Ariz. inmate dies after hours in outdoor cell

[Are_grits_groceries]

PHOENIX - An Arizona inmate who died after spending nearly four hours in the desert heat was left in an outdoor holding cell for twice as long as she should have been, the state prisons director said Wednesday.

Three corrections officers have been put on paid leave while the state investigates Wednesday's heat-related death of Marcia Powell, who was left in her unshaded cell in 103-degree heat at a prison in Goodyear.

"The death of Marcia Powell is a tragedy and a failure," prisons director Charles Ryan said. "The investigation will determine whether there was negligence and will tell us how to remedy our failures."

Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, was placed alone in the cell while being moved to an onsite detention unit. Ryan said officers placed Powell in the cell after a disturbance at the detention unit, but he would not elaborate on the nature of the disturbance.

Officers gave Powell, 48, bottled water, as required under prison policy, Ryan said. Corrections officers were 20 yards away in a control room while she was in the cell. Investigators will try to determine how much water she was given and whether she drank it.

Officers did not remove her after two hours as they should have done under department policy, Ryan said at a news conference.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20090520_ap_arizinmatediesafterhoursinoutdoorcell.html?referrer=digg

They should be proscuted for negligent homicide. Edit to add: At the least. I consider it a lot more than that. I doubt they will get much of a punishment.

[Bluzmann57]

1. Prostitution?

She was in an unshaded outdoor cell in 103 degree heat because of prostitution? She was obviously a desperate criminal. Or maybe not. Not saying that the deputies should be prosecuted for homicide since we don't have all the facts, but at the least they should change their policy.

[lapfog_1]

2. Probably can't prove it... but it wasn't "negligent"

They were punishing her for creating (or being part of) a problem inside.

I live here in AZ... you don't let anyone stay out in 103 degree heat for hours. Not ever.

[havocmom]

10. Many poor & working class people spend more time than that in the heat!

Try getting to and from work on a bus. Lots of time, waiting for transfers, standing on busy corners where the heat from weather combines with heat absorbed and given off by pavement, added to the heat from cars and building air conditioner venting. Then figure on all those people who work in landscaping all damn day. Hell, the crossing guards (usually elderly) have to stand for a couple hours in the blazing sun with the extra heat of cars and roads.

Yeah, the jailers screwed up big time, and probably for (their view that) she was a problem. I do not mean to diminish their crime (jails/prisons in AZ notoriously bad). But to say you don't let anyone stay out in 103 degree heat for hours is just plain denying the conditions that many people work and travel in.

I carried a thermometer with me on my daily bus commute in Tucson, just to compare real temps at street level with the official reported temps, taken in an open field at the airport buffer zone. Temps in excess of 120 on corners of Grant/Craycroft, Grant/Tanque Verde, Dodge/Fort Lowell, Broadway/Country Club for most of June and July. And everywhere, people were out working for landscape companies.

All those workers must be invisible or something. Very sad.

[Retrograde]

11. Native peoples have survived the heat for centuries, but

they generally knew how to work with their climate, i.e., don't do strenuous work in the sun in mid-day, get adequate fluids, rest during the hottest parts - that's why the siesta came about. We've gone to a "one style fits all" mode of living, which just doesn't make sense for an entire continent.

[havocmom]

12. Yep. When I first moved to Tucson, the streets were pretty empty midday in summer

I watched as the corporate clock took over and made common sense impossible in that climate. Dress codes and business hours rule now and it makes no sense at all.

I think a lot about Edward Abbey and his lament that the Army Corp of Engineers wouldn't be happy until the earth was bulldozed to a uniform flatness. His notion was just the tip of the iceberg. The corporations want us all in the same time zone too. Just ask brokers downunder in OZ, which used to be a great place to work from what I heard. Now, they have to work when the markets are open in US and Europe.

Corporations are killing humanity.

[ejpoeta]

3. all i can think is the wrath that would be incurred if a dog were left out

and died like that! what is wrong with people!!

[suchadeal]

6. What is wrong with people?

Plenty. God gives everyone a conscience, but many people refuse to listen to it. Maybe they would if they stopped for a second
and considered that eternity is a clock without hands and we all have a choice in how we will spend it.

[izquierdista]

4. Negligent homicide?

Negligent homicide is "Oops, my bad, I didn't look in the rear view mirror before I backed over those kids". This is a willful violation of human rights, right out of Auschwitz. They let "natural causes" take care of the less desirable members of the population.

[suchadeal]

7. "the less desirable members of the population"

Prostitutes? Bernie Madoff?

[L. Coyote]

5. Even two hours in a sunlit cell in Arizona is torture.

And it was only 103 out! What about when it is 118? Still 2 hour policy??

[DFW]

8. The corrections officers were 20 yards away?

That's not negligent homicide. It's murder one.

Not that it'll ever get prosecuted that way.

[secondwind]

9. Bet she was going to squeal on somebody! They probably all raped her or something.