Heat-Linked Deaths of 3 Inmates Spur Call for Prison Investigation : Penology: The men died at Vacaville where temperatures have been as high as 111 degrees. Lawsuit claims care for the mentally ill is "medieval."

Heat-Linked Deaths of 3 Inmates Spur Call for Prison Investigation : Penology: The men died at Vacaville where temperatures have been as high as 111 degrees. Lawsuit claims care for the mentally ill is “medieval.”

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July 5, 1991 12 AM PT

From Staff and Wire Reports

SACRAMENTO — The heat-caused deaths of three inmates in Vacaville state prison’s psychiatric ward came just a week after prisoner rights groups filed a lawsuit attacking “medieval” care for mentally ill inmates.

“What’s going on is the prison system is degenerating into what can be described as a medieval mental asylum situation,” Donald Spector, director of the Prison Law Office, had told reporters last week in announcing the federal court lawsuit.

The three men, found Wednesday in their cells, died of hyperthermia, or excessive body heat, said Solano County Coroner Jim O’Brien. He said the three, whose body temperatures were at least 108 degrees when they died, had been taking mood-altering drugs that elevate body temperatures. Temperatures at Vacaville this week have ranged between 107 and 111 degrees.

Prisoner and prison worker groups were calling Thursday for investigations into conditions at the California Medical Facility, the formal name of the 8,000-inmate prison at Vacaville, 50 miles southwest of Sacramento.

“People are sent to prison to serve a sentence, not to die,” said Judith Hedges of the Prisoner’s Rights Union.

“This incident is appalling and absolutely inexcusable,” added Alison Hardy, staff attorney for The Prison Law Office. “I spoke with a doctor this morning who said that several inmates had measured the temperature of their cells and found it to be 124 degrees.”

The California State Employees Assn., which represents prison workers other than correctional officers, filed a health and safety grievance with the state Wednesday as a result of the three deaths.

Union spokeswoman Pat McConahay said overheating in prisons has been “a longstanding problem.”

“We have filed a number of health and safety grievances relating to situations like this. We’re attempting to get standards for both cold and heat in the prisons. But management has been unresponsive.

“It has been a horrible situation for both inmates and employees. Not only is it uncomfortable, but people get sick. And it’s potentially dangerous when inmates get hot and agitated. Our employees have reported temperatures of 115 degrees in kitchens, 87 degrees in offices and more than 100 degrees in vocational areas,” she said.

Prison officials said they were offering showers, special hydrating fluids, ice and fans to inmates taking psychiatric drugs that made them more susceptible to a 100-degree-plus heat wave that hit California’s Central Valley mid-week. On Thursday, the heat had abated considerably, with high temperatures in the 80s.

“We have increased our showering schedule to make sure everyone showers four times a day . . . and we are having them drink 64 ounces of Gatorade and water a day,” said Lt. Rita Montez, watch commander at the nation’s most populous prison.

“We are checking their cells every 15 minutes,” Montez said, “and we’ve gone to Travis Air Force Base for hypothermal blankets and talked to experts from Operation Desert Shield to see if there is anything else we can do.”

In addition, Montez said, “we are reviewing medical records to see if adjustments can be made in medication for inmates.”

The class-action lawsuit was filed June 25 in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on behalf of an estimated 25,000 prisoners in the state’s 100,000-inmate system who are believed to be mentally ill.

The Prison Law Office, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and other attorneys invited Gov. Pete Wilson and state prison officials to quickly negotiate an out-of-court settlement to avoid a trial.

“If necessary, we will prove at trial that the absence of psychiatric care is literally killing prisoners,” they wrote in a June 25 letter to Wilson and Corrections Director James Gomez.

“That’s not true,” Corrections spokesman Tip Kindel replied last week. “In some cases, the care that the mentally ill receive in state prisons is better than some of the homeless are receiving in the community.”

Kindel said the Corrections Department has just begun a six-month survey of prison services to mentally ill inmates to seek improvements.

Dr. Terry Kupers, an Oakland psychiatrist who spoke at the lawsuit news conference, said high dosages of mind-altering drugs can be beneficial when used properly. But he said they can cause serious side effects when not administered correctly and monitored.

The dead inmates were Cecil Bracy, 37, of Los Angeles; James Otwell, 38, of San Joaquin County, and Joseph Cannata, 39, of Alameda County.

Bracy was sentenced for committing a lewd act with a child. Otwell was serving a sentence for endangering the elderly and assault with intent to commit oral copulation. Cannata was imprisoned for manslaughter.