#Find an Inmate in Clark County Jail

[noisycowboyglitter]

The Impact of Incarceration: Life Inside Clark County Jail for Inmates

Need to find an inmate in the Clark County Jail? Look no further. This comprehensive guide will assist you in locating inmate information, understanding the jail system, and navigating the process.

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Clark County Jail Inmate Search To determine if someone is currently incarcerated at the Clark County Jail, you can utilize the online inmate search tool provided by the Clark County Sheriff's Office. This database typically includes information such as:

Full name

Booking date

Charges

Bond amount

Release date (if applicable)

Important Note: The accuracy and comprehensiveness of inmate information can vary depending on the specific jail system. It's essential to verify information through official channels.

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Understanding the Clark County Jail System The Clark County Jail is a correctional facility responsible for housing individuals arrested or convicted of crimes within the county. The jail operates under specific rules and regulations to maintain security and order.

Inmate Visitation Visiting an inmate often requires pre-registration and adherence to strict guidelines. Visitors may be subject to background checks and searches. It's crucial to contact the jail directly for specific visitation policies and procedures.

Sending Money to an Inmate Many jails allow deposits to inmate accounts for purchasing commissary items. The process typically involves using a money transfer service or depositing funds directly at the jail.

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Legal Representation If you or someone you know is incarcerated, it's essential to consult with an attorney. Legal counsel can provide guidance on the legal process, bail options, and potential defense strategies.

Disclaimer: This information is intended for general knowledge and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. Always consult with appropriate authorities or legal professionals for accurate and up-to-date information regarding specific cases or situations.

Looking for a classic yet edgy Halloween costume? The prison inmate look is a timeless choice that offers endless possibilities for creativity. Whether you're aiming for a scary, funny, or sexy vibe, this costume can be adapted to suit your style.

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The iconic black and white striped jumpsuit is the foundation of any prison inmate costume. However, don't be afraid to put your own spin on it. Consider adding accessories like a fake tattoo, a chain around your ankle, or a shaved head to enhance the look. For a more dramatic effect, you can apply fake blood or bruises.  

If you want to add a touch of humor, consider carrying a prop like a fake newspaper with a headline about your "crime." Or, you could create a group costume with friends, dressing as prison guards or other inmates.

For women, the prison inmate costume can be sexified with a shorter jumpsuit or by adding fishnet tights. However, it's important to maintain a balance between sexy and scary to avoid crossing the line into offensive territory.

Remember, Halloween is a time for fun and creativity. So let your imagination run wild when creating your prison inmate costume. With a little effort, you can create a memorable and eye-catching look that will turn heads at any Halloween party.  

[rogerclarkaudiobooks]

"Billy the Kid: The War for Lincoln County"

Author: Ryan C. Coleman Narrator: Roger Clark Audiobook Release Date: October 15, 2024 Length:

Care to listen to a sample of this audiobook? Click on the media player below 👇

Publisher's Summary:

Age 14: Orphan Age 15: Inmate Age 16: Outlaw Age 17: Killer In 1870s New Mexico, the territory is at a crossroads. The indigenous population is being driven out—and driven down—by the white settlers migrating west after the Civil War. The center of power isn’t the governor but rather the Santa Fe Ring, a group of wealthy politicians, businessman, and landowners who exercise power through organized crime, theft, graft, and murder. Their main source of income is a mercantile store in Lincoln known as the House. After escaping jail, William Bonney—a.k.a. Billy the Kid—is a seventeen-year-old orphan who’s been on the run for the better part of two years. All he wants is to belong—to find a place he can call home and people he can call family. He’d have been better off alone. Billy falls in with a gang of ruthless rustlers and murderers who work as muscle for the House. But when Billy crosses one of the members, the gang sets out to kill him. Billy narrowly escapes, finding refuge under the tutelage of John Tunstall, an English immigrant new to the territory who has his sights set on opening a business in Lincoln—and he’s intent on competing directly with the House. But when Tunstall is murdered, any positive effect the mentor had on Billy is eradicated, leaving the Kid with only one thing on his mind … Revenge. From orphan to outlaw to killer, this is the untold story behind the legend of Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid is available from: Apple Books ✰ Audible ✰ Audiobooks.com ✰ AudiobooksNow.com ✰ AudiobookStore.com ✰ Barnes & Noble ✰ Binge Books ✰ Books-A-Million ✰ Chirp Books ✰ Downpour ✰ Everand ✰ Google Play ✰ Hoopla ✰ Libro.fm ✰ Overdrive + Libby ✰ Rakuten Kobo ✰

TIP: If you want to find more audiobooks from Roger, you can click on the "Roger's Audiobooks" tag, or you can also check out my pinned post 😉 Happy Listening!

[fernreads]

The Justice Department has found that Louisiana’s longstanding practice of detaining more than a quarter of inmates beyond their court-ordered release dates violates the Constitution and accused state officials of ignoring repeated calls to overhaul the unjust system.

The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections “is deliberately indifferent to the systemic overdetention of people in its custody,” according to a report on a yearlong investigation, released on Wednesday, that examined incarceration patterns of inmates held in state facilities and jails run by parishes, the state equivalent of county governments.

From January 2022 to April 2022, 27 percent of the people who were legally entitled to be released from state custody, some for minor crimes or first-time offenses, were held past their release dates. About 24 percent of those improperly detained had been held 90 days or longer past their release days, the Justice Department found.

Louisiana officials, who cooperated with federal investigators, are discussing a possible agreement with the Justice Department to overhaul the system. But the department, citing evidence uncovered by lawyers representing incarcerated people, concluded that the state has known about the problem for at least a decade and has done little to address it.

 “There is an obligation both to incarcerated persons and the taxpayers not to keep someone incarcerated for longer than they should be,” Brandon B. Brown, a U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, said in a statement accompanying the report. “Timely release is not only a legal obligation, but arguably of equal importance, a moral obligation.”

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who leads the department’s civil rights division, added that Louisiana’s system also contributed to chronic racial disparities in the state’s criminal justice system.

“In Louisiana, Black people represent 65 percent of the adult correctional population, while only representing 33 percent of the overall state population,” she added.

A spokesman for the official who runs the system, James M. Le Blanc, said the state corrections department was reviewing the report and was continuing to work with the Justice Department.

“Without a full review of the report’s findings and documentation supporting said findings, it would be a challenge to provide a comprehensive response at this time,” the spokesman said in an email.

In December, The Times reported that about 200 inmates are held beyond their legal release dates on any given month in Louisiana, amounting to 2,000 to 2,500 of the 12,000 to 16,000 prisoners freed each year.

The average length of additional time was around 44 days in 2019, according to internal state corrections data obtained by lawyers for inmates. Until recently, the department’s public hotline warned families that the wait could be as long as 90 days.

In most other states and cities, prisoners and parolees marked for immediate release are typically processed within hours — not days — although those times can vary, particularly if officials must make arrangements required to release registered sex offenders. But in Louisiana, the problem known as “overdetention” is endemic, often occurring without explanation, apology or compensation — an overlooked crisis in a state that imprisons a higher percentage of its residents than any other in most years.

The practice is also wasteful. It costs Louisiana taxpayers at least $2.8 million a year in housing costs alone, according to the Justice Department.

A coalition of prisoners’ rights groups has sued the state on behalf of prisoners who have been held past their release dates. Those suits are continuing on a separate track.

“We have known for a long time that the Louisiana D.O.C. is deliberately indifferent to the systemic overdetention of people in its custody,” said Mercedes Montagnes, the executive director of the Promise of Justice Initiative, a nonprofit in New Orleans that has sued the state. “It’s egregious.”

Casey Denson, who is representing Johnny Traweek, a former prisoner in Orleans Parish who served 20 days past his release date, said the Justice Department action makes it more likely Louisiana will change its practices.

“It is clear that the state is unwilling, and unable, to fix it on its own,” she said.

[lastsonlost]

The incident in Karla Dominguez’s apartment last October was violent, and it was not consensual, she testified in Alexandria District Court in December. The man she accused was indicted on charges including rape, strangulation and abduction and jailed without bond in Alexandria.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Ibrahim E. Bouaichi’s lawyers argued that the virus was a danger to both inmates and their attorneys, and that Bouaichi should be freed awaiting trial. On April 9, over the objections of an Alexandria prosecutor, Circuit Court Judge Nolan Dawkins released Bouaichi on $25,000 bond, with the condition that he only leave his Maryland home to meet with his lawyers or pretrial services officials.

On July 29, Alexandria police say, Bouaichi, 33, returned to Alexandria and shot and killed Dominguez outside her apartment in the city’s West End.

When police couldn’t find Bouaichi after the slaying, they issued a video news release asking for the public’s help in locating him, declaring him “armed and dangerous.” Then on Wednesday morning, federal marshals and Alexandria police spotted Bouaichi in Prince George’s County and pursued him, causing Bouaichi to crash, authorities said. When the police went to arrest Bouaichi, they found he had apparently shot himself. He was reported to be in grave condition Thursday.

Bouaichi’s release from jail and the slaying of Dominguez represent a tragic side effect of the pandemic. As the coronavirus erupted in America, civil liberties advocates called for the release of large numbers of prisoners from jails and prisons in order to keep them from being infected and possibly dying in necessarily confined spaces.

In Alexandria, Bouaichi’s lawyers said in their motion for bond that “social distancing and proper disinfecting measures are impossible while incarcerated.… Simply put, the risk of contracting Covid-19 in a jail is exceedingly obvious.” The lawyers, Manuel Leiva and Frank Salvato, also noted the risk for themselves in the jail, saying that lawyers seeking a contact visit would “also expose themselves to contaminated air and surfaces.”

Leiva and Salvato also claimed that the Alexandria jail had “imposed severe restrictions on visitation since the Covid-19 outbreak,” that all contact visits (meaning no glass or separation between visitor and inmate) were stopped and that the lawyers could only have video conference sessions lasting 30 minutes maximum. A trial date was set for Bouaichi, and his lawyers said he was “being effectively deprived of legal counsel.”

Alexandria jail officials responded that they do allow contact visits for attorneys upon request, and have accommodated several requests. “We have also provided video conferences in excess of 30 minutes,” jail spokeswoman Amy Bertsch said. “However, we do not have any record of Mr. Leiva or his co-counsel requesting a face-to-face visit with Ibrahim Bouaichi after the protocols went into effect in late March.”

Bertsch noted that the jail implemented increased cleaning and health screening in early March “and there were no cases of covid-19 at the jail during their client’s incarceration.”

Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan L. Porter said Leiva and Salvato filed their motion on April 8 and Clark set the hearing for the next day, so prosecutors did not file a written response. Porter noted that under Virginia law, those charged with certain violent crimes such as rape are presumed to be a danger and are not eligible for bond.

“We strenuously argued that the presumption” against bond, Porter said, “had not been overcome, given the facts of the case and the violent nature of the alleged offense.” He declined to provide details of the attack because both the rape and murder cases against Bouaichi are pending.

Judge Dawkins retired in June, after serving 12 years as a circuit court judge and 14 years before that on the juvenile and domestic relations court. He did not respond to a request for comment. Judges typically are prohibited from commenting on pending cases.

Very little information is available about Dominguez, who police said was a native of Venezuela and did not have family in this country. A GoFundMe account was launched after she was killed, to help pay for her funeral, but the organizer did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Dominguez lived on South Greenmount Drive, in the Town Square at Mark Center Apartments. Alexandria police said they received a report of gunshots on July 29, and at 6:20 a.m. they found Dominguez outside her apartment, dead of multiple wounds to the upper body.

Police obtained a murder warrant for Bouaichi two days later, but could not find him until Wednesday.

In October, Dominguez called police and alleged she had been sexually assaulted by Bouaichi on Oct. 10.

Bouaichi was charged with six felonies — rape, sodomy, strangulation, abduction, burglary and malicious wounding — and turned himself in on Oct. 21. He was held without bond. At a preliminary hearing before Alexandria General District Court Chief Judge Donald M. Haddock in December, prosecutors dismissed the rape and malicious wounding charges, and Haddock found probable cause to send the case to a grand jury. He denied a request to allow Bouaichi to post bond.

The grand jury indicted Bouaichi on five charges: rape, sodomy, strangulation, abduction and burglary. A trial date was set for March 30, and Leiva and Salvato’s bond motion indicates they were preparing for trial, until the courts shut down in March due to the coronavirus and trials were postponed. “The two individuals involved were boyfriend/girlfriend,” the lawyers wrote, “and there is a substantial defense here.”

Alexandria police declined to provide any details of the alleged criminal assault from October.

Leiva and Salvato said in a statement they were “certainly saddened by the tragedy both families have suffered here.” The lawyers said they “were looking forward to trial. Unfortunately the pandemic continued the trial date by several months and we didn’t get the chance to put forth our case.”

After his release from the Alexandria jail, Bouaichi next encountered police in Greenbelt, where he lived with his parents. Greenbelt police said that shortly before midnight on May 8, they received a holdup alarm from a Wendy’s restaurant. Greenbelt police spokesman George Mathews said officers arrived to find no robbery, but instead a motorist in the drive-through acting strangely.

Mathews said the driver was uncooperative, “may have been intoxicated, and wouldn’t communicate with the officers. He then put his vehicle in drive and rammed the K-9 officer’s vehicle,” which an officer and a police dog were sitting in. The officers eventually took him into custody, at which point Bouaichi reported having a medical issue. He was taken to a hospital, and eventually to the Prince George’s jail, where he was served multiple charges: two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, harming a law enforcement dog, resisting arrest, driving while intoxicated and multiple traffic charges.

Maryland court records indicate Bouaichi was released from jail on May 11. Porter said Alexandria officials were not notified of the charges in Prince George’s County or they would have sought to revoke Bouaichi’s bond.

[siterr236]

Jail Dating App

.GRAPHIC CONTENT. Adam Hilarie's roommate found his lifeless, bloody body on the floor of their apartment. His 911 call was played for the jury in the Dating. A judge has voided the original sentence of an Indiana teenager who had been sent to jail and placed on his state's sexual offender registry after having sex with a young teen he met on a dating app. Multiple women file fraud complaints in dating app scheme. His real name is Jonathan Fitzgerald Clarke, 51, and he never used his jail mug shot on any online dating profiles. Make the day of a lonely inmate! Meet-an-Inmate.com has been helping male and female inmates connect with the outside world since 1998 and is ranked #1 among prison pen pal websites. Meet-An-Inmate connects people like you with inmates from across the United States, and offers an easy way to brighten up an inmates day.

Jail Dating App

How Do Prisoners Get On Dating Sites

CORUNNA, Mich. -- A Michigan man charged with killing and mutilating a man whom he met through the dating app Grindr is not mentally fit to stand trial, his attorney said.

Mark Latunski was examined by the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry. The prosecutor's office doesn't object to the conclusion that he's “not presently competent,” attorney Douglas Corwin Jr. said.

Latunski is being held at the Shiawassee County jail and is scheduled for a court hearing Thursday. He's charged with murder and other crimes in the killing of 25-year-old Kevin Bacon.

Bacon's body was found Dec. 28 hanging from the ceiling of Latunski’s home in Bennington Township, 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. Police said Latunski admitted to killing Bacon and eating parts of his body.

The case will be put on hold while Latunski receives treatment to try to improve his mental competency, Corwin told MLive.com.

A convicted conman who defrauded a woman on Tinder has now been blocked from another online dating app.

Andrew W C Tonks Thomson, now living in Auckland, said he was absolutely not on dating app Bumble looking for someone to take money from.

He says he’s looking for love and a second chance.

READ MORE: * Serial conman who 'preyed' on Tinder can't repay victim due to 'undue hardship' * 'Silver-tongued' conman changed name to continue frauds * Queenstown serial conman 'preyed' on Tinder

“I’m interested in getting on with my life. I’m lonely and stuck in New Zealand due to the (parole) board’s decision to keep me here,” Thomson said.

Thomson, who has also gone by the names of Andrew Tonks Thomson and Andrew Charles Tonks was sentenced in the Invercargill District Court in March 2020 for theft in a special relationship, namely $300,000, two charges using a forged document, two charges of managing a company while prohibited and making a false statement with a shareholder consent form in 2019.

The offending related to dealings in Queenstown.

At the time, one of the victims read her impact statement in court, and said he preyed on her “kind, empathetic nature to con me.”

After the pair met on the dating app Tinder, they developed a relationship.

He was sentenced to two years’ and four months’ jail and was released by the New Zealand Parole Board January 2021.

“I’m hoping to meet someone who might be able to see that you can change from a lesson and move on. I don't want to put anyone through the grief I put (his victim) through,” he said this week.

A woman contacted Stuff in the past few days to say alarm bells began to ring when she went on a date with Thomson, after connecting with him on Bumble.

Stories he told about his past didn't quite make sense to the woman, and she started checking him out further online.

That’s when she discovered his criminal convictions.

The woman said Thomson claimed to work in counter-terrorism.

She wants people to know that Thomson is out of prison, and she alerted the dating app of his background.

Stuff asked Thomson about his counter-terrorism work, but he declined to comment on it.

'There's just no comment that can be made, there's nothing there. There're two sides to every story and I can't comment on that,” Thomson said.

He was absolutely not on Bumble looking for someone to take money from, he said.

“There was never any other intent. It's impossible to get on with life with the history I've got and the articles I've got and I guess this is reminding me that I'm not in a position to be dating, I just need to keep my head down and go home.'

Home is Tasmania, where his family is waiting to support him, he says.

Bumble told Stuff it used information shared from the woman to ensure the individual flagged can never use its platform again.

Thomson’s Tinder victim that he defrauded is now producing a podcast called Conning the Con but declined to speak further about Thomson’s latest appearance on a dating app.

He sought parole and part of the release conditions were not to possess or use any electronic device capable of accessing the internet, other than a device that had been approved in writing by a probation officer.

He was also to disclose to a probation officer, at the earliest opportunity, details of any intimate relationship which commences, resumes or terminates.

Jail Dating App

The parole board decision says Thomson’s first preference would be to be released back to Australia because much his support network is there.

The decision says “the board made it clear to Mr Thomson at an early stage that it was not particularly receptive to that concept, as effectively the New Zealand Probation Service would have no jurisdiction or control over his release conditions.”

The board stated Thomson had made good progress in prison, completed courses and recognised where he had gone wrong in his decisions and his thinking, and the damage that he had caused to his victim – not just financially.

Thompson told Stuff he had no reasonable answer for his 2019 offending.

'I was in a bad headspace, living beyond my means, and I was trying to make a name for myself in New Zealand. Trying to be a big player I suppose.”

How Do Prisoners Get On Dating Sites

Thomson said he knew he could be a cautionary tale.

'I have romantic notions of maybe one day having a family of my own, but that's probably impossible with my history unfortunately. I'm just going to have to change my tact on that, just find happiness by myself.”

He has no plans to change his name(s) as he said it would be disrespectful to his family.

“We’re just going to have to learn how to deal with it ... the Google searches are the killer.”

[masterofd1saster]

CJ current events 2 nov 20

He’ll die of old age before he ever sees a needle, but still...

Rosalie Sanz was a teenager in 1969 when she looked out the window of her family’s San Diego home on a dark November night and saw two men in suits. She remembers her mother listening quietly to the detectives telling her that her 23-year-old daughter, Mary Scott, had been murdered.***

She began working as a cocktail waitress and then as a dancer, nicknamed Lucky, at a local club, Sanz said. On Nov. 20, Scott’s co-worker went to look for her at her apartment and found her dead. Scott had been strangled and raped, the furniture in disarray and chain broken on the door, Sanz said, quoting the local newspaper reports from 1969.***

But a few years ago, Sanz began seeing how DNA technology was helping investigators find suspects in other murders, including the DeAngelo case.

“And I thought, ‘Why can’t they do that with Mary’s case?” Sanz said.

She contacted a friend, a retired police officer, in 2019, the year of the 50th anniversary of the murder. The friend helped contact people still on the police force, and a new search was born.***  https://news.yahoo.com/50-years-suspect-emerges-cold-122240826.html

San Diego PD used genetic genealogy to find and arrest John Jeffrey Sipos, 75, of Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.  He had been stationed in San Diego in the Navy at the time of the murder.  

The same technology was used to find Joseph James DeAngelo, a/k/a “the Golden State Killer, who was arrested in Sacramento, California, in 2018.”

California’s last execution?  Clarence Ray Allen in 2006.  He had been on death row > 23 years.  https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/capital-punishment/inmates-executed-1978-to-present/  viewed Hallowe’en 2020.

***

Kyle Rittenhouse was extradited to Wisconsin after an Illinois judge rejected his legal challenge on Friday.***

Rittenhouse arrived at Kenosha County jail Friday afternoon following the ruling, authorities told Nick Bohr, a reporter for local ABC affiliate WISN-12.*** https://news.yahoo.com/illinois-judge-just-ruled-kyle-212255333.html

***

Michigan Proposal 2, Search Warrant for Electronic Data Amendment (2020)

 https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Proposal_2,_Search_Warrant_for_Electronic_Data_Amendment_(2020) says

A proposed constitutional amendment to require a search warrant in order to access a person’s electronic data or electronic communications.

The measure would amend Section 11 of Article I of the Michigan Constitution. The following italic text would be added and struck-through text would be deleted:[1]

Searches and Seizures

The person, houses, papers, and possessions, and electronic data and electronic communications of every person shall be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures. No warrant to search any place or to seize any person or things or to access electronic data or electronic communications shall issue without describing them, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation. The provisions of this section shall not be construed to bar from evidence in any criminal proceeding any narcotic drug, firearm, bomb, explosive or any other dangerous weapon, seized by a peace officer outside the curtilage of any dwelling house in this state.[3]

***

Vancouver/Hazel Dell Washington

On Thurs, law enforcement investigated accusations that Kevin Peterson Jr. was selling drugs in the parking lot the Quality Inn of Hazel Dell.  It’s in south western Washington.  Mr Peterson was alone in a a vehicle, but fled on foot when law enforcement approached.

“Soon after the foot chase began, the man produced a handgun, and the officers backed off,” reads a news release from Battle Ground Police Chief Mike Fort, who is handling the release of information. “A short time later, the subject encountered three Clark County deputies who all discharged their pistols. During the crime scene investigation, a Glock model 23, 40 caliber pistol was found near the deceased by independent crime scene investigators.”***  https://www.columbian.com/news/2020/oct/30/police-shooting-in-hazel-dell-sparks-investigation-protest/ 

There have been protests and counterprotests.  There is some question about whether Mr Peterson fired at law enforcement.  For the moment, the Sheriff is not denying that he fired.  https://katu.com/news/local/tensions-flare-after-vigil-for-man-shot-and-killed-by-deputies  

***

https://www.cossapresources.org/Content/Documents/Articles/Pathways_to_Diversion_Case_Studies_Series_Officer_Intervention.pdf includes a handful of case studies on programs diverting low level drug offenders into treatment and out of prosecution.

Same group has a pub for naloxone/narcan https://www.cossapresources.org/Content/Documents/Articles/Pathways_to_Diversion_Case_Studies_Series_Naloxone_Plus.pdf

***

[96thdayofrage]

If there was any doubt that jails are horrific places that only serve to debase and dehumanize people, let the Milwaukee County Jail serve as a prime example. Over the last few years, there have been deaths of several inmates at the jail as well as hideous allegations of abuse of pregnant women during their incarceration. Meanwhile, Sheriff David Clarke remains completely unbothered—following Donald Trump and the Republicans around the country, parroting conservative talking points and making himself the go-to black face of their party, despite being a Democrat.

Supposedly, his loyalty (and we all now how big Trump is on loyalty!) had gotten him a job in the administration that was never confirmed, which if it happens might mean that his term as sheriff is coming to an end. Let’s hope so because he has proven incredibly unfit to hold any office, never mind be responsible for the lives of incarcerated human beings.

On Wednesday, a jury agreed that the jail is liable for some of the ways that it has abused inmates and decided to award a woman $6.7 million after she was raped repeatedly by a guard when she was held in custody in the jail back in 2013. She was pregnant at the time and also one of the women who was shackled during childbirth, a practice that seems to have been commonplace at the jail.

The guard, Xavier Thicklen, was acting under his scope of employment when the sexual assaults occurred and therefore Milwaukee County is liable for the damages amount, the jury determined.

The jury also found there was "no legitimate government purpose" to shackle the woman during childbirth labor, but jurors did not find she was injured and therefore awarded her no monetary damages, according to Theresa Kleinhaus, a Chicago attorney who litigated the case with other attorneys from the firm.

It’s incredible that sexual assault is acknowledged as having caused damage but the actual bondage of this woman, against her will, while giving birth was somehow not seen as harmful. Who exactly was on this jury, anyway? What is their standard for what causes injury?

And since shackling, as they understood it, did not contribute to injury in this case, what does that decision mean for future cases? There is currently an active lawsuit against the jail by another woman for this very thing. Hopefully, this outcome does not foreshadow how future juries might rule.

Just to be clear, shackling during childbirth is inhumane and unsafe. It not only has the potential for harm to the mother, it can harm the fetus and is a violation of human rights. But you know who thinks shackling is perfectly okay? Sheriff David Clarke. Of course, during the trial, Clarke was nowhere to be found.

In a deposition, Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. defended the practice of shackling, saying it is required to protect hospital staff. [...]

The trial comes as the Sheriff’s Office deals with multiple legal issues and Clarke plans to leave for a job in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Clarke did not testify in the three-day trial.

The victim’s attorney stated that while the jury found that there was no physical harm caused by shackling the woman during childbirth, she suffered psychological trauma as a result. While jail is never pleasant and not meant to be, it sounds like the entirety of her encounter in the Milwaukee County Jail was traumatic and terrifying. Though it is hard to quantify, $6.7 million doesn’t sound like nearly enough for a lifetime of damage. And with David Clarke still having his job, it feels like there is more justice that needs to be done.

[vsplusonline]

Washington: Virus deaths hit 54, Governor signs emergency aid bill

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/washington-virus-deaths-hit-54-governor-signs-emergency-aid-bill/

Washington: Virus deaths hit 54, Governor signs emergency aid bill

As the death toll from COVID-19 in Washington state reached 54, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a measure drawing $200 million from the state’s emergency rainy day fund for the state’s coronavirus response.

Inslee said the funding bill is really about protecting what we hold most dear, our lives and the lives of our loved ones. The measure has $175 million going to the public health system and the remainder to a dedicated unemployment fund for coronavirus impacts. The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.

The new spending comes as King County reported three more people have died, bringing its total to 46. Clark County health officials announced their first fatal cases, a husband and wife in their 80s, while Snohomish County said a fifth person has died. One person died in Grant County.

The Clark County couple was hospitalized at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center last week and died Monday night, according to health officials. One had been living in a small adult family home, and the other was a resident of an assisted living community.

This is a horrible tragedy, said Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County health officer and Public Health director. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this time.

Washington has the highest number of deaths in the U.S., with most being associated with a nursing home in Kirkland. By Tuesday, the number of positive cases topped 1,000.

Inslee imposed strict new rules this week to help slow the spread of COVID-19. He mandated an immediate two-week closure of all restaurants, bars recreational facilities. He also expanded the limits on large gatherings.

The new orders went into effect Monday night and will be in place through March 31.

If we are living a normal life, we are not doing our jobs as Washingtonians, Inslee said. We cannot do that anymore. We need to make changes, regardless of size. All of us need to do more. We must limit the number of people we come in contact with. This is the new normal.

The state Employment Security Department did not immediately have data on the number unemployment compensation applications since the state was hit by the pandemic, but Inslee said that the state’s $4.7 billion unemployment trust fund was very, very robust.

We feel really good about where we are in unemployment compensations, he said. We’re going to remain committed one way or another to get people unemployment compensation through this crisis. We know how critical this is. We know how many people that are going to experience, we hope, short-term unemployment. We want to be there for them.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.

Inslee said it was possible the Legislature, which just adjourned its 60-day session last week, might have to be called back into special session if additional money is needed for the crisis.

We can call a special session at any time that becomes necessary, and I would not be reluctant to do so, he said. He said he has told legislative leaders to be prepared to do their work even if needs to be done remotely due to social distancing requirements.

On Monday, a group of community and legal activists submitted a letter to Inslee to implement a list of measures aimed at protecting people held in the state’s jails and prisons.

People live in close contact with one another, social distancing is difficult, hygiene services and essential medical equipment is in short supply, and medical treatment is not easily accessible, the letter said. Once COVID-19 breaks out, it will likely spread quickly through our prisons and jails.

They pointed out that a correctional officer at the Monroe Correctional Complex tested positive for the disease, putting inmates there at risk.

The group said the most effective way to stop the spread of coronavirus in the prisons would be to release elderly inmates and people who are within six months of release. They also urged the governor to help local governments find ways to reduce the jail populations.

And at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, it is not business as usual right now, Port of Seattle officials said Tuesday. This time last year, 50,000 passengers would be headed through airport security checkpoints at the beginning of spring break travel season, officials said. The airport, which remains open and operating, is currently averaging 16,000 passengers through its checkpoints.

On Tuesday evening, because of the outbreak, Secretary of State Kim Wyman and county election officials called on the governor to cancel a special election set for April 28 across 18 counties. Wyman said in a news release that none of the elections is to elect anyone to office, but are levy and bond elections.

While public contact in an election is greatly reduced because Washington is a vote-by-mail state, the staffing requirements to conduct an election remain, Wyman and county officials said in a letter to the governor. From courthouse closures, to workforce reductions of election staff, postal staff … circumstances outside of our control could make it impossible for counties to meet statutory election requirements. These include mail processing, voter registration, canvassing results, and certifying an election, the letter said.

Wyman and others to find alternative options, including holding the elections during the August primary or November general.

Also Read | Coronavirus pandemic: How the world has dealt with Covid-19, could it have done better?

Also Watch | Coronavirus pandemic: Trump declares emergency, US-Europe travel ban in place

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Deaths in custody. Sexual violence. Hunger strikes. What we uncovered inside ICE facilities across the US

A USA TODAY Network investigation revealed sex assaults, routine use of physical force, poor medical care and deaths at facilities overseen by ICE.

Monsy Alvarado, Ashley Balcerzak, Stacey Barchenger, Jon Campbell, Rafael Carranza, Maria Clark, Alan Gomez, Daniel Gonzalez, Trevor Hughes, Rick Jervis, Dan Keemahill, Rebecca Plevin, Jeremy Schwartz, Sarah Taddeo, Lauren Villagran, Dennis Wagner, Elizabeth Weise, Alissa Zhu, USA TODAY Network Updated 9:06 p.m. CST Dec. 20, 2019

NEW ORLEANS – At 2:04 p.m. on Oct. 15, a guard at the Richwood Correctional Center noticed an odd smell coming from one of the isolation cells. He opened the door, stepped inside and found the lifeless body of Roylan Hernandez-Diaz hanging from a bedsheet. 

The 43-year-old Cuban man had spent five months in immigration detention waiting for a judge to hear his asylum claim. As his time at Richwood dragged on, he barely answered questions from security or medical staff, who noted his “withdrawn emotional state.” He refused to eat for four days. 

The day after his death, 20 other detainees carried out what they say was a peaceful protest. They wrote “Justice for Roylan” on their white T-shirts, sat down in the cafeteria and refused to eat. Guards swooped in and attacked, beating one of them so severely he was taken to a hospital, according to letters written by 10 detainees that were obtained by the USA TODAY Network and interviews with two detainees’ relatives. 

Before that day, detainees at Richwood had chronicled a pattern of alleged brutality in the Louisiana facility. Detainees complained of beatings, taunts from guards who called them “f---ing dogs” and of landing in isolation cells for minor violations.

The USA TODAY Network uncovered the Richwood episode during an investigation of the rapidly growing network of detention centers used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The investigation revealed more than 400 allegations of sexual assault or abuse, inadequate medical care, regular hunger strikes, frequent use of solitary confinement, more than 800 instances of physical force against detainees, nearly 20,000 grievances filed by detainees and at least 29 fatalities, including seven suicides, since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017 and launched an overhaul of U.S. immigration policies.

Combined with an analysis by a government watchdog, the USA TODAY Network analyzed inspection reports since 2015 and identified 15,821 violations of detention standards. Yet more than 90% of those facilities received passing grades by government inspectors. Network reporters interviewed 35 former and current detainees, some conducted using video chats from inside an ICE detention center. They reviewed hundreds of documents from lawsuits, financial records and government contracts, and toured seven ICE facilities from Colorado to Texas to Florida. Such tours are extremely rare.

At least two detention centers passed inspections despite using a chemical restraint – Freeze +P – that is forbidden for use under ICE rules because it contains tear gas that produces “severe pain,” according to its manufacturer. Other centers received passing marks even after inspectors chronicled widespread use of physical force or solitary confinement. Richwood was one of the centers that passed inspections.

Vicente Raul Orozco Serguera, one of the Richwood detainees who protested after Hernandez-Diaz died, told outsiders that the death and violent confrontation with guards punctuated a terrifying stay at Richwood that began with detention center officials forcing him to sign a document listing who would recover his body if he died in custody.

“The United States has appointed itself the country of liberty, the land of opportunity, the defender of human rights and the refuge for people oppressed by their governments. All that ends once you’re detained,” Orozco Serguera wrote in a letter from Richwood that was delivered to a lawyer in hopes of finding someone to help him. “We want our freedom to fight our cases freely and leave this hell, for Louisiana is a ‘Cemetery of living men.’” 

Ray Hanson, the warden at Richwood, did not respond to calls for comment. Brian Cox, an ICE spokesman in Louisiana, said “there is no evidence to support the allegation” that guards abused or mistreated detainees who protested the death. And LaSalle Corrections, the private company that runs Richwood, issued a statement that did not address the allegations, saying only the facility has a grievance process that detainees can use to register complaints.

For the past year, much of the nation’s attention on immigration issues has focused on how the Trump administration polices the southern border and how Border Patrol agents treat migrants arriving there. But away from that spotlight there is a separate detention system overseen by ICE that has continued to grow with far less scrutiny. It is now a $3 billion network of 221 facilities, the largest of which are operated by private companies under government contract. Combined, those facilities detain more than 50,000 women, men and children who wait months or years for immigration court proceedings.

Two-thirds of detainees have no criminal records,  ICE records show. About 26% are detained solely because they are requesting asylum in the U.S. That is why ICE policy mandates that immigration detention be civil in nature - an administrative hold on detainees as they await deportation or their next hearing - as opposed to a punitive, corrective prison system. But the USA TODAY Network review found that the ICE system operates in many ways like a prison system; detainees wear red and orange jumpsuits that sometimes read “inmate” on the back.

Just before one detainee died in Florida, he “vomited feces,” according to a death report written by ICE. Two others detainees died elsewhere after being taken off life support without consent from their relatives. Death reports also show detainees died of pneumonia, heart attacks and internal bleeding. In several instances, the cause of death remains “unknown.”

Detainees say they are denied toothbrushes, toilet paper and warm clothing in the winter. Some say they have been forced to drink water that reeks of chlorine. Others allege that guards respond to peaceful protests with rubber bullets and tear gas, and that staff has cut off their recreation time, family visitations and other basic services without explanation. 

Critics say Trump’s rapid expansion has only exacerbated long-standing problems in the detention system, which is long overdue for real oversight and a massive overhaul. 

During an interview with the USA TODAY Network this month, Henry Lucero, ICE’s second in command over detention, said ICE runs a top-notch detention system that strictly enforces federal standards, provides quality medical care, responds to every grievance filed by detainees, and reviews every use of force incident. ICE detention standards prohibit guards from using force as punishment, but allow them to use force to “gain detainee cooperation” and only using a series of approved techniques.

“It’s true, it is civil detention and it’s not criminal where it’s punitive,” he said. “You’re there to comply with immigration law.”

Lucero also made clear, however, that there are dangerous individuals in ICE custody, and that guards must strictly enforce its rules to protect the safety and security of each facility.

“Similar to a criminal justice system, while you’re in our facilities, there are still rules that you have to comply with,” Lucero said. “It’s not anarchy, you can do what you want. To maintain order of the facilities, you have to comply.”

But Allegra Love, executive director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to immigrants, said there is ample evidence that “we are torturing and killing people inside these detention centers.”

“We have all the evidence we need to say this is not a good use of tax money,” said Love, an attorney who has visited detainees in ICE detention. “It has to stop being an economic and political issue because it is a moral issue.”  

Immigration detention or private prison? 

The U.S. immigration detention system has grown steadily over the past 40 years under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

President George W. Bush, operating in a post-9/11 environment, expanded the number of detention centers used by ICE to more than 350 nationwide. President Barack Obama consolidated that system, cutting roughly 150 facilities while instituting reforms to improve living conditions. But the overall ICE detention population continued to grow under his watch, reaching 34,000 detainees in his last term.

Trump vowed as a presidential candidate to detain more undocumented immigrants than any of his predecessors and he has lived up to that promise. The number of detainees under his administration has increased by 5,263 on average each year. President Bill Clinton oversaw the second-highest increase, adding 1,691 ICE detainees on average per year.

Under Trump, ICE also has added new detention facilities at a rapid pace, signing contracts with 24 facilities to start accepting immigration detainees since 2017. 

ICE owns and operates five detention centers in four states: Florida, Arizona, New York and Texas. Private companies operate at least 60 facilities where 75% of all ICE detainees are held. Others are detained in city and county jails, where they await civil proceedings alongside convicted criminals and those awaiting criminal trials.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General, an independent office within DHS that audits the department’s activities, analyzed inspection reports of all ICE facilities from October 2015 to June 2018 and identified 14,003 “deficiencies” – instances where staff violated detention standards that govern the treatment of detainees. Over that time, ICE issued two fines against facility operators. One was levied against a private contractor for not adequately paying staff; the other was assessed against a facility for substandard medical and mental health care. 

The USA TODAY Network then analyzed all publicly available ICE inspection reports from July 2018 to November 2019. That review identified an additional 1,818 deficiencies at 98 facilities. 

The problems documented by ICE inspectors ranged from moldy food and filthy bathrooms to high numbers of sexual assault allegations, attempted suicides and claims of guards using force against detainees. A central theme identified by government inspectors was the failure of guards to grasp the difference between running a prison and an immigration detention center. 

Prisons are designed to be corrective or punitive in nature; immigration detention centers are not. The introduction to ICE’s detention standards, which have been in effect in different forms since the creation of the agency in 2002, makes that clear: “ICE detains people for no purpose other than to secure their presence both for immigration proceedings and their removal.”

When federal inspectors visited the Clinton County Jail in New York, a local jail that has a contract with ICE to detain immigrants, they found that guards didn’t recognize the difference.

“The setting is that of a typical jail, and the concepts of civil detention are largely not incorporated into the daily operation,” inspectors wrote. “Most facility personnel were not familiar with the requirements of the (ICE detention) standards.”

In at least 175 cases, detention facilities requested and received waivers that allowed them to ignore ICE’s detention standards. In these instances, detention centers were able to conduct more strip searches, use chemical agents like tear gas against detainees and limit the information provided to detainees about their medical conditions.

ICE said it sanctions facilities and even terminates contracts for repeat violators. But the agency refused to provide any examples of fines or facility closures when questioned this year by the inspector general, members of Congress and the USA TODAY Network. 

Lucero, the ICE official, said the contracts the agency signs with private prison operators and local jails prohibit ICE from publicly disclosing any fines or facility closures due to poor ratings during inspections. But he said he would consider making them public in the future.

“We want to be fully transparent with what we're doing,” he said.

Health care denied, putting detainees at risk 

When Suzanne Moore first arrived at the Baker County Detention Center outside Jacksonville, Florida, in July 2018, her breast cancer was in remission.

The disabled mother of two had spent 21 months in state prison after she pleaded guilty to selling some of the morphine and oxycodone left over from her cancer treatments. She was picked up by ICE as soon as her state prison term was completed. Moore’s family moved from Jamaica to the U.S. when she was 2 years old and she became a legal permanent resident, but her felony convictions triggered deportation proceedings. 

ICE officials sent her to Baker, a county jail that has a contract with ICE to hold detainees. When she first arrived at the facility, which is evenly split between immigration detainees and county inmates, she was given an orange jumpsuit that read “Inmate” on the back.

Once ICE takes custody of a person, it assumes responsibility for medical care. 

In Moore’s case, she said medical staff told her at times they had run out of the Tamoxifen medication she took daily to keep cancer from returning. At one point, Moore said, she went 20 days without receiving the medication. 

“I would let ICE know and they’d say, ‘That’s Baker’s problem,’ and Baker would say, ‘That’s ICE’s problem,’” said Moore, 56. “They’d just point the finger at each other.”

Such complaints are common throughout ICE’s detention system.

Kenneth Thomas, a legal permanent resident from England, was picked up by immigration officers last year for an 18-year-old conviction of credit card fraud and is now being held in the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi. Thomas, a diabetic, said he’s lost 20 pounds in ICE custody because of a combination of medical errors and questionable food preparation. He said he’s gone up to two weeks without receiving his diabetes medication and was fed a diet not suited for an unmedicated diabetic.

“They would give me pasta, mashed potatoes and rice, but I would have to put those things aside,” Thomas said. 

Janamjot Sodhi, 44, a native of India who is being detained at the Aurora ICE Processing Center in Colorado, said most trips to the infirmary, no matter how serious the injury or illness, usually lead to the same result.

“Basically all they give you is ibuprofen,” said Sodhi, a stockbroker who pleaded guilty in 2013 to running a $2.3 million Ponzi scheme. He spent 57 months in federal prison and was detained by ICE immediately upon his release.

Salvatore Pipitone, a pizza maker from Italy, said he had to be admitted to a hospital after a three-week stint in ICE detention at the York County Prison in Pennsylvania. He said he refused to drink the water because it tasted foul, leading to him losing 25 pounds and treatment for dehydration.

Pipitone said he was detained for missing an immigration court hearing to convert his conditional green card into a permanent one, which he blamed on a scheduling mistake by federal immigration agents.

“I had never heard of immigration detention,” said Pipitone, who now lives with his wife in Pennsylvania. “I did everything legal and followed the rules and did nothing wrong in this country. I was so mad because I was arrested like a criminal.” 

In New Jersey, Yuri Espada, 33, of New York City, was held at the Hudson County Correctional Center on ICE violations for nearly a year. Espada was born in Honduras and came to the United States in 1997 when she was 11 years old. She later became a ward of the state and was in foster care for years. 

She said she was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a chronic mental health condition, four years ago. But after she was jailed in 2018, she asked for her medication for weeks to no avail, she said. 

“It made me go into a mental health breakdown,’’ said Espada, who was released from custody in October and now lives in New York City. “I was not mentally stable. I was hearing voices, I talked to myself at times, I was disoriented (by) my surroundings and I was severely depressed.”

The questionable medical conditions inside ICE facilities inspired the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a civil rights organization, to form a specialized team of doctors and other medical professionals to rapidly respond to troubling cases. The group of volunteers was created five years ago and has grown to 90 members since Trump came into office because “conditions are worsening” inside ICE facilities, according to Hayley Gorenberg, legal director for the group.

Gorenberg and her team have sued and won two settlements against ICE this year - totaling more than $1.7 million combined - in cases where ICE agents dumped detainees on the streets of New York without providing them temporary medications or any plan for their medical treatment, as is required by ICE’s detention standards. Both of the released detainees ended up checking themselves into local hospitals for help.

“Immigration detention is no place for somebody with serious health needs, physical or mental,” Gorenberg said.

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In Florida, Moore languished at Baker. She said she was handcuffed each time she was taken to the medical wing and handcuffed each time she was taken back to her dorm. 

In April, she was sent to an oncologist for a mammogram. The doctor took a biopsy. After missing all those medications over her 10 months at Baker, Moore said, she wasn’t surprised to learn that her breast cancer had returned.

Officials at Baker said they could not discuss the medical treatment of its detainees, citing medical privacy laws. But Lucero, the ICE official, said many detainee complaints about medical care in ICE facilities are “not accurate.” He said detainees often refuse medication and then turn around and complain that they were denied medication. 

“When we review the allegations they generally show this,” Lucero said. “We feel like we have a very, very good medical program with a lot of oversight.”

Right after Moore’s diagnosis, ICE released her from custody.

ICE detainee died with sock in throat

Kamyar Samimi’s final days were agonizing. 

The father of three, who got legal residency shortly after arriving in the U.S. from his native Iran more than 40 years ago, had battled opioid use disorder ever since his grandfather gave him opium following a tooth extraction at four years old, according to his family. For most of his life in the U.S., Samimi had been prescribed methadone to manage his disorder.

Those treatments ended when he was arrested by ICE agents in 2017 based on a 12-year-old drug possession conviction and sent to a detention center in Aurora, Colorado. All immigrants - even those who have legal permanent residence or become U.S. citizens - can have their status revoked and be placed into deportation proceedings if they commit certain crimes.

The GEO Group, which runs the Aurora facility, attributed Samimi’s building anguish to withdrawal but refused to prescribe him any methadone per their policy of banning opiates within the facility, according to an ICE report on his death.

His condition worsened to the point where he died over a two-week period, vomiting, bleeding and crying out in pain, according to the ICE report. The detention center’s medical staff skipped routine health checks that could have highlighted his rapidly failing health, and ignored ICE’s standards that say he should have been taken to a hospital for evaluation, the report said.

“There's not the proper attention, medical care or training in these detention facilities, and I would want everyone who is reading to know that this is happening,” said his daughter, Neda Samimi-Gomez. “It's right in our backyards. And the more people who know, the more chance we have to bring change and prevent this from happening again.”

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in November against the GEO Group over Samimi’s death. An ICE official at the Aurora detention center refused to discuss Samimi’s case with the USA TODAY Network. 

In Arizona, Jose de Jesus Deniz-Sahagun tried to repeatedly kill himself inside the Eloy Detention Center.

Federal immigration agents knew something was wrong with him when he tried to run through a Border Patrol station in Arizona in 2015. After being arrested and taken into custody, the Mexican man twice launched himself off a bench and landed on his head inside a Border Patrol station, according to a review of his death by ICE's Office of Detention Oversight. He banged his head against the walls. He talked of coyotes and cartel members coming to kill him. 

The suicidal behavior worsened after he was transferred to the Eloy Detention Center. A doctor at Eloy declared him delusional and ordered he be kept on suicide watch on May 19, 2015. A day later, a doctor at Eloy took him off suicide watch, claiming Deniz-Sahagun was “no longer a danger to himself,” according to the ICE report.

Within hours, Deniz-Sahagun was dead, an orange sock lodged in his throat and a nine-centimeter piece of a toothbrush handle in his stomach, according to the ICE report.

His family in the U.S. sued CoreCivic, the private company that operates Eloy, and won a settlement for an undisclosed sum, according to Daniel Ortega, the Phoenix lawyer who handled the case, and CoreCivic. 

In Georgia, Jeancarlo Alfonso Jimenez Joseph showed similar mental problems after entering the Stewart Detention Center. The 27-year-old had been accepted into the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Obama-era program that has protected from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

Jimenez Joseph had been diagnosed with acute psychosis and schizoaffective disorder-bipolar type and had attempted suicide on several occasions. But according to an ongoing lawsuit filed by his family, officials at Stewart didn’t pay close enough attention to his worsening symptoms, leading to his suicide by hanging in his cell on May 15, 2017.

Andrew Free, an attorney who is representing the families of eight detainees who died in ICE custody, said the increase in deaths is a direct result of the government’s unchecked expansion of the ICE detention system without ensuring facilities can properly care for detainees.

Immigrants and activists say ICE’s death toll is misleading since the agency doesn’t count cases of people who die shortly after they are released from custody.

Last year, Yazmin Juarez, a Guatemalan woman, and her 19-month-old daughter, Mariee, spent time in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, one of the few ICE facilities that can detain parents and their minor children together. Six weeks after their release, Mariee was dead, the result of a respiratory infection she developed while at the center, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the toddler’s mother.

Another case not counted in ICE’s official death toll is that of Jose Luis Ibarra Bucio, a 27-year-old who was held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center outside of Los Angeles. 

On Feb. 7, Bucio collapsed at the detention center and was transferred to a local hospital. When his family visited him at the Loma Linda University Medical Center, they learned he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and had slipped into a coma. 

“To make matters worse, Jose was handcuffed to his hospital bed while he was in a coma and there were two guards from the GEO Group that were tasked with keeping watch over his comatose body,” said Shannon Camacho of the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles, an immigration advocacy group that learned of the details of his death from Bucio’s family.  

Fifteen days later, as Bucio remained unconscious, ICE officials left a letter in his hospital room stating he was no longer in custody. 

ICE spokesperson Lori Haley said he was released “with respect to humanitarian concerns.” GEO referred questions to ICE.  

Camacho interpreted that decision another way: “ICE and GEO essentially wiped their hands clean of any involvement with his case.”

A month later, on March 20, Bucio’s family decided to take him off life support. He died the next day.

'Leave as cadavers': Detainees complain of solitary confinement, pepper-spray attacks 

Every detainee interviewed by the USA TODAY Network alleged mistreatment by guards.

At the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico, an ICE facility run under contract by Management & Training Corporation, 18 Cubans led a sit-in after they became so frustrated over their inability to get a hearing before an immigration judge. After they staged a second sit-in, detainees said the guards had seen enough. According to some of the participants, guards at Otero responded by throwing them into solitary confinement, followed by weeks of “quarantine” in which benefits like outdoor recreation time were restricted.

“We were threatened again by the officers, who pointed their weapons at us and told us that ICE wasn’t coming anymore,” said Irrael Arzuaga-Milanes, an asylum-seeker from Cuba who has passed the first phase of his asylum review. “We were shut in for a week in ‘the cave.’” 

When asked about Arzuaga-Milanes’ claims, ICE said detainees may be placed in administrative segregation when their actions are “disruptive,” if they pose a threat to the general population, or for “the secure and orderly operation of the facility.”

Jose Cuadras, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, spent seven weeks at the La Palma Correctional Center outside Eloy, Arizona, earlier this year. Cuadras said guards conducted strip searches after each visit with his family, stopped providing him soap for no reason, and even screamed at a detainee who couldn’t understand the English directions delivered during a fire drill.

The guards were so verbally abusive, Cuadras said, detainees were convinced they must have worked as prison guards before. Turns out, they were right.

Amanda Gilchrist, a spokeswoman for CoreCivic, the company that runs La Palma, said the facility uses many of the same employees, including guards, from an earlier period when La Palma was a medium-security prison. 

She insisted that immigration detainees are not treated the same as convicts. Corrections officers receive additional ICE background clearances and are required to complete 160 hours of training before working with immigration detainees.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of abuse and harassment, and every allegation of this nature is reported to our government partner and investigated fully,” Gilchrist said. 

Similar complaints about abusive guards have emerged throughout the country.

Daljinder Singh, a native of India who is being held at the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi, an ICE facility run by CoreCivic, said guards regularly interrupt his prayer times by purposefully doing head counts while he worships.

At the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, an ICE facility run by Immigration Centers of America, detainees became concerned over an outbreak of the mumps that infected at least 24 people this year. They were angered by the detention center’s decision to place the facility on quarantine and ban all visitors. They also refused to eat meals from the cafeteria, worried that improperly washed utensils and dishes would allow the mumps to spread.

As tensions mounted, David de la Cruz Grajales, a detainee, said about 20 guards entered their dormitory in “riot gear,” ordering detainees to go to their beds for a second morning count. When some objected, the guards showered them with pepper spray, zip-tied their hands, and placed them into a “segregation unit,” he said.

Grajales said he suffered an asthma attack while his hands were bound and was refused an inhaler for 15 minutes. Later, when he showered, the pepper spray washed down his body and burned his skin. When he asked for a change of clothes, the shift commander responded, “No, you’re going to be burning for at least two days,” Grajales said in an affidavit as part of a lawsuit he and other detainees filed against the facility over their treatment by detention center guards. 

Farmville’s warden, Jeffrey Crawford, and ICE argued in court papers that de la Cruz Grajales and the other detainees were disciplined for failing to follow orders, not for the hunger strike. U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. of Alexandria sided with the facility.

The detainees later dropped their lawsuit against the detention center after they won their asylum claims. 

In Florida, detainees in other ICE facilities are threatened with a transfer to the Baker County Detention Center if they act up.

The facility holds ICE detainees and county inmates in two separate wings, but guards work in both sides of the facility. During a recent tour of the center, Sgt. Brad Harvey, who works for the county sheriff’s department, described a setup that poses challenges. None of the guards speak Spanish, he said, and rely on “verbal judo,” one- or two-word commands to communicate with Hispanic ICE detainees.

A recent tour of the facility showed that Richwood does not provide any outdoor recreation, just a narrow room with a ping pong table, two exercise bikes, an XBOX, and a small window high above the room. The detainees never go outside. They spend most of their days in pods that hold 32 detainees, two detainees per cell.

Michael Meade, ICE’s field office director for the state of Florida, did not dispute that detainees hate being transferred to Baker since other ICE facilities in the state provide outdoor recreation time and more freedom of movement. 

“I wouldn’t want our staff using that as a threat, but if somebody does act up, if they can’t abide by the rules, we’re going to have to find you a more secure facility,” Meade said.

Harvey put it more bluntly.

“We are probably more stringent than some of the other facilities,” he said.

Back in Louisiana, questions remain about the death of Hernandez-Diaz, the Cuban man found hanging while in solitary confinement, and the response by guards to detainees who protested his death.

Relatives of those detained at Richwood said Hernandez-Diaz’s death is indicative of a culture of antagonism and abuse against detainees.

Sulima Baigorria Valdez was released from ICE custody earlier this year, while her husband remains locked up in Richwood. The Cuban couple is seeking asylum, but for now, Valdez simply wants her husband to make it out of Richwood alive.

Her husband says the guards taunt him and others, telling them they will soon be deported. They complain of rotten food, of not being able to go into the sunlight. Last time Valdez saw her husband in October, he had lost 50 pounds, she said. 

“I was thinking this isn’t him, this can’t be him,” she said. “They are going to leave as cadavers.”

One deadly week reveals where the immigration crisis begins — and where it ends

Read

Detainees forced to work for $1 a day 

Detainees also complained of being treated as free or cheap laborers.

ICE’s detention standards allow for detainees to voluntarily sign up to work and sets a baseline payment of “at least $1.00 per day.” But detainees said they are forced to work.

Cesar Sandoval was disgusted by his job inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center, an ICE facility run by the GEO group in Tacoma, Washington. During the 14 months he spent there, he worked in the laundry room and cleaning dishes in the kitchen.

He was paid $1 a day for the effort.

Project South, an Atlanta-based human rights nonprofit organization, filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the practice of forced labor inside the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, an ICE facility run by CoreCivic. Detainees are forced to work jobs that would otherwise be done by regularly waged employees, according to the lawsuit. Since the detainees listed in the Project South complaint are paid between $1 and $4 a day, that leads to huge savings for private prison operators at the expense of the detainees’ constitutional rights. 

Those rates are similar to wages paid to inmates in federal prisons, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit organization that researches and advocates against mass incarceration. 

zadeh Shahshahani, legal director for Project South, argues that forcing ICE detainees to work violates myriad labor laws and the 13th Amendment, which bans slavery or indentured servitude “except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

Damon Hininger, CEO of CoreCivic, said nobody in Stewart or any of the other facilities they operate are forced to work. 

Hininger said they are simply following ICE’s standards by offering detainees the chance to work.

“It’s not necessarily the compensation, per se, but they want to be active,” he said. “We got a fair amount of folks that want to work in the kitchen, that have expertise, that have a passion for the foodservice.”

Detention center with 16 deaths praised for Zumba classes

When federal inspectors visited the Eloy Detention Center this year, they were entering a facility where at least 16 people have died, including five by suicide, since 2005. During February’s tour, which looked at conditions over the previous year, inspectors cited 35 sexual assault or abuse allegations, 41 use of force incidents, 881 grievances filed by detainees, and one death as a result of illness. 

Officials at Eloy, which is run by CoreCivic, deemed most of the sexual assault allegations – including staff members assaulting detainees and detainees assaulting each other – “unsubstantiated.”

But they confirmed 17 cases where staff used pepper spray to subdue detainees, which is restricted in many kinds of ICE detention facilities, and in one case, a facility review committee determined force was not warranted against a detainee and took “appropriate administration action.”

The result? The Eloy Detention Center was given a passing grade by ICE inspectors with just a single deficiency for not ensuring that tools used in the facility are protected from detainees. Otherwise, inspectors raved about the “calm” atmosphere at the facility and guards who exhibited “a professional demeanor in both attire and attitude.”

“The facility provides a robust schedule of activities including karaoke, basketball tournaments, piñata contests, soccer tournaments, holiday tournaments, crochet programs, cleanest pod contest and Zumba classes,” inspectors wrote.

In Louisiana, at the River Correctional Center, an ICE facility run by LaSalle Corrections, an October inspection found that detainees carried out 48 hunger strikes over the previous year. Inspectors dismissed the hunger strikes as being “due to the presence of a large number of detainees from India that use hunger strikes as a request for release.”

In Iowa, at the Linn County Correctional Center, a county jail that has a contract with ICE to hold immigration detainees, inspectors found that staffers were strip-searching all incoming detainees rather than only those they had a reasonable suspicion were carrying contraband, as required by ICE detention standards.

Yet those facilities received passing grades from inspectors. The problem, some say, is the inspection process itself.

“So much of the system is set up to reaffirm itself,” said Silky Shah, executive director of the Detention Watch Network, a group that advocates against immigration detention. “The way the inspection process is set up is a complete sham.”

Most ICE inspections announced ahead of visit 

ICE uses several methods to inspect or monitor facilities, including ICE officials stationed permanently at detention centers and occasional inspections conducted by government and private inspectors under contract with ICE.

The DHS Inspector General said that combination may appear to create a robust process, but identified problems at each step. Some inspectors can identify problems but have no power to correct them. Others do inspections too infrequently.

The most frequent inspections are those conducted by the Nakamoto Group, a Maryland-based company that specializes in government contracting work for a variety of federal agencies and has received more than $22 million over the past decade for its ICE inspections, according to federal contracting data. The inspector general found that Nakamoto inspections are inefficient because they try to check every single detention standard – more than 600 of them – during their three-day visits to each facility, a process that is “too broad” and results in findings that “do not fully examine actual conditions” at each facility.

The process has yet to receive much attention from Congress. During an October hearing on ICE’s inspection process before a House committee, only four representatives – three Democrats and one Republican – attended.

Jenni Nakamoto, founder of the Nakamoto Group, explained to the committee members that she uses a team of 57 former wardens and jail superintendents to conduct more than 100 inspections a year. 

U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, a New Mexico Democrat, wondered why Nakamoto Group inspections are announced ahead of time. The Inspector General also raised the issue in its report, writing that pre-announced inspections “allows facility management to temporarily modify practices to ‘pass’ an inspection.”

Torres Small explained how her committee staff toured ICE detention centers in four states earlier this year and learned that employees at the facilities painted walls, put up curtains and spruced up the sites before they arrived.

“Even flower beds were placed outside,” Torres Small said.

Nakamoto said her company is simply abiding by the contract it has with ICE, which calls for announced visits of its facilities. Nakamoto has a separate contract to inspect facilities run by the U.S. Marshal’s Service, but that contract calls for unannounced inspections. 

When asked if unannounced tours are more effective at revealing the true conditions inside a facility, Nakamoto nodded her head. “I think so,” she said.

David Venturella, a vice president at the GEO Group, told the USA TODAY Network he would welcome unannounced ICE inspections of his facilities.

“We think we run a very good operation and if they wanted to do unannounced audits, that’s fine, that’s their right to do,” he said. “We think we would fare very well in those audits.”

Hininger, the CoreCivic CEO, agreed. He said his company has already been conducting its own internal unannounced inspections of its facilities since 2004.

“It’s a badge of honor for our team,” he said. “If they decide to do unannounced visits, we’ve been doing it for 15 years.”

Lucero, the ICE official, told the USA TODAY Network that the agency is considering shifting to unannounced inspections for all its facilities. But he cautioned that doing so could “be a disruption” for staff and could lead to situations where key personnel are on vacation or taking a day off when inspectors arrive.

“We want to make sure that the staff that is required and needed to be interviewed are actually there,” Lucero said.

'I couldn’t remember how many days I was in there'

Fernando Aguirre says he saw it all during his time at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.

He recalled seeing rocks and pebbles sprinkled into the beans he was served from the cafeteria and green spots dotting the lunch meat. He remembered joining other detainees in hunger strikes, feeling overwhelming stomach pangs, only to end up in solitary confinement as punishment for the protests. He remembers wondering how he could be forced to work for just $1 a day.

He remembers his cell number: 203.

Aguirre, an undocumented immigrant who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when he was just three years old, racked up a lot of painful memories because he spent nearly seven years – 2,469 days – in ICE detention while waiting on deportation hearings, the longest stretch uncovered by the USA TODAY Network. He was finally released in June, reuniting with his wife and children in Washington state. But Aguirre said the trauma will never go away.

Government prosecutors justified his prolonged detention based on Aguirre’s criminal record – in 2012, he was convicted for methamphetamine and marijuana possession with intent to deliver. He entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors and served eight months of a one-year sentence in state prison, court records show, shifting over to ICE detention as soon as his state sentence was completed.

His defenders say his unfathomable stretch in ICE detention amounted to a violation of his human rights. They appealed to the United Nations for help and are suing ICE over what they describe as his forced labor while inside. And they are still fighting ICE, which remains intent on deporting Aguirre.

For his part, Aguirre is trying to reintegrate into society. He tries to avoid small, crowded spaces that remind him too much of his cell in Tacoma. His children are teaching him how to navigate social media, which blossomed while he was mostly cut off from technology inside the facility.

And he’s continuing to write poetry, which he used as a distraction during his time as an immigration detainee.

“Please don’t give me something, just to take it away,” he said, reciting a poem he wrote while locked away. “Because if I am here today, then I ask for endless days. Just leave the happiness part and take the hopelessness away."

The team behind this investigation

REPORTING: This story was written by Alan Gomez. It was reported and photographed by Monsy Alvarado, Ashley Balcerzak, Stacey Barchenger, Jay Calderon, Jon Campbell, Rafael Carranza, Maria Clark, Ronald W. Erdrich, Hannah Gaber, Alan Gomez, Daniel Gonzalez, Jack Gruber, Trevor Hughes, Rick Jervis, Kelly Jordan, Dan Keemahill, Mark Lambie, Nick Oza, Rebecca Plevin, Courtney Sacco, Jeremy Schwartz, Sarah Taddeo, Lauren Villagran, Dennis Wagner, Elizabeth Weise and Alissa Zhu. It was translated into Spanish by Teresa Frontado and Adrianna Rodriguez. 

EDITING: David Baratz, Hannah Gaber, Kristen Go, Christopher Powers, Andrew P. Scott and Cristina Silva

GRAPHICS AND ILLUSTRATIONS: Karl Gelles, Janet Loehrke and James Sergent

DIGITAL PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Spencer Holladay, Chris Amico, David Anesta and Annette Meade

SOCIAL MEDIA, ENGAGEMENT AND PROMOTION: Rachel Aretakis, Alex Ptachick, Cara Richardson and Adrianna Rodriguez

PUBLIC RELATIONS: Chrissy Terrell and Hayley Hoefer

Article Source

[kaymendelson]

Woman gets year in prison in $400,000 theft from employer

Find out how to get the best plumber in Vancouver Washington

A 60-year-old woman who formerly managed Vancouver-based Grimm Enterprises was sentenced Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court to a year in prison for bilking the property business out of more than $400,000.

Debra A. Ingalls of Vancouver pleaded guilty last month to a single count of first-degree theft. Court records show she originally faced two counts.

“(Ingalls) had our trust. She was treated like family, so much so that she was added as a trustee” to the company, said Lisa Sorenson, who is also a trustee of Grimm Enterprises along with her stepmother, Carolyn Grimm.

The business is owned by the trust and manages more than 70 residential and commercial properties in the Vancouver area, including Club Green Meadows. All of the properties are owned by Carolyn Grimm, whose husband Joseph Grimm oversaw the company’s operations until his death in 2010. When Joseph Grimm died, Carolyn Grimm handed over responsibilities to the company’s managers; she told investigators she is no longer involved due to her age, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

In December 2014, Ingalls was injured when “a carport at one of Grimm’s rental properties hit her in the head during a windstorm,” the probable cause affidavit says. She was in a coma for two weeks.

Sorenson and another witness in the case, Heather Carney, went to Grimm’s office while Ingalls was gone to run the business.

“She said that they discovered the office was in complete disarray,” the affidavit says.

There was no system in place for tracking payments, deposits or other rental-related documents. Sorenson and Carney started logging rent payments and discovered a substantial number of tenants were paying in cash. They also discovered no cash had been deposited in 2014, according to the probable cause affidavit.

That’s when Sorenson decided to hire Acuity Forensics. The financial investigator determined Grimm Enterprises had suffered losses of $416,702 as a result of a cash-skimming scheme carried out by Ingalls.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prosecutor Jessica Smith recommended a 366-day sentence following extensive negotiations. Smith said the embezzled amount listed in the charge is likely conservative.

Ingalls also agreed to pay restitution; a $200,000 check was handed over during the sentencing hearing.

“Ms. Ingalls abused her position of trust and the vulnerability of the victim,” Smith said.

Sorenson told Judge Bernard Veljacic that Carolyn Grimm’s health has worsened since the discovery of Ingalls’ theft.

“My stepmother kept beating herself up about why (Ingalls) would do this to her,” Sorenson said. “She said many times that she didn’t understand why Debbie would do it, and if she really needed the money she just could have asked me.”

Defense attorney David McDonald said his client’s actions were more a matter of gross mismanagement than criminal intent.

“She wasn’t keeping track appropriately. … Her record-keeping was, at best, atrocious,” McDonald said.

Once the missing money was discovered, Ingalls admitted to wrongdoing and has worked in the years since to reach a resolution.

Veljacic said whether Ingalls was a bad manager or willfully stealing, there were multiple reasons she deserved to be punished. Society, friends and family expect people to come forward themselves and accept responsibility for their errors, he said.

He accepted the plea agreement and called a courthouse deputy to take Ingalls to the Clark County Jail. She will later be transferred to a state prison for female inmates.

Ingalls decided not to speak during her sentencing hearing.

[Read More …]

Find out how to get the best Vancouver Washington plumber

[hencoplumbingservices]

Woman gets year in prison in $400,000 theft from employer

Find out how to get the best plumber in Vancouver Washington

A 60-year-old woman who formerly managed Vancouver-based Grimm Enterprises was sentenced Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court to a year in prison for bilking the property business out of more than $400,000.

Debra A. Ingalls of Vancouver pleaded guilty last month to a single count of first-degree theft. Court records show she originally faced two counts.

“(Ingalls) had our trust. She was treated like family, so much so that she was added as a trustee” to the company, said Lisa Sorenson, who is also a trustee of Grimm Enterprises along with her stepmother, Carolyn Grimm.

The business is owned by the trust and manages more than 70 residential and commercial properties in the Vancouver area, including Club Green Meadows. All of the properties are owned by Carolyn Grimm, whose husband Joseph Grimm oversaw the company’s operations until his death in 2010. When Joseph Grimm died, Carolyn Grimm handed over responsibilities to the company’s managers; she told investigators she is no longer involved due to her age, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

In December 2014, Ingalls was injured when “a carport at one of Grimm’s rental properties hit her in the head during a windstorm,” the probable cause affidavit says. She was in a coma for two weeks.

Sorenson and another witness in the case, Heather Carney, went to Grimm’s office while Ingalls was gone to run the business.

“She said that they discovered the office was in complete disarray,” the affidavit says.

There was no system in place for tracking payments, deposits or other rental-related documents. Sorenson and Carney started logging rent payments and discovered a substantial number of tenants were paying in cash. They also discovered no cash had been deposited in 2014, according to the probable cause affidavit.

That’s when Sorenson decided to hire Acuity Forensics. The financial investigator determined Grimm Enterprises had suffered losses of $416,702 as a result of a cash-skimming scheme carried out by Ingalls.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prosecutor Jessica Smith recommended a 366-day sentence following extensive negotiations. Smith said the embezzled amount listed in the charge is likely conservative.

Ingalls also agreed to pay restitution; a $200,000 check was handed over during the sentencing hearing.

“Ms. Ingalls abused her position of trust and the vulnerability of the victim,” Smith said.

Sorenson told Judge Bernard Veljacic that Carolyn Grimm’s health has worsened since the discovery of Ingalls’ theft.

“My stepmother kept beating herself up about why (Ingalls) would do this to her,” Sorenson said. “She said many times that she didn’t understand why Debbie would do it, and if she really needed the money she just could have asked me.”

Defense attorney David McDonald said his client’s actions were more a matter of gross mismanagement than criminal intent.

“She wasn’t keeping track appropriately. … Her record-keeping was, at best, atrocious,” McDonald said.

Once the missing money was discovered, Ingalls admitted to wrongdoing and has worked in the years since to reach a resolution.

Veljacic said whether Ingalls was a bad manager or willfully stealing, there were multiple reasons she deserved to be punished. Society, friends and family expect people to come forward themselves and accept responsibility for their errors, he said.

He accepted the plea agreement and called a courthouse deputy to take Ingalls to the Clark County Jail. She will later be transferred to a state prison for female inmates.

Ingalls decided not to speak during her sentencing hearing.

[Read More …]

Find out how to get the best Vancouver Washington plumber

[addictionrecoveryassistance]

Detox Centers In Thedford Nebraska 69166

Contents

Nebraska. 120 east

Zip code 69166

Central platte nrd

Abuse treatment facilities serving

Reviews. trinity lutheran

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Ontario Department of Lands and Forests: Resource Management Report Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal Annual Reports Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Official Report of Debates (Hansard) Ontario Fish and Wildlife Review Proclamations and Orders in Council passed under the authority of the War Measures Act Journaux de la Chambre Communes du …

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The unemployment rate in Thedford (zip 69166) is 2.9% (U.S. avg. is 5.2%). Recent job growth is Positive. Thedford (zip 69166) jobs have increased by 2.90%. Compared to the rest of the country, Thedford (zip 69166)'s cost of living is 6.20% lower than the U.S. average.

Welcome to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Central Sandhills Extension serving Blaine, Grant, Hooker and Thomas Counties! To pay by check please send it to Central Sandhills Area Extension, PO Box 148, Thedford NE 69166. Checks should be made out to the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

Thedford is a village in Thomas County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 188 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Thomas County.

You can always find the nearest religious institution in Thedford NE. on all U.S. churches dot com. If you are looking for a religious institution in Thedford NE state are included with reviews. trinity lutheran Church Church +1 308-645-2254 39341 Nebraska 2, Thedford, NE 69166.

[rolandfontana]

How One Rural Indiana Jail Deals with Its “Exploding”Female Population

Is there a better way to address the growing numbers of women who find themselves in jail?

One southern Indiana county has developed a program aimed at helping women—including those who have recidivated—gain the tools, skills and confidence to make their current stay behind bars the last one.

The program is the brainchild of Floyd County Sheriff Lt. Brett O’Loughlin and Michelle Cochran, a mental health worker contracted by the jail.

At the beginning of this year, the jail opened a separate block with room for 16 inmates who are committed to focusing on themselves, addressing their addiction issues, and supporting one another in their growth.

And some of the women inmates say it has already put them in the right direction.

“It teaches you how to change your thinking, which is where we all mess up,” said Heather Goff, who’s been in the Floyd County jail for almost a year and a half, and in the program for eight months.

“I was sober for nine years. Since I’ve been locked up, I’ve had time to reflect on where I went wrong and recognize how not to do it again.”

According to Cochran, the recent increase in the number of women in Floyd County jail — largely due to drug issues or drug-related crimes — makes it more important than ever to develop and maintain meaningful programming for them.

“So we started putting it together building a curriculum [with] evidence-based practice,” Cochran said.

The jail has recently been awarded a grant to expand the program to men; she said they started with the women because “that population seemed to explode in a very short amount of time.”

The women in the “program dorm” are given more freedoms and responsibility than those in the general block, and have access to more programming — like specialized classes and yoga.

Coordinators work with them to help hone in on the personal life issues that led to their brush with the law, and to help cut recidivism.

According to Lt. O’Loughlin, programs in other jails around the country are often limited to basics: 12-step program meetings or faith-based programs. While those can be useful, he said, they can lack the more personal focus the new Floyd County program offers.

“Every facility has some type of program, but it ends up being they try to cram everybody into that one-size-fits all,” he said. “They’re just spinning their wheels and the same people keep coming back.

“[This program is] not going to be a one-size-fits all. We’re going to throw everything we can at it and see what sticks.”

Each week, the women draw lots to see which jobs they’ll have for the week — they could serve as a mediator to help sort out interpersonal issues among the inmates, or they could facilitate weekly programming, enforce chores getting done or keep track of records within the program.

“This is the first time in my life I’ve had structure and consistency.”

“This program means a lot to me because this is the first time that I’m addressing that I have a problem and I am an addict,” Mercedes Hall said. “And that means a lot to … my family. This is the first time in my life I’ve actually had structure and consistency.”

In Floyd County, the average daily female population has nearly doubled between 2007 and 2017 to 59 from 35, a rise that local law enforcement authorities attribute to the drug crisis that’s shaken Southern Indiana in the past several years.

The growth of the male inmate population has been more steady during that time in Floyd County.

Nearby Clark County law enforcement officials have seen similar growth, rising to an average daily female population of 131 in 2017, up from 56 in 2007.

Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel says the growth in numbers comes with challenges to spacing and increased health costs associated with women. On a recent day in Clark County, there were eight pregnant women in jail.

In 2016, Clark County initiated three new programs targeted specifically to address the needs of the growing female population.

A 12-week writing workshop, taught by local freelance journalist Amanda Beam, is designed to help women express themselves through written words. There is a separate group for women who are victims of physical, mental or sexual abuse, to help pave the way for them to become empowered survivors.

There’s also a pregnancy class for women who are, or believe they may be, pregnant.

“The more tools you can give an inmate, especially a female inmate, hopefully [means] they won’t return to jail and that’s what’s best for the family,” Noel said.

Floyd County Sheriff Frank Loop says a new jail program started this year specifically for women gives them the chance to break through the old thought patterns and habits, to help prevent them from returning to jail. Photo by Aprile Rickert, News and Tribune .

In Floyd County, nearly all of the women in the program said they have been incarcerated multiple times, and most are currently in for drug-related charges.

“Even if their charge isn’t a drug charge, it’s usually drug-related,” program member Goff said. “Whatever they’ve done, it was to get drugs.”

Floyd County Sheriff Frank Loop said the program can change the course of a woman’s life — to keep her from falling into the old ways before jail.

Often, they end up in jail again soon because “they go back to the same environment they had,” Loop said. “The same friends, because they don’t know anything else.”

Cassidy Miller’s story lines up with this.

“We want something different and this is the first step to that.”

Miller, who has been in jail multiple times, admitted she intentionally courted arrest because she knew she needed a change from the life she was living on the outside.

“I was doing everything right on the outside [but] everything was still screwing up,” she said. “I was very, very tired, and I knew I wanted something different.

“We’re all just tired of that life. We want something different and this is the first step to that.”

While some jail opportunities, like receiving a GED or other certifications can mean credit off of their sentence, this is not the case with the new Floyd County program.

Cochran, the mental health worker, said this helps ensure that everyone in the program is there because they want to be, and because they’re committed to doing the work.

Because the women are housed in a separate dorm, they’re not around the negative influences of others in jail who aren’t ready or don’t wish to try to change, Cochran said.

The program effectively begins as soon as the women enter the dedicated block.

“[We ask] ‘what are your goals, what are you going to do different, where are you going to be that’s safe when you leave here,’” she said.

Program participant Miller said living in the dorm creates a sense of solidarity and mutual concern among the inmates.

“In here, we call each other on our B.S.,” she said. “Or if we’re thinking something wrong or we’re down on ourselves, we check ourselves and each other because we care enough to see everybody do well.”

Another inmate, Joanie Watson, recently received a certificate for completing a class that she helped show her that progress was possible.

“It’s a confidence boost, even doing your homework is a sense of accomplishment,” she said. “Something little you accomplished and something bigger and it just builds up.”

But the hardest challenge may come when the inmates are released.

The county Sheriff’s Department and staff say they are working to increase partnerships with community organizations who will be available for continued post-incarceration health and addiction care.

“That’s how we’re going to prevent recidivism,” Cochran said.

Aprile Rickert

“That’s how we’re going to keep them clean, keep them sober and keep them medicated.”

Aprile Rickert, a crime and courts reporter at the News and Tribune, is a 2018 John Jay Justice Reporting Fellow. This is a condensed and slightly edited version of a story published in the News and Tribune as part of her Fellowship project. Follow Aprile on Twitter: @Aperoll27. Readers’ comments are welcome.

How One Rural Indiana Jail Deals with Its “Exploding”Female Population syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[citizentruth-blog]

Denied Medical Care While Detoxing, Woman Dies in Jail Over Traffic Tickets - POLICE/PRISON

New Post has been published on https://citizentruth.org/kelly-coltrain-death-detoxing/

Denied Medical Care While Detoxing, Woman Dies in Jail Over Traffic Tickets

Pulled over for speeding and booked into Mineral County Jail because of unpaid traffic tickets, 27-year-old Kelly Coltrain died days later from withdrawal symptoms after her requests for medical attention went ignored.

After a 13 month long investigation into Coltrain’s death, state investigators just released a 300-page report which described in detail the neglect suffered by Coltrain at the Mineral County Jail.

The state’s investigation found jailers violated policy by denying her medical attention and suggested the Mineral County District Attorney consider criminal charges. Lyon County took over the investigation to avoid a conflict of interest but ultimately refused to press charges. Coltrain’s family, however, disagrees and has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Arrested for Traffic Tickets

Originally based in Texas, Coltrain came to Reno and Lake Tahoe for her grandmother’s 75th birthday celebration. Following the party, traffic officers arrested her for speeding outside Hawthorne on July 19, 2017. The officers found Coltrain had outstanding traffic violations in Clark County, and so booked her into the Mineral County Jail.

At first, Coltrain would not say anything about her next of kin or medical history. But on learning she was not eligible for bail, Coltrain told Sgt. Jim Holland that she was drug dependent and prone to suffer terrible seizures during withdrawal.

Holland failed to adhere to jail policy which required that inmates with a history of seizures be cleared by a doctor before being remanded at the jail. Also in violation of policy, no jail employees closely watched Coltrain’s vitals as she went through withdrawals.

A surveillance video installed her in cell recorded everything that then would follow and lead to her death.

“When We Feel That Your Life Is At Risk…Then You Will Go To Hospital”

A few hours after landing at the jail, Coltrain pleaded with the night officer to go to a hospital because she needed immediate medication. The officer that night, Deputy Ray Gulcynski, told Coltrain he wouldn’t allow her visit the hospital since she was detoxing.

“Unfortunately, since you’re DT’ing (referring to the detoxification process), I’m not going to take you over to the hospital right now just to get your fix,” Gulcynski told Coltrain. “That’s not the way detention works, unfortunately. You are incarcerated with us, so … you don’t get to go to the hospital when you want. When we feel that your life is at risk… then you will go.”

Over the next three days Coltrain became very sick and could not eat, barely drank water and spent almost all of her time curled up in a fetal position under her blankets.

On the morning of the third day, things got even worse for Coltrain and she began vomiting, trembling and making short convulsive like movements.

A little after 5 p.m. that evening, Holland brought her some food but Coltrain could only eat a few bites despite him urging her to eat. Then the officer saw that Coltrain had vomited and soiled her prison uniform. He brought her another uniform and a mop, asking her to clean her vomit – according to a video recording of events in her cell.

Coltrain was too weak to mop her vomit, but managed to do so with one hand while remaining seated on her bed. Holland who said later he thought she was just being lazy, forced her to clean up other spots on the floor even though she was barely able to move.

By 6:30 p.m. that evening, Coltrain was dead in her cell. Despite the live video feed of Coltrain’s cell, no one entered again until Gulcynski arrived at 12:30 a.m. to move her to a different cell. Instead, he found her completely unresponsive after kicking her lightly with his foot. He ventured further into her cell and touched her gently before quickly leaving.

Gulcynski says he informed his superiors that Coltrain was cold and appeared dead. Video shows him going back into her cell to check for a pulse and then leaving again. Noone called for paramedics upon finding her unresponsive in her cell.

Coltrain was left in her cell until around 6 a.m. when a forensic technician from Washoe County arrived to begin an investigation. The Washoe County Medical Examiner called Coltrain’s death accidental and caused by “complications of drug use.” Toxicology results showed she had heroin in her system.

Jailers Violated Prison Policy, but No Charges Pressed

Prison policy dictates that officers must visit inmates twice every hour if they are lying under blankets, but Gulcynski and the other jailers never did this. Gulcynski said he watched Coltrain from the video monitor and thought she was asleep the night she died.

According to a Reno Gazette report, Holland told state investigators that Coltrain “never looked good,” but that he couldn’t “force medical attention” on inmates.

Detective Damon Earl, the state investigator for the case, noted that had Gulcynski and Holland adhered to some of the jail’s policies Coltrain likely would not have died.

“There were a limited number of times where Coltrain had actual contact with the staff,” Earl wrote. “This may be significant because had more contact been made with Coltrain, indicators of Kelly’s medical condition may have been observed. These indicators may have alerted staff therefore prompting medical attention to be rendered to Coltrain.”

Despite state investigators determining that deputies violated several policies in regard to Coltrain’s medical needs, the District Attorneys for both Mineral County and Lyon County refused to press charges. After jurisdiction was given to Lyon County, the D.A. determined officials did not commit any willful or malicious.

“Based on my review, they did not notice any signs warranting any medical intervention based on their training or experience,” the Lyon County D.A. said. “They were provided information related to her, and it appeared to me that was taken into account in her housing and monitoring. The officers did not ignore information provided to them. And, based on the reports by NDI, it did not appear that they exhibited any cruel, oppressive or malicious treatment.”

But Coltrain’s family is filing a lawsuit for wrongful death. Terri Keyser-Cooper and Kerry Doyle, both lawyers, are representing the family in the litigation.

“Defendants knew Kelly Coltrain was in medical distress,” the lawyers wrote. “Kelly Coltrain’s medical condition was treatable and her death preventable. If Ms. Coltrain had received timely and appropriate medical care, she would not have died. Kelly Coltrain suffered a protracted, extensive, painful, unnecessary death as a result of defendants’ failures.”

A Bonus and Early Retirement for Officials Responsible for Kelly Coltrain’s Death

The family’s lawsuit claims that both Holland and Gulcynski were disciplined but Holland opted for early retirement.

Then last June, Mineral County voted to give Holland an additional year towards his service and granted him $17,853. According to the Reno Gazette, that decision allowed Holland to retire with a higher annual pension and health care benefits than he would have received otherwise.

Meanwhile, the family’s lawyers said they would not settle for compensation only and that they wanted a guarantee of an improvement in the conditions at the jail.

During the whole ordeal, a hospital was just across the street from the jail and Coltrain. Detective Earl timed his walk from the jail to the hospital and said it took “a little over two minutes.”

Wheelchair-Bound Woman Files Lawsuit against Arkansas Prison Authorities for Jail Abuse

[theconservativebrief]

RENO, Nevada — Locked away in a Nevada county jail for failing to take care of her traffic tickets, 27-year-old Kelly Coltrain asked to go to the hospital. Instead, as her condition worsened, she was handed a mop and told to clean up her own vomit. She died in her jail cell less than an hour later.

Despite being in a video-monitored cell, Mineral County Sheriff’s deputies did not recognize that Coltrain had suffered an apparent seizure and had not moved for more than six hours. When a deputy finally entered her cell and couldn’t wake her, he did not call for medical assistance or attempt to resuscitate her. Coltrain lay dead in her cell until the next morning when state officials arrived to investigate.

Details of Coltrain’s death 13 months ago came to light this week with the release of a 300-page report compiled by state investigators. The investigation found that Coltrain’s jailers violated multiple policies when they denied her medical care after she informed them she was dependent on drugs and suffered seizures when she went through withdrawals.

More: In ICE custody he lost his sight in one eye but gained a Tennessee town’s support

More: Guatemalan mom to sue after toddler treated at immigration detention facility dies

The investigators also asked the Mineral County District Attorney to consider criminal charges in the case, after finding evidence the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office may have violated state laws prohibiting inhumane treatment of prisoners and using one’s official authority for oppression.

To avoid a conflict of interest, the investigation was forwarded to Lyon County District Attorney Stephen Rye for review. Rye declined to press charges in the case.

“The review of the case, in our opinion, did not establish any willful or malicious acts by jail staff that would justify the filing of charges under the requirements of the statute,” Rye said.

Coltrain’s family feels otherwise.

On Wednesday, Coltrain’s mother, father and grandmother filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the sheriff’s office of ignoring her life-threatening medical condition despite knowing that she was suffering withdrawals and had a history of seizures.

“(Jail staff) knew Kelly Coltrain had lain for days at the jail, in bed, buried beneath blankets, vomiting multiple times, refusing meals, trembling, shaking, and rarely moving,” lawyers Terri Keyser-Cooper and Kerry Doyle wrote in the lawsuit. “Defendants knew Kelly Coltrain was in medical distress.”

“Kelly Coltrain’s medical condition was treatable and her death preventable,” the lawyers wrote. “If Ms. Coltrain had received timely and appropriate medical care, she would not have died. Kelly Coltrain suffered a protracted, extensive, painful, unnecessary death as a result of defendants’ failures.”

‘The worst I have ever seen’

Keyser-Cooper, who has a decades-long career of successful civil rights lawsuits against Northern Nevada police agencies, said this case is “the worst I have ever seen in 33 years. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Mineral County Sheriff Randy Adams referred questions to the county’s lawyer but did say he is in the process of updating the jail’s policies.

“Obviously it’s terribly unfortunate and it’s tragic,” Adams said. “That’s really all I can say.”

Kelly Coltrain sits in a cell at the Mineral County Jail in Hawthorne. She died about an hour after her jailer asked her to mop her vomit from the floor. (Photo: Mineral County Sheriff)

The county’s lawyer, Brett Ryman of Reno, also described Coltrain’s death as a tragedy, and said the sheriff has hired the Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute to update the jail’s policies and provide training for deputies. He declined to answer any specific questions about the investigation because of the family’s lawsuit.

“It’s just really difficult for a small rural county like this to handle what is just a massive problem,” Ryman said. “There are so many people addicted to substances who end up going through withdrawal in the jail.”

Mineral County is a tiny rural county southeast of Washoe County. Its population is just under 4,500.

Keyser-Cooper described Coltrain as a “successful student, a friendly outgoing girl, and an exceptionally talented soccer player,” who was close to her family. She developed depression and a drug addiction after a knee injury as a teenager living in Las Vegas, the lawsuit said.

More: Opioid addiction is a full-on public health crisis but the Senate isn’t acting that way

More: To reduce opioid prescriptions, tell doctors when their patients overdose and die

The day she was arrested

Although she was living in Texas, Coltrain had visited Reno and Lake Tahoe for a family reunion to celebrate her grandmother’s 75th birthday.

After the celebration, Coltrain was pulled over for speeding outside Hawthorne on July 19, 2017, according to the investigation by the Nevada Division of Investigation. Because she had failed to take care of previous traffic violations in Clark County, the officer who stopped her decided to book her into the Mineral County Jail.

While being booked, Coltrain initially refused to answer questions about her medical history and next of kin. But soon after she learned she wouldn’t be able to make bail, she informed Sgt. Jim Holland that she was dependent on drugs and had a history of seizures when she went through withdrawals, according to the investigative report.

More: Prison staff in Ohio and Pennsylvania treated after exposure to unknown substances

After Coltrain came forward with her medical history, Holland did not follow a jail policy that requires inmates with a history of seizures to be cleared by a doctor before being held at the jail. Nor did jail staff follow medical protocol of carefully monitoring the vitals of a person undergoing withdrawals.

In fact, the jail had no on-site medical care, relying instead on the hospital across the street to attend to inmates’ medical needs and prescriptions.

Deputy denied her access to hospital

About four hours after she was booked into the jail, Coltrain told the night deputy she needed to go to the hospital right away for medication. Instead of following the jail’s medical care policy, he told Coltrain she couldn’t get help unless he determined her life was at risk.

“Unfortunately, since you’re DT’ing (referring to the detoxification process), I’m not going to take you over to the hospital right now just to get your fix,” Deputy Ray Gulcynski told Coltrain, according to the investigation report. “That’s not the way detention works, unfortunately. You are incarcerated with us, so … you don’t get to go to the hospital when you want. When we feel that your life is at risk… then you will go.”

Coltrain spent the next three days in her cell, eating almost nothing and drinking a little bit of water. She spent most of her time curled in the fetal position underneath blankets.

Early on July 22, 2017, her third day in the jail, Coltrain began vomiting, trembling and “making short, convulsive type movements,” according to the investigative report. A little after 5 p.m. that day, Holland brought Coltrain dinner and water and tried to talk her into eating a little bit of food. She ate a few bites.

This still taken from Mineral County Sheriff’s Office surveillance video shows Sgt. Jim Holland asks Kelly Coltrain to mop her cell. (Photo: Mineral County Sheriff’s Office)

Holland then brought her a new set of jail clothing to replace her soiled uniform and a mop, asking her to clean the vomit from her floor, according to the investigative report. Coltrain sat still for a few minutes until Holland returned and asked her again to mop.

According to video reviewed by the Reno Gazette Journal, Coltrain then began mopping her floor while still sitting on her bed. She was trembling during the process and stopped often to rest. A few minutes later, Holland returns to point out the spots she had missed. Coltrain wipes up the spots and Holland leaves with the mop.

Holland later told an investigator that he thought it was odd Coltrain didn’t get out of bed to mop the floor.

“Sgt. Holland advised he thought Coltrain was just ‘lazy’ and that she just didn’t want to stand up to clean the floor,” the report said. “Sgt. Holland advised he just wanted the floor to be cleaned and he didn’t care how it got done, just that it got cleaned up.”

This was the last time Coltrain was seen alive.

Hours pass before deputies realize she is dead — paramedics not called

Less than an hour later, Coltrain was shown on the video lying in the fetal position when her body suddenly goes rigid and her legs straighten. While on her stomach, her face slowly rises toward the back wall and her arm stretches out and hangs off the bed. Her head lowers back onto the mattress and for the next several minutes her body appears to go through periodic convulsions.

Coltrain then stops moving entirely about 6:26 p.m. The video shows her lying still in the same position until about 12:30 a.m. when Gulcynski arrives to move her to a different cell and finds her unresponsive.

According to the investigation report, the 20-minute section of video depicting Gulcynski entering her cell was missing entirely from the files the state obtained for its investigation from the sheriff’s office. But a Reno Gazette Journal reporter found the video in files provided by Keyser-Cooper.

The video shows Gulcynski walk into the cell and nudge Coltrain’s leg with the tip of his boot. When she didn’t respond he enters the cell, looks at her face, briefly touches her arm and then quickly exits the cell.

This still from Mineral County Sheriff’s Office surveillance video shows Deputy Ray Gulcynski tapping Kelly Coltrain with his boot and finding her unresponsive. (Photo: Mineral County Sheriff’s Office)

According to the investigative report, Gulcynski notified his supervisors that Coltrain appeared dead and was cold to the touch. The video then shows him re-enter the cell and check for a pulse on Coltrain’s neck before leaving again.

The sheriff’s office then left Coltrain’s body locked in the cell until a Washoe County forensic technician arrived at 5:48 a.m. to begin the investigation.

No one on staff called for paramedics after finding Coltrain lying unresponsive and cold on her bed, according to the investigation. The lawsuit said the sheriff’s office had no policy for what to do after discovering an unresponsive inmate.

The Washoe County Medical Examiner labeled Coltrain’s death accidental, caused by “complications of drug use.” The toxicology results showed she had heroin in her system.

Investigator: Had deputies followed policy, she may not have been in danger

Gulcynski told investigators that he had periodically looked at Coltrain from the video monitor outside her cell but thought she was asleep. The sheriff’s policy requires deputies to physically check inmates under observation at least twice an hour if they are lying under blankets. That didn’t occur, according to the investigation.

Holland told investigators that Coltrain “never looked good,” but that he couldn’t “force medical attention” on inmates.

The state investigator assigned to the case, Detective Damon Earl, noted in his report that had Gulzynski and Holland adhered to some of the department policies in place, Coltrain may have not have been in as much danger.

“There were a limited number of times where Coltrain had actual contact with the staff,” Earl wrote. “This may be significant because had more contact been made with Coltrain, indicators of Kelly’s medical condition may have been observed. These indicators may have alerted staff therefore prompting medical attention to be rendered to Coltrain.”

At one point in his investigation, Earl timed his walk from the jail to the hospital across the street. It took “a little over two minutes.”

More: Thousands of students are forced into restraints or seclusion each year in Virginia schools

Ryman, Mineral County’s lawyer, said he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the investigation, including why no one called for emergency medical help when Coltrain was discovered unresponsive. He also wouldn’t comment on whether any disciplinary action was taken against either Gulcynski or Holland.

The lawsuit, however, said both men were disciplined but that Holland opted to retire early.

In June, the Mineral County Commission voted unanimously to buy Holland an additional year toward his service for a cost of $17,853. The buy-out allowed Holland to retire with a higher annual pension and health care benefits than if it had been denied.

District Attorney didn’t find ‘cruel, oppressive or malicious treatment’

In reviewing the case for criminal charges, Rye, the Lyon County District Attorney, said he couldn’t find evidence that the two jailers acted maliciously.

“Based on my review, they did not notice any signs warranting any medical intervention based on their training or experience,” Rye said. “They were provided information related to her, and it appeared to me that was taken into account in her housing and monitoring. The officers did not ignore information provided to them. And, based on the reports by NDI, it did not appear that they exhibited any cruel, oppressive or malicious treatment.”

A family photo of Kelly Coltrain. (Photo: Provided by Carole Fesser)

Keyser-Cooper, however, believes policies and training are less than adequate at the Mineral County Jail. The lawsuit by Coltrain’s family seeks not only compensation for their loss, but also for Sheriff Adams to improve the conditions at the jail. Keyser-Cooper said the family won’t settle their lawsuit without that.

Ryman said such changes are already underway, but within the small county’s limited resources.

“The policies of the jail in regard to people who have addictions and are undergoing withdrawals have the full attention of the sheriff and the county, despite the fact of the lawsuit,” Ryman said. “Even outside the lawsuit, the sheriff will go forward with this kind of training. Everything will be done to the best ability of this small county. They don’t have the resources of someone like Washoe County.”

via The Conservative Brief

[estelagellison9]

Woman lay dead in Nevada jail cell for hours after deputy found her unresponsive

New Post has been published on https://www.therecover.com/woman-lay-dead-in-nevada-jail-cell-for-hours-after-deputy-found-her-unresponsive/

Woman lay dead in Nevada jail cell for hours after deputy found her unresponsive

© Mineral County Sheriff Kelly Coltrain sits in a cell at the Mineral County Jail in Hawthorne. She died about an hour after her jailer asked her to mop her vomit from the floor.

© Provided by Carol Fesser A family photo of Kelly Coltrain.

RENO, Nevada — Locked away in a Nevada county jail for failing to take care of her traffic tickets, 27-year-old Kelly Coltrain asked to go to the hospital. Instead, as her condition worsened, she was handed a mop and told to clean up her own vomit. She died in her jail cell less than an hour later.

Despite being in a video-monitored cell, Mineral County Sheriff’s deputies did not recognize that Coltrain had suffered an apparent seizure and had not moved for more than six hours. When a deputy finally entered her cell and couldn’t wake her, he did not call for medical assistance or attempt to resuscitate her. Coltrain lay dead in her cell until the next morning when state officials arrived to investigate.

Details of Coltrain’s death 13 months ago came to light this week with the release of a 300-page report compiled by state investigators. The investigation found that Coltrain’s jailers violated multiple policies when they denied her medical care after she informed them she was dependent on drugs and suffered seizures when she went through withdrawals.

The investigators also asked the Mineral County District Attorney to consider criminal charges in the case, after finding evidence the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office may have violated state laws prohibiting inhumane treatment of prisoners and using one’s official authority for oppression.

To avoid a conflict of interest, the investigation was forwarded to Lyon County District Attorney Stephen Rye for review. Rye declined to press charges in the case.

“The review of the case, in our opinion, did not establish any willful or malicious acts by jail staff that would justify the filing of charges under the requirements of the statute,” Rye said.

Coltrain’s family feels otherwise.

On Wednesday, Coltrain’s mother, father and grandmother filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the sheriff’s office of ignoring her life-threatening medical condition despite knowing that she was suffering withdrawals and had a history of seizures.

“(Jail staff) knew Kelly Coltrain had lain for days at the jail, in bed, buried beneath blankets, vomiting multiple times, refusing meals, trembling, shaking, and rarely moving,” lawyers Terri Keyser-Cooper and Kerry Doyle wrote in the lawsuit. “Defendants knew Kelly Coltrain was in medical distress.”

“Kelly Coltrain’s medical condition was treatable and her death preventable,” the lawyers wrote. “If Ms. Coltrain had received timely and appropriate medical care, she would not have died. Kelly Coltrain suffered a protracted, extensive, painful, unnecessary death as a result of defendants’ failures.”

‘The worst I have ever seen’

Keyser-Cooper, who has a decades-long career of successful civil rights lawsuits against Northern Nevada police agencies, said this case is “the worst I have ever seen in 33 years. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Mineral County Sheriff Randy Adams referred questions to the county’s lawyer but did say he is in the process of updating the jail’s policies.

“Obviously it’s terribly unfortunate and it’s tragic,” Adams said. “That’s really all I can say.”

© Mineral County Sheriff Kelly Coltrain sits in a cell at the Mineral County Jail in Hawthorne. She died about an hour after her jailer asked her to mop her vomit from the floor.

The county’s lawyer, Brett Ryman of Reno, also described Coltrain’s death as a tragedy, and said the sheriff has hired the Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute to update the jail’s policies and provide training for deputies. He declined to answer any specific questions about the investigation because of the family’s lawsuit.

“It’s just really difficult for a small rural county like this to handle what is just a massive problem,” Ryman said. “There are so many people addicted to substances who end up going through withdrawal in the jail.”

Mineral County is a tiny rural county southeast of Washoe County. Its population is just under 4,500.

Keyser-Cooper described Coltrain as a “successful student, a friendly outgoing girl, and an exceptionally talented soccer player,” who was close to her family. She developed depression and a drug addiction after a knee injury as a teenager living in Las Vegas, the lawsuit said.

The day she was arrested

Although she was living in Texas, Coltrain had visited Reno and Lake Tahoe for a family reunion to celebrate her grandmother’s 75th birthday.

After the celebration, Coltrain was pulled over for speeding outside Hawthorne on July 19, 2017, according to the investigation by the Nevada Division of Investigation. Because she had failed to take care of previous traffic violations in Clark County, the officer who stopped her decided to book her into the Mineral County Jail.

While being booked, Coltrain initially refused to answer questions about her medical history and next of kin. But soon after she learned she wouldn’t be able to make bail, she informed Sgt. Jim Holland that she was dependent on drugs and had a history of seizures when she went through withdrawals, according to the investigative report.

After Coltrain came forward with her medical history, Holland did not follow a jail policy that requires inmates with a history of seizures to be cleared by a doctor before being held at the jail. Nor did jail staff follow medical protocol of carefully monitoring the vitals of a person undergoing withdrawals.

In fact, the jail had no on-site medical care, relying instead on the hospital across the street to attend to inmates’ medical needs and prescriptions.

Deputy denied her access to hospital

About four hours after she was booked into the jail, Coltrain told the night deputy she needed to go to the hospital right away for medication. Instead of following the jail’s medical care policy, he told Coltrain she couldn’t get help unless he determined her life was at risk.

“Unfortunately, since you’re DT’ing (referring to the detoxification process), I’m not going to take you over to the hospital right now just to get your fix,” Deputy Ray Gulcynski told Coltrain, according to the investigation report. “That’s not the way detention works, unfortunately. You are incarcerated with us, so … you don’t get to go to the hospital when you want. When we feel that your life is at risk… then you will go.”

Coltrain spent the next three days in her cell, eating almost nothing and drinking a little bit of water. She spent most of her time curled in the fetal position underneath blankets.

Early on July 22, 2017, her third day in the jail, Coltrain began vomiting, trembling and “making short, convulsive type movements,” according to the investigative report. A little after 5 p.m. that day, Holland brought Coltrain dinner and water and tried to talk her into eating a little bit of food. She ate a few bites.

© Mineral County Sheriff’s Office This still taken from Mineral County Sheriff’s Office surveillance video shows Sgt. Jim Holland asks Kelly Coltrain to mop her cell.

Holland then brought her a new set of jail clothing to replace her soiled uniform and a mop, asking her to clean the vomit from her floor, according to the investigative report. Coltrain sat still for a few minutes until Holland returned and asked her again to mop.

According to video reviewed by the Reno Gazette Journal, Coltrain then began mopping her floor while still sitting on her bed. She was trembling during the process and stopped often to rest. A few minutes later, Holland returns to point out the spots she had missed. Coltrain wipes up the spots and Holland leaves with the mop.

Holland later told an investigator that he thought it was odd Coltrain didn’t get out of bed to mop the floor.

“Sgt. Holland advised he thought Coltrain was just ‘lazy’ and that she just didn’t want to stand up to clean the floor,” the report said. “Sgt. Holland advised he just wanted the floor to be cleaned and he didn’t care how it got done, just that it got cleaned up.”

This was the last time Coltrain was seen alive.

Hours pass before deputies realize she is dead — paramedics not called

Less than an hour later, Coltrain was shown on the video lying in the fetal position when her body suddenly goes rigid and her legs straighten. While on her stomach, her face slowly rises toward the back wall and her arm stretches out and hangs off the bed. Her head lowers back onto the mattress and for the next several minutes her body appears to go through periodic convulsions.

Coltrain then stops moving entirely about 6:26 p.m. The video shows her lying still in the same position until about 12:30 a.m. when Gulcynski arrives to move her to a different cell and finds her unresponsive.

According to the investigation report, the 20-minute section of video depicting Gulcynski entering her cell was missing entirely from the files the state obtained for its investigation from the sheriff’s office. But a Reno Gazette Journal reporter found the video in files provided by Keyser-Cooper.

The video shows Gulcynski walk into the cell and nudge Coltrain’s leg with the tip of his boot. When she didn’t respond he enters the cell, looks at her face, briefly touches her arm and then quickly exits the cell.

© Mineral County Sheriff’s Office This still from Mineral County Sheriff’s Office surveillance video shows Deputy Ray Gulcynski tapping Kelly Coltrain with his boot and finding her unresponsive.

According to the investigative report, Gulcynski notified his supervisors that Coltrain appeared dead and was cold to the touch. The video then shows him re-enter the cell and check for a pulse on Coltrain’s neck before leaving again.

The sheriff’s office then left Coltrain’s body locked in the cell until a Washoe County forensic technician arrived at 5:48 a.m. to begin the investigation.

No one on staff called for paramedics after finding Coltrain lying unresponsive and cold on her bed, according to the investigation. The lawsuit said the sheriff’s office had no policy for what to do after discovering an unresponsive inmate.

The Washoe County Medical Examiner labeled Coltrain’s death accidental, caused by “complications of drug use.” The toxicology results showed she had heroin in her system.

Investigator: Had deputies followed policy, she may not have been in danger

Gulcynski told investigators that he had periodically looked at Coltrain from the video monitor outside her cell but thought she was asleep. The sheriff’s policy requires deputies to physically check inmates under observation at least twice an hour if they are lying under blankets. That didn’t occur, according to the investigation.

Holland told investigators that Coltrain “never looked good,” but that he couldn’t “force medical attention” on inmates.

The state investigator assigned to the case, Detective Damon Earl, noted in his report that had Gulzynski and Holland adhered to some of the department policies in place, Coltrain may have not have been in as much danger.

“There were a limited number of times where Coltrain had actual contact with the staff,” Earl wrote. “This may be significant because had more contact been made with Coltrain, indicators of Kelly’s medical condition may have been observed. These indicators may have alerted staff therefore prompting medical attention to be rendered to Coltrain.”

At one point in his investigation, Earl timed his walk from the jail to the hospital across the street. It took “a little over two minutes.”

Ryman, Mineral County’s lawyer, said he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the investigation, including why no one called for emergency medical help when Coltrain was discovered unresponsive. He also wouldn’t comment on whether any disciplinary action was taken against either Gulcynski or Holland.

The lawsuit, however, said both men were disciplined but that Holland opted to retire early.

In June, the Mineral County Commission voted unanimously to buy Holland an additional year toward his service for a cost of $17,853. The buy-out allowed Holland to retire with a higher annual pension and health care benefits than if it had been denied.

District Attorney didn’t find ‘cruel, oppressive or malicious treatment’

In reviewing the case for criminal charges, Rye, the Lyon County District Attorney, said he couldn’t find evidence that the two jailers acted maliciously.

“Based on my review, they did not notice any signs warranting any medical intervention based on their training or experience,” Rye said. “They were provided information related to her, and it appeared to me that was taken into account in her housing and monitoring. The officers did not ignore information provided to them. And, based on the reports by NDI, it did not appear that they exhibited any cruel, oppressive or malicious treatment.”

© Provided by Carole Fesser A family photo of Kelly Coltrain.

Keyser-Cooper, however, believes policies and training are less than adequate at the Mineral County Jail. The lawsuit by Coltrain’s family seeks not only compensation for their loss, but also for Sheriff Adams to improve the conditions at the jail. Keyser-Cooper said the family won’t settle their lawsuit without that.

Ryman said such changes are already underway, but within the small county’s limited resources.

“The policies of the jail in regard to people who have addictions and are undergoing withdrawals have the full attention of the sheriff and the county, despite the fact of the lawsuit,” Ryman said. “Even outside the lawsuit, the sheriff will go forward with this kind of training. Everything will be done to the best ability of this small county. They don’t have the resources of someone like Washoe County.”

Original source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/woman-lay-dead-in-nevada-jail-cell-for-hours-after-deputy-found-her-unresponsive/ar-BBMMZXg?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=mailsignout

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