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PRISON QUESTIONS |
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The SHU Syndrome In April of this year the media and the public will finally get a close look at an oft-occurring but well concealed mental illness caused by Washington State's Department of Corrections "intensive management units": the Security Housing Unit (SHU) Syndrome. A complete picture of this extremely dangerous state-induced psychotic condition will be presented at the 3-strikes trial of James Curtis at the Mason County Courthouse in Shelton, Washington. As numerous convicts confined in the newly built and recently opened Intensive Management Unit (IMU) at the Stafford Creek Correctional Facility in Aberdeen, Washington, begin suffering from the effects of the sensory deprivation, social isolation, lack of family contact and community support, as well as all the other physical, mental and emotional stressors inherent in these Super Maximum facilities, James Curtis' "three strikes" trial in Shelton, Washington draws near after 2 1/2 years of legal wrangling and Department of Corrections (DOC) stonewalling. Mr. Curtis, a convict in the Washington Correction Center (WCC) IMU in Shelton, is being charged under the "Persistent Offender" Statute (three strikes and you're out law) for allegedly assaulting a WCC correctional officer (C/O) while being extracted from his isolation cell by six armor-clad C/Os. The alleging documents claim that Mr. Curtis attempted to assault C/O Kinder while being forcibly removed from his IMU cell on April 21, 1998. DIMINISHED CAPACITY DEFENSE Mr. Curtis' attorney is presenting a "Diminished Capacity" defense, meaning that Mr. Curtis' mental condition at the time of the incident was so diminished that he was unable to form the intent to commit the crime of second degree assault. Evidence supporting his defense will include various testimonies about the cruel and inhumane way he was treated by correctional staff during the first 16 months of his 30 month stint in solitary confinement; about how he was soaked with massively excessive amounts of a burning chemical agent and denied the legally mandated opportunity to have it washed off before it penetrated into the pores of his burning skin; about how he was stripped naked and forced to sleep in his frigid cell during the winter months; about how he was subjected to excessive uses of force; about how he was placed on an illegal internally designed and arbitrarily implemented "A-Tier Modification Program" and denied food, water, clothing, outside contact, legal recourse and other things to be named at the trial; and about how he began to lose touch with reality and exhibit signs and symptoms of psychiatric decompensation. RENOWNED EXPERT WITNESS Mr. Curtis' defense will also include expert testimony from the well known Dr. Terry Kupers, a practicing psychiatrist and professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. In addition to an M.D. degree, Dr. Kupers holds a masters degree in Social Psychiatry. Well versed and extremely active, he's a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Psychiatry, 1974, for life), co-chair of the Committee on the Mentally Ill Behind Bars of The American Association of Community Psychiatrists, a fellow of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and a staff member of the Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley. A tireless healer, he's also testified in over a dozen criminal and civil proceedings, including local, state and federal courts, regarding analysis of jail and prison conditions and the quality of mental health services. He's served as consultant regarding prison conditions and the quality of correctional mental health care to the US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, and to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. He has written over two dozen articles and book chapters, edited two books and written four himself, including his current best-seller PRISON MADNESS: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It (Jossey-Bass, 1999) THE TESTIMONY Dr. Kupers has concluded, after interviewing Mr. Curtis several times, watching the videotape of the alleged assault as well as reviewing a vast collection of written documents, that Mr. Curtis' capacity to form the intent to commit the alleged crime was severely diminished at the time of the incident; and that his diminished capacity was a result of THE SHU SYNDROME, which was defined by Dr. Stuart Grassian, a Harvard University Psychiatrist who examined a large number of prisoners during their stays in segregated, solitary confinement units, and concluded that these units TEND TO INDUCE PSYCHOTIC STATES. THE SYMPTOMS Dr. Grassian named the psychosis-like symptoms "the SHU syndrome." These symptoms include massive free-floating anxiety, hyper-responsiveness to external stimuli, perceptual distortions and hallucinations, a feeling of unreality, difficulty with concentration and memory, acute confusional states, the emergence of primitive aggressive fantasies, persecutory ideation, motor excitement, and violent destructive or self-mutilatory outbursts. Dr. Kuper's testimony will include the psychiatric effects of long-term solitary confinement in punitive segregation; Mr. Curtis' developmental and psychiatric history; patterns in Mr. Curtis' disciplinary record and his experience in long-term punitive segregation including the time he spent in the above-mentioned A-Tier Modification Program; the destructive psychiatric consequences of Mr. Curtis' experiences in prison prior to the incident of April 21, 1998, including intense fears and panic about his safety and survival, an inability to rationally assess the degree of danger he found himself in, irrational but extreme fears and uncontrollable aggressive feelings; his incapacity to form intent at the time of the alleged incident due to his psychiatric condition, the intensity of past traumas and the level of stress he was under at the time; and certain events subsequent to the incident of April 21, 1998, that bear on his reliability in reporting his state of mind as well as the treatment he was subjected to throughout the period of his incarceration in the Washington Department of Corrections. People interested in attending the trial or learning more about the case can contact Myra Jackson or Durk Krieger, media coordinators for Politics of Prisons and the Families of Prisoners Civil Rights Foundation, for the appropriate contact information ( Dr. Kupers, Mr. Curtis' Attorney, etc.), and scheduled dates for the trial to be held in Mason County Courthouse in Shelton, Washington in April. To arrange phone or visit interviews with Mr. Curtis, please write directly to him: James Curtis # 984533 WSP IMU 1313 N. 13th Ave. Walla Walla, WA. 99362 |
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MAVERICKLADY
COMMENTS: OK - say it - I know you're thinking it - but before you open your mouth - let me put some facts out here that you might not be taking into consideration : Everyone is now very much aware that the government schools are teaching bullshit and dumbing down our kids. And have been for years. If you aren't - well - welcome back to planet Earth space traveler - time to catch up. I for one - have spent many hours with only myself, or my dog for company. (or this machine for that matter) My point is - I am fairly well-balanced - although there are some who would say otherwise - if I can drive myself into distraction by spending hours with no one but myself or MR to talk to - being able to move around the house if I want - go outside if I want - take a drive if I want - if this can get me buggy - try to imagine what is happening to these people. Let's deal with facts - they probably aren't exactly carrying any college degrees around in their pockets - odds are - they were educated by the government schools - not much there to work with to begin with - and then subjected to this kind of treatment. Think about it - ever cage a wild animal up - with no contact of any kind - in a very small cage - tossing in scraps of food occasionally? Then open the door - go ahead - I dare you. Why are they worse when they come out - then when they went in? I don't think I have to look far for the answers - I'm not saying that they should be given palace treatment - but I AM SAYING the government is taking a situation that THEY started with a lousy education system - and escalating the damage with NON-HUMAN treatment. Everything comes full circle sooner or later - and anyone who does not understand that - needs to be home schooled - mainly because I would not expect a government school to understand something as simple as common sense. |
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Trial this week to affix blame for prisoners' deaths
By ROB JOHNSON
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MAVERICKLADY COMMENTS: Well - here we go with what the government will consider stupid questions again - I want to know what these people were doing being driven all over the country to start with. IF they committed a crime in one state - were caught in that state (and it appears that way) - were sent to trial there - found guilty there - back to the original question: #1 - WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING BEING DRIVEN ALL OVER THE COUNTRY??? # 2 - Since when is it legal - even by the government's corrupt standards - for anyone to deliberately, intentionally, and premeditatedly ignore a situation that has the potential to become deadly? Excuse me - I'm only a dumb broad here - but even I know that if you have a vibration in an automobile - there is no way in hell you should be running the thing at 70 + miles per hour. These people KNEW the U-joint was going out on them and they TOTALLY disregarded that fact - putting lives in danger - and ended up KILLING people. #3 - My ex-husband was a drag-strip racer - I know a LOT about cars (for a girl) - I grew up in the environment of automobile mechanics - if I - as a female - KNOW you DO NOT push a car with a screwed up U-joint - are you going to try and get me to believe these GUYS don't know that ???? Or was it that they just flat did not give a shit - because after all - let's face it - government job - means NOT having to be held accountable for your actions - it means you do not have to be responsible for anything you do - and these turkeys - even though not a government paycheck - were getting PAID by the government to deliver these people. Did it have to be DRILLED into their heads that they were supposed to deliver them in one piece and in the original form???? Doesn't COMMON SENSE enter into play here somewhere??? Or again - are we dealing with the fact that COMMON SENSE is an obsolete "UNPOLITICALLY CORRECT" state of mind??????? And a thought to leave you with
TO ME -
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