Transcript
" LETTER TO MS. INGRAM " Article by Victor Aguirre #752111 MS. INGRAM/PSYEHIATRIST LYNAUGH UNIT MED. DEPT. Ms. Ingram, I am writing to you concerning two inmates with serious mental problems who have been placed here on A-wing, 84 (high security) overflow. These two men need to be at a facility designed for mental health patients whose staff is trained and educated to deal with these types of problems. The first inmate, Mr. Collins (we all call him Dbama because he claims to be the President of the United States) is showing signs of serious mental: deterioration while isolated in his BA custody cell. He is becoming more and more agitated and aggressive as the weeks go by. I have been in this cellblock for a while and have seen him deteriorate mentally in small increments to where he is now. He claims to "own all the money in the world", to be "Jehovah and Jesus Christ" and President Dbama. He believes there is a computer on top of his head transmitting his thoughts — a computer which he tells, "Internet, on" while he asks you to look at it and tell him what it says. Mr. Collins is also a military veteran. At first I thoughfhe was being delusional with his military stories because they seemed to be a mixture of truth and fantasy. But one day he showed me a few old photographs of him and, in one of them, he is a young man wearing a military uniform and claims the picture was taken in Germany some time in the 70s. As a veteran of the military I believe he deserves better than what he is currently getting when it comes to mental health care. The guards and other prison officials here punish him for his mental illness — he is currently a G4 custody and is on cell, commissary and other punitive restrictions due to variousm prison rule infractmons. He had just gotten out of GA custody after spending 6 months there and within weeks of being back in general population he was back. Now he has taken a downward turn in mental functioning. The other night, around two or three in the morning, he was yelling and cussing and kicking his cell door telling whoever was listening to "let [him] out" because he needed to go to a party at 7:00. He was extremely agitated and the guards thought it was funny that he wanted to go to a party. After having their laughs,they left him there yelling some more. I believe the isolation of G4 custody is affecting him in a negative way. This is not surprising. In a published Federal Court case dealing with the effects of isolation on mental functioning it was noted that the effect of prolonged isolation on inmates has been repeatedly confirmed in medical and scientific studies. Dr. Stuart Grassian, a board certified psychiatrist, researcher and teacher, submitted an affidavit chronicling the extensive literature, studies and observations of the psychological effects on inmates of prolonged solitary confinement. Dr. Grossian explained as follows: "The restriction of environmental stimulation and social isolation associated with confinement in solitary are strikingly toxic to mental functioning, producing a stuporous condition associated with perceptual and cognitive impairment and affective disturbances. In more severe cases, inmates so confined have developed florid delerium - a confusional; psychoses with intense agitation, fearfulness and disorganization. But even those inmates who are more psychologically reselient inevitably suffer severe psychological pain as a result of such confinement, especially when the confinement is prolonged....." See Lee v. Coughlin, 26 F.Supp. 2d 615, at 637(S.D.N.Y 1998). Mr. Collins, "Bbama", does not need to be isolated in G# custody Ms. Ingram. He needs to be transferred to a facility that is equipped to treat his mental illness and to help him from deteriorating further. The other inmate, whom we all call Crazy Horse because of his Native American ancestry, is currently housed here in cell A-106. He just returned from a long stay at the Montford Unit (the mental health section) and he is a totally different person than the one who left. He is also delusional and is a very aggressive and disrespectful person. Last night, he was calling everyone in the dayroom "bitches" and saying he would fight and take on anybody in the dayroom because he was "King-Kong" and had a black belt in some kind of fictional martial art. He then began to cry and said he missed his little brother. He also sang songs at the top of his lungs all night long — until maybe h:UD a.m. - and was getting everyone here agitated and angry. Guys started screaming out of their cells for him to "shut the F.... up!!!!", and he just sang louder and with more glee. These two guys need attention Ms. Ingram. I ask you to intervene and get them the help they desperately need and before they get hurt because of thei mentall illness. Again, the staff here is not ttained to deal with their condition and neither are the other inmates who live here. Thank you. Respectfully, VICTOR AGUIRRE #752111
