http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/11/16/MNGTL32L521.DTL

SAN FRANCISCO JAILS: Handling prisoners 
Stripped of dignity 
Lawsuits mount over jail's practices regarding strip searches, safety cells 

Elizabeth Fernandez, Stephanie Salter, Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, November 16, 2003 
 

The San Francisco Sheriff's Department for years has conducted inappropriate, abusive and sometimes illegal strip searches on people brought to its jails, a Chronicle investigation found. 

After weeks of questioning by Chronicle reporters and facing multiple lawsuits that could result in multimillion-dollar judgments, Sheriff Michael Hennessey says he is changing the way the jail treats prisoners who are now being strip searched and placed in isolation cells. 

In accounts going back to the mid-1990s, 14 men and women said they were wrongly subjected to humiliating strip searches. Many told the newspaper that they were dispatched to "safety cells'' designed for suicidal, self-mutilating or otherwise destructive prisoners. While in what jailers call "the hole,'' the former inmates said, they were denied clothing, blankets, sometimes even water - in violation of both state law and the jail's policies. 

A confidential report from a branch of Hennessey's own department bolsters many of the people's accounts. The report, requested by Hennessey, warned more than a year ago that "we are out of compliance with state law'' in some policies and practices, and, "in some instances, Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment" of prisoners. 

The sheriff's Prisoner Legal Services office, which issued the September 2002 report, told Hennessey in a follow-up in June that some of its key recommendations for change had not been implemented. 

Since April, at least four lawsuits, including a potential class action case, have been filed against San Francisco over its strip search or safety cell practices. If successful, the lawsuits could result in a huge cost to taxpayers because San Francisco is self-insured for this kind of litigation - any settlements or judgments would come from the city's general fund. 

Two years ago, New York City agreed to pay as much as $50 million for illegally strip searching prisoners in its Queens and Manhattan jails. Last year, Boston settled a strip search case for $10.million filed on behalf of 5, 400 women. 

The Chronicle first reported on San Francisco's strip search controversy Sept. 4 in an article about two women - Mary Bull and Deborah Flick - who sued after being stripped naked and placed in isolation cells following their arrests on minor charges. 

Confronted with the lawsuits and queries by The Chronicle, Hennessey made an abrupt about-face. 

After insisting in September that "our policies conform to state law,'' Hennessey said this month that he is making changes that would dramatically reduce the number of strip searches. "Final wording is being worked on," he said. 

In the future, the jail would "authorize strip searches only for new detainees who are charged with drugs, weapons and violent offenses, or where there is a reasonable, documented justification for believing contraband is being hidden,'' said Eileen Hirst, the sheriff's spokeswoman. 

"I'm glad that the Sheriff's Department has decided to follow the law,'' said Kirk Boyd, a San Francisco attorney who filed one of the civil rights suits on behalf of 38-year-old San Francisco resident George Lazaneo. "They wrongly strip searched my client and humiliated him, and they are going to have to pay him something for that.'' 

Like Lazaneo, many of the people interviewed by The Chronicle had little or no criminal history and were arrested on misdemeanors or nonviolent offenses, typically public intoxication. Most of their cases, if charges were formally filed, were dismissed. Nonetheless, they were subjected to visual body cavity searches described as deeply degrading and traumatic, and most were confined for long periods in safety cells. 

"I felt like I was in a Third World country," said Miki Mangosing, who said she was arrested for alleged public disturbance last December, strip searched and kept for more than 10 hours in one of the jail system's 24 safety cells. Like many, the cell had no bed or sink; the toilet was a grated hole in the floor. For much of the time, she said, she was naked. 

"Safety cells are supposed to protect us, but I didn't feel safe at all. I felt violated and afraid," said Mangosing, a personal chef who lives in Oakland. No charges were filed against her, she said. 

"They dehumanized and belittled me. I didn't think this happened in a democratic, free society. This was uncivilized treatment." 

Others told The Chronicle they underwent similar ordeals, enduring strip searches and often safety cell confinement for complaining, for noncooperation, 

for merely speaking up. Their ranks include artists, activists, students, a security guard, a supervisor in a branch of the federal government and a 70- year-old Roman Catholic nun. Some asked that their names not be used, citing fear of embarrassment or reprisal. 

Although The Chronicle provided the names of the people interviewed, sheriff's spokeswoman Hirst said the department could not comment on specific cases without written legal waivers from each person. 

Hennessey said he believed that the prisoners' jail medical records would "show that they were a danger to themselves or a danger to others, and that's why they were placed there.'' 

"People don't always tell the truth about (such) circumstances, particularly when they're not very favorable," he said. "I'm not saying they're bad people, I'm saying that's human nature … to minimize the conduct that got you into trouble." 

Volatile environment 

Hennessey, a former prisoner rights attorney who created the Prisoner Legal Services Office before he first won the sheriff's post in 1979, was re-elected Nov. 4 and is the longest-serving sheriff in San Francisco history. 

His administration has been publicly perceived as largely progressive and compassionate in its approach to law enforcement and has received attention for innovative programs involving domestic violence prevention, victim- criminal reconciliation and increased protection for prisoners. 

As the overseer of a nine-jail system, Hennessey said, he must balance the legal rights of an often volatile jail population with the security concerns of his facilities. 

As to safety cell placements, he said: "You're dealing with situations that the public can't imagine happen. It's a very extreme end of human conduct that we see, and it's mishmashed in with regular people. That's one of the very difficult parts of running the jail. ..... Frankly, we do try to err on the side of caution and security.'' 

Describing an incident in another system's jail in which an inmate hanged himself, Hennessey said: "You don't want one of those things to happen. Yes, we may search someone, in retrospect, unnecessarily because we've had these things happen to other people, where there have been tragedies.'' 

One of the Prisoner Legal Services report's most pronounced criticisms focused on the department's policy of automatically stripping and searching every prisoner placed in a safety cell "and depriving every prisoner of clothing while placed, without first determining if such action is justified. '' By doing so, the report said, the jail "is out of compliance with recommended procedure.'' 

The practice has state and federal legal implications as well. 

Generally, California law prohibits pre-arraignment strip searches of people arrested for misdemeanors or minor crimes not involving weapons, drugs or violence unless there is a "reasonable suspicion'' they are smuggling a weapon or contraband. 

In San Francisco, not everyone who is strip searched goes into a safety cell, but all prisoners placed in safety cells are strip searched. Civil rights lawyers believe that policy violates the law. The jail's internal report also raised red flags about the legality of the practice. It recommended a strip search before safety cell placement "only when prisoner is determined to be a threat to self." 

Spokeswoman Hirst said the Sheriff's Department is considering changing its blanket policy of strip searching every prisoner placed in a safety cell. Those deemed "a danger to themselves'' would still be strip searched, but prisoners considered only "a danger to others'' might not be, she said. 

Official condemnation 

Prisoner Legal Services researchers analyzed jail records for the 112 prisoners who were placed in safety cells in four of the nine San Francisco jails during September 2001, and directly observed prisoners for two weeks in March 2002. 

The report called jailers to task for unnecessarily depriving safety cell prisoners of substitute clothing and blankets. Twelve people who have sued or talked to The Chronicle said they were placed naked in the cells. 

Although Hennessey claimed in a recent interview that "everyone always has a safety cell garment," the internal report noted that some prisoners in safety cells were inappropriately deprived of clothing or blankets, a violation of state regulations and jail policy. 

In one case, a prisoner placed in the cell in the late afternoon and approved for clothing and a blanket "was observed naked in the safety cell the following day," the report said. 

"Given the severity of the safety cell environment, approval for and provision of items that maintain personal privacy and physical warmth are critical issues in jail conditions,'' the report said. 

Reasons for putting people in the cells in the first place were also faulted by the Prisoner Legal Services analysis. Some prisoners were placed in safety cells without initial approval by a doctor, watch commander or jail manager - a violation of state requirements and jail rules, the report found. 

Additionally, the jail consigned prisoners to safety cells for outmoded, inappropriate, "inconsistent" or "vague" reasons. For instance, the jail allowed prisoners to be put in the cells for displaying "bizarre behavior," but that classification was disallowed by the state in 1998, the report said. "Bizarre behavior'' accounted for a quarter of all safety cell placements in the report's sample. 

Despite 38 recommendations in the document, a follow-up review in June reported that a number of issues raised in the initial report "remain areas of concern.'' These included the duration of safety cell placements, inappropriate explanations for placements, incomplete and sloppy documentation and the continued use of "bizarre behavior'' and "gravely disabled'' language. 

Within days of the second report, the jail's chief deputy, Jan Dempsey, issued written orders to all staff to discontinue using "gravely disabled'' in assessing safety cell placements. 

Jail spokeswoman Hirst said last month that "bizarre behavior" is also "no longer authorized" as a criterion for safety cell placement. 

Hennessey insisted in an interview that the safety cells are used for "extremely violent, extremely self-destructive prisoners," but the people interviewed by the Chronicle said their behavior didn't come close to meeting that criteria. 

"They probably thought I was a nuisance," said a 46-year-old San Francisco mother of two arrested last October for her role in a minor disturbance and held nearly 10 hours in a safety cell. "They left me there with nothing on. I was not yelling, I was not out of control. I was a woman who was crying. I kept telling them I'm a third-generation San Franciscan." 

"The jail uses the safety cell to retaliate against or to punish people who object to being mistreated," said Sacramento attorney Mark Merin, who lodged the pending class action suit against the jail. "If they object to being strip searched, if they object to illegal treatment, if they repeatedly ask to make a phone call, if they request rights guaranteed to them, the knee-jerk response of the guards is to put them in a safety cell.'' 

Curtis Hill, sheriff of San Benito County and chairman of the California State Sheriff's Association jail and corrections committee, said: "You can't throw somebody in there just because they're a jerk." 

Cold truths 

Once known in corrections jargon as "rubber rooms" or "cold rooms," safety cells in California have had an uneven legal history. 

In 1988, following an ACLU lawsuit, a federal judge lambasted Orange County cells as "far below the standards of human decency." According to the suit, the cells lacked beds and toilet facilities; inmates were left naked, forced to eat with their hands and to urinate and defecate without towels or toilet paper. 

In a separate case involving Kern County, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled such cells constitutional in 1995. Five inmates had sued the county contending its isolation cell - bare except for a pit toilet covered by a grate - was damaging to emotionally troubled and suicidal inmates. 

"The safety cell is admittedly a very severe environment, but it is employed in response to very severe safety concerns," said the court. 

The California Penal Code provides only four paragraphs about safety cells, but state regulations are detailed. The cells are for "only those inmates who display behavior which results in the destruction of property or reveals an intent to cause physical harm to self or others," according to state Board of Corrections regulations for county jails. They are never to be used as punishment for insulting or uncooperative behavior, the regulations say. 

So serious is safety cell placement, state law requires guards to make two documented visual checks within each half-hour of confinement; a medical evaluation must be done within 12 hours of placement. 

Law enforcement officials say the cells are necessary for short-term incarceration of psychotic or destructive inmates. 

San Benito County Sheriff Hill said a safety cell prisoner at his facility once "popped his own eyeballs out" between mandated safety checks. 

Sheriff Hennessey said San Francisco safety cell occupants have eaten their feces, gouged out their eyes or ripped out their hair. Last August, he said, a woman in a safety cell tried to asphyxiate herself with a tampon. 

"If someone is thrashing around, crazed and angry, that's why we put them in safety cells,'' Hennessey said. "They are being extremely violent, extremely self-destructive, fighting everybody basically. 

"We work in a really complex environment, and we have very few tragic incidences, very few deaths, very few sexual assaults, very few inmate-on- inmate fights because of the way we classify and separate people and get them treatment," he said. 

Extreme circumstances

Bill Crout, deputy director of the California Board of Corrections, said safety cells are intended for a "small, special population. … You can only use a safety cell when a person is suicidal or tearing their cell apart and only with approval of the facility manager." 

But critics say the cells are used not to protect prisoners, but to dehumanize and punish them. 

Former San Francisco jail inmate Sandra Lakins, 48, who was incarcerated many times for a variety of felonies, said she served as a jail trusty (a cooperative prisoner who assists jailers) who helped bag and label inmates' clothing after they were strip searched. She said she witnessed "about 20" incidents in which women were put nude into safety cells. Perhaps five of them were high on drugs or rebellious, but the rest "were thrown in there just because they wouldn't shut up," she said. 

"Most of these women I'm talking about aren't street women like me; they're these kind of 'Leave It to Beaver' moms," Lakins said. 

Carolyn Ritchie, a longtime San Francisco social worker with clients who have served jail time, considers the cells "a perversity." 

"Many people in the jail are crying and upset,'' she said. "If that's the jail's criteria for mental illness, then they could throw in most of the city. They rationalize putting people in cold cells to sober them up, but it is really torture. This is no way to treat someone who is coming off a drunk or someone who is mentally ill. If you are trying to calm people down - a de- escalation - it doesn't make sense to take off their clothes and throw them in a room. That is punishment." 

Jo Robinson, director of Hennessey's Jail Psychiatric Services, said San Francisco jails serve as the largest "outpatient mental health clinic" in the city. About 13 percent of the 2,000-prisoner jail population here is "actively psychotic," she said. 

Teresa Nelson, an attorney who heads Prisoner Legal Services and co- authored the safety cell reports, said it is a difficult task for jail custodial staff to accurately define and identify behavior that reveals an intention to harm oneself or others. 

"They are subjective assessments, and people can take issue with those assessments," she said. "Do I think that people are put in (safety cells) because they're being noisy or difficult? Yes." 

But sometimes, she said, separating a screaming or sobbing prisoner from other inmates is an effective way to defuse a situation, and decrease the potential for harm. 

Need for change 

While he declined to provide specific statistics on strip searches and safety cell detainments, Hennessey - citing his jail's annual arrest rate of more than 50,000 - said there are "thousands of people we don't strip search.'' 

In a September op-ed column in The Chronicle, he wrote that prisoners are placed in safety cells under limited circumstances and removed from the barren rooms as swiftly as possible. 

Last month, Hennessey conceded in an interview, "I think this area of the law is changing, and we're trying to adjust with it. I think there are things we can and will do better in the future." 

According to Merin, the attorney who represents Bull and Flick along with Walnut Creek lawyer Andrew Schwartz, Hennessey's adjusted stance includes "an admission that they've been out of compliance with state and federal law" and an attempt "to limit their liability." 

Based on past awards for similar cases, Merin estimates that San Francisco could be forced to spend at least $60 million for possibly 15,000 claimants if his class action suit succeeds. 

Earlier this year, Los Angeles County altered its policy after paying $2.7. million to settle a lawsuit by 71 male and female bicycle activists who were strip searched after being arrested at a protest. Two dozen of the women, who had not yet been brought before a judge, were ordered to strip by sheriff's deputies. 

In February, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled that the jail's strip search practices were illegal, holding the county and its sheriff liable for damages. The pending class action awards could cover more than 90,000 people. 

"These cases are coming up with some regularity all over the country,'' said David Harris, a professor of law and values at the University of Toledo College of Law. "The Supreme Court for many years has made it clear that there is to be little judicial interference when it comes to local control of jails. They don't want judges second-guessing local authority. 

"On the other hand, courts have fairly uniformly said that for minor crimes, 

you don't strip search. There has to be a degree of suspicion that the person had concealed weapons or drugs. You cannot do it as a routine matter. Local officials don't always get the message." 

San Francisco lawyer Kirk Boyd, who has filed one of the four civil rights suits challenging the jail policies, says it's a matter of basic freedom. 

"This is about our dignity," said Boyd, who also is executive director of the University of California International Bill of Rights Project. "Our Bill of Rights protects our dignity." 
 
 

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CHART:
Safety-cell report 

Some of the findings from a September 2002 report on safety cells in the SanFrancisco County Jails by Prisoner Legal Services, a branch of the Sheriff's Department. 

-- Duration of placement 

24 hours: 0.9% 

1-5 hours: 15.2% 

6-10 hours: 24.1% 

11-15 hours: 25.9% 

16-20 hours: 11.6% 

21-24 hours: 22.3% 

-- Age of those placed 

50 years: 4.5% 

18-25 years: 20.5% 

26-30 years: 16.1% 

31-35 years: 14.3% 

36-40 years: 15.2% 

41-45 years: 18.8% 

46-50 years: 10.7% 

-- Reason for placement 

Ingestion: 0.9% 

Bizzare behavior, destruction of property: 9.8% 

Gravely disabled: 8.9% 

Own request: 15.2% 

Bizarre behavior, self-harm: 15.2% 

Danger to self: 22.3% 

Danger to others: 27.7% 

-- Race of those placed 

Other: 1.8% 

Black: 58% 

Latino: 9.8% 

Asian/Pacific Islander: 2.7% 

Caucasian: 27.7%. 

Sources: Prisoner Legal Services, San Francisco Sheriff's Department, September, 2002 

Chronicle Graphic 

E-mail the writers at  efernandez@sfchronicle.com  and  ssalter@sfchronicle.com., Chronicle librarian Lois Jermyn contributed to this report. 
 
 

Expert advises county how to prevent suicides at jail
By Walt Wiley -- Bee Staff Writer - (Published December 13, 2002) 
A rash of suicides at the Sacramento County jail earlier this year prompted officials to seek an outside expert to study the situation and help find ways to curb such deaths in the future. 
 

In May, Sheriff Lou Blanas hired Lindsay Hayes, assistant director of the U.S. Department of Justice's National Center on Institutions and Alternatives. 
 

Among a host of recommendations, Hayes said inmates should be asked direct questions when they are booked to determine if they are at risk of suicide, and jail officers, nurses and mental health workers should have a two-hour annual refresher course in suicide prevention. 
 

The recommendations came after Blanas brought his top jail and mental health personnel to a meeting of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to discuss the problems. 
 

Four inmates had killed themselves in the jail this year, but Hayes immediately noted that the jail's 14 suicides over 10 years were far below national norms for jails the size of Sacramento's. 
 

Among the recent four to die was multiple-murder suspect Nikolay Soltys, who killed himself Feb. 13 after having previously jumped from an upper tier in the jail. 
 

The other three were Darrell Hite on Jan. 9, Mohammad Reza Abdollahi on Feb. 27 and Julien Provencher on May 14. All four strangled themselves with makeshift nooses. 
 

Provencher, 47 was homeless and plagued with mental problems when he was jailed on a loitering charge and a warrant for drunken driving. Abdollahi, 51, a heroin addict, was arrested on drug charges. Hite, 34, was an alcoholic arrested on suspicion of rape just 12 hours before he died. 
 

Already, Abdollahi's family has filed suit in federal court against the county, Blanas and four of his top jail officials, claiming that they ignored Abdollahi's pleas for help and at the same time refused to monitor him, leaving him alone to kill himself. 
 

In addition to recommending extra training and a questionnaire that asks suicide questions directly, Hayes suggests in his official report that potentially suicidal inmates be checked more frequently and that the number of mentalhealth beds be increased. 
 

He also recommends that observation of inmates in the various special housing units set aside for discipline, protective custody and various health needs be stepped up to half-hour intervals instead of every hour. 
 

He further calls for a change in policy so that an officer who finds an apparently dead inmate nevertheless immediately takes steps to save the inmate's life. And he calls for all inmate suicides and suicide attempts to be carefully studied by a task force established earlier for just such a purpose. 
 

Some of the recommendations have already been put in place; others are being studied and still others are not appropriate, said Lt. James Lewis, sheriff's office spokesman. 
 

"Some of his recommendations would be for a long-term care facility, but we are more designed for critical care," Lewis said. 
 

For instance, Hayes' recommendation that every inmate be questioned directly about suicide by psychiatric personnel during the intake process would be impracticable when the jail completes 55,000 intakes per year, Lewis said. 
 

"One of the things we did immediately was to introduce additional training for jail medical and psychiatric personnel, plus our deputies, on psychiatric issues, especially in identifying people who could be suicidal," he said. 
 

The training has already paid off at least twice in thwarting suicides, he said. One inmate tried to kill himself after he had viewed a video of the crime scene with which he was linked. Another made an attempt after he had received a life sentence. In both cases, officers were alert to the danger and intervened. 
 

Sheriff's officials are preparing a report for formal delivery before the Board of Supervisors next month, Lewis said. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

About the Writer 
--------------------------- 

The Bee's Walt Wiley can be reached at (916) 321-1063 or  wwiley@sacbee.com

 Matthew Robert Ramos is seen here with round injuries to his chest where he was hit with pepper balls. He has a bruise by his left eye near where he was punched. 
 
 

A videotape made by Kern County sheriff's deputies shows a detention officer slugging and kneeing a handcuffed and shackled mentally ill inmate, The Californian has learned. 

The tape, filmed in June, reveals that as detention officer William Walter Purdie lands a blow to the side of the head of Matthew Robert Ramos, 25, a supervising deputy instructs Purdie to retreat if the shackled prisoner struggled. 

“Purdie, if he starts getting stupid, back up,” the supervisor is heard to say. 

It is that videotape along with one other that will be used to support civil claims filed on behalf of Ramos Wednesday by attorney Daniel Rodriguez against the Kern County Sheriff’s Department and Purdie. 

Also named in the court papers are other sheriff’s employees, Kern Medical Center and Kern County Mental Health. 

In the second tape, a frequently naked and bizarre-acting Ramos is seen in a cell over the next few days. 

The claims, the first step in the filing of a lawsuit against a governmental agency, allege excessive force, improper treatment, misdiagnosis and negligence against the various agencies. 

Deputy County Counsel Mark Nations said Wednesday he had no comment because he had not seen the claims. 

It wasn’t until Ramos ended up in the psychiatric ward of Kern Medical Center on June 27, 18 days after his arrest, that he was properly diagnosed as bipolar and given medication which calmed him down and led to his release, Rodriguez said. 

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive disorder, is characterized by alternating swings between depression and excitability or delusions, according to the Merck medical dictionary. 

A psychiatric technician at the jail had evaluated Ramos on June 10, the day after his arrest, but had misdiagnosed him, Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez said he plans to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Fresno seeking an unspecified amount of money for alleged civil rights violations. He said he chose a federal court over Kern County Superior Court because local juries favor law enforcement “no matter what’s on the videotape.” 

Describing the substance of his claims, Rodriguez said, “This case demonstrates the way not to handle a person with mental problems. It’s something that should have never happened. 

“If he was diagnosed and treated properly, he would not have deteriorated to the level he did. Now he suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome with flashbacks, depression and hallucinations.” 

He added, “The most alarming thing is that none of the sheriff’s deputies or detention officers came forward and reported the misconduct until they were confronted with it (by internal affairs officers).” 

After the incident came to light, Sheriff Carl Sparks announced at a July 12 news conference that Purdie had been charged with misdemeanor battery and assault under color of authority and that the supervisor who filmed the videotape and didn’t halt any of Purdie’s actions was suspended. 

Sparks didn’t identify the supervisor, but investigation reports show it was Senior Deputy Bill Hakker. 

The sheriff and the district attorney’s staff have refused to release the videotapes in the case. However, if either is introduced at trial, it would be made public. 

Purdie has been offered a plea bargain involving no jail time, but he has turned it down. Chief Deputy District Attorney Dan Sparks explained it would be difficult to place Purdie in custody with the inmates he used to oversee, and prosecutors thought both community service and the resulting lawsuits that are expected would bring justice to the case. 

Purdie was fired later in July, for which he filed an appeal July 30. A Civil Service Commission hearing on the appeal, which has twice been delayed, is now set for Jan. 13. 

The misdemeanor trial, which has also been delayed several times, is scheduled for Monday in Kern County Superior Court. Defense attorney Robert F. Carbone declined comment Wednesday. 

The videotapes, which Rodriguez showed The Californian Wednesday, indicated that deputies and detention officers thought Ramos was on drugs, possibly PCP, because of his bizarre behavior and the minimal effect of his being shot with pepper balls. 

Ramos denied ever taking PCP. He was originally jailed on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and vandalism, but those charges were ultimately dismissed. He was released from the psychiatric ward of Kern Medical Center on July 18. 

He was first taken to the downtown jail, where he became combative and had to be subdued by several officers, according to reports. He then was transferred to the sheriff’s Lerdo Jail. It was there officers decided to videotape his arrival to use as a training guide on how to handle combative inmates. 

The videotape began with eight officers forming a gauntlet for Ramos — cuffed on both his hands and ankles and chained around his waist — as he was led from a vehicle to the Lerdo infirmary. 

An officer is heard to say, “Take him down if he starts getting stupid.” At one point, the officer says, “Purdie, back up a bit.” 

Ramos was compliant getting to and sitting down in a chair in the infirmary hallway until Purdie, as requested by a supervisor, retrieved a pair of scissors to remove a wrist band from Ramos. 

As Purdie approached, Ramos became agitated, saying, “Come on, man.” An officer warns Purdie to back up if Ramos acts up. Another officer says, “Mr. Ramos, calm down.” 

But Ramos jumps up and an officer orders Detention Officer Mike Brown to “shoot him” with pepper balls, a disabling, tear gas-like substance. Brown fires at least four, possibly five rounds at close range to the chest and arm of Ramos, but it has no visible effect. 

Several officers then take Ramos to the ground, and Purdie drops his knee on the back of Ramos’ neck — a procedure that is not authorized, Rodriguez said. Ramos cries out, “I can’t breathe. Please help me Lord.” 

Both Ramos and officers coughed for the next few minutes in reaction to the pepper balls. 

Ramos struggled as an officer ordered him to be stood up and taken to a cell. In the tape, it appears that Ramos did not stand up, and officers turned him over on his back and dragged him to the cell. 

On the way, Purdie is seen kicking Ramos on the top of his head. 

Once in the cell, Ramos is seen on the floor surrounded by as many as seven officers. Purdie is shown again putting his knee on Ramos’ neck and hitting him. Another officer also hits Ramos. 

At one point, an officer says, “Don’t put that much pressure on his chest, he needs to be able to breathe.” Officers spend a few minutes removing the metal restraints and placing “soft” leather restraints on him after cutting off his clothes. 

Ramos cries out, “Help me, Jesus. Please Lord in Jesus’ name.” An officer replies, “If you stop your struggle, you’ll be all right.” 

A nurse is then brought in to examine Ramos’ injuries. Despite bruises on his face and chest, Ramos told officers before the examination he was not hurt or suicidal. 

On that day and others seen in the videotapes, Ramos curses, removes his clothes, acts lewdly, kicks his bare foot on the walls, doesn’t or delays complying with orders, yells into the toilet and struggles with deputies as they approach him. 

The tapes show clear gashes around Ramos’ ankles and refer to injuries around his wrists. At one point, Ramos repeatedly yelled “Ow” as he is put in metal restraints to be taken to court. 

Officers noted that Ramos was given medication, but he refused to take it. 

Ramos was taken to Kern Medical Center on June 27 where he was put in metal restraints on sheriff’s orders. That was against advice of the hospital staff to use soft leather restraints, a decision that compounded his injuries, the attorney said. 

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 Copyright © 2002, The Bakersfield Californian 

June 25, 2002 

ORANGE COUNTY 
Lawyer to Seek Contempt Citation Against Carona

Jails: Civil rights attorney says the county sheriff has failed to protect inmates' rights. 
 

By JACK LEONARD, TIMES STAFF WRITER 

A prominent civil rights lawyer said Monday he will ask a federal judge this week to find Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona in contempt of court for failing to prevent mistreatment of inmates in the county's jail system. 

Attorney Richard P. Herman accused sheriff's deputies of beating jail inmates and of violating a landmark court order that governs how much time inmates must be given to exercise and eat meals. 

Herman's announcement comes just two weeks after the county agreed to pay $650,000 to settle a suit brought by the family of a man who died in custody four years ago. It was the county's largest settlement for a jail beating case. Sheriff's Department spokesman Jon Fleischman said he could not comment on Herman's allegations without seeing them. But he said Carona has done much to improve jail conditions. 

"This sheriff has been very proactive in making sure that we have the best-run jails in America," 
Fleischman said. 

We notified all our journalist subscribers when Jerry Wayne Morgan was severely beaten at the Shasta County jail by his jailers.  It is out of their circulation areas so it went totally unreported.  This is one of the weaknesses of today's system that would cause our founding fathers to spin in their graves. 

Only the court's side of the stories ever get published. If something such as a severe beating happens to a man who shouldn't be in prison in the first place, this is not "news." 

That's why our ability to picket is vitally important when we see abuses which are ignored by the press.  This is the only way we can force media attention to these life and death situations. 

We must be willing to help one another.  Our membership in Shasta County is growing but unless 30 people are willing to show up, the picket won't be large enough to bring outside media attention to this horrible place. 

Prisons are built in the middle of nowhere for a good reason. The limited perspective of journalists and their geographical area is something law enforcement relies upon.  It's a dumb practice that have created lawless fools in the smaller towns such as Shasta County who have absolutely no regard 
for justice. 

This situation of mistreating jail inmates as well as prison inmates needs to end statewide.  The families should be marching in the streets.  We see many more lawsuits at the jail level because 
the families are completely financially devastated yet.....but many more lawsuits at the prison level need to be filed and the media needs to wake up and report the news.  Even if it is anecdotal, putting these demons in the light cools their heels. 

Report the news, save lives, our elected officials cannot be depending upon to do the right thing unless they're in the fishbowl. The taxpayers would be happier to spend their money on doing things 
right in the first place.  Pay now or pay later, it is the taxpayers who foot the bill for abuse and neglect. The UNION isn't going to sit quietly any longer and allow this inhumanity to take place. 

We are training the families that they must show up when called to picket even when it isn't their prison or jail involved.  They will wise up and then end about 70% of the human bondage industry, which isn't doing one thing to reduce crime anyway.  Take notice. 

I expect all of our Shasta County members to fire in letters to the editor around the injury of the officer stating why this occurred.  Cover each journalist with at least a note on your personal 
nightmare so it becomes obvious to them that Shasta County officials have less credibility than the inmates!  Tell them about the lab, about how 3 strikes is the rule in trying all cases, the feces on the floor of the jail which is never cleaned, the beatings and all the other complaints.  Now is the 
time for Shasta County people to write letters to editors so they can be alerted there 
is more than they're aware to this story.  Do it now! 

Take the sweetest puppy, cage him, beat him, starve him, torture him psychologically and he will bite back!  These are people here, not animals, and when an officer gets hurt, there's plenty of evidence to support they drove the inmates to lash out.  These garbage excuses don't work on people who are in the know. Every inmate is some mother's child. 

Keep it in mind.  There are far more of us than any other voting group in the State but we must do our part to formally organize and MOBILIZE when we know there is a problem. 

Just sitting quietly does nothing toward reform.  We must never just sit and read without taking some ACTION. 

B. Cayenne Bird 
Rightor1@aol.com

B. Cayenne Bird 

Alleged bid to flee jail is detailed
 

By Ralph Montaño -- Bee Staff Writer 
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Tuesday, June 25, 2002 

Synagogue arsonist Matthew Williams hid behind a shower curtain for more than four hours Saturday so that he and another inmate in the Shasta County jail could attack a jail officer, officials said. 

Part of an elaborate escape plan by Williams, 34, and fellow inmate Paul Gordon Smith Jr., 24, involved ambushing an officer, beating him into submission with a makeshift weapon and tying him up, officials said. 

But exactly where the plot was to go from there was something that Shasta County sheriff's investigators were still examining Monday as they reconstructed Saturday's foiled jailbreak. 

"We've never had anything like this in the history of the department," said Lt. Dave Compomizzo. "This is a real eye-opener, and we never want anything like this to happen again." 

Compomizzo credited Deputy Timothy Renault with preventing the escape -- but at a great personal cost. 

The 23-year-old officer remained hospitalized at Mercy Medical Center in Redding with a skull fracture. He was listed in stable condition Monday. 

"He is conscious and alert but in a great deal of pain," Compomizzo said. 

Williams and his younger brother, Tyler Williams, 31, are in the jail awaiting trial for allegedly murdering a gay couple in 1999. Both pleaded guilty to setting fires in June of that year to three Sacramento synagogues. 

But while Tyler Williams has been what Compomizzo called a "model inmate," his older brother's conduct has landed him in a segregated unit for violent and dangerous inmates. There, Matthew Williams met Smith, who is also awaiting trial on a murder charge, authorities said. 

Inmates in the segregated unit are allowed one hour each day inside a larger locked "day room" during which they can shower or do personal tasks. 

Williams and Smith spent different hours in the day room Saturday evening. But each walked out of his cell leaving behind a bed that looked occupied, Compomizzo said. 

At the end of their hour in the larger room, both Williams and Smith were ordered by intercom to return to their cells, but they were not personally escorted there, Compomizzo said. 

"Video cameras are used to monitor, but they do not cover every corner and angle of the cells," Compomizzo said. 

The cells were electronically locked, and officers believed the inmates were inside. 

The deception was good enough to last until about 4 a.m. when Renault was making a routine check of the showers on the second tier of the day room, officials said. He was ambushed by the two men who had apparently fashioned a weapon out of material found in the room. Authorities did not release specific details about the weapon. 

Officers in the jail carry no guns or batons. Renault was armed with only a canister of tear gas and his wits, Compomizzo said. 

"His survival skills and his training really kicked in," Compomizzo said. 

Renault closed the electronic door into the showers, which trapped him in the room with the two inmates, Compomizzo said. Renault yelled for help into his radio and activated the radio's emergency alarm. 

Six officers responded to the alarm immediately, but most were two or three floors away at the time, 
Compomizzo said. It would take them about three minutes to reach Renault, Compomizzo said. 

When the other officers arrived, Williams and Smith surrendered without resistance, Compomizzo said. 

The Bee's Ralph Montaño can be reached at (916) 321-1909 or rmontano@sacbee.com