Man spends 2 years in solitary after DWI arrest

[Swede]

WTF?

A New Mexico man who said he was forced to pull his own tooth while in solitary confinement because he was denied access to a dentist has been awarded $22 million due to inhumane treatment by New Mexico's Dona Ana County Jail.

Stephen Slevin was arrested in August of 2005 for driving while intoxicated, then thrown in jail for two years. He was in solitary at Dona Ana County Jail for his entire sentence and basically forgotten about and never given a trial, he told NBC station KOB.com Tuesday night.

"'[Jail guards were] walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate," Slevin said. "Day after day after day, they did nothing, nothing at all, to get me any help."

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10233835-man-spends-2-years-in-solitary-after-dwi-arrest

[TexasProgresive]

1. I'm glad he got monetary compensation but

somebody should be tried in criminal court.

[redqueen]

5. +1... maybe a few people.

It seems unlikely that all this could be due to one person.

[duhneece]

2. Solitaire is torture.

We now know this. Human beings are social animals and need other humans.

[Honeycombe8]

21. Don't make me play that game again! If I see one more Queen of Hearts, I'll go crazy!

Crazy, I tell ya! Crazy!

[duhneece]

3. More about Dona Ana...

"...charged with raping prison inmate at knifepoint 11 times.
A man already serving 28 years in prison for raping an inmate in the Otero County Jail in 2006 has been charged with sexually assaulting a fellow inmate at knifepoint 11 times, the Alamogordo Daily News reported.

Joseph C. Perry, 32, an inmate at Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility, was indicted last Thursday by a Dona Ana County grand jury on 11 counts of criminal sexual penetration, 11 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a count of being a prisoner in possession of a deadly weapon, the Daily News said.

The alleged rapes occurred between Aug. 18 and Sept. 8, 2010, the paper reported.

Perry was convicted in 2007 by an Otero County jury of raping an 18-year-old inmate at the Otero County Detention Center on Sept. 2, 2006, while Perry was in the county jail on a probation violation, the Daily News said...."

http://www.jailsergeant.com/Prison_Inmate_Assault.html

[JHB]

24. They couldn't put this guy in solitary?

I guess they figured it was full-up because of the DWI guy, so kept the predator on the loose.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. $22m is not nearly enough

and yes, everyone who knew about this and let it continue should lose their freedom. never even got to see a judge? they had no right to hold him...sickening.

sP

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. This is a real 'WTF' story

They held him for 2 years without either a trial or proper medical treatment? There's more than one person in that system who needs sacking, if not throwing in prison themselves for effectively kidnapping him.

[Quantess]

7. No trial? WTF?

Poor guy, no wonder he was depressed. NM must be asking for a lawsuit!

[Cali_Democrat]

17. Almost as bad as what's happening to the folks at Gitmo....well not really

They've been held without trial and tortured for over a decade.

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. +1. nt

[librechik]

8. let's just say our justice system sucks and do something about it

Congress and states, it's up to you!

[Honeycombe8]

16. I think that's a generalization. Besides, that isn't the justice system.

His situation means that he was denied access to teh justice system. Denial of due process. Our justice system gives us all due process rights, right to a speedy trial, AND the right to sue, if you are denied those things.

So it seems the justice system in this case worked. It was the DENIAL of our justice system by some crook that caused the situation.

[Occulus]

19. !

No, this is a very clear symptom of justice- at least, local justice- being completely broken from end to end. The $22M award understates the severity of the problem, that any such thing could even be possible.

[Blue Owl]

9. Arrested in 2005, when cowboy justice was all the rage

Let's not forget to give GWB some credit for this.

[get the red out]

10. Speaking of DWIs

GWB

[surfdog]

11. There should be people sitting in jail for this

I'm all for street justice if the police refused to act on such an obvious crime

[Johnson20]

12. Me too! As long as

I'm the judge, jury and executioner.

[burrowowl]

13. Those responsi8ble for this

should be sentenced to very long prison terms!

[shanti]

14. he didn't even get to make a damn phone call

before they locked him up and threw away the key?? poor guy.

[Cali_Democrat]

15. Not totally unprecedented..the US has been torturing folks in Gitmo without trial for over a decade

Think it can't happen to you because you're a US citizen? Think again.

This is the result of a culture of disrespect toward civil liberties and it began with the phony "war on terror"

That's why we have to fight things like the NDAA.

[polly7]

18. I can't even imagine .... dental pain they ignored, and so bad he had

to pull one himself. That alone would have driven me crazy.

[Selatius]

20. He was basically treated the same way we treat enemy combatants at Gitmo or Bagram.

The US carved out some huge holes in the Bill of Rights after the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping under the telecom immunity deal, etc. Here, they simply failed to call him a terrorist.

[intheflow]

22. Fucking crappy reporting.

Who discovered him at the jail? How did he get released/how did his ordeal end? I'm glad it finally ended, but this report tells the beginning and the end of the story and leaves out the middle. Seriously poor reporting!

[woo me with science]

23. Average length in solitary: 2.7 YEARS in one prison in Virginia.

A recent article from Virginia:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/solitary-confinement-in-virginia/2012/01/11/gIQAKAvh1P_story.html

By Editorial Board, Washington Post

DEEP IN THE HEART of Virginia coal country sits a mountaintop prison, its remote location an outward expression of the plight of the inhabitants inside. Some 500 of its 745 inmates are held in solitary confinement — 23 hours a day, seven days a week, some for years — with virtually no human contact or meaningful stimulation. Prison officials estimate that 173 of those in solitary suffer from mental illness. Whether the illness was induced by isolation is not known; what is beyond dispute is that isolation exacerbates the problem.

This is Red Onion State Prison, as described by The Post’s Anita Kumar. Virginia is one of 44 states that enlist solitary confinement as a way to manage some of its prisoners. Virginia officials estimate that as of this fall roughly 1,800 inmates were kept in isolation, comprising a large chunk of the 25,000 or so prisoners nationwide who find themselves in these conditions every day. Prisoners at Red Onion have been kept in solitary confinement from two weeks to seven years, according to Ms. Kumar’s report, with an average length of stay in segregation of 2.7 years.

Virginia officials say that they rely on solitary confinement to manage inmates who are unable to control their rage or who have assaulted corrections officers or other prisoners. Sometimes, they say, a prisoner is placed in a special segregation unit — about the size of a doctor’s exam room — for his own good to avoid being injured by others. Security and safety in a prison must be a top priority, and strategic and limited use of solitary confinement may at time be a necessary tool. But routine reliance on prolonged solitary confinement should never be the default.

Short-term isolation is unlikely to cause serious harm. But prolonged solitary confinement can lead to devastating consequences, including psychosis, reduced brain function, debilitating depression and increased rates of suicide.

(more at link)

[Initech]

27. Ah the good ol' prison industrial complex at work.