they should be offered treatment for their alcohol problem as well as for their liver disease. The problem, they said, is that the lack of coordination between the hepatology and gastroenterology specialists who treat the liver and those who treat substance abuse.

Because drinking alcohol doubles the risk of developing a serious liver problem, any efforts to reduce alcohol consumption would improve the outcomes for those with alcohol-related liver disease, the researchers concluded.

In short, if you or someone you know develops liver disease, the best thing they can do to improve their chances of surviving is to stop drinking immediately.

Julie Acklin: Tenacious advocate for prisoner's rights.

Julie Acklin (holding photo of son Davon)
with the Arizona Liver Foundation staff/volunteers.

Anyone who's read more than just a few blurbs on this blog should know who Julie and Davon Acklin are, by now. What follows is just one story of how Julie's touched others' lives for the better. I pulled it off of her Facebook - her friend Verena posted it there to remind her of how much she means to those of us who know her, and to ignore the skeptics and haters who occasionally land on her pages and try to sabotage her efforts to assure decent medical care for her son. I've met Verena and her daughter, and know this story to be true.

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Sunday, September 6, 2010

Hey Julie,

We love you, and the ones that truly know you know what you are capable of.

Here is my story of my beautiful daughter who almost died at the hands of Texas Prisons. My daughter was 21 and on 9/9/09, first let me tell you she suffers from a mental illness. She had been on suicide watch numerous times; she was in the treatment part of the prison for substance abuse and behavioral health issues. She stands only maximum of 5 foot 2in, and very petite.

A couple of weeks before I received a call, my daughter called me from her counselor's office. I asked my daughter if I could speak to her counselor, my daughter handed the counselor the phone, I tried to give the counselor the information on what my daughter needed to work on and the counselor hid behind the HIPPA law stating that she could not take any information from me regarding my daughter. I informed her I wasn’t seeking information but felt it necessary so my daughter could be treated for these issues. Remember HIPPA Laws state that you can receive information, but the professional can not give it with out a written Release of Information, or verbal permission from the patient. My daughter handed her the phone that was a verbal.

I received a call from the Warden, a few weeks later telling me my daughter is on life support, when I asked what happened she told me she hung herself. I lost it. Now I’ve lost control, and going insane it felt like, the warden told me I needed to get to Texas, ASAP. So I contacted my Mother and we left for Texas. I had to see my daughter on what they call a High Five ventilator. I guess it shoots 300 breaths in to the patient; my understanding was they said it’s the most intense ventilator they had.

While at the hospital the Dr. told me that my daughter had a 9 % chance to live. I had to leave Tx and come back home. I had not heard of Julie until I got back - I think one of my friends called her or knew of her. When I got back from Tx, I received a call from Julie telling me she is a prisoner rights advocate for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). She asked me what happened and all I could do is cry.

Julie was so patient with me, and so understanding with me, she provided me with hope, which I lost in Tx. Julie kept in touch to see how I’m doing on a daily bases. Julie jumped in to action and started calling everybody, God only knows who, Julie did something and the charges were dropped on my daughter and she got better and was sent to the prison psych ward, while being released.

The prison told Julie that I could call and talk to my daughter, so I tried to, but the prison would not let me talk to her. They stated that she was still in custody, I explain to them she has been released, needless to say I was not successful, so I called Julie and was crying again and explained to her what happened.Julie got back on the phone and next thing you know I received a phone call the staff at the prison, and they put my daughter on the phone. She didn’t sound like she was all there yet, she wasn’t fully back to being her.

When I went back to Texas to get my daughter and bring her home to AZ, we had to pick her up from the psych prison ward. My daughter had MERSA (staph infection) on the back of her head, she couldn’t walk, she over enunciated her speech, and had traumatic brain injury. She had memory loss, too. My daughter had not had a bath in 4 days, was left to defecate and urinate on herself. She was unable to walk or stand; she needed help with every thing. My daughter would still be there in prison or dead if it hadn’t been for Julie.

Julie fought day and night for my family; she is a blessing to have. If Julie went to bat for you she fights with all she has. Not all situations will turn out the way this one did, but it’s not from a lack of trying on her part. Julie is my friend and she has a heart for justice for our loved ones in prison.

If you all don’t believe me I have pictures of my daughter on life support , and you can meet my daughter get a hold of me on Facebook and leave me your # and I will be more than happy to meet you in public. Julie saved my daughter's life. Thank God my daughter turned 22 this yr.

Verena and her daughter, with Julie's daughter Kirsten, at the 2010 Liver Life Walk raising awareness about prisoners with Hepatitis C. They're holding up a birthday card for Davon, Julie's imprisoned son, for whom we were all walking that day.

The Governor's Reply and I: Correspondence with the ADC.

Some of you may remember that I wrote to the Governor a couple of weeks ago about Davon Acklin, William Macumber, and the other prisoners that she's leaving to die behind bars - regardless of their illnesses, crimes or innocence. Yesterday I received a reply to that letter from the Office of Constituent Services at the Arizona Department of Corrections. Below is that email, followed by my response to it. I doubt I'll be hearing from them again - I kind of hit "send" when I was trying to "save" and proof it. This gives you the update, though.

FYI: the people I cc'd my response to are Charles Ryan (the Director of the ADC) and his corporate counsel, Karyn Klausner (who was pretty cool when she was a criminal defense attorney, in my book, because she stuck up for that 8-year old St. Johns kid that prosecutors wanted to charge as an adult for killing his dad. Still, try to avoid messing with her.)

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BETTY CASSIANO	Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 12:23 PM
To: arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com
Good morning Ms. Plews, Your e-mail message to the Arizona Governor's office concerning Arizona Department of Corrections inmate was forwarded to me for response. I sincerely appreciate your concern for both inmates and want to assure you that the Arizona Department of Corrections provides health care to incarcerated offenders consistent with community standards. Quality care and services responsive to the offender population include: medical services, mental health services, dental care, primary nursing care, and pharmacy services. Keeping offenders healthy is the basic platform from which the offender is prepared and supported to successfully complete basic education, work skills and experience, and recreational and leisure skills essential to building good citizenship and self-sufficiency. The Health Services Bureau also assists inmates in learning to develop and sustain personal wellness through ongoing education designed to augment healthy living while diminishing life-style habits that can lead to poor health and a decreased quality of life. As you may know, medical information is strictly confidential and not available to inquirers in accordance with federal and state statutes. Information about the Arizona Department of Corrections is available on the public website as follows: www.azcorrections.gov . I invite you to access the site for additional information about the Health Services Division and other areas of interest to you. The Constituent Services page provides access to a handbook which includes information about many areas of concern as well as a listing of applicable policies and contact numbers. Betty J. Cassiano ADC/Constituent Services Office

(sorry folks - technical difficulties I can't fix, so head over to Arizona Prison Watch for a readable copy of the following email response)

Peggy Plews	Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 4:42 AM
To: BETTY CASSIANO Cc: CHARLES RYAN , KARYN KLAUSNER
Dear Mrs. Cassiano, Don't believe everything that Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) health services administrators tell you - they either don't know squat, or they have a propensity for lying. In fact, their department can't even keep their medical records straight or accounted for. Davon needs a liver biopsy for anyone to be able to say how ill he really is (or isn't) from Hep C, and he needs genotyping to determine his chances of surviving this thing with early treatment. Unfortunately, resources are instead being spent trying to deflect his mother and I in our attempts to help him. These are just stalling tactics - as is being referred to you. She and I are both done with the games. I suspect it's going to cost Arizona more to fight us than it would have to competently diagnose and treat Davon early in the course of his infection, because now we're out to change the whole system. We may not be able to bust him out of there in time to prevent further damage from the virus, but he's going to end up getting options for medical care either now or later - all we need to do is to escalate this issue enough that the visibility brings other ADC families to us wondering why their mentally ill kid wasn't offered Hep C treatment, too, and we have a class action suit. In the meantime, you have a lot of highly-paid people spinning in circles doing absolutely nothing for that boy. That's a pathetic waste of precious taxpayer money, and we already spend more on you than on our schools. As for standard medical protocols - "we're just following the leader" is no excuse. You've been warned specifically that neglecting Davon's medical care because he has a serious mental illness is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and your algorithms giving you that out are based on research that's over a decade old. Did you realize that? Did Ryan or Karyn Klausner? They'd better not be counting on their dental staff for guidance about whether or not the ADC is following good medical protocol regarding Hep C. Given the advances in the areas of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment in recent years, that's malpractice in my book. Furthermore, the argument that he's too close to his out date to begin treatment now (because you want to assure that he completes it) is pretty flimsy. You all know full well that Julie would make sure he continued his treatment once released - especially after all this. Few prisoners have as supportive a family to go home to as Davon does. What the American Correctional Association has to say about your protocols and standards is the last thing that will impress me - they're paid off by prison profiteers and have elected as their president the man who's presided over Mississippi's DOC as their prisoner mortality rate has shot up to the second highest in the country. In any case, I think every entity that promulgates the same standards that the ADC uses to determine who and when to treat for Hep C should also be sued for violating the ADA and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). I'm sure to find a good attorney in each pertinent jurisdiction who will agree with me. So, please don't bother writing to me again if you're just going to give me the standard line of ADC BS, as you do so well. It just pisses me off, and it disrespects those dying inside. Your people don't even know how sick Davon is because they refuse to do an adequate medical evaluation - lest a specialist finds something you have to treat (or get sued over for not treating) out of your grossly inflated budget. They apparently haven't even checked him out themselves, yet - for all the communication that Julie has had with you people all this time, now she's being told that unless Davon fills out a health request himself, he doesn't have any symptoms. That's very disconcerting - and the standard MO for departments of corrections trying to keep down health care/litigation costs by denying when prisoners are sick and putting up barriers to care in the first place. All of you are treating Julie like she's some kind of idiot - she probably knows more about Hep C now than most of your "experts". And she's learning fast where the money for Hep C + prisoners comes from and goes to (not to prisoners like Davon, clearly - the mentally ill, that is. They're apparently all a bad risk). Don't bother trying to talk to Julie again either, by the way - all you seem to do is insult her. As for disseminating info about funding mandates and ADA/CRIPA obligations (we're going to make new case law. Just watch): we have more than just Facebook and my blogs for public consumption. We see a whole lot of lives at stake here and are willing to put ourselves on the line over this - and our alliances now include the crew keeping a 24/7 watch at the capitol. They came to our vigil in May and cried as Julie told them about her son, while I passed out Spanish language literature about hep C. Then they blessed us with drumming and sage. Several former prisoners with Hep C came up to Julie to give her a hug and thank her for talking about it to fight the stigma; they always got the message that they're just criminals and therefore not worth saving. It was all pretty powerful. My brother has the video and is going to try to figure out how to put it on You Tube. I've also been contacted by a journalism student who does film editing and we discussed doing a project on Hep C in prison, using AZ as an example of what prisons do wrong. Especially to the mentally ill, who clearly aren't worth the expense or hassle of even finding out if they need treatment or not... Unless you want to be the example of someone doing something right by the most vulnerable people in custody, instead. I kind of doubt Ryan will choose that route, though. As for ADC's health services educating anyone, particularly prisoners: all Davon knows about his illness is what he feels and what his mother tells him. Clearly the people paid to "educate" patients and the public about Hep C aren't doing their job, or we wouldn't end up doing all this. I've read the literature they hand out on Hep C. After describing how ill one can get, one such fact sheet sarcastically concludes: "As you can see, it's better not to get this in the first place." Why am I writing a blog about Hep C and posting the latest research, not them? What did they do to recognize World Hepatitis Day in May? We want harm reduction programs in place both in and out of prison - this is absurd for this disease to still be killing people in 2010 when we know how to stop it. Prisoner health is public health, so don't think this starts and stops with you and no one else should worry about it. Remember ACT UP? You haven't seen anything yet. This (the first two photos below) was just to cheer Julie up - I staged it during AM rush hour in front of Fox News. Saving Davon is what this comes down to, not just freeing him. Once we aren't competing with SB 1070, we're going to be out there raising hell and digging up more witnesses and claimants. We can be pretty creative; I'll escalate it as necessary to get local and national media on this, and I have a lot of friends who are sympathetic to prisoners and down for just about any kind of direct action that counters state violence - which is what I consider medical neglect of institutionalized persons to be. I have no fear left in me and very few inhibitions - I was already assaulted the night we did the candlelight vigil (hence my silence on the anniversary of Marcia's death - I was abandoning my home that day), and my car was vandalized two days later (nearly killed me on the highway when my tire went). All coincidence, I'm sure, that just knocked me off my feet for a little while - blessings in disguise to teach me that no matter what happens to me, exposing you people is the right thing to do. As is exposing the Governor's brutality, who still has to answer for leaving Macumber to die. Even the New York Times is watching him (and now Liptak knows about Davon, as well), so please try not to kill him before he gets out of there. By the way, I can see the DOJ Googling your dead prisoners. I think they're on to you already for all those murders since Brewer/Ryan took over, aren't they? Maybe for the suicides, too - including that boy on the minors unit this spring. I have a packet to send off to them anyway, just in case they hadn't heard about everyone or didn't know that others cared out here. Finally, rest assured that I know how to find everything I need on the ADC website now - I even notice what isn't there - and please don't ever refer me to your handbook of propaganda again for answers to serious questions like these. Thank you for your time. Margaret Jean Plews (this email will be forwarded to the Governor's office and posted on my websites, lest it gets lost in the ether.) Morning Rush Hour: July 19, 2010 (W. Washington St/7th Ave, Phoenix) Morning Rush Hour: July 19, 2010 (W. Washington St/7th Ave, Phoenix) Early Afternoon: July 16, 2010 (W. Jefferson St/15th Ave.; across from the ADC) “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Prison Abolitionist http://prisonabolitionist.blogspot.com Arizona Prison Watch http://arizonaprisonwatch.blogspot.com Arizona Juvenile Prison Watch http://azjuvenileprisonwatch.blogspot.com Hard Time: Hep C in AZ Jails and Prisons http://hardtimehepc.blogspot.com Free Marcia Powell http://freemarciapowell.blogspot.com ¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!

Free Davon Acklin.

Davon's in a no-win situation: this can't be the way we all intended for things to work out for kids like him - first prison, now Hep C. He's pretty ill, too; Julie's been getting the run-around from some of the folks at the ADC, but she has his medical records now and knows better what she's dealing with. Davon's getting sicker, fast, and there's no more time to mess around with these people.

Anyway, I'm posting the Hopeworks Community write-up on Davon because I'm so close to him that I've been having a hard time blogging about him; this really breaks my heart. But he's easy to write to (here are the ADC mail policies), and he usually draws something awesome on his letters and envelopes for me. So, as the author of this post suggests, drop him a line.

I don't think Julie or Davon would mind me saying that he can always use a few bucks, too, for medical co-pays, stamps, and food/vitamins if you can spare it - the ADC doesn't exactly have healthy menus (they just replaced tomatoes with pickles as an equivalent). Even cancer patients have to worry about paying for their own nutritional supplements in Arizona's prison; "special diets" that actually have any improved nutritional value are considered "special" to prisoners mainly because they're so hard to get. Everything "extra" (like health care) has to be paid for, and if you're poor - as in the "real world" - you're SOL.

Here's Davon's story. Writing a note or sending a postcard to him will be time well-spent. If you send a money order or certified check, make it out to the "Arizona Department of Corrections for Davon Acklin (223880)", then tuck it in the envelope. No need to be extravagant - $10 is a lot of money when you have none. It will be deeply appreciated.

Drop Governor Brewer's office a line in the meantime, too, letting her know you want to see this kid treated or home ASAP. Follow emails up with snail mail on your letterhead. You guys work on her for now; we'll work on the Board of Executive Clemency and the ADC. If we need help with them, as well, we'll let you know.

----------------------from Hopeworks Community------------------

Free Davon Acklin

By hopeworkscommunity

Davon Acklin didn't just fall between the cracks. He lives there.

He is 23 years old and an inmate of the Arizona prison system. Like many people with severe mental illness he found out that a system which offers inadequate or no services at all to people with serious emotional problems leaves many of them in prison and too many of them in a hell which ultimately destroys their chances for recovery and any kind of life worth having.

He may be dying. He has hepatitis C courtesy of the prison environment he lives in. His liver has been affected and without serious medical attention his chances of making it much longer are virtually nil. He has 10 months left to release. His mother has appealed to the authorities to give him compassionate release. She only wants to be with her son and if he must die she doesn't want it to be in a hell hole with people who look upon him as only a number and less than a person. She wants him home. She just wants him home.

He was convicted originally of assault with a deadly weapon. He was psychotic, had stolen a battery. Two security guards ran after him. In a panic he brandished a box cutter at them. His first year was spent in solitary confinement in a Super Max prison. He found out that his punishment for being sick, being scared, and being psychotic was to have a planned, brutal attack on the tattered shreds of his sanity. Imagine what one year in solitary confinement would be for you. Now imagine if you were already emotionally ill.

There is some treatment available in the prison, but the state of Arizona has a protocol to decide who should get it are not. Davon doesn't meet the criteria.

He “committed” a crime, but he is not a criminal. His family was trying to find placement for him before anything happened. His illness struck first.

His mother tells me he has given up. He sees himself as being alone and powerless against a system which seems determined to get its pound of flesh. But you can help.

Take a few minutes out of your day and write him. Let him know you care. Let him know he is not alone. His contact information is ….

Davon Acklin (223880)

ASPC-Tucson/ Manzanita

PO Box 24401

Tuscon, AZ 87345.

It will be the best few minutes you spend tomorrow. Please act.

Please spread the word and tell others. Share this post with as many people as you can. This is a horrible injustice. Mental illness should not be a capital crime. There are many, too many Davon’s. Please stand for him.

In the next couple of days I will have additional posts telling about other concrete things you can do. Please spread the word…. And please, please, please HELP FREE DAVON ACKLIN!!!!!

FDA Considers Expanded Use of HCV Drugs

Good for all those advocates who petitioned the FDA. I'm going to drop the feds a note about this, too. If this means they can start trying to treat people with serious mental illness - who automatically get ruled out for treatment now because the drugs are so hard on the body and mind - then this is awesome. I hate it when they experiment on prisoners, but with-holding treatment is experimentation too, so I hope this at least gives some of them more options than they have now.

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HEPATITIS C NEWS

from hepcassoc.org

April 30, 2010

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The FDA heard public testimony Friday on establishing a compassionate use program that would allow severely ill hepatitis C (HCV) patients access to investigational, direct-acting antiviral agents.

One of the current treatments for HCV -- pegylated interferon alfa-2a and ribavirin (Rebetol) -- is highly toxic with a response rate of about 50%, clinical data show. That number is much lower in real-world cases, according to a number of physicians who testified during the public hearing.

The FDA understands current treatment options are not good enough, an official said. "Current control of hepatitis C is not working," said Peter Lurie, MD, of the FDA's Office of the Commissioner.

Friday's meeting was called in response to a petition by groups seeking access to the drugs for individuals often excluded from clinical trials.

Clinical trials are only open to a small subset of real-world HCV patients, noted Diana Sylvestre, MD, who treats HCV-infected intravenous drug users in the San Francisco area. Yet, there are many HCV patients who cannot tolerate current treatments, she said.


Her patients are rarely accepted into clinical trials, she said, because of their drug use, comorbidities, and mental illnesses.

Other patient populations who might benefit from expanded access include those with cirrhosis, HIV, or hemophilia; those awaiting transplant or post-transplant patients who have a recurrence of HCV; and African Americans and Hispanics.

Several physicians urged special consideration for minority patients, who are disproportionately left out of clinical trials. A recent study confirmed that members of ethnic minorities do not fare as well as expected with current HCV treatments.

The FDA instituted compassionate use programs in the 1970s and such drugs as trastuzumab (Herceptin), bevacizumab (Avastin), and erlotinib (Tarceva) have all been made available before formal FDA approval under an expanded access protocol.

One major expanded access program involved breakthrough HIV therapies in the '90s. "Anecdotally, the results were so striking," said Jeffrey Murray, MD, deputy director of the FDA's antiviral products division. "They did save lives."

Murray noted that the FDA is working on a guidance document on the use of direct-acting antiviral agents, which should be released sometime this year.

If approved, an expanded access program could be applied to several novel HCV treatments currently in clinical trials.

One of the most advanced is the protease inhibitor telaprevir from Vertex and Johnson & Johnson.

Results from a phase II trial showed that when telaprevir was added to pegylated interferon alfa-2a and ribavirin among patients who hadn't responded to treatment, the virus was significantly more likely to be eradicated.

A Mother's Cry: Julie Acklin

A Mother's Cry
written by Julie Acklin

Julie Acklin is a concerned mother of her twenty-three year old son, Davon, who has serious mental illness. Read her story here,

First Page : : Second Page : : Third Page : : Fourth Page

Davon has been incarcerated in the state prison system since 2007. Although diagnosed with serious mental illness the prison has refused to provide adequate treatment. Instead prison authorities confine him to solitary confinement to control his behaviors.

Recently, she learned that Davon contacted Hepatitis C. In collaboration with other church and advocacy organizations she arranged to organize a team for the Liver Foundation Walk called the Liver Life Walk: March 20 @ Steele Park

The name of her Walk Team is: "A Mother's Cry." She is looking for the donation of red tee shirts to identify her team members. For those who want to donate red tee shirts size large and extra large leave them in the First Church office or see Robert Koth after the 10:30 AM or 5:30 PM worship service.

---

Update from the Mother:

Wrongfully accused and behind the cold walls of an Arizona prison...

On Feb 2nd, 2010, I sat waiting for a call from my son that never came. My heart sank because, in the prison world, that means one of many things.

Either the Facility is on Lock Down, during which the phones don't work; or he has been transferred (which they frequently do without even notifying the families.) So I called the prison to see what was happening. The answer I received chilled me... "they said he wasn’t there!"

My heart sank once again. I knew that something God was telling me wasn't good.

When I asked where he was, they told me he was at the CDU. Now, the CDU is an acronym for "Complex Detention Unit" at Santa Rita. Eventually, I heard from another inmate's mother, that she had gotten a letter from her son, who told her that my son had been set up. Apparently someone placed a shank in his kop bag. A shank is a prison term for a weapon that can be made out of just about anything.

I knew that this was not true, as my son hadn't been in trouble since his incarceration, and had only 14 months to go before coming home. He mentioned in every letter that he was within reach of coming home, and that he was exited... counting the days.

I had to do something, so I called the captain at the facility to ask what had happened. He told me that he would get the details and call me back. While I was waiting for his call, I got a letter from my son in the mail. He wrote that they had handcuffed him, and took him to CDU, and that he was afraid because they were falsely accusing him of having a weapon in his possession. He wrote that someone must have set him up.

He said that he was accused of a class A violation, which is very serious, and that he could be charged with a street charge and be placed in solitary confinement till his release date of 2012.

I was desperate for justice. I sent many letters and cards to Prison Talk, which is a support site for inmates and families of inmates. I also made calls to the facility through concerned advocates; and sent letters directly to the Director’s office.

Prayers were said on my son's behalf by families and friends.

Days passed, and still no call came from the captain. I called the facility a few days later and reached the captain.

You can't imagine my relief when I heard the captain tell me that '...the charges were being dropped because there was not enough evidence to file charges, and that the guys on the yard had come forward, and they were sticking up for him, confirming his innocence.

This was unusual, because inside the prison walls nobody talks for fear of being accused of being "a snitch" and being hurt themselves.

So due to the prayers, and the calls, and by the grace of our dear Lord, the charges were dropped. My son is once again back on the yard, where he is safe; at least for now. They did, however, require that he sign a protective custody waiver, in which "if something happens to him, the DOC cannot be held accountable."

This is my story of A Mother's Cry for help and justice that were echoed by my son and so many others. I hope my story brings courage and strength to believe in the power of prayer, and the strength to stand up for our children. They are all children of God.

Thank you all for being my advocate, and the advocate of my only son Davon, who is just one of the mentally ill that have become incarcerated in these troubled times.