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| ACLU seeks U.N.'s help inmate |
| By greatfallstribune.com |
| Published: 02/18/2010 |
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Claiming violations of international civil rights protections, the American Civil Liberties Union asked the United Nations on Wednesday to intervene on behalf of a mentally ill young man locked in a prison isolation cell at Deer Lodge. "The conditions of Robert (Doe)'s confinement are so appalling that they flout universally recognized human rights standards, including his absolute right to be free from torture and other inhumane forms of treatment," wrote Steven Watt, staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program, in a letter to Manfred Nowak, the special rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. "The Department of Corrections believes he has been appropriately placed and is being appropriately treated," responded Great Falls attorney Max Davis, representing the state. The case, originally filed by the ACLU against the Montana Department of Corrections last December, involves "Robert Doe," so named because he was a minor, barely 16-years-old with a ninth-grade education, when he was sent to prison two years ago. "As a young child, plaintiff Robert Doe was severely physically abused, emotionally abused and neglected," said the complaint. "His father beat him with belt buckle ends and wire clothes hangers and encouraged plaintiff's half-siblings to beat him with baseball bats. Plaintiff's father locked him in his room for days or a week at a time and verbally degraded him." Doe has been diagnosed "multiple times by multiple providers" with mental illness, including post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder, and he has been prescribed psychiatric medications and told to continue psychiatric treatment for the rest of his life, but the Corrections Department concluded Doe had only a personality disorder and denied him mental health treatment, according to the complaint. Further, it said, Doe was locked in solitary confinement at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge despite a Montana Supreme Court order a decade ago that said prison officials should do nothing that would aggravate the condition of a mentally ill inmate. "Throughout his confinement at MSP, plaintiff has and continues to be subjected to punitive solitary confinement; placed on barbaric and inhumane behavior modification plans; electronically tasered repeatedly without reasonable basis; pepper sprayed despite his documented condition of asthma; and treated in a cruel, inhuman and degrading manner, all of which have exacerbated his mental illness, caused him to relive traumatic events of his youth and caused him to deteriorate psychologically and physically," it said. "On at least two occasions during his incarceration, plaintiff has been so traumatized and anxious that he has attempted suicide by biting through his wrist until he was able to puncture a vein," said the ACLU. Since being sent to prison, Doe has had almost six months of 24-hour lockdown. When he's not in total lockdown, Doe is allowed to spend five hours a week in a small caged pen "that resembles a dog run," according to the complaint. Doe was sent to prison after pleading guilty to two counts of assaulting a guard at the Pine Hills juvenile facility in Miles City where he had been sent as a minor. No hearing date has been set on the ACLU's lawsuit, which has been moved to federal court on the state's request. "DOC questions whether there is any mental illness," said Davis. "He now is 18 years old, and MSP is an appropriate place to place a convicted felon." But the ACLU argued that Doe is mentally ill, and it argues that the prison doesn't work for people with mental illnesses. Read More. |
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