We cant even have our own razor. If the goal and mission of the facility are to treat and successfully release people into the community (all of whom have already completed their prison sentence), then people with a mindset such as this supposed former employee should never be hired, especially in any rehabilitative setting. Thats a big reason 67 percent refuse treatment. An additional 175 have been released unconditionally because of medical reasons, advanced age or legal rulings. 559-935-2313. More. Thank You Just Future Project!!!! Harold Carmel MD and Mel Hunter JD MPA established the Atascadero Clinical Safety Project (ACSP) which conducted groundbreaking research into staff injuries from patient aggression. I know they are trying with what they have, but they are failing, Hough told me. Patients judged by the court to be not guilty because they were insane at the time of the felony crime are committed to a state hospital for treatment for a period equal to the maximum sentence of their most serious offense. These facilities work in tandem with the sex registry and parole to limit the rights of those labeled sex offenders, thereby making them second class citizens. The inhabitants contend that but for these failures, the majority of them would participate in the treatment program. Only today they know to swear off the swastika. Dozens of Mount . Imperial Valley press. When most people think about locking up violent sex offenders, maybe forever, the state mental hospital here isnt what they envision. Those patients that are too old and those who cant speak, walk or think properly are the ones that are abused the most. In July 2014, a solar installation at DSH-Coalinga began supplying power to the hospital. Coalinga State Hospital had the second highest numbers, with 358 patients testing positive and 12 deaths, followed by Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, with 326 infections and 11. "[4][5] A 2009 California Law Review article commented, "One reason for this appellation was that inmates [sic] were subjected to experimental therapies - electrical and pharmacological shock treatments in addition to lobotomies - to "cure" them of their "sex perversion. File a Joint Commission complaint. Chris Johnson, a San Francisco attorney who has been critical of the system, said its being done largely to save money. The residents here 800 child molesters and rapists deemed too dangerous to release when their prison sentences ended live in brightly colored dormitories named after California landmarks: Catalina, Fishermans Wharf, Newport Beach. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "af9ceb666831880f6508e5763c366875" );document.getElementById("bbda5a29c9").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and site URL in my browser for next time I post a comment. As a retired employee from this facility, theres only a handful who should be returned to society. According to multiple sources, evaluators disagreed about whether he posed a danger to the public; under the law, that split decision meant he was paroled instead of hospitalized. Almost nobody thinks sex offenders can be cured. The commitment categories of patients treated at DSH-Coalinga are described below: Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act If you or a loved one is having a mental health crisis, please call 9-1-1 immediately. Ive seen some horrible things in there as an employee. In 2007, after making abusive threats to other inmates, he was reclassified as a "Sexually Violent Predator". Two evaluators do the initial review. Here are prices in 10 communities, Fernando Tatis Jr. disciplined at the top of Padres stacked lineup and still learning in right field, Nighthawks remove all doubt, advance to regional girls hoop semifinal, Drew Pomeranz could be close to returning for Padres, Two women suffer major injuries after head-on collision in Lake Murray-area, Aztecs assistant coach Ron Gould hired by NFLs Rams less than a month into role at SDSU, Spring training recap: Padres no-hit by Cubs, After mans death ruled a homicide, sheriff says jails are working to better meet needs of mentally ill inmates. Once you harm a child, that urge NEVER goes away. Agreed with you 100% on this. The empty beds are among the things being examined in the wake of the murders Gardner committed. The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota held that Minnesota's civil commitment scheme was a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system. The home rejected by the judge is the same residence that the Department of State Hospitals proposed for the placement of 78-year-old sexually violent predator Douglas Badger. This place was never meant to do anything except ensnarl us in the system, said Michael St. Martin, 53, a convicted child molester from San Diego. The hospital is a partner with both West Hills College-Coalinga and Fresno City College. The 1960's were also a troubled decade for Atascadero, plagued by internal dissension, staff rebellions, and occasional scandal. Examples include fostering strengths; establishing meaningful relationships; and attending to relevant characteristics such as age, cognitive skills, cultural factors, and emotional regulation issues. Coalinga is one of the countrys largest shadow prisons, housing an appalling 941 citizens under the dehumanizing sexually violent predator (SVP) label. March 31, 2014 The gay prisoners of the Nazi regime became gay prisoners of the Liberated regime. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Documents related to John Albert Gardner III. "In re Howard (2005) 35 Cal. Hunter M, Carmel H. The cost of staff injuries from inpatient violence. SVPs were housed in ASH until the new state hospital in Coalinga opened around 2004. It is a maximum security facility built to ensure that sexually violent predators are kept separate from the community. A trial confirming SVP status can result in commitment to a state hospital for an indeterminate period (WIC 6604). Thats why I doubt the official story here. And if this is the treatment patients are receiving, no wonder its basically a life sentence for most! They look at you like they look at you in prison, like you are a worthless piece of crap. Hydrick has been in Californias not-a-prison prison since completing his seventeen-year prison sentence back in 1998. These facilities work in tandem with the sex registry and parole to limit the rights of those labeled sex offenders, thereby making them second class citizens. Approximately 1/3 of inhabitants take part in the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP). They even prey on each other in there. I interviewed Hydrick regarding a multitude of topics; his background, civil commitment, Coalinga, and Covid-19 in a carceral setting. [15] The Supreme Court subsequently refused to hear the case. State hospital facilities are Medicare-certified and Medicaid-approved, and has been accredited by The Joint Commission (TJC). Nancy Kincaid, assistant director of the Department of Mental Health, said thats because most of the referrals dont meet the stringent criteria for mental-health placement. [46] On March 30, 2008, 44-year-old inmate Earl McKee strangled a fellow inmate, 37-year-old Lawrence Rael, to death with a knotted towel. Its one of the many paths not taken for Gardner that afflict his victims families and motivate policymakers eyeing reforms. So its just not happening., It is evident that there is a pressing need to decarcerate these facilities, not only due to the injustices they perpetrate against citizens who have already paid their dues to society and the blatant deprivation of liberty, but also because of the dire situation Covid-19 presents for carceral settings. The annual tab to attend Stanford University is in the neighborhood of $50,000. Thy are in there for a reason an shouldve been killed for their crime when they did it. When I found out that they took him for X-rays, I talked to him. Rather, the inhabitants indicate their experiences suggest the state's intent is to use Coalinga State Hospital as an internment camp by refusing to provide any rational treatment program whatsoever to the committed individuals (i.e., treatment that conforms to that which the Federal Courts deemed to amount to the "minimum standards of treatment" after the State of California had been sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for defrauding mental health patients [under the state's care] of adequate treatment).[19]. We are a people-driven grassroots advocacy campaign dedicated to building a movement of community members demanding an end to indefinite detention regimes. Completing the treatment program typically takes about six years, Kincaid said. (Mr. G was later identified as Roger Alan Giese.) California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) provides perimeter security as well as transportation of patients to outside medical services and court proceedings. We have serious concerns that (the Department of Mental Health) is not fully executing its duty to protect the public from sex offenders, said state Assemblymen Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, and Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, who asked for the audit. Nineteen other states have similar programs. without their familys knowledge. According to Hydrick, Covid-19 is traveling so fast through the facility due to floaters, staff members who come from working in contaminated pods and spread the virus throughout the facility. One of the things they were upset about is the fact that they wanted me to admit to my crimes, and I told [the judge] No I didnt commit the crimes. Hydrick said, referencing his civil confinement hearing. We believe in justice, that persons who have caused harm may be held accountable for their actions. You dont deserve nothing. He was subsequently sentenced to seventeen years in prison. Personally, cant wait for BLM to visit your neighborhood and show you whats up. The median age of the committed inhabitants is 47.1; this is expected to increase as the facility's population ages. He spent 10 years in prison for luring boys to a house and molesting them. Just Future Project is a new initiative focused on challenging pre-crime preventative detention laws. Hydrick is on record as having a very rough, abusive childhood a history of trauma all too common amongst his fellow shadow prisoners at Coalinga so Hydrick took up martial arts at an early age as a way of defending himself from the harm he was subjected to. Here, two-thirds refuse to participate in the treatment designed to one day return them to society. Corcoran State Prison opened in 1988 and was intended to hold just over three thousand inmates. CSH also houses two inmates deemed not guilty by reason of insanity and one individual under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act.[4]. [16], California law allows persons designated as sexually violent predators to be committed to the facility indefinitely (under Jessica's Law) while they are receiving treatment. Voting records indicate more than 100 patients voted against it, and the city of Coalinga has filed a lawsuit against Fresno . The United States has a system of involuntary civil confinement facilities, a detestable system designed to incarcerate people even after they have served their prison sentences, and Coalinga State Hospital is one of the biggest perpetrators of this atrocity. Staff researcher Merrie Monteagudo contributed to this report. Michael St. Martin, a child molester from San Diego, shares a four-person room at the hospital. ); it honestly makes me wonder about what truly goes on inside (not that I dont have a good idea from patients, & even other staff.) [10][1][11] According to others, it is merely a prison. The facility opened on September 5, 2005; it was the first state hospital to be constructed in California in more than 50 years. DSH-Atascadero is also the regional training center for hospital police officers throughout the State of California. From 2012 to 2018, Eric worked at the Department of State Hospitals-Coalinga, serving as the Standards Compliance Coordinator, Director of Quality Improvement (A), and Health and Safety Officer. These patients are treated under a conservatorship agreement. Back in prison, they sold razors at the canteen. Hydrick detailed to me how the facility deprives them of basic liberties which those in the traditional model of involuntary psychiatric commitment are supposed to be entitled to, such as wearing their own clothing and having a phone. Or just base your assessment via hearing what Hydrick told you?? Enter James Hydrick, a sixty-one-year-old formerly renowned martial artist currently incarcerated inside Coalinga State Hospital, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing last month. dermatologist recommended skin care routine for 20s. Later in life, Hydrick would become a military contractor, doing work for the U.S. government in Nicaragua and El Salvador. All prisons and jails have Security or Custody levels depending on the inmate's classification, sentence, and criminal history. This consulting group consists of various clinical professionals who have been contracted by other states to ensure compliance with CRIPA. They have not been charged with a crime, but are instead referred by local community mental health programs through involuntary civil commitment procedures pursuant to the LPS Act. Of the 19 statewide who have been released via treatment since 1996, six had their conditional releases revoked for violations and returned to the hospital, Kincaid said. Ive heard also of staff beating up patients and the atopsy wondering why the patient had fractured ribs, contusions, etc. For this article, we have been getting a high volume of people who assert that they used to work at Californias shadow prison. Others decline because they dont think they did anything wrong, or because they dismiss treatment as ineffective, or because they find the process hypocritical: The same legal system that denied they were mentally ill at trial and denied them mental-health treatment in prison now incarcerates them indefinitely because of mental illness. Busby said the ultimate goal is containment no new offenses. DSH-Coalinga opened in 2005 and began treating forensically committed patients, mostly of which are sexually violent predators. He believes he has gotten better and is no longer a threat, but he said he also understands the publics reluctance to gamble on people like him. v. Jesson, et al. Sorry I dont believe it. DSH-Coalinga is currently forming a new partnership with two California universities to create clinical rotations for medical students. The United States has a system of involuntary civil confinement facilities, a detestable system designed to incarcerate people even after they have served their prison sentences, and Coalinga State Hospital is one of the biggest perpetrators of this atrocity. Were dying in here, Hydrick told me, alluding to the obscenely high positive case count of 442. David Saunders MD led the development of a forensic psychiatry fellowship, affiliated with UCSF-Fresno and UCLA. The American criminal justice system operates upon a very simple principle: Any person who commits a crime is to serve a sentence, and once they serve that sentence, they have paid their dues to society. At the very minimum, homosexuals were frequently degraded by staff whose attitudes concerning homosexuality were punitive and judgmental. According to a 1978 Federal study of sex offender treatment programs:[3] "An informal history of [ASH], distributed in 1975, reports that Atascadero opened with the philosophy that good therapy could be carried on in a security setting and that modern methods of psychiatric treatment, based on a therapeutic community' concept, would most likely succeed. The problems of 'therapy vs. security' and 'prison vs. hospital' immediately developed and hindered successful treatment. Fuck these dumb mfs an any of your family members in there. God help everyone in there!