[Pnews] In a Maryland Jail, Teens Charged As Adults Face Isolation and Neglect

[Prisoner News]

  In a Maryland Jail, Teens Charged As Adults Face Isolation and Neglect

June 17, 2014 By Aviva Stahl <http://solitarywatch.com/author/aviva-stahl/>
*http://solitarywatch.com/2014/06/17/maryland-jail-teens-charged-adults-face-isolation-neglect/#more-13043*

    /"Trays up!" the CO yells. It's about 5 am, and breakfast trays are
    here. I've been up since midnight, studying the workbooks that a
    friend sent to me. When everyone is asleep, and the TV is off, it's
    the quietest time, and I can really focus. /

    /As I get my tray every morning, I ask myself, "How much longer?"
    It's been about 7-1/2 months on 23/1, and I continually thank God
    for my strength through this. While I am finishing my tray and
    putting it back on the port, I sit there and imagine a sunrise./

    /Where I'm located in the jail, there are no windows, no sunlight,
    and no fresh air. It's like my cell is a box inside of a bigger box.
    Since I've been here, I've only seen sunlight seven times, and those
    were my court dates./

    /I try not to dwell on what I don't have, because that will make the
    day extremely long./

    /--"Luke," age 17, held at Harford County Detention Center in
    Maryland since August 2013/

Last month, Attorney General Eric Holder recorded a video message 
<http://www.justice.gov/agwa.php?id=12> condemning the "excessive" use 
of solitary confinement in juvenile facilities. He made no mention, 
however, of the children held in isolation in adult jails and state prisons.

These young people, thought to number in the thousands across the 
country, are trapped in a kind of purgatory--facing charges in adult 
court and held in adult facilities, but kept in involuntary lockdown for 
"their own protection" from the adult prisoners who surround them.

This has been the experience of five teenagers held in a county jail in 
Bel Air, Maryland, a suburban community northeast of Baltimore that is 
perhaps best known as the birthplace of John Wilkes Booth. Over the last 
few weeks, Solitary Watch has interviewed these young men, the 
townspeople who have been trying to help them, and the sheriff who 
disputes their accounts.

Eileen Siple, 51, used to be a special education teacher but now stays 
at home to care for her disabled son. She told Solitary Watch that she 
has always lived a comfortable life. "If you had said to me three years 
ago that I'd be talking to all these kids in prison, I'd say you were 
crazy."

Then one day, about two and a half years ago, her daughter came home 
from school upset. A classmate at C. Milton Wright -- the local high 
school in Bel Air -- had been arrested in connection with his father's 
death, and she wanted to help support him.

Siple quickly grew close to the teenager, Robert Richardson. Siple 
understood that the boy had been charged with a serious crime, but she 
was shocked at the conditions in which he was being held at the Harford 
County Detention Center (HCDC).

In a recent letter to Solitary Watch, Richardson describes what he 
experienced for his first ten months at HCDC, when he was 16 years old. 
He is now in state prison at the Maryland Correctional Training Center 
in Hagerstown, serving an eighteen-year sentence, the result of a plea 
bargain on manslaughter and firearm offenses.

"From day to day, it's always the same," he wrote. "Isolation, 24 hours 
a day. The light stays on, the door stays closed, no human interaction. 
I felt like an animal. I was always in the same cage, naked save for a 
paper hospital gown."

During this period, Richardson says he was locked up alongside adults. 
"I could hear the others in the isolation ward, but I couldn't see them. 
The others were all mentally ill. They would scream all night long. I 
couldn't sleep, with the screams and the banging... And the 
smells...smells of urine and feces from the others. They wouldn't bathe. 
They would lie in bed and defecate on themselves or sling their waste

Eventually, Richardson was transferred from the isolation tier to a unit 
called T-Block. The unit is used primarily to hold recent adult 
arrestees while they are processed into general population, and through 
the small window on his door Richardson saw the many adults circulating 
on and off the block. But soon he realized that in addition to himself 
there were other teenage boys being held on the tier for weeks and 
months at a time, and he started to talk to them through his door and 
the pipes that ran through his small cell.

Before long, Eileen Siple was supporting these other boys, too. She 
provided Solitary Watch with the names of fifteen different young men 
allegedly held on T-Block, as well as written statements from five of them.

*Boys Spend Months in Solitary Confinement*

During the 1990s, amidst a national rise in the juvenile crime rate and 
an emerging paranoia about child "superpredators," states across the 
county made it easier to kids to be charged as adults. In Maryland, 
children 14 years or older automatically enter the adult system if they 
commit the most serious crimes, including first-degree murder or rape, 
as do sixteen and seventeen-year-olds charged with one of 33 crimes 
ranging from firearm offenses, to robbery, to manslaughter.

The Maryland law means that many teenagers, even those who are 
eventually found innocent or waived down into juvenile court, spend 
weeks or months in adult facilities awaiting transfer hearings or 
trials. In nine of Maryland's 23 counties, including Harford County -- 
where HDRC is located -- established guidelines call for kids facing 
charges in the adult system to be held in pre-trial solitary confinement.

Solitary is supposed to protect young people, and general population is 
admittedly known to be a patently unsafe place for minors. But the 
emotional and detailed accounts written by Richardson and the four other 
young men previously held on T-Block raise serious questions about 
whether juveniles are facing abuse in the name of their own safety.

The young men were charged with various offenses. Solitary Watch has 
changed several of their names for their protection. "Luke" was arrested 
a month after his 17th birthday on sex abuse charges related to a minor; 
he is still under 18 and currently in segregation. "Ryan," who is facing 
rape, incest, and sex abuse charges, was also arrested at 17, but has 
since turned 18 and is now being held in general population at HCDC 
pending trial. "Adam" was arrested at 16 on armed robbery and theft 
charges; he has since pled guilty and was sentenced to just over four 
years in prison. Will Downs was arrested at 17 on assault charges and 
eventually pled guilty, although he and his family maintain his 
innocence. He was released in April on time served, and was interviewed 
over the phone from his home.

In their accounts, the boys describe being held in 23-hour lockdown in 
small cells, for periods ranging from a few weeks to many months. In an 
account dated in late April 2014, Downs wrote: "T-Block was the worst 
month and a half of my life! On T-Block you are locked down 23 hours a 
day. You are in a 7 by 11 cell and I can almost touch the wall with my 
wingspan and if you are by yourself is even worse. I had no body to talk 
to relieve stress."

Some of the boys were forced to wear a smock, which they referred to as 
the "turtle," when they first arrived. One young man said he felt so 
cold during this time that he wrapped toilet paper around his feet. 
Ryan, then age 17, writes: "I was escorted to T Block, and they put me 
in a cell that was maybe 12' x 7', had a light that stayed on all of the 
time, a desk, a stool, a double bunk, a toilet, and a sink. They told me 
to strip down to my blue shorts (like boxers) and gave me a smock. The 
smock was like a sleeveless robe that fastened with Velcro and very 
heavy fabric."

As is standard policy for kids held in adult facilities, the boys were 
not able to mix freely with the adult population, so could not access 
any programming in the jail -- including counseling, education or 
church. Even the boys' one-hour of recreation time was conducted 
indoors, so they would only see sunlight when they were taken to and 
from court hearings.

In a recent phone interview, Downs described what it was like to be on 
lockdown. "All the worst things go through your head when you're in 
there, because you feel like nothing's happening. Every day moves so 
slow, every day was like a week." He said that although some of the boys 
were bunked in pairs for periods of time, he was primarily held alone.

Ryan felt jealous of the many men passing through T-Block for 
processing. "We watched people come in and leave, all the time. It hurt 
so bad to watch these people leave, knowing that I couldn't even see the 
sun or feel a breeze or have anything to do with the outside."

The boys' accounts also describe being at the complete mercy of 
corrections officers. Downs recalls having "to beg [guards] for ice so 
you can have fresh water to drink", adding "if they have a bad day you 
are going have an even worse day."

According to Eileen Siple, the time in isolation took a significant 
psychological and physical toll on all of the boys. Of the four she 
communicates with regularly, one started hearing voices during his time 
in solitary, and was placed on a series of psychiatric medications; the 
other three were also prescribed either anti-anxiety medications or 
anti-depressants.

According to a 2012 report 
<http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us1012ForUpload.pdf> by 
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, young people 
are particularly vulnerable to the stressors of "the box," in part 
because they haven't acquired the same coping mechanisms as adults.  
Moreover, the author notes, "because they are still developing, 
traumatic experiences like solitary confinement may have a profound 
effect on [kids'] chance to rehabilitate and grow."  In 2007, the 
Campaign for Youth Justice, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates 
for children to be kept in the juvenile justice system, found that kids 
held in adult prisons and jails are 36 times more likely 
<http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/KeyYouthCrimeFacts.pdf> to 
commit suicide than young people held in juvenile facilities.

The young men's accounts also detail the poor medical care they received 
while on T-Block. One of them describes not receiving needed heart 
medication for about two and half months, despite asking for it.

*Local Sheriff Denies Accounts*

Sheriff Jesse Bane has run the Harford County Detention Center since his 
election in 2006. In a series of phone calls, the Sheriff provided 
Solitary Watch with a different account of what happens to juveniles 
when held at the facility on adult charges. He said that young people 
are sent to the Behavioral Health Unit, which was originally built for 
prisoners with mental illness but now houses both populations.

"There is a recreation yard, a general dining area, a television, and 
they are free to roam the area where they're incarcerated." In a later 
conversation, he clarified that that adults and minors held at the BHU 
are strictly separated, and rotate the time they spend out of cell.

When specifically asked why there would be accounts from as recently as 
2013 and 2014 of juveniles being held in long-term isolation at HCDC, 
Sheriff Bane reiterated that "you can't hold people in those 
conditions," adding that in an election year, you "get things like this 
that come up." (His post is up for re-election this fall.)

Sheriff Bane also said that kids are given psychological evaluations 
upon their arrival, and can be placed in isolation on the unit for days 
or weeks if medical personnel believe they pose a threat to themselves. 
Queried about the "turtle," Bane stated that young people who express 
suicidal ideation are asked to wear the garment since it cannot be torn, 
tied, or made into a noose.

When asked about accounts that young people held been held on a 
processing tier for adults, he told Solitary Watch, "I'm not sure that I 
know what you're talking about," stressing several times that the law 
requires "sight and sound" separation between children and adults.

In fact, although the decades-old federal Juvenile Justice and 
Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) requires "sight and sound" separation 
between children and adults, these protections do not currently apply to 
young people charged as adults.

The 2003 Regulations on the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) mandates 
separation <http://www.prearesourcecenter.org/node/1067>, but there are 
no accountability mechanisms to enforce the standards in county 
facilities. In 2012, the Harford County Sheriff's Office was awarded 
$163,648 to better enable compliance with PREA, although it is unknown 
if the grant had any relation to how minors are held in the facility. 
(Bane's office declined to provide copies of the application; Solitary 
Watch has since filed a FOIA request to obtain additional information.)

When asked about T-Block, the Sheriff commented although some 
individuals are held on T-Block for no more than 24 hours pending 
classification, "that does not include juveniles." He also said, "You 
cannot keep a person indefinitely in a lockdown status in isolation 
because it adversely impacts their mental health and we are not going to 
do that."

Diane Tobin, the Deputy State's Attorney, declined to comment on any 
specifics but stated that young people at HCDC are held in accordance 
with federal law. Solitary Watch contacted the lawyers for all five boys 
who submitted statements; none returned calls or emails for comment.

In a phone interview, Solitary Watch asked Downs to respond to Sheriff 
Bane's assurances that there was "sight and sound separation" between 
juveniles and adults. "We could talk to the adults on T block, we would 
tell them to come to the door, and they would talk to us," he said.

Asked to reply to Sheriff Bane's assertion that juveniles are not held 
on T-Block, Downs said, "What? I was on T-Block the whole fucking time."

According to Eileen Siple, the move from T-Block to the BSU happened 
about six weeks ago. She told Solitary Watch that last month she was 
invited by the Sheriff to tour HCDC; at the BSU she saw two minors being 
held alone on the top tier, with adults with mental illness held below. 
Siple, who is in touch with one of the two boys, said that they only 
spend a few hours out of their cells each day.

Kara Aanenson is the Campaign Strategist for Just Kids, a Maryland 
advocacy organization that works with kids automatically charged as 
adults. When interviewed by Solitary Watch, Kara Aanenson also disputed 
the Sheriff's account that the kids have long been held at the BSU. She 
said that when she toured HCDC about a year ago, she personally saw 
young people being held on T-Block.

*Use of Isolation Widespread*

According to Aanenson, what happened to Richardson and the other boys at 
HCDC -- however horrific -- is far from an isolated instance of abuse. 
"It was shocking to me, but it's also a process that doesn't just happen 
in Harford County," she told Solitary Watch. "It happens to lots of kids 
in the state of Maryland."

An infographic 
<http://justkidsmaryland.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/infofinaltogether1.jpg> 
recently published by Just Kids identifies the nine counties across 
Maryland, including Harford, which holds kids facing charges as adults 
in pre-trial solitary confinement. Eleven counties house these young 
people with the rest of the adult jail population, and the remaining 
three counties have dedicated juvenile units within adult facilities. 
Just Kids' research is based on established guidelines for handling 
minors as outlined in jail handbooks.

Nor are the numbers of youth admitted to adult facilities small. In 
2011, 771 Maryland youth were admitted to adult facilities, according to 
a report 
<http://www.djs.state.md.us/docs/DJS_Report%20on%20Youth%20Charged%20as%20Adults.pdf> 
produced by the state's Department of Juvenile Services. Sixty-eight of 
these children entered jails in one of the nine counties that hold young 
people charged as adults in solitary confinement.

Advocacy groups have endeavored to change the law. During the now-closed 
2014 legislative session in Maryland, a coalition of groups pushed for 
the passage of Senate Bill 757 
<http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2014RS/bills/sb/sb0757f.pdf> / House Bill 
1294, which would have required youth facing adult charges to be held in 
juvenile detention centers pre-trial. The bill failed to even pass onto 
the state House or Senate floor, although there is hope it may make 
progress next term.

Colorado passed similar legislation in 2012. Across the county, over ten 
states have laws on the books either requiring or permitting that young 
people facing charges in the adult system be held in juvenile facilities.

For Will, Luke, and the other teenage boys held at HCDC, there were only 
two sure ways to escape solitary confinement. The first was turning 18.

"After 7 months in T Block, I finally turned 18," Ryan wrote. "They 
moved me to general population. It was like Heaven! Yes, it's still 
jail, but it's so much better than being locked down all day. I can walk 
around. I can talk to my family on the phone. I can see the sun through 
a window. It might sound like very little to some people, but to us, 
it's HUGE!"

Aside from aging out, the only other way the boys could get off the tier 
was pleading guilty to their offenses, since convicted minors can be 
held in general population. Eileen Siple told Solitary Watch that at 
least two of the teenagers entered a plea to escape the conditions on 
T-Block, although this could not be independently verified.

The combination of existing state law -- which mandates charging certain 
kids as adults -- plus county-specific policies and national legislation 
about how to house these youth, mean that many minors across Maryland 
endure conditions that are significantly worse than those faced by 
adults. "Just because of your age and your offense, you're getting 
punished for something you're just accused of doing, for lengthy periods 
of time," Aanenson said.

For many advocates, where kids are held pending trial is just one small 
part of the problem. The recently proposed legislation is a "first step 
in the right direction," Aanenson added. "But what we ultimately need to 
be doing is stopping youth from being tried as adults."

Aanenson's sentiment was echoed by Amy Fettig, the Senior Staff Counsel 
for the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project. "We 
think the best thing to do is send these kids back to the juvenile 
justice system. Sometimes that requires changing the state law." In 
2013, the Maryland General Assembly created a task force to examine the 
issue of automatic transfer.

In the meantime, however, General Eric Holder's recent comments may 
simply be too little too late for the many young people across the 
county held in solitary confinement in adult facilities -- trapped by a 
patchwork of local, state and federal laws that recognize their 
vulnerability as children while simultaneously prosecuting them as adults.

"They take your personality when they put you in segregation," Ryan 
said. "They have everything, mentally, physically, and emotionally. They 
say it helps us, but it makes everything even worse. I wish that upon 
nobody. This is what really happens behind closed doors."
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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