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OTHER LOST LOVES
EDWARD BERRYHILL
Saturday, 19, 2004
A 44-year-old Spring Lake man held on drunken driving and weapons charges has hanged himself in the Ottawa County Jail's West Olive facility, according to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department.
Reported dead in his cell Friday was Max Edward Berryhill of 1736 Connie.
Another inmate found Berryhill hanging by a torn sheet and summoned staff around 1:15 p.m., Undersheriff Greg Steigenga said. Jail personnel tried to resuscitate Berryhill, but efforts by jail and medical staff, North Ottawa Ambulance personnel and Olive Township fire-rescue personnel failed to revive him, the undersheriff said.
Steigenga said Berryhill appeared to have a slight pulse but was not breathing by the time staff reached him.
Dr. Stephen Cohle, Kent County's medical examiner, was to do an autopsy this morning at Spectrum Health-Blodgett in Grand Rapids.
Sheriff's detectives led by Lt. Steven Crumb are investigating the death.
Berryhill was not on suicide watch. He was lodged in a two-man cell but had been alone for an estimated 10 minutes -- after his cellmate was allowed to go to a day area -- before another inmate saw him hanging, Steigenga said.
One issue to be investigated is whether Berryhill, who had been in jail since his arrest Monday evening, had given earlier indications of being suicidal.
"There was a sense that he had a desire to hurt himself during the initial contact (with police) ... Just initial comments or observations may have been that he was somewhat despondent at the time of his arrest," Steigenga said.
"These are things that we're looking into," Steigenga said. "We're conducting a very thorough investigation of the entire incident, including all those types of things."
Berryhill was lodged under a $78,000 cash or surety bond set by 58th District Judge Kenneth Post on charges of third-offense drunken driving, carrying a concealed weapon, possessing a firearm while intoxicated, second-offense driving on a suspended license and two probation violations, Steigenga said.
Ottawa County Sheriff's deputies arrested Berryhill after he was spotted early Monday evening in Georgetown Township driving while brandishing a handgun. Deputies found a 40-caliber semiautomatic handgun in his car.
Deputies also learned the gun recently had been fired inside a home.
JENNIFER LYNN SUTTON
ANOTHER DEATH AT CORCORAN STATE PRISON:
Jennifer Lynn Sutton, Trangender Prisoner with HIV/hepatitis
"I have full blown AIDS and can catch anything at any time. I don't belong in this institution where I can't get any help. We are treated like animals here and something should be done about it. I hope you can do something because I am dying and I'm suffering very much and my hands are tied and there is nothing I can do about it."
Two other prisoners coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C have also suffered kidney failure at this prison since December 2001. I am very concerned about the care and treatment of prisoners with serious and life-threatening diseases like Jeffrey Sutton and demand that you immediately investigate this prisoner's medical treatment and death.
HENRY BERNARD
CORCORAN PRISONER KNIFED TO DEATH
Friday, December 29, 2000
(12-29) 13:27 PST CORCORAN, Calif. (AP)
-- A man in prison for violating his parole was stabbed to death by at least one fellow inmate, officials said Thursday.
EARL E. JOLLEY, JR.
28-YEAR-OLD KILLER HANGS HIMSELF IN HIS PRISON CELL
By RYAN REYNOLDS, Courier & Press staff writer
A man serving a 65-year sentence for an Evansville murder hanged himself with a bedsheet in his prison cell at the Pendleton Correctional Facility on Monday.
We undertook this visit to continue our advocacy efforts on behalf of women prisoners with HIV, hepatitis C and other serious illnesses. We visited with a woman who recently suffered a stroke after being forced to take the wrong medications by prison medical staff. We visited with women with hepatitis C who are not receiving any education, care monitoring or treatment for their disease.
We visited with a woman living with HIV who recently survived an attack of AIDS-related pneumonia without receiving any medical treatment from prison staff.
We talked with every woman about the six deaths that occurred since
November 9 -- three of the women that died had HIV (and possible
hepatitis C co-infection). (And, by the way, the local county coroner
has a policy of not doing autopsies on HIV+ women prisoners so we will
never know the real cause of medical neglect which precipitated their
deaths.)
At about 6:45 p.m., we saw a group of guards and MTAs (Medical Technical
Assistants) race to the back room behind the visiting room. While we
could see only bits and pieces of what was going on, there was clearly a
medical emergency happening. Not surprisingly, six deaths in a month, made medical staff respond quite quickly to this emergency. An IV pole was brought in and MTAs were trying to perform CPR on a yet unidentified prisoner. We could
see much of the motion but not the whole picture. Several of the women
prisoners in the visiting room were standing on benches near the window
so that they could see what was happening. There was a lot of commotion
going on. One of the women who had a good view of the back room said
that the woman on the floor wasn't breathing anymore.
We knew the woman was dead when guards forced the two women porters in
the visiting room to go into the back room and don gowns, masks,
goggles, and gloves to clean up the bodily fluids that the woman
expelled all over the floor before dying. The guards just stood around
without any expression - supervising. The terrified look in the eyes of
those two women continues to haunt me. They were porters in the visiting
room and never expected to have to clean up vomit, urine and excrement
after a woman had died. Are there any international human rights
sanctions against this callous abuse of women prisoners?
The death took about 45 minutes, during which time no prisoner was able
to move in or out of the visiting room. At least 15-20 women prisoners
also witnessed this death. I can only imagine how women inside CCWF are
feeling right now seven deaths, who is next.
We are demanding (even louder than before) an independent investigation
into these deaths. We have asked Senator Richard Polanco, Chair of the
Joint Subcommittee on Prison Construction and Operations to conduct this
investigation, and to bring in a panel of doctors and specialists to
review these women's medical files. We have also demanded that the MTA
system be suspended and competent medical staff be brought in from the
public health sector to save the women's lives. This is a life and death
situation for the women inside CCWF. If something is not done soon, many
more women will die.
The women prisoners I was meeting with have seen a lot of death and
dying inside the Central California Women's Facility but even they are deeply
affected by the current death toll. These seven deaths come in the wake of the dismissal of the Shumate case (class action litigation challenging medical neglect and abuse at CCWF and another women's prison) and the historical two-day
long legislative hearings held in October inside two California women's
prisons.
I can only conclude that there is a war going on against our sisters at
CCWF and they are losing.
Please call, fax or write to Senator Polanco today. The address is:
Senator Richard Polanco
Contact your local human rights organization and ask that they conduct
an investigation into the deaths at CCWF.
Share this information with your local media source.
Write to your state and federal representatives. Public exposure is one
of the only ways to get the California Department of Corrections to
change.
We are working within a coalition of groups to stop the death toll at
CCWF. Contact us to get involved and to get on
our rapid response list.
We will post events on our web page (www.prisons.org/hivin.htm) and also
keep you informed.
We need to let the women inside know that they are not alone and that we
support their right to live and to receive health care.
Judy Greenspan, Chairperson
Published Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000
DEATHS AT PRISON SPUR HEARING
17 WOMEN HAVE DIED THIS YEAR;
CHOWCHILLA (AP) -- A state senator will hold a hearing next month into a rash
of deaths at a California women's prison, including three recent deaths for
which there have been no explanations.
Prison officials are awaiting toxicology reports in all three deaths, reports
which may not be available until mid-January, Department of Corrections
spokeswoman Margot Bach said. All three were in relatively good health when
they suddenly died.
Pamela Coffey, 46, of Los Angeles, died Dec. 2; Stephanie Hardie, 34, of
Pomona, died Dec. 9; and Eva Vallario, 33, of San Diego, died Dec. 15.
Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, has scheduled a Jan. 17 hearing on the
deaths.
Kimberly Valazza, 37, of San Diego County, died Tuesday, bringing to 17 the
number of deaths this year at the Central California Women's Facility in
Chowchilla.
Valazza was terminally ill and was transferred to the prison's hospice Nov.
29 from another prison.
``Her death had been anticipated,'' Bach said.
A medical team from the University of California-Davis is expected to
complete its review of the prison's medical care by mid-January, Bach said.
Polanco led an October hearing into allegations of medical neglect in women's
prisons. Four advocacy groups called on him to reopen his investigation in
the wake of the Chowchilla deaths.
Judy Greenspan of the advocacy group California Prison Focus said Tuesday
that she hopes Polanco will conclude that he needs to lead his own
independent investigation by sending his top staff into the prison.
Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, conducted a similar staff investigation
into a series of deaths in the early 1990s at the all-male California Medical
Facility in Vacaville. Polanco now owes the female inmates no less, Greenspan
said.
Doctors Fault Treatment in
By DON THOMPSON
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Prompt care might have saved two of the three inmates who
died at a women's prison in Chowchilla last month, according to doctors whose
reviews of the incidents were released Tuesday.
Those reviews also conclude that the deaths were not related.
Officials at the Central California Women's Facility had worried the deaths
might have resulted from improper sharing of prescription drugs or some other
common cause.
But Dr. Kathleen A. Clanon, a UC San Francisco professor, wrote she could
find no "single 'smoking gun' explanation linking these three deaths."
Barring a drug found during still-pending toxicology tests, "it is most
likely that these tragic and frightening sudden deaths were medically
unrelated to one another."
A separate review of the inmates' medical records by four UC Davis doctors
also found no link between the deaths.
Clanon reached her conclusions after reviewing medical reports from the
incidents. She submitted her comments to a state Legislature committee that
held a hearing on the deaths last week. The Associated Press obtained
Clanon's report Tuesday.
Relatives and advocacy groups have said the deaths could have been prevented
if inmates received better care.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Margot Bach said she had not seen the
reports late Tuesday afternoon and no one from the department's medical staff
was available for comment.
Seventeen women died last year at the prison, though most were terminally ill
and receiving medical care. Three of the deaths were unexpected and, Clanon
concluded, might have been prevented.
Pamela Coffey, 46, of Los Angeles, died Dec. 2, becoming the first of the
three dead inmates in question. An autopsy found she died of heart problems,
but Clanon concluded that, "there were significant problems with Ms. Coffey's
medical care that might have contributed to her death."
A medical technical assistant (MTA) who examined Coffey two hours before she
died should have sought additional help, Clanon wrote in her review.
"Had Ms. Coffey been in the emergency room during the subsequent two hours,
it might have been possible to intervene and prevent her collapse," Clanon
concluded.
Advocacy groups have been particularly critical of the health screening
provided by MTAs -- guards with medical training -- and state Sen. Sheila
Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, said she will introduce legislation this year to
eliminate the position.
Before Coffey's collapse, doctors should have done a better job checking on a
low blood count and an unexplained abdominal mass that prompted Coffey to
complain of pain in her side, Clanon wrote.
The UC Davis doctor who reviewed Coffey's file also said her low blood count
should have been investigated, but did not fault the MTA's treatment the
night of her death.
Stephanie Hardie, 34, of Pomona, who died Dec. 9, should have received better
treatment for her previous complaints of chest pain and shortness of breath,
Clanon said.
Better treatment might also have saved Eva Vallario, 33, of San Diego, who
apparently died after choking on vomit Dec. 15, Clanon said.
"Given that Ms. Vallario had a pulse when she was first seen by the medical
team," Clanon wrote, "there is a substantial likelihood that she could have
been resuscitated if she had been ventilated earlier."
Prison employees repeatedly tried to clear her airway but were unsuccessful,
and the UC Davis doctor who reviewed Vallario's file was not critical of
their efforts.
However, the UC Davis doctors questioned whether two other terminally ill
inmates received proper care once they were transferred to outside hospitals.
They said they could draw no firm conclusions, however, because they lacked
the inmates' complete medical records.
SUICIDES SURPASS EXECUTIONS
TONY LEE REYNOLDS
By PAUL ELIAS
SAN FRANCISCO -- The latest death at San Quentin Prison marked a gruesome landmark that underscored just how jammed up the state's capital punishment system has become: Suicides have now supplanted executions as the second leading cause of death on California's death row.
Tony Lee Reynolds' death Sunday was the 14th suicide, one more than the number of condemned inmates executed in California, since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1978.
There are now 666 inmates on death row, according to the Department of Corrections, and executions have been halted now for 16 months by a federal judge who ordered prison officials to revise their lethal injection procedures to ensure inmates don't suffer unnecessarily. The temporary moratorium will stay in place at least until state
prison officials finish construction of a new death chamber designed to address the judge's concerns.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel said he wants to inspect the new death chamber in October if it's completed by then.
Thirty-eight inmates have died of natural causes, the leading cause of death.
"The number of executions is absurdly low," said Kent Scheidegger, director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a victims' rights group based in Sacramento. "The number of executions is low because
of the great hostility the federal courts have with the death penalty."
San Quentin Prison spokesman Lt. Eric Messick said guards found Reynolds, 25, hanging from a bed sheet tied to his bunk bed Sunday night and he was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Reynolds had been sent to death row only 30 days ago for the murder and rape of a pregnant woman in Riverside County.
Messick said the average stay on death row is 17.5 years before execution.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Monday that Reynolds was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. But Messick said a mental health report received by the prison staff didn't show that diagnosis and Reynolds wasn't considered a suicide risk.
"This guy didn't give us any indication," he said.
Reynolds' attorney at trial didn't return a telephone call Tuesday.
In October, the California prison system instituted a series of reforms to cut the high rate of inmate suicides, which reached a record 43 last year. A federal judge is overseeing the state's treatment of mentally ill and suicidal inmates as a result of a class-action lawsuit by prisoners alleging inadequate care.
JOSE DANIEL CRUZ
ACCUSED KILLER CALLED FIT TO SHARE JAIL CELL
County officials were not told of one prisoner's death until after a
second inmate was fatally attacked
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times
By Stuart Pfeifer
A mentally disturbed state prison inmate being transferred into a Los
Angeles County jail last month was examined by mental health workers,
who declared him fit to be placed in the general jail population.
That finding caused Kurt Karcher, a convicted killer with a bipolar
disorder, to be moved into a cell with inmate Jose Daniel Cruz.
Karcher is accused of strangling Cruz a few days later, while
awaiting trial on charges that he had strangled his previous cellmate
at the state prison in Lancaster.
The May 22 assault has sparked internal investigations and raised
questions about how well state prison and county jail officials
communicate when transferring prisoners, as they do thousands of
times each year.
State prison officials acknowledge that they did not provide county
jailers with reports that Karcher had killed his former cellmate when
they placed him in the custody of Los Angeles County Sheriff's
deputies so he could be closer to the downtown courthouse while
awaiting trial.
Had Karcher been housed in the mental illness floor at the Twin
Towers Correctional Facility, it's unlikely he would have been able
to harm another inmate, said Melinda Bird, who monitors the county
jails as a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern
California.
"From what we understand, inmate Karcher did not receive adequate
mental health care, and this is part of a larger pattern of
inadequate treatment," Bird said. "In particular, this failure to
coordinate with an inmate's previous treatment is absolutely widespread.
"I'm sick at heart that another inmate has died," she said, "but I'm
not surprised."
County mental health officials said they were prohibited by state and
federal law from discussing their treatment of Karcher. They said
properly diagnosing the mental health of any inmate is difficult
because so many are dishonest during screening interviews.
"The challenge for my staff is that some inmates who don't have
mental illness will say they do. And some of our most severely
disturbed inmates with mental illness deny they have problems and
refuse treatment," said Robert Fish, a psychologist and clinical
manager for treatment at the Twin Towers facility.
"Unfortunately, mental illness doesn't have a blood test that will
definitively say this person has this or this person has that."
After his first cellmate was killed in Lancaster, Karcher was housed
in a one-inmate cell and prescribed medication to control his mood,
according to court records. However, according to several people
familiar with the case, he did not receive medication at the county
jail until after Cruz was attacked.
Karcher is now housed in a one-man cell and is awaiting trial on
charges of killing two inmates, which could make him subject to a
death sentence.
Bird said most complaints the ACLU receives from county jail inmates
are about a lack of access to mental health care and medication for
psychiatric conditions.
"We are very concerned about the persistent pattern of denial of
psychiatric medication to inmates throughout the jail," Bird said.
"We were actively pursuing this issue, even before we learned of this
murder. We're pursuing it even more intensely now."
In addition to raising concerns about Karcher's mental health care in
county jail, Cruz's death highlighted communication lapses between
state prison and county jail officials. State prisons typically do
not pass along inmates' disciplinary files which would have
included the allegation that Karcher killed a prison cellmate to
local jail officials.
Officials with the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
said prison officials will often tell jail officials orally if an
inmate has been violent or is an escape risk. But they couldn't say
whether that happened when Karcher was transferred to sheriff's custody.
Sheriff's personnel at the jail may not have been aware that Karcher
was believed to have killed a cellmate even though sheriff's
detectives conducted that homicide investigation, officials said.
State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) said she believes the
prisons should share information about dangerous inmates with county
jails and is considering introducing legislation to require them to
do so.
"It is the responsibility of the Department of Corrections to make
sure that there is communication as to the risk and behavior that has
occurred within the state system," said Romero, who oversees state
prisons as chairwoman of the Senate Public Safety Committee.
"He was being transferred to jail because he committed something
while incarcerated. That information has to be shared. To say 'we
didn't need to tell you because you investigated it,' that's not good
enough."
Sheriff's officials have declined to discuss details of their
handling of Karcher because of an internal affairs investigation.
Fifteen inmates have been slain in county jails since 2000. Sheriff
Lee Baca said through a spokesman that he would support any effort to
improve communication between state and local jail officials.
JOSE DANIEL CRUZ
BI-POLAR LA INMATE CHARGED WITH CELLMATE DEATH
AOL
June 30, 2007
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A mentally ill prisoner accused of strangling a cellmate at the Los Angeles County jail was not placed in solitary even though he was facing trial over a similar slaying in state prison, officials said.
Mental health workers concluded that Kurt Karcher was fit to be in the general jail population instead of placing him in the wing for mentally ill inmates at the downtown Twin Towers jail, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
He is accused of killing Jose Daniel Cruz at the jail on May 22.
Karcher, a convicted killer who has bipolar disorder, was transferred to the jail to face charges of strangling his previous cellmate at the state prison in Lancaster, officials said.
State prison officials acknowledged they did not provide county jailers with reports that Karcher allegedly had killed his former cellmate.
County mental health officials said they were prohibited by state and federal law from discussing their treatment of Karcher, but that diagnosing the mental health of any inmate is difficult because so many are dishonest during screening interviews
"Unfortunately, mental illness doesn't have a blood test," said Robert Fish, clinical manager for treatment at Twin Towers.
Karcher is now in a one-man cell and is awaiting trial on charges of killing two inmates.
DERICK MONCADA
INMATE COMMITS SUICIDE
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Associated Press
Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times
SAN LEANDRO, CALIF. A man believed to be responsible for the 1991 rape and strangling of a 14-year-old girl killed himself in prison hours after investigators told him DNA evidence linked him to the unsolved case, authorities said Monday.
Derick Moncada, 35, was serving time at Kern Valley State Prison for threatening his girlfriend, beating a former girlfriend and leading police on a chase when Alameda County sheriff's deputies went to question him last week about Jessica McHenry's killing.
The girl's burned body was found naked from the waist down in a ditch along a rural road in Livermore, about 40 miles east of San Francisco. She was last seen alive walking home from Granada High School earlier in the day.
Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek said the March 12 interview began cordially but quickly changed when investigators asked Moncada if he knew Jessica.
"He never admitted anything," Dudek said, adding the interview ended when Moncada asked for a lawyer.
About five months earlier, investigators learned that Moncada's DNA matched samples taken from Jessica's body.
Results from a second sample taken from Moncada last week were pending, but Dudek said that test was a formality and authorities were certain Moncada was the killer.
Eight hours later, Moncada was found hanging in his cell, Dudek said.
He left behind a suicide note, professing his innocence, apologizing to his family for sullying the family name and pledging "death before dishonor," Dudek said.
A state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman said Moncada was serving more than eight years for assault with a firearm.
He was transferred to Kern Valley State Prison in Delano on March 2, after spending 14 months in a secure housing unit at Corcoran State Prison for beating up an inmate, Terry Thornton said.
Around the time of Jessica's killing, Moncada was 19, living in
Livermore and working at a gas station in San Ramon.
Dudek said he's aware of at least one unsolved homicide in the area from about the same time involving a female victim who was beaten, set on fire and dumped in a ravine. She was never identified.
"We know he was a very violent person," Dudek said of Moncada. "We'll never know a lot of the 'whys.' "
Jessica's family members said they considered that a blessing.
Her brother, Nick, now 28, said he believes Moncada's suicide was the "best resolution possible."
"The night that I found out he killed himself is the first night I
fell asleep without thinking about something in 16 years," Nick
McHenry said, adding his biggest fear was that his sister's killer
might still be hurting others.
Jessica's other siblings, now 18 and 19, along with her mother,
grandparents and about a dozen friends and other family members, attended an emotional news conference where they cried and embraced investigators who had tracked the case for nearly two decades.
Moncada was to be buried Monday in Livermore.
JAMES DAVID TULK
MAN HANGS HIMSELF AT SAN QUENTIN
MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
Staff Report
Three days after receiving psychiatric care, a 46-year-old death row inmate hanged himself in his cell at San Quentin State prison, a spokesman said Friday.
James David Tulk, who was sentenced to death for the 1990 rape and murder of a Redding woman, was found about 11:25 p.m. Thursday hanging from a bed sheet tied to his upper bunk, said Lt. Eric Messick.
Even though they live alone, many death row inmates have double bunks and usually use the top one as a shelf, Messick said.
"This is a very determined person," Messick said, describing how an inmate would need to be in a near-kneeling position to asphyxiate.
"You'd have to fight away your survival instinct."
Tulk was hospitalized briefly on Nov. 27 for "psychiatric
observation," Messick said. Tulk was not on suicide watch and it was unknown whether he had been in the past. An investigation was under way, Messick said.
Tulk also was receiving the prison's lowest level of treatment for
some type of mental illness, he said, without elaborating. Messick said about 10 percent of all San Quentin inmates participate in some type of psychiatric treatment.
Tulk was fine when his cell was checked at 10 p.m., Messick said.
Officers do hourly checks on the prison's 619 death row inmates.
The last confirmed suicide on death row took place in 1997, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
JOSEPH SCHREMBS
OFFICIALS INVESTIGATE DELANO INMATE DEATH AS HOMICIDE
Associated Press
DELANO, Calif. -- Authorities said Tuesday they are investigating the death of an inmate at Kern Valley State Prison as a homicide.
Joseph Schrembs, 45, was found dead in the locked cell he shared with another inmate shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Office. Schrembs and his cellmate were in an administrative segregation cell, which house the most dangerous inmates.
"Preliminary indications are it was not natural causes," said Cheryl Compoy, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday morning.
Schrembs was serving a 36-year-to-life sentence for a second-degree murder conviction in Los Angeles County in 2001, according to state records. He had been at the Delano prison since 2005.
Kern Valley houses about 4,900 inmates.
RONALD HERRERA
CALIFORNIA PRISONER'S
Officials want to know if Corcoran guards, who were watching the Super Bowl,
LOS ANGELES TIMES
FRESNO All through the night, the howls kept coming from the cell of inmate Ronald Herrera.
More than one guard at Corcoran State Prison thought something was terribly amiss.
Herrera wouldn't stop screaming late Sunday, and he had
covered his cell window in a curtain of toilet paper soaked in blood.
One guard had seen Herrera, a dialysis patient suffering from
hepatitis, pull out the medical shunt from his arm, corrections
officials said. But when the guard later tried to check on the inmate, his sergeant told him not to bother, they said. "He's not dead," the
sergeant was quoted by officials as saying. "Just keep an eye on him."
The next morning, the howls had given way to silence. As a new shift made its checks, a guard saw what he said looked to be "raspberry Kool-Aid" streaming out from the cell. Inside, he found Herrera slumped over on the floor, lifeless.
Much of the blood had drained from his body, corrections officials said. Blood filled the toilet bowl and washed over the concrete floor of the 8-by-10-foot cell.
On Wednesday, Kings County and state investigators began a probe to determine if Herrera's death resulted from criminal negligence by prison staff too busy watching the Super Bowl.
The probe comes on the heels of state Senate hearings and other
revelations that have shone an unflattering light on the state's vast prison system, challenging the new administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
On Monday, he promised to make reforms and to "clean
the place up."
A coroner's autopsy of Herrera had not been completed by early
Wednesday, but corrections officials said there were signs that
Herrera, a 60-year-old mentally ill burglar and rapist, had been trying to staunch the bleeding with a wad of toilet paper.
It was unclear if Herrera was trying to commit suicide and then changed his mind or if something more sinister happened, corrections officials said. His desperation, they said, played out for nearly 10 hours without any intervention from staff.
Of all the horrors that have taken place at Corcoran State Prison over the last decade, one official said, the death of Herrera was
particularly ghastly and preventable.
Fearing retaliation for breaking the prison system's pervasive code of silence, the officials requested anonymity. "Corcoran has seen a lot," one said, "but for an inmate to literally bleed out his body, it was one of the goriest crime scenes."
A media spokesman for the prison said he could not comment on the case because of an ongoing investigation.
Steve Fama of the watchdog Prison Law Office said he doubted whether the Kings County district attorney's office would hold staff accountable. He noted that Dist. Atty. Ron Calhoun had been elected in 1998 partly on the strength of financial support from the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the union representing state prison guards.
"When it's this serious, you want an aggressive, independent
investigation," Fama said. "I'm not sure if the district attorney in
Kings County is capable of that given the significant role that the CCPOA played in his election."
Patrick Hart, Kings County's chief deputy prosecutor, acknowledged that his office had a "fairly good working relationship" with the guards union, but he said it would not hinder the independence of the probe.
"We're not satisfied with the written reports we've gotten so far from staff," he said. "One of the things we're looking at is whether staff knew he was in trouble and failed to take the proper steps."
Herrera's case is only the latest in a series of inmate deaths at
Corcoran that have raised questions about the correctional system's care of mentally ill patients and its response to suicide attempts.
In December 1998, a Corcoran inmate who had been taken off suicide watch was seen hanging in a dark corner of his cell. But rather than pop open the cell door and determine if he was alive, guards remained outside for 18 minutes while 32-year-old Michael van Straaten dangled from a noose made of bedsheets and shoelaces. When officers finally did enter and cut him loose, he was dead but his body was still warm, according to prison reports.
Two years later, on Christmas Day, an inmate with three suicide
attempts succeeded in killing himself in the prison's Security Housing Unit. A lawsuit filed by the family of 26-year-old Thomas Mansfield alleged that staff negligence had allowed the suicide and that guards tried to cover up the incident by doctoring the record of cell checks.
Last year, the state settled the case out of court.
And just a week before Herrera's death, corrections officials said, three inmates in the Security Housing Unit entered into a suicide pact to protest what they called brutality by Corcoran guards. One inmate, "Tiny" Walton, went through with the pact and hanged himself.
"What I've found is the so-called suicide watch is a joke," said Bob Navarro, a Fresno attorney who represented Mansfield's family and has filed suit in a recent suicide at the women's prison in Chowchilla.
"The cells are not being checked according to written procedure."
A detailed account of Herrera's medical condition and death was
provided by two corrections officials. Herrera was taking mood-altering medication at the time, but had not been seen by a psychiatric case manager since December. They said that violates prison policy, which dictates a one-on-one clinical evaluation every 30 days.
Herrera, who was not on suicide watch, began "ranting and raving" around midday Sunday, they said, and medical personnel examined him near halftime of the Super Bowl. It is not unusual for guards and inmates to watch football on weekends. At the time, the shunt that allowed him to hook up to a dialysis machine was still in place.
But Herrera's howls continued, the officials said, and he began to cover the one window in his cell with toilet paper. He used his blood to adhere the toilet paper to the glass. That alone, corrections officials said, should have prompted a team of officers to enter his cell.
"When your view into the cell is obstructed and you don't know what's going on inside, you initiate a cell extraction," one official said. "This wasn't done. In fact, there are several notations from staff indicating concern for Herrera. But the superior officers never let them check on him."
One officer became so alarmed he called his sergeant, who took a quick look from outside the cell. "This is the same female sergeant who told the officer not to bother," the official noted.
Third watch began at 2 p.m. and ended at 10 p.m. During at least some of that time, Herrera could be heard kicking at his cell door. After the Super Bowl game ended and the first watch took over, Herrera was still making a fuss, officials said.
It wasn't until shortly after 6 a.m. the next day when the second watch began its shift that an officer who knew Herrera decided to check in on him.
"The closer he got to the cell, he could see this pool of 'raspberry
Kool-Aid,' " said one corrections official. "They popped open the door and he was lying on the ground with the shunt on the top bunk. He was pronounced dead five minutes later."
A corrections spokesman said Herrera had a long rap sheet that included convictions for burglary and rape in San Bernardino County.
Because of his status as a sex offender, he was housed in the prison's administrative-segregation unit. In recent months, he had been the victim of an inmate assault.
RONALD HERRERA
INMATE'S OPEN SHUNT LED TO BLEEDING DEATH
The device was not fully closed, letting blood flow out of the
prisoner's jugular vein at Corcoran State Prison, coroner says
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
FRESNO An autopsy of a Corcoran State Prison inmate who bled to death in his cell overnight on Super Bowl Sunday showed that his medical shunt was not fully closed, allowing blood to flow out of his jugular vein, authorities said.
The autopsy Thursday could not determine whether inmate Ronald Herrera, a 58-year-old dialysis patient, had opened the shunt's clamp in a fit of anger, or if the medical staff responding to his screams administered a sedative through the shunt and had failed to close the device.
"That is one of the questions investigators will look at," said Rene Hanavan, chief deputy coroner for Kings County. "The bleeding from the open dialysis shunt caused him to go into shock, and that shock caused his heart to beat in an irregular rhythm."
On Friday, state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who recently co-chaired a series of legislative hearings critical of the prison system, called on Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer to take over the
investigation into what she called a "gruesome and completely
avoidable" death.
Guards could be found criminally negligent if they were too busy watching the Super Bowl game to respond to Herrera's repeated screams.
Romero questioned whether Kings County Dist. Atty. Ron Calhoun, who was elected in 1998 on the strength of financial backing from the state prison guards' union, could conduct an independent probe of the local prison.
"A matter this serious demands an aggressive, independent investigation that will rise above political concerns or other factors that might compromise probes conducted at the local level," Romero wrote to Lockyer.
A press spokesman for the attorney general said Romero's letter had not crossed Lockyer's desk, but "when it does, we'll review it."
Patrick Hart, Kings County's chief deputy prosecutor, said a story on Herrera's death in The Times on Thursday has complicated the investigation. He said correctional officers at Corcoran might use the story to claim facts about the incident that they did not observe. Hart would not give further details of the investigation.
The story appeared on the fourth day of the probe, after written
reports and logs had been examined by county investigators and word had spread throughout the prison.
Two corrections officials provided The Times with an account of Herrera's death on the condition that they not be named for fear of retaliation by superiors.
They said Herrera, a mentally ill burglar and rapist from Ventura
County, began "ranting and raving" about midday Sunday.
Prison medical staff members examined Herrera near halftime of the Super Bowl and may have given him medication to calm him, they said. But Herrera kept howling and kicking at the door throughout the evening.
At one point, they said, he began to cover the window in his cell with toilet paper soaked in his blood. More than one guard thought something was terribly wrong, the officials said, but Herrera was not checked again that night. Prison policy, they said, required that the cell door be opened as soon as Herrera blocked the view with the toilet paper.
"There are several notations from staff indicating concern for
Herrera," one official said. "But the superior officers never let them check on him."
A female sergeant did check from outside the cell, but she told
subordinates not to bother doing anything more, they said. "He's not dead," the sergeant was quoted by the officials as saying. "Just keep an eye on him."
From one watch to the next, over a 10-hour period, Herrera continued to bleed from an opening in his shunt. It wasn't until shortly after 6 a.m. that a guard who knew Herrera decided to check on him. A large pool that looked to the guard like "raspberry Kool-Aid" was streaming out of the cell. Inside, he found Herrera slumped over on the floor, the blood drained from his body.
At least one guard reported that the cap of the shunt was sitting on Herrera's bunk, an official said. The chief deputy coroner said the rest of the shunt was attached to Herrera's upper chest at the time of the autopsy.
"Nothing appeared to be malfunctioning with the shunt itself," said Hanavan, the chief deputy coroner.
"But for whatever reason, the cap had been taken off one of the tubes and the clamp wasn't squeezed shut. The opening allowed him to bleed.
Right now, there's not enough information to say whether it's suicide or not."
Judy Greenspan of California Prison Focus, a watchdog group based in San Francisco, said she has visited dozens of Corcoran inmates who were receiving dialysis treatment in recent years. Often, she said, the shunts put in by outside dialysis centers that contract with the state are defective.
"Most of the men I visited complained of having shunts that didn't work. They had multiple operations to install new shunts, many of which still failed," Greenspan said. "To me, it represented the continuing abysmal medical care at Corcoran."
KHEM SINGH
CORCORAN INMATE STARVES TO DEATH
Staff didn't notice that the prisoner, an elderly priest with a history of engaging in hunger strikes, was wasting away, officials say
By John S.Hausman
CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
Muskegon Chronicle, MI
This statement was part of a larger article written by Jennifer (aka Jeffrey) Sutton, a transgender woman prisoner living with HIV and hepatitis C at Corcoran state prison in California back in 1998. Jennifer died early Friday morning, May 3, 2002, of kidney failure. She had tried to access sick call and was feeling ill for a couple of weeks. Corcoran staff did not even try to diagnose her failing kidneys or her rapid deterioration.
Jennifer finally received attention when she collapsed on Thursday night and was rushed out to the hospital but it was too late to save her.
After our last visit with Jennifer in October 2001, the HIV/Hepatitis C in Prison Committee of California Prison Focus wrote to the warden and chief medical officer about her deteriorating condition. The return letter we received was typical of the lies consistently received from the Corcoran prison adminstration. We were assured that Jennifer was receiving excellent care.
I wonder if Warden George Galaza and Chief Physician Nandan Bhatt think Jennifer is still getting good care?
Jennifer was not the only prisoner receiving criminally negligent care at Corcoran. We have always maintained that Corcoran is a punishment prison not a medical care facilty (despite its sparkling new Acute Care Hospital).
Over the past six months, we have learned of two other prisoners living with HIV whose kidneys have failed at Corcoran prison. These two prisoners survived and are currently on kidney dialysis three times a week. We have heard many alarming reports about the state of medical neglect at Corcoran prison.
Last month, the only infectious disease doctor was fired. Now the prisoners in the Chronic Infectious Disease unit cannot even see a specialist for their condition.
The HIV/Hepatitis C in Prison Committee of California Prison Focus sent a letter to California Department of Corrections Director Ed Alameida demanding an immediate investigation into Jennifer's death and into the criminally negligent medical care faced by all prisoners with serious and life-threatening illnesses like HIV and hepatitis C. We ask you to send Director Alameida a letter today supporting our call for an independent investigation of Jennifer (Jeffrey) Sutton's death.
Feel free to send the letter below (you can copy/paste and e-mail it at the link) or write your own:
California Department of Corrections
P.O. Box 942883
Sacramento, CA 94283
Fax No. (916) 322-2877
Dear Director Alameida:
I have recently learned of the death of Jeffrey (Jennifer) Sutton, C-01736, a transgender prisoner with HIV and hepatitis C who died suddenly of kidney failure at California State Prison - Corcoran on May 3, 2002.
Corcoran prison is well-known around the country for its brutality against prisoners. Just a few years ago, prison guards were indicted for staging gladiator fights during which prisoners were shot and killed in the exercise yard. I am concerned that prisoners with HIV and hepatitis C will not be able to access adequate medical treatment at such a punishment prison as Corcoran.
If Corcoran cannot and will not give these prisoners the care that they need to survive, I urge you to immediately transfer these prisoners to a medical facility that will.
cc: HIV/Hepatitis C in Prison Committee
California Prison Focus
2940 16th Street, #307
San Francisco, CA 94103
Fax No. (510) 665-1935
BY FELLOW INMATE
SF Chronicle
Henry Bernard, 47, was attacked Wednesday in his dormitory at Corcoran State Prison. He died a short time later.
Investigators have identified one suspect whose name is being withheld, said Patrick Hart, a Kings Count prosecutor.
The number of prisoners involved in the stabbing is unknown, and the reason that sparked the dispute has not been identified.
Bernard had been an inmate in the prison's general population for about a month and a half before his death. He was originally sent to prison for drunken driving. He was later released
on parole but returned after he was found with drugs, a prison spokesman said.
(812)
464-7686 or ryanr@evansville.net
Earl E. Jolley Jr., 28, was sentenced in July 1996 for the murder of Ruth M. Fulkerson, who was found beaten, choked and stabbed in a North Side rental home that the two shared.
He told police he killed the 50-year-old woman after an argument about his share of the rent, according to court
records.
Pam Pattison, spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of
Corrections, said a guard found Jolley after the inmates ate breakfast,
around 8 a.m. Monday.
"The death is being investigated by the
internal affairs division," Pattison said.
Fulkerson's son, Delray
Dobbins of Indianapolis, said the news brought "mixed emotions" to him.
"People could see where the victim's family might be glad something like
this happened, but I'm really not," Dobbins said. "It's an unfortunate
turn of events."
Pattison said staff members are trained to look
for signs of an inmate becoming suicidal.
"That's what made this
surprising," she said. "There were no warning signs."
Pendleton
Correctional Facility Superintendent Charles Miller said there had been
"nothing out of the ordinary, and no indication he would want to do this,"
according to Pattison.
"The superintendent said (Jolley) hadn't
been a problem at all," she said.
Jolley had just been transferred
on Sept. 19 to Pendleton from the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility,
where he had been since Dec. 16, 1999.
He had been incarcerated at
Pendleton earlier in his sentence, and also spent time at the Indiana
State Prison in Michigan City.
There was nothing abnormal about
his frequent moves, Pattison said. It was just a matter of "bed space
availability," she said.
Superior Court Judge Robert Pigman was a
deputy prosecutor when Jolley's case went to trial.
"It was a heat
of the moment kind of thing, a violent killing," said Pigman.
Fulkerson moved to Evansville in September 1995 and began sharing
a rental home in the 3500 block of Kensington Avenue with Jolley, then 23.
Her son reported her missing two days before the landlord found
her body hidden in an attached garage beneath carpeting and other items,
according to court records.
Jolley was arrested the next day in
Bicknell, Ind., when police there saw him driving Fulkerson's Jeep.
"Afterward, he was pretty cold about it," Pigman remembered.
Jolley confessed to Evansville police. He appealed his conviction
to the Indiana Supreme Court, claiming that he asked for an attorney three
different times during questioning, after he had waived his Miranda
rights.
The court upheld the conviction, saying Jolley's requests
were either unclear or not supported by evidence. Dobbins said family
members keep Fulkerson in their memory, but have moved on.
"This
is a double-edge sword, it really is," Dobbins said. "Obviously, the crime
was a very graphic one, but by the same token (Jolley) has deprived his
own children of having their father."
Chairperson, Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations
Room 400 State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 324-6175
Fax: (916) 327-8817
HIV in Prison Committee
California Prison Focus
2940 l6th Street, #307
San Francisco, CA 94103
phone/fax (510) 665-1935
email: judyg@igc.org
website: www.prisons.org/hivin.htm
San Jose Mercury News
RECENT THREE WERE IN GOOD HEALTH
Deaths at Chowchilla Prison
Associated Press Writer
AS CAUSE OF DEATH
ON CALIFORNIA DEATH ROW
Associated Press Writer
June 2007
Times Staff Writer
June 30, 2007
HE HAD JUST LEARNED OF DNA EVIDENCE LINKING HIM TO A GIRL'S KILLING
March 20, 2007
AFTER HAVING RECEIVED
PSYCHIATRIC CARE
Article Launched:12/01/2006 11:30:58 PM PST
Associated Press
July 3, 2007
GRUESOME DEATH PROBED
were negligent
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
By Mark Arax, Times Staff Writer
February 5, 2004
By Mark Arax, Times Staff Writer
February 7, 2004