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| Ailing inmate's guardian sues |
| By Des Moines Register |
| Published: 12/27/2004 |
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Shayne Eggen's family hopes her life of permanent darkness can shed light on the way Iowa's mentally ill are treated in prison. The inmate's aunt has sued in federal court, saying prison leaders did little to stop the schizophrenic woman from blinding herself with her finger two years ago. Even after that incident, the lawsuit says, prison staff members failed to keep Eggen from gruesomely injuring herself. Her aunt, Patricia Jewell of Decorah, said she filed the lawsuit because she wants to see changes in how America deals with people who have serious mental illness. Instead of aggressively treating them, Jewell said, society waits until they commit crimes, then locks them in prisons that are incapable of helping. Eggen, 41, has a long history of severe mental illness, including diagnoses of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She is serving prison time for setting fire to a Decorah apartment building while trying to kill herself in 2000. After being arrested, she gouged out her right eye while being held in the local jail. She destroyed her left eye two years ago, while being kept in a room by herself at the state women's prison in Mitchellville. She continued to ravage herself while being held at Mitchellville and later, while being held in a medical area of the state prison at Oakdale. She broke out teeth, bit off part of a finger and chewed open a hole in her cheek, which started a massive infection. Jewell said most mentally ill people can function in society. But a few, like her niece, need constant supervision. Jewell said that between psychotic episodes, Eggen often has periods of relative calm and clarity. She knows she's done bad things, and she feels sorry, Jewell said. Eggen's relatives have said that they feel sympathy for prison staff members, who are stuck dealing with mentally ill people whom no one else will take. But the lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Des Moines, targets the Department of Corrections, Mitchellville Warden Diann Wilder-Tomlinson, and numerous prison administrators and employees. Jewell said the family's lawyers determined for technical reasons that those people had to be named as defendants. A spokesman for the attorney general's office, which represents the Corrections Department, said officials wouldn't comment on the lawsuit. The lawsuit says the prison system deprived Eggen of her constitutional rights, including the right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment. It says that the department failed to properly train its employees, and that it failed to discipline officers who were "deliberately indifferent to persons in need of medical assistance and medical attention." |
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