ASPC-Perryville: Urgent re: Conditions of Confinement

According to the parent of a woman in medium security (Santa Cruz) at ASPC-Perryville, a new policy has just been put into place locking the women down for 22hrs/day, essentially turning the yard into a high security setting. Apparently this is in response to the recent Kingman escapes, not to misconduct on the part of these women.

This news is particularly troublesome because of the heat, for starters, as there is no A/C in the cells they're being confined to, and the swamp coolers seldom work. Families are constantly concerned about the health of those prone to succumb to heat as it is, now even more so since they get such little relief. There's no enclosed, cooled rec room for them to use when they do get time out - they have to spend it outdoors. Their resources are substandard in comparison to what many of the men have. And apparently it's been hard to get through to anyone there on the phone.

Thus far media has been alerted - as have some legislators - but no one is reporting on the horrendous heat and living conditions the women are forced to tolerate. In addition to the added physical strain it places on them to be held like that, such an environment can contribute to an escalation in tensions between prisoners, violence, depression, and suicidality.

Families and prisoners alike are protesting. According to reports from Perryville, some of the women from yard 18 refused to go back inside when rec was over. If this was one of the men's prisons, they'd be rioting and the media would be all over it, asking why. As the mother of one prisoner asks - what does it take for anyone to care about what these women are going through? Another Marcia Powell to die?

I urge readers to contact legislators, (especially Reps Cecil Ash and Kyrsten Sinema), media (Stephen Lemons at the PHX New Times, Morgan Loew at KPHO, JJ Hensley at the AZ Republic), the governor's office, the warden's office at Perryville (623-853-0304) and Constituent Services at the Arizona Department of Corrections (Betty Cassiano 602-364-3945). Tell them that the conditions of confinement for these women are unacceptable and urge them to challenge the ADC to come up with some mechanism for improving their security without compromising the health and safety of these prisoners. They should not be punished for the Kingman fiasco.

You needn't be a family member of a prisoner to speak up - just a concerned member of the community.

Perryville prisoner suicides.

Suicide in a community increases the risk to those most susceptible to follow suit. The number to the national suicide hotline is posted in the side column. The reason to call if you need to is in Phil Ochs' song, also in the side column. Stop, listen, call.

Our condolences go out to this young woman's loved ones.

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ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
JANICE K. BREWER GOVERNOR
1601 W. JEFFERSON PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85007 (602) 542-3133
CHARLES L. RYAN DIRECTOR

For Immediate Release

For more information contact:

Barrett Marson
www.bmarson@azcorrections.gov

Bill Lamoreaux
www.blamorea@azcorrections.gov

July 23, 2010
Inmate Death Notification

Goodyear, Az.- Inmate Geshell Fernandez, ADC#196933, died while in Arizona Department of Corrections custody early Friday after apparently committing suicide.

Medical responders attempted life saving measures in her cell but Fernandez was pronounced dead at 12:48 a.m.

Fernandez, 28, came to ADC in November 2009 after a conviction from Maricopa County for aggravated assault and a drug paraphernalia violation. She was serving 7.5 years and housed at ASPC-Perryville in the Lumley Unit.

The death is under investigation by the Department.

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ON DIRECT ACTIONS, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, ETC.

The timing for this seems appropriate, though I think I originally wrote it for the Friends of Marcia Powell and stuck it in a widget soon after the anarchists were accosted by the PPD...anyway, it's in quotes, but it's me, just at a different point in time than today...

If anything should happen to me, by the way, just keep up the “Free Marcia Powell” campaign. I can take care of myself - Marcia will cover everyone. We still need to have that memorial in May.

Anyway, before moving on, since I have everyone's attention: I understand that the former Deputy Warden from Lumley Yard at Perryville prison was the kind of person who often took the time to ask the women what they thought, how they were doing, what they needed – and responded. Bailey, I believe. She's retired now; she was one of the ones who cared, according to a few prisoners I've heard from in recent months.

I don't know what went down with all the ADC folks after Marcia died - I can only imagine what a weight some people still carry. It is not my intention to exploit that tragedy to trouble those who are already haunted. In fact, it is Marcia's Friends, not her ghost, that have been summoned to help us here. Anyone can still be her friend and help us change the world.

Anyone.

I don't know that Marcia will "rest in peace," regardless of whether or not anyone else makes theirs. I do believe she would be forgiving, that she would lend us her name and memory generously if we hadn't just taken it (though I did ask...), that her spirit dances at every direct action we plan and follow through on, and that from wherever she is she smiles at every sidewalk - from Phoenix to Amsterdam - bathed in the pastels of children's giant chalk and urging Arizona to Free Marcia Powell...

she's gotta love that photo we found of her in Phoenix, too. That was thanks to the Alaskan blogger at Frozen Justice. Kick ass up there, my friend. Blogging women rock!

Anyway, I don't think it was "God's mysterious ways" that led to Marcia's death even if we make good come from it somehow - they were all our ways, collectively, as a community, in the years leading up to her final hours in a cage. We neglect and abuse our sisters on the street and inside still daily.

But, I also know it's possible to exaggerate the personal sense of responsibility one may have when something like that ultimately happens. So, it seems worth mentioning that I also believe that Love's capacity for understanding and reconciliation is beyond our own imagining, and that She is fully capable of responding to anyone burdened by Marcia's death - or a similar such trauma - who asks for help.

I survived the suicide of a loved one nine years ago Easter Sunday. I know something of which I speak.

------------------on direct actions, etc...-------------------

see widget to the left for this text, which concludes:

"...Be true to yourself and the cause regardless.

If you have any questions about the legality of any direct action you are considering, we encourage everyone receiving this (or the) action alert(s) to check your local laws and ordinances and think about the possible consequences before proceeding to do anything. Not that you'd be on your own, but most of us are too poor to bail you out, and too politically disenfranchised to otherwise wrest you free."

Courtney's Scar: Deeper than we will ever know.

I gave The Phoenix New Times a hard time in December over their treatment of sex workers, but I have to tell you, Stephen Lemons has been writing on Courtney's innocence for several years now, taking an unpopular position, considering how Thomas goes after resistance... thank you Stephen.

We need to fix this injustice before anyone else changes office this year. We need to get Courtney home to her family.

How promptly and responsibly these wrongful convictions in Arizona are handled should have direct bearing on who ends up getting elected and who doesn't.

Courtney's unjust incarceration and vulnerability to assault strike me as a law enforcement emergency, and Courtney and her daughter have been separated far too long already...I think the Maricopa County Attorney's office could spring her within a week if they really wanted (that's the link to their "comment" page).

He's supposed to be a powerful man, right?

Hang in there, Courtney and Camille.

Above: "Letter From the Son of Dorothy Gaines": a child's plea to a judge to not send his mother off to prison. It's tragic how many judges do so anyway - despite begging children, dying loved ones, even dying prisoners...they even ignore these kids when evidence of their parents' innocence arises. Ego and politics trumps what really matters in this state, once again.

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Courtney Bisbee Is Assaulted in Prison...
Stephen Lemons / Phoenix New Times
March 18, 2010

COURTNEY'S SCAR

A trip to Goodyear's Perryville Prison can be a deceiving experience. On any given Sunday, family members visit moms, sisters, and daughters warehoused at Perryville. The female convicts in their orange jumpsuits seem happy for the respite from serving their time, short-lived though it may be.

Even Courtney Bisbee, who is doing 11 years on bogus child-molestation charges detailed in my October 2008 New Times cover story "Nursing Injustice," seems pleasant and untroubled at times, even though she's still fighting to clear her name.

In 2006, Bisbee, then a school nurse, was convicted in a bench trial of touching 13-year-old Jon Valles inappropriately. The case of he said/she said was heard by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Warren Granville.

Granville believed Bisbee's accuser. But Jon's brother Nik Valles — a key prosecution witness — has since recanted his testimony, saying his mother put Jon up to lie on the stand.

Still, despite a petition for post-conviction relief, which documented many of the problems of the case and introduced new evidence arguing for Bisbee's innocence, Granville refused to reverse his finding of guilt. Bisbee's challenging his ruling before the Court of Appeals, asking for a new hearing, possibly a new trial.

The appeals court probably will rule on Bisbee's challenge later this year. Meanwhile, Bisbee waits and fights in court to have a relationship with her daughter, Taylor Lee, who lives with her father and has had no contact with her imprisoned mother or her maternal grandparents for more than four years now.

If Taylor Lee ever sees her mother again, Bisbee will look different. Not only will she be older, there may well be a 2½-inch scar running from her scalp to her left eyebrow.

The gash, which is on the mend, went all the way to her skull, severing muscle and causing nerve damage. Bisbee suffered it March 1, as she was putting away equipment from an aerobics class she teaches at Perryville.

Another inmate, whom Bisbee had not dealt with before, called her from behind. Bisbee turned and was immediately punched in the face. Bisbee's assailant then grabbed her and flung her off her feet and into a metal door, opening up a gaping head wound. Bisbee was treated with 11 stitches at a hospital.

Two weeks later, when I visited her at Perryville, Bisbee's eye was still bruised and swollen, and the head wound was shockingly thick.

"They were big stitches, not the little kind," Bisbee said, pulling back a lock of hair to show me. Bisbee explained that the doctors wanted room for the wound to drain.

Though she was given painkillers at the hospital and was prescribed more, she says she's received none in prison. The left side of her scalp is still numb from the injury, she says, and she has painful headaches. Her left eye is also sensitive to light, and her eyesight has not fully recovered.

But she's more concerned about receiving the prescribed ointment Mederma, which is supposed to lessen scarring. This, too, prison authorities have withheld, though Bisbee's parents are willing to pay for it.

She playfully chastises her mother, Camille Tilley, for referring to the wound as a "Frankenstein scar" in an e-mail to Bisbee's hundreds of supporters. The wound might fit the description if Bisbee's bangs didn't hide it.

Fortunately, the attack on Bisbee was carried out in plain view of a Perryville guard, who immediately arrested the other inmate.

Why was she attacked? The scuttlebutt is that her assailant wanted to be written up and transferred to a high-security yard, where the assailant's girlfriend was assigned.

Bisbee says she gets along with most of the other inmates but says there is a small group whose members might think badly of her because she maintains her innocence.

"I don't fit in," she told me. "It's like I have one foot in this world, and one foot in the outside world."

Bisbee contends she's "feisty" and can tough out the situation. She doesn't have much choice.

The recent attack should light a fire under those who believe she's innocent and, at the very least, deserves a new trial. Until she's released, all those concerned for justice in her case can only hope for her safety.

Women's Resistance at Perryville Prison

(Just revised this a little. Back later.)

This comes from Jon's Jail Journal - the post for January 3, 2010. I'm giving you the lead and linking you back there for the rest, because if you haven't checked out his blog, you need to now. It's a blogspot for bloggers from jails and prisons - with a special focus on our own Tent City and Joe Arpaio. I also have copies of the zine "Tenacious", with art and writings compiled by Vikki Law from women in prison, which has Renee's story about Marcia's death in it. Contact me if interested.

I know Director Ryan will be seeing this post soon enough, and hunting down the blogger who wrote it. I hope she's able to maintain contact with the people she's in touch with, so we all know she's not experiencing any kind of retaliation. The sounds of the new DW is troubling. I would expect Director Ryan would want to make a point of assuring that Renee isn't harassed or punished for expressing herself on the issue - perhaps if his office was more directly involved in what prisoners had to say instead of trying to have them silenced, they wouldn't be finding out what's going on there from blogs. He should actually follow this up as an anonymous complaint, one likely shared by many too fearful to say anything. Leave Renee alone.

Get word inside that we hear them, and to keep writing - but be low key (not like me). Women's resistance is worth making the extra effort to pay attention to. We need to figure out how to support them, which starts with letting them know we're here, listening. They just need to be mindful that everyone else is listening, too. Hopefully, the visibility of blogging will protect them. But we can't promise anything; prison is not a safe place to be when you complain about it.


Hang in there, sisters.
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Changes at Perryville Women’s Prison (Part 1 by Lifer Renee)

Renee – As a teenager, Renee received a 60-year sentence from a judge in Pima County. 15 years into her sentence, she’s writing from Perryville prison in Goodyear, Arizona, providing a rare and unique insight into a women's prison.

After Marcia Powell died because of the guards, so much has happened. I went a round or two with depression. Her death was a slap in the face of what the reality of my life is. All of us who reside in this prison felt it. It was hard to deal with, but life goes on.

Her death has changed the dynamics of life here drastically. There are now larger “rec enclosures” no longer to be referred to as cages. In the guards’ inner circles, they are referred to as “play pens.” There are mister systems and shade structures.

There is a new administration: DW [Deputy Warden], ADW [Assistant Deputy Warden], and captain. The DW is out of control. If you have an opinion, something to say and it goes against what he says, you’ll find yourself moved to the hole in the blink of an eye. This has happened to several women. They also move you into the kitchen with 56 other women if you ask for a room change because you do not get along with your roommate, and this is escalating the fighting....

Back to Jon's for the rest. It's kind of big.

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Thanks, Shaun, for being there to amplify the voices of so many prisoners. And thanks, Renee, for taking the chance to get word out about what's going on these days. Keep writing.