B. Cayenne Bird
Not many people caught the relationship between a mentally disordered parolee’s actions last week in Sacramento and a hearing held about medical neglect by Senator Richard Polanco (D) Los Angeles.
In the most tragic terms, they were a perfect coincidence.Hundreds of families of prisoners and other concerned citizens attended the hearing called by Sen. Polanco, chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Prison Construction and Operations, Jan 17, to probe three of eight recent deaths at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
Three women--Pamela Coffey, 46; Stephanie Hardie, 33; and Eva Vallario, 33--died at the prison within 13 days in December. Questions surrounding delays and deficiencies in medical treatment for each of them brought to a head a steady flow of complaints by prisoners and their families about mental and physical health care in all California prisons. There were 39 deaths from Nov. 1 - Dec. 12 which officials consider business as usual.
About 9:30 p.m. January 16th, as if too anxious to wait for the next morning’s hearing to tell his story, big rig driver Mike Bowers, blaring his horn and running at speeds of up to 70 mph, crashed into the south side of the state Capitol.
The explosion killed him instantly, sent fire and smoke into the building, and put the event on the front page of Wednesday morning’s newspapers. Bowers had been in and out of state prisons and mental institutions since 1983 when first convicted of misdemeanor petty theft. His prison experience included two one-year stints in solitary confinement and four years at Atascadero and Patton state mental hospitals.
His family believes that, rather than helping him, state prison and mental health systems in large part induced his condition. Isolation is not the preferred treatment for schizophrenia according to former CDC psychologist, Dr. Patricia Overton who quit her job over the atrocities she witnessed in the system.
Upstairs the next morning above the charred truck and body, Sen. Polanco convened his hearing about prison medical care. Representatives of the California Department of Corrections (CDC) fielded hard questions about the long response time to urgent calls for help, the lack of medical equipment, and the conflictive role played by Medical Technical Assistants (MTA’s), prison guards who with minimal training are supposed to act as nurses. A full 45 minutes was spent talking about how records are kept by doctors on 3 x 5 cards with no information technology in place.
Steinberg had asked for defibrillators, the shock paddle device key to saving lives. Almost every airplane has one for emergencies. Requests for other personnel and equipment were made but Gov. Davis routinely vetoes most requests made to remedy the treatment of prisoners. He prefers instead to cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in lawsuit payouts which are deeply hidden in several budgets. It would make much more sense to take those millions in lawsuit payouts and put them into proper treatment in the first place.
An autopsy stated that Pamela Coffey, convicted of possession of a controlled substance for sale, died of heart complications. Two hours before she collapsed, concerned cellmates summoned an MTA, who briefly examined her and then left. In a signed declaration, one of her cellmates described her on the night before she died “as so bloated she appeared to be nine months pregnant.” Surely such a visual symptom indicated need for treatment.Eva Vallario’s mother, Donna Christopher, asked how it can be appropriate for prison guards to administer health care. “When you look at someone as a prisoner, you disregard 90% of what they say as untrue.”
According to prison officials, Vallario, who had suffered from asthma since childhood, collapsed after taking three puffs from her inhaler. Her autopsy is pending.The cause of Stephanie Hardie’s death is to date unexplained. From the instant her cellmates began screaming for help on her behalf until guards carried her out to a non-medically equipped van, nearly 30 minutes elapsed. Her conviction, for writing bad checks on her own account, effectively drew for her a death sentence. The story that CDC told about Hardie's death did not match what eye witnesses relayed to me via telephone, so it appears that we can expect another cover-up.
If these were only three isolated cases, the CDC might be in a better position to defend its custodianship. However, this writer has a four-drawer filing cabinet overflowing into several boxes with appeals for help.
Everything ranging from a possibly cancerous lump on a testicle, to open wounds weeping with infrequent changing of the dressings, to psychological intimidation and torment and refusal to diagnose or treat the worst of diseases.During the public-comment portion of the hearing, clinical psychologist Dr. Patricia Overton described her work for the CDC in 1997. She found that the typical response to both emergency and routine medical problems was, file a request to see the doctor. The requests normally took two weeks to be processed.
At one time she noticed an inmate housed on the mental health yard but not prescribed the usual psychotropic medication. Inquiry revealed that he had suffered a stroke and was unable to move. His cellmate had been bathing, feeding, and holding up his head to administer some medication. It took another week and a second report by Dr. Overton before a physician saw him.
Dr. John Stanly, the UNION's medical advisor gave a specific example of an inmate who convulsed for 55 minutes before an ambulance arrived and proper emergency treatment was administered. He spoke of delays ranging from one to two hours, a dangerous situation with the number of riots and emergencies prevalent in prisons. Dr. Stanly said that the standard of medical care for inmates was below that of homeless people, but statute demands a standard of regular community care.
I presented the only mention of a visitor dying the same day as Stephanie Hardie in the visiting room where Eva Vallario was to die a few days later. Jack Kryder fell to the grass on his way out of CCWF's visiting room in front of scores of witnesses. One man offered to administer CPR and the guards on duty refused, ordering everyone back into the visiting room. Through the glass, a horrified crowd of civilians, inmates and children watched Jack Kryder writhe and twitch for a full 38 minutes before help arrived.
The UNION has reported medical neglect and abuse on a daily basis for nearly three years. In 1999 Senator John Burton appointed a legislative rep to handle our members' complaints from all 33 of California's prisons. We are also assisted by an ombudsman from CDC. The problems of 18,000 mentally ill people being double-celled with healthier inmates in cages the size of a bathroom often end up in injury or death. No one takes responsibility for systemic dysfunction.
Compassionate release is often in order for inmates with long term illnesses. CDC will almost never issue pain relievers. For this and other reasons, it is nothing short of torture to keep people in prison away from their families when they are dying. What benefit could this possibly provide to the public safety?
Providing physical and mental health care to 160,000 inmates statewide may be challenging. But if we as a society are going to assume authority over these individuals’ lives, we must also assume responsibility for their humane treatment. Most inmates, just like Mike Bowers, will be back amongst us after completing their terms. From a moral or an economic or a public safety point of view, what possible advantage can there be in releasing them in worse physical and mental condition than when they were convicted?
My closing statement was that the State of California has no right to put people in prison if they can't take care of them and Assemblyman Carl Washington, who sits on the Public Safety Committee heartily agreed. There are simply too many people in prison and for the good of the public safety, we need to release non-violent prisoners immediately and put the mentally ill in real hospitals where they get treatment not punishment. With these practices of medical neglect, the State is endangering everyone and none of this inhumanity is a solution to crime.
B. Cayenne Bird, Director
United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/advice.htm -----------------
To: comments@kxtv.com
Dear Channel 10 Editor:
Big rig driver/prison parolee Mike Bowers lit up more than the State Capitol two weeks ago with his suicide crash. The relationship between his actions and his mental disorders seems to have focused attention on mental health care, and that at least is a positive.
But don't miss the point that according to all accounts Bowers intially entered prison (for misdemeanor theft) a sane man. His mental problems developed during incarceration. You try locking yourself up in a room the size of a postage stamp, taking a mentally ill or physically dangerous companion in with you, living under the thumb of tough and sometimes mean guards, spending two year-long stints in solitary....and come out with all your wits.
We as a society are kidding ourselves thinking that filling prison after prison will keep our streets crime-free. We need to start paying attention to what goes on inside those prisons because most inmates will parole and they will likely parole in a form far more threatening to public safety than they went in.
Deborah D. J
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Dear Editor:
It took a huge truck crashing into the beautiful capitol building. A man's death to rock the government on their comfortable seats. This tragedy upset the day's meetings and programs. It made those in power wide-eyed, alarmed and a little fearful.
For a moment they lost power and control. Why, oh why, do we not gather our power in numbers and stand up and fight prison reform and medical neglect? Why does it take a sick man to climb into a huge truck and crash the capitol building?
We are much stronger. If only everyone would join forces and act on the power we have. You know what you must do. This situation should not have happened. If we were all doing our jobs and helping those powerless to help themselves it would not have happened.
This man wanted attention. He got it the only way a sick tormented mind could do. Hundreds of men and women just like him are being driven mindless, doomed to fail. Our system has it programed as such. Do not allow this to continue.
Don't let it rest. Not even for a day. Unite and save those who can't save themselves. Together we are strong and can back those in power up against the wall. We have many Christians in our nation. Lets show it. Act now. Talk is cheap, actions speak. Join us now in our on going fight for justice for the prisoners.
Bonnie Carter
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Oh my God....!
This Mike Bowers man suffered - horribly and miserably at the hands - of people - who are supposedly in a "CIVILIZED COUNTRY"
I think that Michael Bowers - IS OUR POSTER BOY !
and to think that he - "landed" on the STEPS of the State Capitol - the night before - WE brought OUR delegation - to create a PUBLIC OUTCRY of inmate abuse and neglect...YOU ARE RIGHT - HE DID MORE IN HIS OWN TRAGIC EFFORTS - TO BRING ATTENTION TO THE "TRUTH" THAN HE WILL EVER KNOW....
I hope to meet the Bowers - next week
Madelene Hunter
Child Foster Care and Juvenile Crime Advocate
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Hi Cayenne,
I'm so glad you made contact with Mike Bowers family. I really grieved with them. RYI Thorazine is a neuroleptic medication (what is called the first generation of neuroleptics). It is a super strong tranquilizer. when someone is fluridly psychotic, it does have the effect of calming them and making them managable. Thorazine has traditionally been overused by institutions to make folks manageable. If one isn't psychotic, it just puts them to sleep for a long time. It isn't routinely used now as there are much more effective drugs that have none of the side effects.
Neuroleptic medication is wonderful for folks who need it but for those with no thought disorder, it just makes them spacey and out of it. Just sort of puts their brain in neutral and they can't think well.
Dr. Pat
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Checking out the Board of Controls would be ideal, from the standpoint of there being no remedy for the common citizen--the courts rubber-stamp deny (judicial), the board of control rubber-stamp deny (executive), and the legislature (absent a few outstanding individual members) pass more and more laws to deny individuals their freedoms and access to remedy...
that, undeniably, leads to frustration and as we saw with Mike Bowers, potential for retaliation.
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Cayenne, hi. This key evidence could be viewed as supporting the contention that the bureacracy no longer serves the interests of the people; the people now serve the interests of the bureacracy. Consider how many people must feel frustrated when they are challenged to jump through the many hoops within the bureacracy, only to just through some more, and after they've done all that, simply denied ... because there isn't any compelling interest NOT to deny.
Food for thought...
" Bowers first filed the claim in April of last year, but it was rejected by the Board of Control staff for being in improper form, according to Loris.He filed a follow-up claim in July, which also was rejected, she said. In November, his third document was deemed in proper form, but was later rejected for being beyond the scope of the Board of Control, Loris said.The three handwritten documents, totaling 38 pages, are rambling and often hard to decipher. "
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Dear Editor: Everyone saw the dramatic front-page photo on January 17th of a big rig smashed into the Capitol in Sacramento. Less publicized was the hearing, held that very morning, upstairs above the charred truck and body, by Sen. Richard Planco D-Los Angeles on medical neglect in state prison.
A perfect coincidence, since truck driver Mike Bowers was a mentally disordered parolee, in and out of state prisons and mental institutions since 1983 when first convicted of misdemeanor petty theft. His fiery suicide on the eve of the hearing shouted louder than any other testimony about the inadequacies in prison health care.
An explosion of complaints, highlighted by 39 recent prison deaths in the space of six weeks, prompted the hearing. Penal officials faced tough questions about long delays in emergency treatment, lack of equipment, and the use of guards as medical techs. Men and women who make bad choices may deserve incarceration. But when their terms are over, do we want them back amongst us sick and mentally ill? Whom do we end up punishing?
Deborah J.
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http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local02_20010118.html
Driver suffered delusions: Prison, mental facilities marked his past
By Mareva Brown, M.S. Enkoji and Sam Stanton
Bee Staff Writers
(Published Jan. 18, 2001)
He grew up with four siblings in a house with a swimming pool in Huntington Beach, and after dropping out of high school, he ended up living a carefree life running a ski lift near Mammoth.But by the time Mike Bowers crashed his semi truck into the Capitol Tuesday night, his life had become a hellish existence marred by repeated stays in jail, prison and state mental hospitals.
"I just try to remember my little brother that I used to play with and tickle and talk to and climb trees with," said Robin Bowers, his sister. "I don't know who that gentleman was (who died Tuesday night)."Authorities say Bowers, 37, acted alone when he drove his 80,000-pound truck into the south entrance of the Capitol at 9:30 p.m., incinerating himself and forcing an evacuation of the building.
The California Highway Patrol took charge of the probe along with help from the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, and officials said they firmly believe Bowers had no ties to any organized anti-government groups, despite his earlier claims to the contrary.Authorities also said there was no concrete evidence that Bowers had been targeting Gov. Gray Davis in the attack.
However, sources said security officials maintained a file on Bowers since he wrote to Davis in 1999 complaining about his treatment and the facilities at the Atascadero state mental hospital in San Luis Obispo County.
"He was talking in delusional statements, about the fall of the Soviet Union, and he made statements about being a leader of the new world order," one source said.California Highway Patrol Commissioner Spike Helmick said a file was maintained on Bowers as a result of the letter, but that "it was not a threatening letter to the governor.
"Despite that, the CHP took special measures Tuesday and Wednesday to ensure Davis' safety. Two CHP units blocked off the Carmichael street late Tuesday that leads to the governor's home, and they remained there Wednesday with additional help from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.
Davis was at home at the time of the attack.Bowers' burned truck remained perched on the steps of the Capitol through much of the day Wednesday as gawkers wandered by with cameras watching firefighters use a bucket brigade to remove the cargo of condensed milk cans.By late evening, the firefighters had cut the tractor into pieces, removed it from the portico and were loading the twisted, molten shards onto a trailer. Capt. Dennis Williams, chief of the CHP's Capitol Protection Unit, said he expected all the wreckage to be moved and transferred to an impound yard by morning.
The driver's body, burned beyond recognition, had been removed from the truck about 4:15 p.m.Authorities said they were certain the driver was Bowers, and FBI agents notified his mother at 4 a.m. Wednesday with a phone call. Half an hour later, they showed up at the family's mobile home in the rolling desert hills of Riverside County outside the town of Perris.
"He was living in his truck and hauling cross-country," said his mother, Sharon Bowers. "We assumed he was back East, and we were concerned about the roads and the weather conditions and the blizzards. This is a shock."Bowers had worked for the Utah-based Dick Simon trucking company for about 10 days before the Tuesday crash, his second stint with the company. He earlier had worked for the company for about a month in early 2000.
His assignment Tuesday was to pick up a load of Gold Cross condensed milk at a Nestle's Carnation facility in Modesto and deliver it to South Dakota.However, he went only as far as Sacramento, where witnesses say he circled the Capitol several times blaring his horn before roaring up 11th Street and crashing into the building.
The fire from the truck's ruptured diesel tanks killed him and severely damaged portions of the building.Authorities said security cameras caught the incident on videotape and were being reviewed, and James Maddock, special agent in charge of the Sacramento FBI office, said the anti-terrorism task force had been called in to make certain there was no conspiracy involved.Bowers had been licensed to drive in California since Feb. 18, 2000, and had no driving violations since then.
However, he had at least one prior arrest for driving under the influence, though trucking company officials told reporters that he had passed their own criminal background check.Bowers' criminal history was lengthy, with authorities saying he was sent to prison at least six times starting in the mid-1980s because of convictions or repeated parole violations.His criminal record began with a 1986 incident in which he was arrested for battery on a police officer in Mono County.
In 1991, he was sentenced to six years in prison for corporal punishment of a child, a charge that his mother said stemmed from a live-in girlfriend claiming he was responsible for bruising her small daughter.He spent three years in prison before being shipped to Atascadero State Hospital to serve out three years of probation.
That move typically would indicate that an inmate "had a severe mental disorder that was not in remission and represented a substantial danger of physical harm to others," a state mental health official said Wednesday.
After his parole ended in 1998, Bowers went to trial to win his freedom from the state mental health system, but a jury committed him to Patton State Hospital in Southern California for about two years. In 1999, despite the urging of prosecutors and psychiatrists that he remain hospitalized, a jury decided that he no longer posed a danger to society and could be set free, state records show.Bowers then went to live with his family in Perris, but he never could adjust to life outside prison and blamed the correctional system. He claimed that he had spent a year in solitary confinement two separate times during his incarceration, his mother said.The state Department of Corrections could not verify that claim Wednesday, but a spokeswoman said it is possible.
Bowers stayed in prison even after he was given the opportunity for parole twice, but refused to sign the papers, said state prisons spokeswoman Margot Bach. Bowers' mother said he refused because the papers incorrectly referred to him as a heroin addict and required methadone treatments."The system really abused Michael," Sharon Bowers said. "It is unbelievable what happened to him. If he did do this on purpose, and he was angry, thank God he didn't kill anybody else."
By the time he won his freedom in 1999, he was a psychological wreck, his family said. Cars on the Southern California freeways made him dizzy, and he ended up taking medication commonly prescribed to control schizophrenia.He obtained a trucking license in early 2000 and went to work for the Simon trucking firm for about a month before he quit because he didn't like the work.Bowers had suffered from drinking problems, and after spending time with his mother, he decided to move in with his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor in nearby Lake Elsinore, his mother said.At about that time, sources said, Bowers began trying to find an old girlfriend he had known for 15 years.
The woman was incarcerated on drug charges and was due for release last November.Bowers showed up at the prison on Nov. 26 for her release and proposed to her in the parking lot. The next day, they married in Carson City, Nev., then began the trip home toward Southern California.At some point d