Lawsuit filed in Taycheedah inmate’s death

Treatment used alleged to worsen mental state
Poor mental health care as well as a slow response from guards and medical staff contributed to the suicide of a mentally ill prison inmate, a lawsuit alleges.

James Gende, a Waukesha attorney, filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee on behalf of Angela Enoch’s estate and surviving family members.

Enoch, a mentally ill teen who had been in and out of institutions and foster care, died in June 2005 when she was 18. She used a ripped seam from a pillow to strangle herself in an observation cell of the segregated unit at Taycheedah Correctional Institution, the state’s largest prison for women near Fond du Lac.

“I think the system turned her into a throwaway child,” Gende said Tuesday. “The treatment she received while incarcerated by the Department of Corrections was a substantial cause of the deterioration of her mental health status, which resulted in her successful suicide.”

The suit, which names Gov. Jim Doyle, Corrections Secretary Matt Frank, and 20 corrections employees as defendants, seeks a jury trial and damages of $10 million. Enoch’s mother, Roxanne Enoch of Hayward, is named along with Enoch’s two minor sisters as plaintiffs.

“We are in the process of reviewing the lawsuit and conferring with our legal counsel and it would be premature to comment on the matter at this time,” John Dipko, a Department of Corrections spokesman, said Tuesday. “However, we take any suicide that occurs in our prison system very seriously and we re-evaluate our practices and policies in each instance to see if there are any actions that could have prevented the death and if there are any changes that need to be made.”

ACLU, Justice Department also cite Enoch case
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a pending class-action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and a separate U.S. Department of Justice investigation, both of which allege grossly deficient medical and mental health care at Taycheedah.

The prison, which has about 730 inmates, has the highest ratio of mentally ill offenders of Wisconsin’s 19 correctional institutions, state Department of Corrections officials say. About two-thirds of its inmates have mental health needs.

The ACLU suit notes that the suicide rate among inmates in segregated units is 10 times the rate of those in the general-population units in Wisconsin prisons. In segregation, inmates typically spend 23 hours of each day alone in a cell, and are given about one hour outside of it to exercise.

Corrections officials say they have been working to improve mental health care at the prison and now give a closer review of inmates considered for segregation.

Enoch’s death is recounted in both the ACLU and Justice Department complaints. But the latest 20-page lawsuit offers new details alleging how Taycheedah’s response to Enoch’s mental illness ultimately led to her death.

“That because of her severe mental illnesses, Enoch was placed in solitary confinement in (Taycheedah’s) Segregation Unit,” the suit alleges. “… Solitary confinement results in exacerbation of previously existing mental illnesses. It is also likely that individuals, like Enoch, will suffer permanent harm due to their solitary confinement.”

Suit alleges prison failures
Enoch entered Wisconsin’s juvenile court system at age 12 and was charged with her first adult crime at 14. She had a history of assaults, as well as self-destructive and suicidal behavior.

She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, personality disorder, mood disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Despite a court order to give Enoch her prescription medications, Taycheedah staff “failed to take the necessary action in administering (her) prescribed medications in the days immediately preceding her death of June 19, 2005,” the lawsuit alleges.

The suit also alleges it took staff six to eight minutes to enter Enoch’s cell after observing her strangling herself.

“(Taycheedah) staff’s reaction to Enoch’s self-strangulation was unreasonably delayed and in violation of their standard operating procedures for response to an emergency situation, which was a substantial cause of Enoch’s death,” the suit reads.

Among the violations of law, the suit alleges wrongful death, cruel and unusual punishment, violation of equal protection, and violations of the federal Rehabilitation Act and the American with Disabilities Act.

The suit also alleges gender-based disparities. Female prisoners are not afforded the same level of psychiatric care available to male offenders at the Wisconsin Resource Center, a specialized mental health facility administered by the state Department of Health and Family Services through a partnership with the Department of Corrections.

“If Angela had been a man, she never would have been in that segregation unit,” Gende said. “She’d have been in a mental health facility.”

The Department of Corrections’ Committee on Inmate/Youth Deaths reviewed Enoch’s suicide, Dipko said. However, the committee’s findings are confidential under state law, he added.

In Doyle’s proposed two-year budget, the state Building Commission has approved an $11 million proposal for a 45-bed female inmate treatment facility at the Wisconsin Resource Center. His budget also includes a request for 33 additional permanent positions for medical and mental health care at the prison, at a cost of $2.7 million.

Wendy Harris can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 526, or wharris@postcrescent.com. Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers contributed to this report.

Florida to Punish Kids for Crimes They Haven’t Committed Yet

I knew it was easy to get locked up in Florida. Apparently, you can get punished in the state before committing a crime, too.

An extremely troubling new partnership between the Florida Department of Corrections and IBM wants to use software to predict which juveniles will commit crimes in the future, so “the best course of treatment” can be chosen. Hey, why wait for juveniles to commit crimes, if we can start their “rehabilitation” now?

The Florida DOC says that by using predictive analytics software, it can “analyze key predictors such as past offense history, home life environment, gang affiliation and peer associations to better understand and predict which youths have a higher likelihood to reoffend.”

What about talking to the kids to determine the best course of action? People are unpredictable and complex; they aren’t data points. Juveniles should be taught that the world is open to them, and that they are the agents of their own destiny — not that they fit into the bottom half of a spreadsheet, and therefore need extra mandatory counseling or placement in a group home.

My biggest problem with this announcement is that it takes a good principle and completely warps it. Evidence-based programming is good. Using data to determine what works and what doesn’t is smart. But we’ve crossed the line when IBM’s vice president for analytics says the software will help authorities “take the appropriate action in real time to combat crime and protect citizens.” What are they thinking?

I first heard about this partnership from Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo, who had the same reaction: “I don’t know about how reliable your system is, IBM, but have you ever heard of the 5th, the 6th, and the 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution? What about article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? No? Let’s make this easy then: Didn’t you watch that scientology nutcase in Minority Report?”

Florida’s Department of Corrections should use any data collected to guide programming decisions on a macro level, rather than using an individual’s past mistakes to condemn them to a less-promising future. As it stands, Florida’s latest move is badly misguided. But with just a few tweaks, this new partnership could get back on track.

Source: http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/florida_to_punish_kids_for_crimes_they_havent_committed_yet

Elan School

Traumatised South African children play ‘rape me’ games

Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
The Guardian, Thursday 13 March 2008

South African schoolchildren are so affected by crime that they play games of “rape me, rape me” and mimic robberies in the playground, according to the country’s human rights commission. In a report on school violence published yesterday, the commission said schools were the “single most common” site of crimes against children, such as robbery and assault, including rampant sexual violence, some of it by teachers.

The commission said it had identified a number of games pupils played in response to the violence, including one in which they pretended to rape each other. “This game demonstrates the extent and level … brutalisation of the youth has reached, and how endemic sexual violence has become in South Africa,” it said.

The report said that a fifth of all sexual assaults on young people occurred at school. A survey of 1,227 female students who were victims of sexual assault found that nearly 9% of them had been attacked by teachers.

The commission also found that some boys committed what they called “corrective rape” on lesbians, justifying the assault by claiming that it would make the victims heterosexual. “There is a growing phenomenon of corrective rape. This refers to an instance where a male learner rapes a lesbian female learner in the belief that after such a sexual attack the learner will no longer be lesbian,” the report said.

A separate study by the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme found that a quarter of secondary school students said that forced sexual intercourse did not necessarily constitute rape.

The human rights commission report said that more than 40% of the young people it interviewed had been victims of some form of crime. It recommended that the education department consider introducing metal detectors and fences at schools, after the Red Cross children’s hospital in Cape Town said it commonly treated school pupils who had been assaulted with fists, knives, machetes or guns, or who had been raped.

Trial opens; Boy Scouts accused of hiding pedophiles

The Oregonian
Trial opens in Portland, with Boy Scouts accused of hiding pedophiles
By Aimee Green, The Oregonian
March 17, 2010, 9:13PM

Attorney Kelly Clark, who represents a 37-year-old man who as a boy was sexually abused by an assistant Scoutmaster, told Multnomah County jurors Wednesday: “You will see a different face of the Boy Scouts of America” in coming weeks.
BRENT WOJAHN/THE OREGONIAN

A civil trial that opened Wednesday in Portland will show that the Boy Scouts of America knew it had child molesters in its leadership for decades but kept the problem quiet, according to an attorney for one of the victims.

The case, expected to attract national attention, centers on a Portland man who confessed to Scout leaders that he had molested 17 Scouts but was allowed to continue joining boys in Scouting activities.

On a broader scale, the case is one of the first to bring into open court hundreds of confidential files that the 100-year-old organization kept on Scout leaders and others suspected of sexually abusing boys. Though the Scouts, based in Texas, have been sued dozens of times over allegations of sexual abuse, most cases have been settled out of court, keeping files from becoming public.

Patrick Boyle, the Washington, D.C.-based author of “Scout’s Honor: Sexual Abuse in America’s Most Trusted Institution,” said Wednesday that this case may be only the second time such files have been used in a trial.

“It’s very embarrassing to them,” Boyle said.

The case that opened Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court was brought by Kelly Clark, a Portland attorney who specializes in child sex abuse cases, and involves a former assistant Scoutmaster named Timur Dykes. The lawsuit, brought by a victim of Dykes listed in court documents by the pseudonym Jack Doe, seeks at least $14 million from the Boy Scouts of America and the Cascade Pacific Council in Oregon.

The Scouts, Clark said in opening statements, knew it had pedophiles in its organization yet allowed Dykes and others to continue to associate with its members. He held up file folder after file folder from Boy Scout headquarters that he said proves the organization knew of at least 1,000 suspected child molesters from 1965 to 1985.

“Those decisions led naturally, predictably and foreseeably to the abuse of boys like” my client, he said.

Attorneys for the two Scouting organizations said in their opening statements that their clients weren’t at fault.

Boy Scouts of America attorney Charles T. Smith said he would call experts who would testify that sexual abuse of children wasn’t a problem specific to the Scouts but one that occurs throughout society. He also told jurors that child molesters are difficult to track and that the organization kept confidential files on them in an effort to protect children.

“These people move,” Smith said. “They go from state to state. And they change their names or their birth dates or they do something to try to slip back in.”

The trial, expected to last four weeks, focuses on Doe, who was a Boy Scout when he was abused by Dykes in the 1980s. The Oregonian is not naming Doe, now 37, because he is a victim of sex abuse.

According to Clark, Dykes was 25 when he met a 9-year-old Doe in 1981. Later, Doe joined a Southeast Portland Scout troop where Dykes was an assistant Scoutmaster. The troop met at a building, in the 9900 block of Southeast Caruthers Street, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The boys also often went to Dykes’ apartment to work on merit badges or spend the night, with their parents’ approval, Clark told jurors.

“All of the parents trusted Timur Dykes because he was a Scout leader,” Clark said.

The apartment, Clark said, was like a playground for boys.

“He had ferrets,” Clark said. “He had snakes, including a boa constrictor. … He had a knife collection. He gave (Doe) french fries for breakfast on a regular basis.”

In January 1983, the mother of a Scout who said he had been molested by Dykes went to Gordon McEwen, a Mormon bishop who headed the local Scouting program, Clark said. McEwen confronted Dykes, who confessed to abusing 17 Scouts.

Nonetheless, Dykes was allowed to continue to spend time with the boys in the program, Clark said. McEwen contacted the parents of the 17 Scouts but “did nothing to warn the other parents of boys within Timur Dykes’ reach and grasp,” Clark said.

Dykes was arrested that year on accusations of molesting boys. He pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree sexual abuse, received probation and was ordered to stay away from children. Yet, Clark said, he continued Scouting activities.

After his confession, Dykes molested Doe at least six times, Clark said. Four times, Doe awoke to discover he was on top of Dykes, who was aroused. Another time, Dykes pulled Doe’s hand into his shorts. During a recent deposition, Dykes admitted abusing Doe.

In July 1984, police pulled over Dykes while he was driving a van full of Scouts on a camping trip. Police discovered his 1983 conviction and arrested him. Doe’s parents learned of Dyke’s history and, alarmed, asked their son if he had been a victim.

“To protect his parents, he said, ‘No, Timur never touched me,’” Clark said. But the abuse deeply disturbed Doe, who started getting bad grades, using drugs and getting in trouble with the law, Clark said. Today, he suffers from depression, nightmares and flashbacks, Clark said.

Clark is also representing seven other victims of Dykes in lawsuits against the Boy Scouts. Those plaintiffs also sought damages from the Mormon church, and the church settled.

Paul Xochihua, an attorney for the Cascade Pacific Council, painted a much different picture. He disagreed with how Clark characterized McEwen’s response to Dykes’ confession, saying McEwen cooperated with a police investigation. Police also knew of McEwen’s plan to contact the parents of the abused children, he said.

“He will say he acted immediately,” Xochihua said.

Smith, the attorney for the Boy Scouts of America, said neither the local nor national organization was directly involved in the operation of Doe’s troop. That fell to the Mormon church. But, Smith told jurors, “Boy Scouts of America is not here to blame this on the church. Those decisions will be up to you.”

Boyle, the author, said Smith’s argument is one he’s heard before.

“‘We don’t run the local troop. We don’t choose the leaders,’” Boyle said. That argument has been successful in the past, he said. What’s more, Boyle said, the public has a lot of good will toward the Scouts.

“People are unwilling to punish the Boy Scouts,” Boyle said. “I draw a distinction with the Catholic Church, because a lot of people don’t like the Catholic Church.”

– Aimee Green