[Ppnews] Bureau of Prisons Chief Sends Memo to Federal Inmates, Urging Them Not to Kill Themselves

[Political Prisoner News]

  Bureau of Prisons Chief Sends Memo to Federal Inmates, Urging Them Not
  to Kill Themselves

August 4, 2012
http://solitarywatch.com/2012/08/04/bureau-of-prisons-chief-sends-memo-to-federal-inmates-urging-them-not-to-kill-themselves/#more-6474 
<http://solitarywatch.com/tag/supermax-prisons/>
by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway 
<http://solitarywatch.com/author/jeancasellaandjamesridgeway/>

The /Atlantic/'s Andrew Cohen, who has been reporting extensively 
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/an-american-gulag-descending-into-madness-at-supermax/258323/>on 
a lawsuit challenging solitary confinement and mental health care at the 
ADX Florence, the federal super-supermax in Colorado, has obtained a 
copy of a memo sent to all federal prisoners last month. Cohen's own 
commentary on the memo is trenchant, so we are republishing excerpts 
from his article 
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/prison-chiefs-unnerving-suicide-prevention-memo-i-want-you-to-succeed/260644/#>, 
which includes quotation from the memo. The full memo can be read here 
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/prison-chiefs-unnerving-suicide-prevention-memo-i-want-you-to-succeed/260644/#> 
on the /Atlantic/'s website.

    Faced with two new federal lawsuits alleging prisoner mistreatment
    and abuse, one of which chronicles in grim detail
    <http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/death-yes-but-torture-at-supermax/258002/>
    the 2010 suicide of an inmate at the Supermax facility in Colorado,
    the Federal Bureau of Prisons last month sent an extraordinary
    "Suicide Prevention" memo to "all Bureau Inmates." Charles E.
    Samuels, Jr., director of the BOP, urged prisoners "unable to think
    of solutions other than suicide" not to "lose hope" and urged them
    to "be willing to request help from those around you."...

    [The memo] is dated July 20, 2012, one month after a class-action
    lawsuit was filed
    <http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/an-american-gulag-descending-into-madness-at-supermax/258323/>
    against federal officials alleging that they have violated the
    constitutional rights of prisoners by refusing or failing to provide
    even the most basic treatment for mentally ill prisoners at the
    Colorado facility. This lawsuit came one month after prison
    officials were sued over the suicide of an ADX Florence inmate, Jose
    Martin Vega, who had hanged himself in his cell after allegedly
    failing to get proper mental health treatment.

The memo concludes with a quotation from Albert Einstein: "Learn from 
yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." This would seem a cruel 
joke when directed at men whose past, present, and future consist 
of  absolute isolation a bare concrete cell. (Read, for example, Thomas 
Silverstein's description 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2011/05/05/americas-most-isolatd-federal-prisoner-describes-10220-days-in-extreme-solitary-confinement/>of 
his 10,000+ days in extreme solitary confinement--a condition that he 
has little to no prospect of ever changing.)

Cohen first parses "What's in the Memo":

    You can decide for yourself what you think of the tone of the memo.
    Some of you likely will find it a cruel and patronizing attempt by
    federal bureaucrats and lawyers to try to cover their asses in
    anticipation of litigation to come. For example:

    "Every institution is staffed with psychologists who provide
    counseling and other supportive mental health services. Anytime you
    want to speak with a psychologist, let staff know and they will
    contact Psychology Services to make the necessary arrangements."

    Others may find its touchy-feely language particularly odd given the
    memo's audience. This memo was sent to hundreds of thousands of
    federal prisoners, including some of the most deadly and violent
    America currently has in custody. For example:

    "If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide, it is
    not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently
    unable to see them. Do not lose hope. Solutions can be found,
    feelings change, unanticipated positive events occur. Look for
    meaning and purpose in educational and treatment programs, faith,
    work, family and friends."

    And then there is this passage, which makes Tom Hanks' "The Green
    Mile <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctRK-4Vt7dA>" guard Paul
    Edgecomb seem like Cool Hand Luke's jailer
    <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fuDDqU6n4o>. Remember, Director
    Samuels here is speaking to men who live in such detention and
    isolation --- often as punishment for past conduct in prison ---
    that they have gone clinically mad from the conditions of their
    confinement:

    "You may be reading this message while in a Special Housing Unit or
    Special Management Unit cell, thinking your life is moving in the
    wrong direction. But wherever you are, whatever your circumstances,
    my commitment to you is the same. I want you to succeed."

Cohen then comments on "What's Not in the Memo":

    [No one can read the memo] and reasonably conclude that the Bureau
    of Prisons is planning to help solve the problem by hiring more
    doctors and psychiatrists. The June civil rights complaint, in the
    case now styled /Bacote v. Federal Bureau of Prisons/, alleges that
    there are only /two/ mental health professionals responsible for the
    care of /450/ prisoners at Supermax. With such a ratio, it's
    ridiculous to think that even those inmates who want to accept
    Director Samuels' kind invitation are going to be successful in
    doing so.

    Nor can anyone read the July 20 memo and reasonably conclude that
    the Bureau of Prisons intends to modify its rules, which prohibit
    the use of psychotropic drugs in its "Control Units," the most
    secure detention portions of its prisons. That's the essence of the
    complaints in both pending cases: The Constitution requires adequate
    medical treatment, including mental health treatment, but often the
    inmates who need medicine the most are the ones who cannot by policy
    and practice get it.

    Nor, finally, can anyone read Director Samuels' memo as indicative
    of a shift in prison policy that will encourage the reporting of
    staff abuse of mentally ill prisoners.The /Bacote/ complaint alleges
    that, at ADX Florence, the prison "watchdog" official responsible
    for investigating allegations of official misconduct /is married/ to
    the prison official who is responsible for "all correctional
    functions" at the facility. How could an inmate take Samuels up on
    his invitation and expect much of a growl from the watchdog?

It's essential to read the rest of the piece 
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/prison-chiefs-unnerving-suicide-prevention-memo-i-want-you-to-succeed/260644/#>, 
in which Cohen describes some of the prisoners at ADX Florence who 
presumably received this memo. They include one man who "has cut off his 
scrotum, and a testicle, and has amputated some of his fingers," another 
who "allegedly crawls around ADX Florence on one leg because prison 
officials have refused to replace his prosthetic," and another who 
"tried to commit suicide in 2008, [and] was promptly returned to the 
cell in which he had made the attempt, a cell which was still covered in 
his own blood." One prisoner who sought help, as the BOP director 
suggests, "was given a "tele-psychiatry" session whereby he spoke via 
video conference with an off-site doctor. [He] alleges that, during the 
session, he was handcuffed from behind with shackles on his legs and 
surrounded by corrections officers."

Cohen concludes that the memo is really directed not toward any 
prisoners who might actually take Samuels up on his offer, but toward 
the lawsuits the BOP now faces. The response to those suits, Cohen 
asserts, can be found at the end of the memo:

    "I want your life to go forward in a positive direction --- a
    direction personally fulfilling to you, but also a direction which
    ensures the safety of the staff and inmates who interact with you
    each day."

    That's the argument --- that, even if the allegations are true, the
    deprivation of medicine and care, the emptiness of reporting
    safeguards, and even the occasional abuse are necessary to ensure
    the safety of the prison, its staff, and its inmates. The
    sub-argument is that, even if reasonable people disagree about how
    to treat the mentally ill in our nation's prisons, the final call
    ought to be made by prison officials as "experts" in the field.
    Read's Samuels' statement
    <http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/12-6-19SamuelsTestimony.pdf> to
    that effect, made in June during a Senate subcommittee hearing on
    Capitol Hill.

In fact, this is the same argument that is made time and again, in 
prisons and jails across the country, to justify solitary confinement 
and all manner of abuses. Matters of "safety and security"--which are 
defined by prison staff, and no one else--trump all other concerns, 
including the possible torture of people in prison.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863-9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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