Inmate awarded $15.5 million for spending 22 months in solitary confinement

[aggiesal]

Source: KPHO (CBS - Phoenix Affiliate)

A federal jury has awarded a New Mexico man $15.5 million in damages for his treatment behind bars.

Stephen Slevin was arrested for drunk driving in 2005 and was held in solitary confinement in the Dona Ana County detention center for 22 months without a trial or access to health care. The two pictures on the right illustrate how he looked when he was booked in 2005 and the condition he was in when he was released in 2007.

Slevin sued, saying he was malnourished, developed bedsores, fungus and dental problems. He said he was even forced to pull his own tooth.


The left picture shows Stephen Slevin in Aug. 2005 at the time of his arrest for drunken driving. The right photo shows him in May 2007, shortly before being released. (Source AP)


. . .

Read more: http://www.kpho.com/story/21546824/inmate-awarded-155-million-for-spending-22-months-in-solitary-confinement

---

Complete failure against his constitutional rights.
I can only assume several people will be fired over this as well, as they should be.
Complete atrocity.

[closeupready]

1. THIS is what will make prison authorities and officials respect the law.

Not a lot of talk and hot air - $$$.

K&R

Encouraging also that a jury in New Mexico awarded him this. Since it's not exactly a super-liberal state.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. It's not enough! The guy is probably insane by now.

[frylock]

3. several people should be fucking IMPRISONED for this!

[hue]

4. Horrible!! I'd like to see those who are responsible be placed in solitary at least twice as long!

[Coolest Ranger]

5. The Private Prison industury better pay attention

[marble falls]

7. I admit to being slow on the uptake, you're making a joke?

[xtraxritical]

18. No, it's no joke, he's right.

[marble falls]

19. The life of a dyslexic, I kept reading it as "pay better attention" DOH.....

At least two things should never ever be privatized - the military and corrections. The privatized corrections here is Texas is corrupt and evil beyond belief.

[Coolest Ranger]

20. I mention that because Randi Rhodes covers the Private

prison industry all the time on her show. It's already happening especially in FL

[benld74]

6. OMG! Uneffinbelievable,,,,

[dipsydoodle]

8. Appalling

Simply appalling.

[Archae]

9. I'd like to know why.

Why he was put in solitary in the first place and why he was neglected.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

23. Yeah, me too.

Is there more to this story? How do you get pulled over for drunk driving and end up spending 22 months in solitary confinement?

Edit: Seems there's no reason for it. Just sociopaths doing what sociopaths do.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/06/17212442-man-left-in-solitary-confinement-for-2-years-gets-155-million-settlement

-snip-

"He was driving through New Mexico and arrested for a DWI, and he allegedly was in a stolen vehicle. Well, it was a car he had borrowed from a friend; a friend had given him a car to drive across the country," Coyte said in an interview last January.

Slevin was depressed at the time, Coyte explained, and wanted to get out of New Mexico. Instead, he found himself in jail.

"When he gets put in the jail, they think he's suicidal, and they put him in a padded cell for three days, but never give him any treatment."

-snip-

After three days in the padded cell, jail guards transferred Slevin into solitary confinement with no explanation.

"Their policy is to then just put them in solitary" if they appear to have mental health issues, Coyte told NBC News.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. The District Attorney during the indefinite detention without trial is now the Governor of NM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do%C3%B1a_Ana_County,_New_Mexico


Susana Martinez (R)

[aggiesal]

12. She should be fired!!!! Immediately!!!

Then imprisoned!

But she was too busy to prosecute because,
she was campaigning to become the next Governator!

[duhneece]

25. Hopefully, this will be the end of her national political career

her state political career, too.

[24601]

28. DAs don't run prisons. Who was the Governor?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

30. Wardens run prisons, not DAs nor Governors. Are you implying that a DA, whose office has

a responsibility to keep track of and determine when a prisoner will be prosecuted or not prosecuted and released, has no influence as to when a particular prisoner's case will be set on a court calendar for trial or other proceedings?

"Stephen Slevin was arrested ... and was held in solitary confinement ... for 22 months without a trial"

Are you implying that a District Attorney has no responsibility to know which persons have been arrested? Are you implying that a District Attorney has no responsibility to know which persons have been arrested and are awaiting trial?

"DAs don't run prisons." Yea, well, Wardens don't determine when prisoners are going to be prosecuted or otherwise released.

"Who was the Governor?" Governors don't determine when prisoners are going to be prosecuted or otherwise released.

[24601]

34. My point is that a Governor heads a state executive branch analogous to how the President

is the head of the federal Executive Branch.

DAs build & try cases but generally don't run jails or prisons. It's not the DA's perogative to determine the specifics of a prisoner's conditions. And even if a DA makes a case for pretrial confinement, a judge will determine if it's so ordered, or not.

You can logically blame DAs for bringing a weak or inappropriate cases - or for not pursuing cases. But DAs don't assign cells & pick out inmate underwear.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

37. How many strawmen do you have? No one claimed that DAs "run jails or prisons," generally or

otherwise.

No one claimed that it is the "DA's perogative to determine the specifics of a prisoner's conditions."

No one claimed that DAs "assign cells & pick out inmate underwear."


Your point "that a Governor heads a state executive branch" is noted but irrelevant, even to the strawmen that you created.

* It is not a Governor's perogative to "run jails or prisons."
* It is not a Governor's perogative "to determine the specifics of a prisoner's conditions."
* It is not a Governor's perogative to "assign cells & pick out inmate underwear."

Why do you have a need to build strawmen?

Do you have any more?

[24601]

39. It was completely within the Governor's prerogative to pardon him and ensure his release,

yes even before trial.

Just read a few archives, has it been a legitimate debate on DU to criticize a president for anything happening in a federal facility?

It causes me to ask if it's the underlying issue (prisoner/detainee treatment), or just about scoring political points?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

40. Another strawman? You've got to be kidding.

You say, "It was completely within the Governor's prerogative to pardon him ..."

By what logic did you come to the conclusion that the Governor's office had any idea that Stephen Sleven was even arrested?

The OP clearly states:

"Stephen Slevin was arrested ... and was ... for 22 months without a trial".

So whatever you are reading or imagining, it causes you "to ask if it's the underlying issue (prisoner/detainee treatment), or just about scoring political points?" Excuse me, but so what?

The Attacking the Motive Fallacy is a sub category of the ad hominem fallacy in which the a second person attacks what was said by challenging the motive of the writer or speaker. It is totally worthless as a means for applying logic.

[24601]

42. My statement that the Governor has the prerogative to pardon is based in fact and no where

did I hold it out as your position. It is by definition not a straw man.

I'm not postulating at all that Bill Richardson had 1st-hand knowledge.

I am, however, stating first, he should have known what was going on in NM jails & prisons.

And second, that as governor, he had unilateral authority to fix the problem.

(And that DU members have often held George W. Bush to an equivalent standard vis a vis to Gitmo and Abu Ghraib) The Irony is self-evident.

My reference to the DAs not running prisons/jails was because aggiesal had stated that the DA (not the Governor) should be fired & jailed (reply #10). But what the hell - why let the facts get in the way of a partisan rant?

I remain opposed to firing & jailing individuals for actions taken by others and was pointing out that the DA was not the individual who jailed Mr. Slevin.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

43. Your statement is at odds with the NM Const which provides "Subject to such regulations as may be

prescribed by law, the governor shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons, after conviction for all offenses except treason and in cases of impeachment." (emphasis added)

N.M. Const. Art V, Sec. 6. [Governor's power to pardon and reprieve.]

[24601]

45. Then appropriately, I sit corrected and must do better research next time.

[24601]

47. I sit corrected.

[Nika]

11. He would of been better off being killed by a drone than to have suffered like that.

This is an incredible horror story as far as unlawful imprisonment goes.

[24601]

38. The intuitive answer is that Stephen Slevin obviously disagrees as he has apparently

chosen to accept the $15.5 million and continue living rather than take his own life.

If you have any documentation that he's be better off dead, please feel free to share it; however, advocating a drone strike for a non-capital offense seems to go over the line that shouldn't be crossed. OK, so Mr. Slevin isn't likely to winn a Nobel Prize, but it seems unfortunate that on DU, the value of his life is so easily dismissed.

[Nika]

41. I'm glad he is alive

My post does not reflect anything more than my disgust at what they did to him. If I literally meant the wrong message to you, I apologize.

Myself, I am extremely claustrophobic. If it were me and I was able to, I would of taken my own life before living that long in solitary. I would just consider that when you contemplate the emotions I feel when empathizing with this gentleman.

[Trillo]

13. Even changed his eye color from brown or hazel to blue, eh?

[Neoma]

33. I don't think so.

They're still brown when you enlarge it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. This is why we need public oversight of our prison system.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

31. Some people wear contacts, even colored ones.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

32. Wanna hear something funny?

It used to be the Clergy that would have caught this.

They used to go to prisons to comfort the prisoners and see to their needs.

[quakerboy]

15. Why would people be fired?

That would be accountability. I don't think we do that here. Unless you make minimum wage.

[jsr]

16. What a horror story.

[secondwind]

17. What a horrific story, this poor man... I hope that some heads will roll for this......

[Dawson Leery]

21. Those who were responsible for this need to be fired.

Also, those responsible need to to have their pensions go towards paying the settlement.

[bonniebgood]

22. The republician party reminds me of the videos of

slaughter house employees, they way they treat animal for slaughter. They are completely
void of any compassion for a living being. the videos drove me vegetarian.

[24601]

35. This happened on Bill Richardson's watch. Maybe he picked up prisoner management

skills from his North Korean buddies. He was NM Governor 2003-2011 and this case was the 2005-2007 timeframr..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson

[2ndAmForComputers]

44. Those damn Democrats! All of them commie-lovers!

The 1950's called, they want their hysterical overblown RW rhetoric back.

[24601]

46. Rodman's a Dem - who knew?!

[callous taoboy]

24. Guy I knew in H.S. was beaten savagely in a private jail in Austin.

He had a gram of coke on him, so was put in jail for a few days with some gang-bangers who would raise hell all night, he couldn't sleep, so he finally asked them to tone it down and they beat him almost to death. Nothing ever came of it.

[beevul]

26. IIRC kevin mitnick was kept in solitary even longer.

Not that that makes this situation right.

Incarceration is out of control in America, and has been for decades.

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. k&r

[DeSwiss]

29. Wake up people. K&R n/t

[Ash_F]

36. OP, no one will be fired

Why should the prison officials care? Citizen's tax dollars will pay the restitution. It will be back to business as usual.

People should go to jail for this.