Subject:  Mentally ill inmate dies in prison |
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Date Posted: 09/ 4/06 4:05pm
Local columnist Jeff Gerritt
Prison death demands a fix
September 1, 2006
Timothy Joe Souders died on Aug. 6, after spending most of his last four days bound naked to a steel bed in four-point restraints, soaked in his own urine. At 21, Souders' life was tragically short and, in many ways, just plain tragic. Mentally ill and unable to get help, Souders ended up alone and dead in a hot, segregated cell at Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson.
His parents did not know how he died. Steven Souders and Theresa Vaughn of Adrian learned the details two weeks later from my Aug. 20 report in the Free Press. A woman who played bingo at the hall where Timothy Souders worked as a caller brought a copy of the paper to his memorial service that day. Steven Souders, 41, a journeyman machine repair worker, said the Michigan Department of Corrections told him his son died in his sleep.
MDOC denies that, but Timothy Souders' death helped push Gov. Jennifer Granholm to order an overdue independent review of prison health care. His story touched a nerve in Michigan, which has closed most of its mental health facilities during the last few decades. Thousands of the state's mentally ill have ended up on the street or in homeless shelters, jails or prisons.
Geoffrey Fieger's law firm will file a wrongful death lawsuit against MDOC employees and Correctional Medical Services Inc., attorney Paul Broschay told me this week. CMS is the private, Missouri-based company under contract for primary care physicians and other services in Michigan state prisons.
I never met Timothy Souders, but the photos of him that his parents showed me in Adrian last week looked nothing like the bloated mug shot of prisoner No. 580074 that ran on MDOC's Web site. At 5-foot-8, he looked fit, handsome and happy, about 60 pounds lighter than the 235 he weighed in prison, and well-toned from work as a union roofer.
Souders had dropped out of high school and moved out of his parents' house when he was 17. Because of his mental disability, he received Social Security benefits.
Before he was arrested in March 2005, Souders worked part time calling bingo games at the Lenawee County fairgrounds. He was popular with the older players, who called him Opie, after the character on "The Andy Griffith Show." Senior citizens and young kids were his heart. In many ways, Souders was a boy inside a man's body.
"When Tim was on his meds, he was a good person, a loving, caring person," said Vaughn, 40.
But Souders had a troubled side. His record showed five misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct, assault and battery and alcohol and marijuana charges. On March 4, 2005, he stole two paintball guns from a Meijer store in Adrian and threatened a police officer with a knife.
"Go ahead, kill me," Souders said before an officer stunned him with a Taser. Souders was charged with resisting arrest and assault. After police took him to jail, Souders stabbed himself in the stomach seven times with a knife he had concealed. Later, he tried to hang himself with a noose made with fabric from jail coveralls. He was charged with malicious destruction of police property.
Souders was screaming for help, but no one was listening. He went to prison on Nov. 1, having received a one- to four-year bit for assault, resisting arrest and destroying police property. It turned into a death sentence.
Prison was no place for Souders, who had a bipolar disorder. He took medications for multiple conditions, including manic depression, psychosis and hypertension. Souders received seven misconduct reports: four for simply being out of place and another three for fighting, assaulting a prisoner and destroying property.
Roughly 24% of Michigan's nearly 50,000 inmates have a history of mental illness, Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said. MDOC must do a better job of accommodating them, including improving communication between security and health care staff, and between Corrections and the Department of Community Health.
Mental health staff at the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility tried to transfer Souders to Huron Valley Center in Ypsilanti, a psychiatric hospital for prisoners, but a transfer coordinator working for Community Health failed to move him. The state Health Department has reassigned that coordinator and is investigating the incident.
Still, someone from Corrections, knowing Souders' condition, should have had enough sense or sympathy to pick up a phone and try to get him out of that segregated cell in Jackson. At one point, the heat index probably reached 106, and medications put Souders at high risk for heat-related injury or death.
MDOC maintains procedures were followed. If that's true, the department needs to take a serious look at those procedures.
"I want to know this is never going to happen to another human being," said Vaughn, Souders' mother.
In the end, the state must be held accountable for this unnecessary death, but Souders should have received help long before he went to prison.
Over the last two weeks, Souders' parents have received a barrage of calls from reporters and attorneys.
Unfortunately, Timothy Joe Souders had to die before someone paid attention.
Timothy's aunt, Darlene Vaughn, has created a Web site with more information on the case: www.timothyjoesouders.bravehost.com
JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press editorial writer. Contact him at gerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.
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