Anyone STILL watching 60 minutes? The horror show begins...

[Deja Q]

:(

[undeterred]

1. yes

mentally ill prisoner dies of dehydration after being chained for 17 hrs

[Deja Q]

3. Wow, he begged the cops to shoot him...

he still died, but damn...

[goclark]

2. What horror show?

[Deja Q]

4. Tune in...

Mental illness, a prisoner, abuse, death...

Warning: Graphic scenes will follow.

[goclark]

6. I'm on PST nt

[Deja Q]

9. Please forgive my naivety...

60 Mins starts with a GREAT piece on Obama... the next piece is about the abuse of a mentally ill prisoner...

I haven't seen what segment 3 will be...

And looking forward to Andy Rooney, as usual... :)

[stellanoir]

5. the inhumanity is astounding

[Deja Q]

7. Horrific, actually.

:scared:

[stellanoir]

11. Yup

"18 hours is not justified"

This woman has no soul.

[Catfight]

13. Oh, feel sorry for the people who have the clubs and the ability to abuse

by rape, torture and mental abuse...right, like we give a chit about the fu'king guards getting shit flung at them...oh poor them, then fu'kin treat them better or get them help. Don't kill them and abuse them further.

[Deja Q]

15. It works both ways, I totally agree.

Just let the ones locked up pull the shit first (sorry) and if they are mentally ill, treat them accordingly.

This segment is becoming too much to watch, but I agree there is another side to the story. It's a matter of fathoming the truth... but it sounds like the truth is closer to the side of the victim...

Glad it's over, but yipes...

[stellanoir]

19. "yipes" is right

now if we can only figure out a way to express the truth and stay out of "sewrious twouble."

never thought it would come to this.

[Catfight]

8. Why can't America treat people humanly? why must we throw mentally

ill people into institutions and incarcerate them? Why not a real hospital? How do these cops and guards believe they are humane? Just like in tampa, handcuffing and jailing a rape victim, it's just f'kin insane in reverse, the fu'kin lunatics are in charge. These guards need to be fu'kin locked up and not allowed into society, they are fubar.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

10. restraints should only be used when medically observed...

otherwise, it's torture by any other means

[Catfight]

16. There's better ways, restraints are torture, simple, they should never

be used, what should be used is medication administered by a qualified professional that can really help the person not comatose them either, but really help them, the POOR get fu'king, plain and simple. There's no reason that boy should have died, and the guards and that f'kin lunatic warden all need to be locked up for murder. They better see some jail time in their own little private hell they've created for many people.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

36. Oh, I totally agree with you!!

Just saying that if restraints (for some reason) ABSOLUTELY have to be used, they should be done under CLOSE medical supervision!

[Deja Q]

12. The administrator lady is a real piece of work...

:puke:

She claims they have to be kept safe, but the article presses home the fact it's not safe at all...

Talk about being scared straight, but nobody with mental illness deserves that treatment...

[Jack Sprat]

20. Because we ditched humane feelings

some 25 years ago with the Reagan revolution. This is why the O'Hannitys, Limbaughs, Colters, O'Reillys, etc are out there preaching hate every single day of the week. It begins to harden the spirit of the listeners. No matter how absurd or outrageous they become, it has become acceptable to our shallow public. Torture, kill, our make them disappear. It's all become a part of our national heritage. This is why some of us can no longer look at our country with the same respect that we once did years ago. We have assumed the role of the world thug.

[Greyhound]

25. Because Raygun "de-funded" all of the facilities we had (poor as they were)

as one of his "cost cutting" measures.

Every corruption that we are seeing today has its roots in the Raygun era. How is your portfolio doing?:evilfrown:

[Catfight]

34. You nailed it, reagan was hideous. nt

[muntrv]

14. GOP governor John Engler closed down the mental hospitals in Michigan.

That's why you have mentally ill people in prison.

[Toucano]

17. And Reagan cut the funding to nothing in the 80s

It's their tradition.

[kurth]

18. And this happened in MICHIGAN?

not Texas or Mississippi?

That woman prison director is a real sadist.

[undeterred]

22. neglectful

[tinfoilinfor2005]

21. My husband worked in that very same prison thirty years ago.

He was written up several times for disobeying the rules and siding with prisoners when he saw this kind of abuse. He just walked out one day and we left that horrid city. He just said that he wasn't a bit surprised to see that it had further deteriorated.

[kurth]

24. Privatization also played a role

The Grand Rapids Press
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Prison restraints linked to torture
By Pat Shellenbarger

... Last May and June, critical medications for several inmates were not provided while the Jackson prison complex was in transition from its own staff of pharmacists to a private firm called Pharmacorp. One inmate testified his medication for glaucoma and migraine headaches was withheld as punishment because he talked with attorneys in the case. Only while he was in court and on the stand Wednesday did a guard hand him his medication.

Some of the responsibility rests with Correctional Medical Services, the for-profit corporation that provides care for prisoners under a contract with the state, testified Jerry Walden, an Ann Arbor physician called as an expert witness for the inmates.

"There seems to be an indifference about care," Walden said, "and I'm concerned about that."

[hedgehog]

23. Let's see - we closed all the mental hospitals because the sick were

being warehoused in cold institutions, abused out of sight and not given treatment for their condition. Now we send the mentally ill to prison where the are.........

[Greyhound]

28. First we dumped them on the street so they would be seen, and then we criminalized

them in the name of "safety", just as we have done/are doing with poverty. My only consolation in regard to this issue is that we will get exactly what we deserve, history demands it.

[mentalsolstice]

31. Yup! You got it

I was a disability rights attorney in the 90s. and actually got to work a little on the historic Wyatt v. Stickney case, and was (and still am) for de-institutionalization. However, the intent was for states to close down their mental hospitals (except for the most seriously ill), and in their place provide community services to consumers and their families. Unfortunately, the many of the hospitals have closed, but instead of community services, the responsibility has been place on law enforcement.

[Jonathan50]

26. The woman smiled when asked about torture

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)

We are no longer a civilized society, if we ever were.

America has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners.

[Arkansas Granny]

27. Frontline on PBS did a documentary on this subject. It's called

"The New Asylums" and can be found here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/

It goes much deeper than the 60 Minutes segment.

[cadmium]

29. I couldnt watch it.

I have seen some of this stuff in real life and what amazes me most is that they got exposed on a national news show. Geraldo Rivera (love him or hate him) did a remarkable series of shows on the Willowbrook State School a montrous warehouse in New York for people with mental retardation. They shut the place down largely as a result of that report.

[hedgehog]

30. The worst part is that NO politician will ever run on cleaning up

our prisons because too many people think that whatever happens inside is OK since everyone there is a convict. Until we can protect the worst among us even from each other, none of us are safe.

[mucifer]

33. Actually congresspeople have worked on this issue before.

Bill Clinton was actually really bad with his crime bill that put lots of nonviolent drug users in prison. But, others have fought against the massive evil prison system.

[karlrschneider]

32. I'm pretty much immune to that kind of horror but I had to turn the channel.

Right about when that woman "Director of prisons" or whatever they called her started lying.
:grr:

[Acadia Blue]

35. Private prisons...corporatism....the more of it the worse it gets