Control Unit Prisons in Maryland Dear prison activists, As some of you may know, the Baltimore Anarchist Black Cross has been investigating conditions at Maryland's two control units/super maximum prisons--the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center (MCAC) and the Maryland House of Corrections Annex (MHCX)--and working in local coalitions, as well as with the National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons, to put an end to them as part of our overall abolitionist work. The MCAC, opened in 1989, is notorious among prisoners, prisoners' families and activists, and has been describedby some prisoners--who know--as worse than the infamous Pelican Bay in California. Last year we requested that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) send us a copy of their letter of findings as soon as they had prepared it for Maryland's governor, Parris Glendening. They obliged last week. Some of the findings as stated therein are quite damning for a polite letter from a federal bureaucracy to a state one. Excerpts from the 13-page letter/report follow. I have omitted the litany of statutes and case law that forms the introduction, as well as some of the general descriptions of the "facilities" at the MCAC and the list of recommendations (which are obvious). I have indicated omissions with three asterisks (* * *). For each of the violations of civil liberties cited in the letter the DoJ has made remedial recommendations. The Governor has 49 days from the issue of the letter (May 1) to respond to the recommendations. After this 49-day grace period the DoJ may initiate a law suit, pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. You may request a complete copy o the letter of findings from the Baltimore ABC, or from the Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division, Main Building, Washington, D.C. 20530). Our address is Baltimore ABC P.O. Box 22203 Baltimore, MD 21203-4203 Internet barrenador@nothingness.org Worldwide web: http://www.charm.net/~gbarren/abc *Copies of the Baltimore ABC's investigations and analysis, entitled "Total Control in the Free State" are available from us. An abbreviated version is to be found at our web site: http://www.charm.net/~gbarren/abc/cu.html* If you wish to register a protest or request information on the Governor's response to the letter of findings, we suggest that you contact Governor Parris Glendening Governor's Mansion Annapolis, MD 21401 Tel. 410.974.3901 Stuart Nathan Assistant Attorney General Department of Public Safety 6776 Reisterstown Rd, Suite 312 Baltimore, MD 21215-2341 Tel. 410.764.4070 We hope that you will use this report as a tool to rally people against the inhumane, racist, classist imprisonment binge in this country. *Please forward this to other prison abolitionist and prison reform organizations.* Power to freedom, Gusano Barrenador Baltimore Anarchist Black Cross ================================================================== U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division __________________________________________________________________ Office of the Assistant Attorney General Washington, D.C. 20530 May 1, 1996 The Honorable Parris N. Glendening Governor, State of Maryland State House Annapolis, Maryland 21401 Re: Notice of Findings of Investigation: _Maryland_Correctional_Adjustment Center_ Dear Governor Glendening, I am writing in reference to our investigation into conditions withing the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center ("Supermax") in Baltimore, Maryland. As you know, we notified your predecessor in December 1994 of our intent to investigate Supermax pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act ("CRIPA"), 43 U.S.C. [sect.] 1997 _et seq_, to determine whether there exist any violations of the federal constitutional rights of inmates housed at this facility. Despite intial resistance to our on-site investigation, in May and June 1995, we finally toured Supermax with consultants in the fields of medical care, mental health care, and general penological issues. Unfortunately, our investigation continued to be met with resistance, causing one of our consultants to note that the tour was unique in terms of its adversarial and confrontational nature. * * * Although our access to certain information was restricted by state officials, consistent with the statutory requirements of CRIPA, we now write to advise your of the findings of our investigation. Based on our investigation, we believe that certain conditions at Supermax violate the constitutional rights of the inmates. The facts and law supporting our determination of constitutional violations are set forth below. * * * II. FACTUAL SUMMARY The following factual summary is derived from the reports of our consultants, inspections of the prison, interviews with inmates, and the documents provided by the facility. A. _General_Conditions_ Inmates at Supermax are subjected to extreme social isolation. Inmates are confined to single person cells 24 hours a day, except for a brief period (less than an hour0 every two to three days when they are permitted, one at a time, our of their cells to shower and walk around the dayroom area [fn. Inmates are also allowed out of their cells to see visitors and, as indicated, to see medical staff.]. Inmates are not premitted outdoors due to staff shortages. Inmates eat all of their meals in their cells. Food trays are passed through a narrow food port in a cell door, solid except for a vision window. Inmates are not allowed to participate in any prison job opportunities or any other prison recreational or educational programs. No recreational equipment is provided. Inmates in adjoining cells can hear but not see each other. The sole opportunity for socialization occurs during the out-of-cell time, when the inmate release from his cell may socialize with other inmates on his block, who are locked behind their cell doors. [The use of the third-person, singular masculine pronoun and possessive above is not sexist language; all the inmatescurrently at the MCAC are men.--GB] Although Supermax has a capacity of 288, in June 1995, the census was only 205. In the five month period before the Justice Department was finally allowed access to the Supermax, the census dropped by 44. [Prisoners reported to the Baltimore ABC that the prisoners were shipped out of the MCAC so that it would appear to be in compliance with the law.--GB] * * * Food served to the prisoners at Supermax is prepared at the penitentiary across the street and brought to Supermax in bulk. At Supermax, the food is placed into individual compartmentalized thermal trays for distribution to the prisoners in their cells. Food placed in the trays is not promptly covered; trays brought to the housing units are not promptly served. As a result, food is served lukewarm or cold. Food must be served at temperatures that conform to accepted health standards. B. _Medical_and_Mental_Health_Care_ 1. Medical Care Access to meaningful sick call is not adequate. For routine medical problems, Supermax inmates obtain sick call requests from correctional officers, fill them out, and return them to the officers. Supermax is thus failing to follow Department of Corrections policy that "submission and collection of sick call request will be conducted by medical personnel only." This policy is consistent with the standard in the field and recognizes the importance of free access to medical care, without the interposition of custody staff between patient and medical provider. For most medical problems, meaningful sick call includes an opportunity for a medical provider to make full visual assessment and some hands-on examination. Supermax, at the time of the consultant's visit, did not record where a sick call encounter takes place. To the extent that physician assistant encounters are occurring while inmates are behind the cell doors * * *, for most encounters, this is inadequate access to meaningful sick call. For msot encounters, the inmate should be brought at leat to the sergeant's room for the visit by the physician assistant. Since January 1, 1995 (following the Department of Justice's notice to Maryland that it was initiating an investigation of Supermax), Supermax policy requires physician assistants to make rounds for sick call seven days a week on each housing unit. Medical staff at the facility report that such sick call only occurs five days a week; a few inmates in the general housing units report that in person sick call only occurs twice a week. Access to health care at Supermax may also may also be impeded by the fee system. Significantly, although Supermax inmates have no opportunity for prison jobs, they are held responsible for medical co-payments for each inmate-initiated medical encounter and for each non-psychiatric prescription resulting from such and encounter unless the inmate is indigent. Inmates are being charged for encounters where no real medical service is rendered. There was a significant decrease in the number of visits made by inmates to physicians' assistants and the number of non-psychiatric prescriptions filled between the fourth quarter of 1994 an dthe first quarter of 1995 at Supermax. The medical co-payment requirement became effective January 1, 1995. Although a payment system is not illegal _per_se_, it is imperative that all inmates receive adequate medical treatment, regardless of their ability to pay. The full-time medical staff at Supermax consists of one registered nurse and one physician assistant. A physician comes to Supermax as needed, which may only be every other week. This is inadequate. A physician should work on-site at Supermax at least once a week, at least to supervise the physician assistant. Upon arrival at Supermax, a nurse screens the inmate's medical record and schedules a medical visit if indicated. No face-to-face receiving screening occurs. This is contrary to the standard in the field, which requires a face-to-face intake screening. 2. Mental Health Care Maryland has created a prison which, given its mission and environment, results in extensive demand for mental health services. The conditions at Supermax require close psychiatric monitoring and substantial psychiatric services. Yet, systematic deficiencies renfer Supermax's mental health care system incapable of satisfying minimum constitutional standards. Given current conditions and lack of treatment services, inmates with serious mental illnesses will likely experience no improvement in their condition, or worse, will experience further mental deterioration. Furthermore, because of the prison's inadequate screening and treatment services, inmates with mental problems are at risk of developing serious mental illnesses. The mental health services at Supermax are grossly deficient. First, Supermax is not adequately screening inmates for the presence of mental illnesses, either upon admission or during incarceration at the prison. As shown by a prison-wide screening completed just before the Justice Department was given access to Supermax, Supermax can reasonably successfully screen its populationfor the presence of mental illness. However, the serious fact that the ad hoc screening resulted in 20 inmates with serious mental illnesses being transferred out to a facility equipped to provide mental health services and an additional 35 inmate being identified as needing mental health services is evidence that routine screenings are inadequate. In addition, Supermax's special purpose screening was not completely successful because inmates demonstrating active psychotic symptoms remained at Supermax during tours by the Justice Department. The problems with Supermax's inadequate screenings are compounded by two other facts. One, Supermax fails to provide confidential psychological evaluations without adequate penological justification. Because some inmates have masturbated in the presence of Supermax's female psychologist during evaluations, _all_evaluations are now done in the presence of correctional officers. It is inappropriate to generalize in this specific remedy to all inmates requiring mental health intervention. Inmates have reported that certain correctional officers have been verbally provocative concerning issues relevant to their mental illness. And two, mental health staff do not make rounds, relying instead on referrals for mental health services from correctional staff or from the inmates themselves. It is critical that mental health staff closely monitorall inmates to detect the presence of mental illness and effectively identify those inmate in need of mental health services, both upon their arrival and during their confinement. Mentally ill prisoners may not seek mental health services because of the nature of their mental illness makes them unable to recognize their illness or ask for assistance. Further, custody staff should not be making medical judgments that should be reserved for clinicians. Rounds by mental health staff would help identify mental health problems before they become serious mental illnesses. The second major problem with Supermax's grossly deficient mental health care services, and futher reason why seriously mentally ill prisoners cannot be treated at Supermax, is that treatment for mental health is essentially limited to medication management. Adequate programming and psychotherapy are not available to inmates with serious mental illnesses. The prison is simply not staffed to provide any inpatient or intensive outpatient treatment. Third, although required by facility policies and procedures, inmates place in isolation are not being routinely evaluated by mental health staff within 12 hours of their placement in isolation. Supermax must ensure that anyone place in isolation receives a psychological evaluation withing twelve hours of such confinement. [It is absurd to see "isolation" referred to as a special category in the context of control units!--GB] Fourth, quality assurance is considered standard practice in virtually every health care facility in the country and is considered a fundamental part of a health care operation. Supermax, however, has not quality assurance system for its mental health services. Fifth, the mental health records at Supermax are poorly organized, fail to contain essential information such as past psychiatric history or blood test results, and contain significant discrepancies concering diagnoses. Sixth, inmates are receiving lithium with inadquate assessments, placing them at risk for significant medical problems. C. _Exercise_ By Maryland Divsion of Correction policy, which is consistent with professional standards, each inmate is entitled to receive one hourof out-of-cell time daily. However, due to insufficient staffing, inmates generally have less than an hour of indoor out-of-cell time every second of third day. Futhermore, again due to insufficient staffing, inmates never go outdoors and never receive exposure to natural light of fresh air. A number of inmates have alleged that incidents of inmates throwing feces at staff has increased substantially when the outdoor yards were closed. Supermax's failure to provide sufficient out-of-cell time on a daily basis as wellas its failure to provide any opportunity to fo outdoors is unconstitutional, especially given the highly restrictice regimen of daily life at Maryland Supermax. D. _Indefinite_Segregation_ Supermax uses Maryland Division of Correction's objective classification point system to make decisions regarding transfers out of Supermax. However, the system, which may be working well in other penal institutions in Maryland, is not working at Supermax. Under Maryland's point system, an inmate must amass 24 points to qualify for transfer. However, at most, a Supermax inmate may only amass 21 points thorugh good behavior. The remaining three points must be amassed through classification elements beyond the inmate's control, mainly relating to the crime committed by the inmate or the sentence imposed. Because many of the inmates at Supermax have committed serious crimes, they can only get one point in this category. As our consultant pointed out, Supermax inmates are "quite literally caught in a 'Catch 22' situation, which leaves them perpetually 2 points short of qualifying for transfer." For all practical purposes, there is no objective means for earning a transfer out of Supermax. Instead, decisions about who will transfer out of Supermax turn virtually exclusively on the subjective judgments of staff. Staff state that between 90 and 99% of all transfers out of Supermax have been through such subjective judgments. * * * Although the average length of time spent at Supermax is 548 days, a number of inmates have been incarcerated at Supermax virtually from the facility's opening in January 1989. Other inmates are being held at Supermax although they hav been infraction-free for long periods of time. For instance, our consultant reviewed the record of an inmate who had had not misconduct reports at Supermax since December 18, 1991. E. _Abuse_ Supermax use its "pink room" for isolation purposes until right before the Justice Department tours last spring. When we toured in May and June, according to Supermax officials, the pink room had just been closed and would not be used in the future. The pink room was an unheated strip cell inappropriately located in the medical unit where an inmate was held in isolation for punishment. The cell was made of concrete and contained no furniture or mattress. Inmates remained in the pink room, sometimes as long as four days, wearing only underwear and a three piece restraint (leg irons, handcuffs, and a waist chain connected to the handcuffs and holding the hands very close the body). Inmates used a hole in the floor as a toilet. The cell was filthy, covered with old feces and urine. Because hands were chained to waists, inmates were usually forced to urinate or defecate on themselves. Inmates in the pink room could not feed themselves with their hands due to the restraints. There was no running water in the pink room. [A. This makes no mention of inmates' tesitmony that the air conditioning in the pink room was often deliberately turned up to full blast, often leaving the inmate naked and freezing for days. B. We have only the DoC word that the pink room will not be used again, when and if the DoJ lays off their investigation. We need to keep the pressure up.--GB] The pink room has been replaced by cadre cells, which are normal cells in an isolated area, for disciplinary purposes. The doors to the cadre rooms have large metal closers on the inside of the doors which present a suicide risk. Our consultant was unable to find evidence of a pattern of physical abuse by Supermax staff against inmates. However, we feel an obligation to bring to your attentions that we have received and continue to receive a substantial number of inmate allegations that staff at Supermax are using excessive force against the inmates out of the range of Supermax cameras. * * * [END]