Woman dies at Perryville prison after being left outside

[Ptah]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/20/20090520prisondeath0521.html

A 48-year-old woman died early Wednesday after being left in an outdoor
cage for nearly four hours at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville.

Marcia Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution,
was scheduled to be transferred to a detention unit Tuesday.

At 11 a.m., while she waited to be transferred, she was placed in an outdoor,
uncovered chain-link holding cell. At 2:40 p.m., she collapsed, the
Arizona Department of Corrections said in a release.

A half-hour later, Powell was taken to West Valley Hospital, where
she was pronounced dead at 12:42 a.m. this morning. The prison is in Goodyear;
the high temperature reached 107.5 degrees on Tuesday.




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Four hours in an outdoor cage?

[radical sister]

1. No More Prison Deaths

What happened to Marcia Powell is unfortunately not too rare.
The mentally ill in particular die in custody quite often,
usually through some kind of active restraint/behavioral
management technique (occasionally employed abusively as sheer
punishment) or neglect (as in many cases of suicide, and death
from treatable health problems). I'll wait to find out more
before judging Marcia's treatment as abuse or neglect; in
either case it does seem criminal. So does a 27-month prison
sentence for prostitution. Half the cost of prison could have
put her in supported housing with all sorts of resources
instead - if enough such options existed.

Anyone in AZ interested in connecting to advocate on this
issue? I'm an abolitionist, myself, but am all for reforms
that keep people alive and well long enough to be free. I have
a particular concern about the treatment of prisoners with
mental illness, and would enjoy company.

[Ptah]

2. What are you talking about?!?!!

"The mentally ill in particular die in custody quite often"

Do you have any statistics to support that assertion?

"I'm an abolitionist"

What does that have to do with Arizona Prisons?!???!

[Ptah]

3. Arizona suspends use of outdoor cells

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/294932.php


The Arizona state prisons director has suspended the use of all
outdoor holding cells while crews retrofit them to provide shade and water.

The move follows the heat-related death last week of Marcia Powell,
a 48-year-old inmate who had been left in an unshaded enclosure on
a day when temperatures topped 100 degrees.

The decision was disclosed on Friday by a prison spokesman after
an inquiry by The Associated Press.

The Arizona Department of Corrections operates 233 outdoor holding cells
at 10 prisons. The chain-link cells are used to house inmates who are
being transferred between various sections of the prison.

[Ptah]

4. After inmate death, state ends use of outdoor cells

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/295532


PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Corrections has discontinued the
use of outdoor holding cells following the death of an inmate in triple-digit heat.

Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson said in an e-mail Tuesday that the
decision came after consulting with Gov. Jan Brewer's office. He declined
to explain the decision or elaborate on discussions with her office, saying
Corrections Director Charles Ryan would answer questions today.

The Corrections Department had said last week that it would continue using
the cells once they were retrofitted to provide shade and water.

Marcia Powell, 48, died from heat-related complications hours after she
collapsed May 19 in an uncovered outdoor cell. She had been in the cell
for nearly four hours despite a prison policy saying inmates should be
removed after two hours.

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It's about time.