Following a February 24, 2006, demonstration by patients on the hospital’s Main Court Yard (2/24 Article), and a second demonstration one week later on March 3, 2006, patients who were unhappy with the lack of progress by the administration in resolving problems went on strike on March 6, 2006.  The Los Angeles Times and Associated Press carried this story on March 7, 2006, with additional newspapers carrying the AP release on March 8.

Although both the L.A. Times and Associated Press reported the patients were striking over a lack of qualified professional staff, this was only a small part of the overall problems.

The complaints heard from the majority of patients had their emphasis on basic living conditions and civil rights.  As reported on February 24, 2006, the first demonstration was the result of building frustration over a lack of meaningful progress by the elected patient representatives, the Patients’ Advisory Council (“PAC”), when dealing with what they perceived to be an obstinate administration that was well versed in stalling techniques.

The final blow by the administration occurred on February 21, 2006, when the hospital covertly removed two of the four patient telephones on each unit, while the patients were out to lunch, and, that evening covertly removed all the patient memory typewriters while the patients were out to dinner.

At the resulting February 24, 2006, demonstration, many other additional problems that had been plaguing the patients were aired, e.g.: sleep deprivation due to bright night lights being left on 24 hours per day.  Privacy in the bathrooms; exorbitant canteen prices; not being allowed to purchase food for others at the canteen, or being allowed to take prepared food items out of the canteen; privacy partitions in the dorms; only one television set for 50 patients; the inability to call toll free numbers, or to use calling cards on the telephones; the lack of resolution on PAC proposals; allowing patients to possess compact disk players and personal televisions.  These and many other complaints took over two hours to voice.

Many of these issues had been the subject of repeated PAC  proposals and meetings with the hospital administration from the very beginning when the hospital first opened in September of 2005.  There was no system to track submitted proposals, thus most where “lost” or misplaced before ever reaching a person of sufficient administrative rank to make a decision.  Those that weren’t “lost” were routed from committee to committee, in a classical stalling and avoidance technique.

The Petronius Arbiter quote was presented to some of the administrators to let them know they weren’t fooling the patients with their stalling methods:
 

The resulting patient strike, beginning on March 6, 2006, got the attention of the administration who called for a “Special Emergency Meeting.”  Five patient representatives met with Tom Voss the top administrator at the hospital along with two other upper administrators. The approximately two hour long meeting included get tough talk from the administration such as, “This Strike is over!”  And, “We won’t let you get this far again!”  And more.

However, most patients were already of the opinion that had the administration been making honest efforts towards resolving the problems in the first place, it would never have gone this far, threats, allowing the meeting to proceed into serious negotiations.

The patients presently report that they received promises of everything they wanted, “but if they [the administration] start to lag or fudge on anything, we wind up the protest machine and go again.”

Of course, implementation of the promises will take time, but it was reported that the patients already are now able to call toll free numbers on the telephones.  They also believe the “electronics package” will be approved soon, which will allow Compact Disk Players, personal televisions, game consoles, laptop computers, and more.  These are items already allowed at other Department of Mental Health (“DMH”) facilities.

Other promises reported to have been made by the administration at the meeting include: “(1) Night lights in the rooms and dorms will be covered with a dark blue lens; (2) Canteen prices will be reduced; (3) Proposals will be resolved in a timely manner; (4) Guys who lost their jobs, for not working during the strike, will get them back; (5) Levels lost for not going to Team will be returned; (6) Partitions for privacy in the Dorms will be installed; (7) New bathroom doors with windows so the doors can remain closed; (8) Monthly meetings with Mr. Voss to discuss issues raised by the population; (9) Sports televisions will be installed in the room adjacent to the Day rooms on the RHU [Residential Housing Units]; (10) Telephones: Administration is working with the phone carrier and testing to try and return it to the original format (Four Incoming/Outgoing Phones).”

The patients consider their strike to have been a success partly because of their own solidarity and determination, and also due to the support of their friends and families who aided their efforts through writing, phoning, faxing and emailing state officials.  They also wish to thank other prisoners’ rights advocates and groups who similarly took part in this effort.

It appears that government agency administrators do not like public exposure and bad press, which is exactly what they received form this strike.

Tom Watson
16 March 2006