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<h1>Bureau of Prisons Chief Sends Memo to Federal Inmates, Urging Them
Not to Kill Themselves</h1>
<div id="single-date" class="date">August 4, 2012</div>
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<div class="tags"><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="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/2012/08/04/bureau-of-prisons-chief-sends-memo-to-federal-inmates-urging-them-not-to-kill-themselves/#more-6474</a></small></small><a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/tag/supermax-prisons/" rel="tag"></a></div>
<div class="author"> <span class="by-author"><span class="sep">by</span>
<span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n"
href="http://solitarywatch.com/author/jeancasellaandjamesridgeway/"
title="View all posts by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway" rel="author">Jean
Casella and James Ridgeway</a></span> </span> </div>
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<p>The <em>Atlantic</em>‘s Andrew Cohen, who has been <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/an-american-gulag-descending-into-madness-at-supermax/258323/">reporting
extensively </a>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 <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/prison-chiefs-unnerving-suicide-prevention-memo-i-want-you-to-succeed/260644/#">article</a>,
which includes quotation from the memo. The full memo can be read <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/prison-chiefs-unnerving-suicide-prevention-memo-i-want-you-to-succeed/260644/#">here</a>
on the <em>Atlantic</em>‘s website.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Faced with two new federal lawsuits alleging prisoner mistreatment
and abuse, one of which <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/death-yes-but-torture-at-supermax/258002/">chronicles
in grim detail</a> 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.”…</p>
<p>[The memo] is dated July 20, 2012, one month after a <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/an-american-gulag-descending-into-madness-at-supermax/258323/">class-action
lawsuit was filed</a> 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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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, <a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/2011/05/05/americas-most-isolatd-federal-prisoner-describes-10220-days-in-extreme-solitary-confinement/">Thomas
Silverstein’s description </a>of his 10,000+ days in extreme solitary
confinement–a condition that he has little to no prospect of ever
changing.)</p>
<p><span id="more-6474"></span></p>
<p>Cohen first parses “What’s in the Memo”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“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.”</p>
<p>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:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“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.”</p>
<p>And then there is this passage, which makes Tom Hanks’ “<a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctRK-4Vt7dA">The Green Mile</a>”
guard Paul Edgecomb seem like <a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fuDDqU6n4o">Cool Hand Luke’s
jailer</a>. 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:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“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.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cohen then comments on “What’s Not in the Memo”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[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 <em>Bacote v. Federal Bureau of Prisons</em>, alleges that
there are only <em>two</em> mental health professionals responsible
for the care of <em>450</em> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <em>Bacote</em> complaint alleges
that, at ADX Florence, the prison “watchdog” official responsible for
investigating allegations of official misconduct <em>is married</em>
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?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s essential to read the <a
href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/08/prison-chiefs-unnerving-suicide-prevention-memo-i-want-you-to-succeed/260644/#">rest
of the piece</a>, 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.”</p>
<p>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:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“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.”</p>
<p>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’ <a
href="http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/12-6-19SamuelsTestimony.pdf">statement</a>
to that effect, made in June during a Senate subcommittee hearing on
Capitol Hill.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
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