By Maxine Bernstein
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon inmates suffering from the most severe mental illnesses harm themselves – bashing their heads against the walls, slicing their wrists, swallowing items or trying to hang themselves - in desperate attempts to get out of their solitary cells in a special behavioral unit, according to Disability Rights Oregon.
One inmate interviewed by the advocacy group told his counselor, “If you put me back in my cell, I’m going to bash my head in. I’m going to bash my head until blood and brains come out.’'
Joel Greenberg, one of the attorneys for Disability Rights Oregon who wrote a 65-page investigative report and submitted it to the Oregon Department of Corrections Friday afternoon, said the violence “tells me people are pretty desperate to be anywhere else, besides there.’'
While Oregon State Penitentiary’s Behavioral Health Unit was created to more safely and humanely house prisoners with serious mental illness or violent tendencies, it has failed to do so, instead depriving inmates of basic human rights, according to the advocacy group’s investigation.
Case studies from Disability Rights Oregon investigation:
--One man had a history of trying to harm himself as a strategy to get out of his cell or compel medical or mental health attention. Sometimes, he was sent for a hospital visit, or to the mental health infirmary, where he considered the staff to be more sympathetic. In one incident videotaped, he hung his bed sheet across the front of his cell. A team of officers in riot gear arrived and ordered him to remove the sheet. When he refused, he was pepper-sprayed through the port of his cell for about 20 seconds. Officers then pulled him from his cell, took him to the floor, pulled down his pants and injected him in the buttocks with his medication. A sergeant told him he could shower, and then would be taken to the infirmary. “That’s all I wanted in the first place,’' the inmate responded.
The same inmate was placed on suicide observation at least eight times in the past two-and-a-half years. During these times, he wasn’t allowed any possessions, issued only a Teflon smock, a Teflon blanket, paper cup and tray. He wasn’t allowed eating utensils, and his mattress was sometimes removed. In one period, he described being deprived of toilet paper. DOC verified that this man was placed on “dry cell status’’ twice, where the water supply is turned off and personal belongings, including toilet paper, are removed after it’s believed prisoners have swallowed potentially harmful items. It’s done so medical staff can confirm when and if the harmful item has passed. DOC policy says such dry cell status should not last more than 72 hours. This inmate’s medical records showed he was held in dry cell status for 18 consecutive days, the report said.
--Another BHU inmate swallowed objects attached to a string in September 2012. A few days later, he told a mental health staff member, “I cannot take the noise and having nothing day after day, year after year in the BHU.’' He later explained he swallowed the objects as a means to “pull his guts out’’ and end his “life in a box,’' the report said. The next month, the same inmate broke off and swallowed parts of a sprinkler head in his cell in an attempt to kill himself or be transferred to another unit, the report said. The inmate underwent at least one surgery to remove the objects.
--Another inmate, after repeated requests for mental health care in the spring of 2014, put up a sheet in front of his cell and cut his arm deeply in seven places, causing him to bleed profusely. An inmate in a neighboring cell could tell something was wrong and called to the officer on the floor to seek medical help. It took another 35 minutes more for another officer to arrive. The inmate was handcuffed and removed from his cell. The inmate was strapped into a restraint chair and taken to the infirmary, where nurses were not allowed to remove the restraints as they worked to stop the bleeding. There was great delay in getting the inmate to the hospital, with one discussion caught on tape regarding which officer was next in line to receive overtime pay to accompany the inmate. By the time he arrived at the hospital, the inmate was uncooperative and returned to prison. His wounds were finally bandaged about 3.5 hours after he had first cut himself, the report says.
The federally-funded Disability Rights Oregon became aware of problems at the unit in May 2014 when two prisoners contacted the group. They complained they were being kept in their cells for 23 hours a day, and that prisoners were routinely being punished for harming themselves and other behaviors driven by their mental illness.
At the request of Disability Rights Oregon, the Oregon Department of Corrections gave the advocacy group access to prisoners in the unit. They were allowed to visit and monitor the unit at least three times, examine about 4,500 pages of medical and other records contained in the files of seven prisoners, view videotapes of seven cell extractions of prisoners and interview 19 inmates in the unit. The unit housed 43 inmates at the time of the inquiry.
“BHU prisoners and the past and present BHU mental health employees who spoke with us were consistent in their belief that many BHU prisoners have been subjected to the practical equivalent of torture,’' the report says.
Colette S. Peters, director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, in a letter Friday to Disability Rights Oregon after reviewing a draft of the report, wrote that she was disappointed in its conclusions, and characterized it as “more sensational than fact-based.’' Unit corrections officers take security protocols to keep staff safe when working with people who are extremely ill and violent, and questioned why the advocacy group did not interview security staff.
Yet she said the department is committed to reviewing the report’s recommendations and making improvements to the Behavioral Health Unit to avoid threatened litigation.
“While we vehemently disagree with DRO’s conclusion that the BHU culture promotes unnecessary violence and retaliation by correctional staff, our desire is to keep the lines of communication open and to work toward a common goal of continuing to improve in our approach to housing and treating this unique population,’' Peters wrote.
Steve Robbins, the DOC’s health services administrator, reminded lawmakers earlier this year that the unit is a prison, not a mental health treatment center.
In its final report, members of Disability Rights Oregon likened approaching the Behavioral Health Unit at the state prison in Salem as walking through the hallways of an aging high school. As the investigators walk past the last of 11 electronically- locked doors, they described hearing “prisoners randomly screaming, talking to themselves and rhythmically banging walls and metal.’' Once you get to the two-level tier of cells in the unit, the conditions appear as if they’re “from a past century when mental illness was primarily ‘treated’ through a combination of warehousing and isolation,’' the report said.
The group identified three top concerns: isolation of prisoners who are usually kept 23 hours a day in 6 ft-by-10-ft. cells and let out for one hour or less; lack of access for these inmates to timely mental health services that results in them spiraling out of control and ends with use of force by corrections officers; and, a culture in which advice of mental health professionals is consistently ignored and mental health crises are dealt with instead through the use of stun guns, pepper spray, riot gear and restraint chairs.
“We had consistent complaints from prisoners that were quite disturbing. We were a little bit surprised that a number of mental health staff, former and current confirmed a lot of those concerns in great detail,’' Greenberg said. “What concerned me most personally was that the violence is so accepted and commonplace.’'
Greenberg said it was a mistake for Disability Rights Oregon not to interview the security personnel in the unit, saying the DOC director raised a valid concern. The group thought the security guards might not have agreed to speak with their investigators, but the advocacy group hopes to interview the unit’s security personnel in the future, he said.
He said he hopes the DOC will work to correct some of the problems in the unit, and avoid litigation, Greenberg said.