RE: The Hope Of Dr. Aaron Bowen To Convert The Operation of Arizona State Hospital To A For-Profit Institution.
"Sentenced to Death: Who's Responsible for the Murder of Neil Early? How the killing of a 23 year old inmate exposed corruption of Arizona's for-profit prison system."
By Kathy Dobie. Rolling Stone Magazine. June 01, 2018
It need be noted the original focus of this article was to draw attention to failures in service and substandard administrative practices in privatized corrections facilities, by getting information specific to such institutions out to our readers, who for the most part agree that ASH and other state managed mental hospitals are still today operated in defiance of established medical standards. And/or to those who need to realize that state mental hospital patients most certainly deserve the same degree of care that prison inmates deserve, as per the The Eighth (8th) Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article Three (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations General Resolution 217A [1948]).
We the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse are also aware of numerous documented studies and expressed concern over the same issues in relation to state managed health care facilities that contract or otherwise privatize.
One such study flows from the dedicated work psychiatrist DJ Jaffe, known as one the most qualified and vocal authority in relation to USA's public mental health care system; while one such expression has been provided by a very experienced mental health worker based in Maine.
These two sources are included immediately below (I, II), followed thereafter by the original content of this article. I did just happen to very recently read DJ Jaffe's book "Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill" (see below).
We will be publishing more information specific to just why state mental hospitals must not be privatized in the next few days. PJ Reed, November 10, 2018.
I) "Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill." By DJ Jaffe, 2017. Dr. Jaffe is an adjunct fellow at the Manhatten Institute, and executive director of Mental Illness Policy Org.
"And we should ensure that caring for them brings out the best, not exhibits the worst, in our society. Serving the mentally ill must be a public responsibility. Privatization has been a national disaster that needs immediate correction. A single visit to a prison would enlighten even the dumbest politician to the fact that our current non-system is a barbaric failure and a tragic waste of money."
Praise in support of the legitimacy of the facts included in Jaffe's book- all of it arguably over the heads of fat cat bureaucrats in state health departments across the board- is incredibly extensive, which anyone can see by simply reviewing its status in the mental health treatment system. Such praise, herein very limited in scope, includes:
The Treatment Advocacy Center, Arlington, VA; founded by noted psychiatrist, researcher and author E. Fuller Torrey:
"A substantial indictment of much of what we know as the mental health system in the United States."
- Allen Frances, M.D. Psychiatric Times. July 16, 2017:
"A wonderfully written... brilliant, compassionate, and disturbing book that best explains the mess of our mental health system and how to fix it."
- Mental Illness Policy Org. (https://mentalillnesspolicy.org):
"By far the most well-researched and important book written on mental illness out today."
II) Why privatizing mental health services won't help patients in state care." By Lisa Cromwell. Bangor News, January 04, 2017. Ms. Cromwell is a mental health worker at Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, Maine. She is a member of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1814.
"If a for-profit company wins the bid to run this proposed facility, how would profit margin affect patient care? What impact would it have on staffing levels and quality? Hiring a private, potentially for profit contractor appears to the the wrong way to go for those looking for quality services and accountability. Last summer, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it is ending the use of private, for-profit prisons for federal prisoners because the the level of service in them in so poor and there are no cost savings."
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INTRODUCTION
"Sentenced to Death: Who's Responsible for the Murder of Neil Early? How the killing of a 23 year old inmate exposed corruption of Arizona's for-profit prison system."
By Kathy Dobie. Rolling Stone Magazine. June 01, 2018.
The following as an excerpt from our October 04, 2018, article, relating to the idea of privatizing Arizona's sole long term public mental health care facility, entitled Arizona State Hospital: Dateline 2018:
"On another note, then: An article came our way just yesterday, produced by Mariana Dale of the Phoenix area KJZZ 91.5 radio network, and entitled 'Lack of Proposals Slows Addition of Health Services to Arizona State Hospital Campus.' This matter relates to the hope of ADHS to shift the operation of ASH into a for-profit entity. This is 100% on par with the privatization of prisons, which has been historically proven as a very bad idea in terms of the public trust. But in AZ, profit oriented restructuring of prisons is as common as cacti, and every bit as a highly potential threat of harm should that threat not be taken seriously; while on a national level, very much considered to be in defiance of the welfare of both prisoners and patients alike. ASH is and shall not be a prison. We have written already about Aaron Bowen's history in the Arizona corrections industry, very on par with the pre-ASH history of former-since fired Cory Nelson. One core factor to why and how ASH has been so mismanaged as a hospital over the last decade, and longer."
The above Rolling Stone article not too long ago exposed a scathing expose' of problems directly associated with privatization of historically state or federally managed prisons; specifically, problems that have emerged due to the willingness of Arizona government to privatize state managed corrections facilities in the last ten years. The negative impacts of such practices have in more then for more then one occasion directly contributed to preventable deaths of inmates, and in one horrific case in July, 2010, the preventable murders of several citizens with no relation to the state prisons outside of this policy.
We, in the meantime, have expressed our own concern over the possibility that Arizona State Hospital (ASH), the state's sole long term public mental hospital, will also be privatized, putting profit incentives ahead of the care needs and human rights of the ASH patient community. ASH's chief executive officer, Dr. Aaron Bowen, and his given superiors in the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), are behind this nefarious plan. And as with the manner in which Arizona corrections officials willfully deceived Arizona citizens as a whole about how privatization of prisons are being operated (as spelled out in the Rolling Stone article), Bowen and company are currently misleading the public in terms of risks associated with such privatization.
But as we have emphasized since the founding of this blog project- and this is what really matters- the operation of ASH is already affected by administrative corruption despite being required to function in alignment with state and federal as a public health care facility. This issue, abject corruption in a publicly operated heath care facility, has direct bearing on several preventable patient death at ASH in recent years, and in one case in 2011, the brutal murder of a young Phoenix woman named April Mott. (See this blog Thursday, April 05, 2012: "A Modern Horror Story: Wherein the Administrators of the Arizona State Hospital Willfully Put the Safety of the Greater Phoenix, AZ, Community at Risk In Order to Avoid Scrutiny, Leading to the Brutal Murder of a Citizen.")
As evidenced by the history of privatized state and federal prisons, any degree of privatization of the ASH operation will only lead to increased negligence, staff ineptitude, and administrative disconnect that will land squarely on the heads of ASH patients. This is not rocket science, after all, corporate "ethics" being what they are (for lack of a better term), and the greed based approaches in privatized medicine underlying some of America's most critical shortfalls today.
Dr. Cara Christ, at a minimum, as Arizona's highest ranking public health care official, should know this. But sadly today, we the public are no position to state that for granted.
DISCUSSION
For beyond the above cited Rolling Stone article, legitimate concerns about privatization of what have always been public institutions have been expressed in numerous forums of applicable research and discussion. This includes as long ago as February, 2001, when the U.S. Department of Justice issued its own report, entitled "Emerging Issues on Privatized Prisons" (by James Austin, Ph.D., and Garry Coventry, Ph.D.), the findings of which looked like this: "The study resulted in some interesting conclusions. For example, it was discovered that, rather than the projected 20-percent savings, the average saving from privatization was only about 1 percent, and most of that was achieved through lower labor costs."
More recently, in August of 2016, Time, Inc. magazine published "This Is the Real Reason Private Prisons Should Be Outlawed" (by Joseph Margulies of Cornell University's College of Law). Herein, at least one critical finding with direct relevance to ASH: "To achieve their modest savings, private prisons tend to cut back on staff costs and training. More than a decade ago, researchers found that private facilities pay their officers less, provide fewer hours of training and have higher inmate-to-staff ratios, a combination which may account for their much higher turnover rate among correctional officers, as well as the uptick in inmate assaults."
Likewise, in February, 2016, writer Rick Stack of Silver Spring, Maryland, published a very well grounded Op-Ed in the Washington Post, entitled "The problem with private prisons." Stack's expressed concerns include: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s reversal of the Obama administration’s directive to stop using private prisons to house federal inmates is a resounding endorsement of a politics that places profits over humanity [“Justice Department will again use private prisons,” news, Feb. 24]. To maximize the bottom line, private facilities cut costs for necessities and need not spend anything on prisoner training programs, thus converting a corrections system into merely a mode of punishment, retribution and incapacitation. The safety of guards and inmates also is jeopardized as less is invested in security measures and personnel development. An Office of the Inspector General report noted that privately operated prisons have higher rates of assaults — both prisoner on prisoner and prisoner on staff — than federally run facilities."
These are only a few such research findings and citizen generated concerns about just why facilities such as ASH must not fall into the pattern of profit centered privatization that the corrections industry engages in. The belief, for example, that privatizing aspects of the operation of ASH will save money on behalf of Arizona taxpayers is arguably shortsighted, if not false (this one core element to Aaron Bowen's beliefs in context). And given the fact that ASH is already affected by staff shortages, unlawful actions designed to preserve arguably corrupt administrative status quo, and directly related violence- both patient on patient as well patient on staff (direct care staff, mind you, and not the ones in ASH's administrative offices or those of ADHS)- there is no justification in allowing the risk of decreased training, cost cutting, and higher rates of assaults across the board to occur at ASH. Bottom line.
As to ASH, then. For over then the last seven years, a series of major media news reports have been produced specific to the grossly substandard conditions and care practices at ASH, issues that pose direct threat to the health and well being of ASH patients, ASH staff (again- threat to direct care staff, but not the ones running ASH, in fact, or anyone in the greater ADHS construct), and in many cases, to the greater public who may well have no direct connection to such issues if not for the shortfalls/corruption at ASH and in ADHS.
The following are but a mere smattering of such reports, each of which represent just how and why ASH needs to not be privatized, but rather to align itself with contemporary law and policy, and not to mention established medical standards. The direct similarity of these reports to the Rolling Stone article, and other like findings about privatization, is undeniably in place. Ergo, we would ask that Bowen and Christ drop their callous disregard for such evidence and merely do the right thing, as per the public trust and the basis for their given employment.
- September 11, 2011: "Phoenix victim's family questions why man was free. Mental Hospital halted search; escapee now a murder suspect." JJ Hensley, Arizona Republic. The ultimate reporting by a major news source only came about after author PJ Reed recontacted JJ Hensley for the second time following the brutal slaying of April Mott in late August, 2011. Reed's original contact with Hensley occurred five days following the violent escape of ASH patient Jesus Rincon Murrieta in late May, 2011; contact made on the basis of Reed's concern for public safety, the safety of Murrieta, and the apparent fact that ASH administrators had failed to make this threat to safety public, which in no uncertain terms an example of dereliction of due diligence. A cover up, that is, 100% oriented towards avoiding due oversight and accountability. And as we are seeing today, wherein incident and accident reports are being unlawfully kept out of public light and awareness, such cover ups of critical data are ongoing, to the direct detriment of ASH patients, ASH staff, and in some cases the greater public (as in April Mott).
- August 19, 2013: "STATS: Violence at the Arizona State Hospital by the numbers." Dave Biscobing, ABC Ch15 News. Dave Biscobing contacted Reed in spring 2013 via this blog site's email address, paoloreed@gmail.com. His first expression: "It is clear that your concerns are heartfelt and truly on behalf of the patients at ASH." Biscobing then requested to collaborate with us in order to initiate his own in depth investigation of issues at ASH first reported herein since April, 2012. We, of course, agreed.
- November 21, 2013: "Feds crack down on Arizona State Mental Hospital. State Hospital found to be deficient, dangerous." Dave Biscobing. During the period April, 2012, and summer, 2013, dedicated visits to this blog publication were rather slim, an average of less then 40 visits a month. However, as Dave Biscobing and ABC Ch15 increasingly aired prime time news reports about issues at ASH circa our first contact in spring, 2013, such dedicated visits to the blog skyrocketed. Author PJ Reed was in no way surprised, given that ABC Ch15 is a legitimate news source serving millions of prime time viewers on any given evening. Notable, that when ASH administrators refused to provide Biscobing and his staff with public records specific to ASH- accident and incident reports, namely- ABC Ch15's legal staff immediately sued ASH/ADHS under the federal Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552. July 5, 1967). And of critical relevance today, this legal action, given that ASH's current administrators are also refusing to provide such public records to more then one public mental health advocacy resource, including the state's own ASH Independent Oversight Committee.
- May 25, 2015: "Sources: AZ mental hospital patient gouges eye out; staff found in same patient's bed year earlier." Dave Biscobing. This particular horror story has personal bearing to author PJ Reed, as the ASH patient in this matter, Audrey Peterson, is a personal friend who in fact has a very similar history Reed's own history as a person affected by serious mental illness originally referred to ASH from Tucson. Audrey attempted suicide in 2004 or so by laying herself onto a railroad track after ingesting an inordinate amount of alcohol; only to somehow survive being struck by a train after she had passed out on that track, losing her lower legs and most of one arm. Reed met Audrey on one of his first days as an ASH patient, and was very much struck by the fact that, here was a woman with only one arm, who had been provided with a typical mechanical wheelchair that requires two arms to operate. Reed was thus compelled to seek outside disability resources oriented towards providing persons such as Audrey with more appropriate wheelchair technology; an effort that was thwarted by Audrey's primary psychiatrist, Dr. Ruby Ramos-Rojas. While just the other day, in discussing this horrific abuse of Audrey's human rights with his own current psychotherapist, this person stated "You know. That's the sort of person (Ramos-Rojas) that I would like to tie one arm behind, put her in a wheelchair, and ask "See? How's that feel?" Couldn't make it up- any of it- if I had to.
- October 04, 2015: "Three Arizona health execs out after sex misconduct inquiry." Craig Harris. Arizona Republic. At last, in effect, but arguably far too little way too late. Following the 2015 inauguration of current Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, and the almost immediate, unexpected resignation of ADHS Director Will Humble, former ASH CEO Cory Nelson (who by 2015 had been promoted by Humble within the ADHS construct), current ASH CEO Donna Noriega, and an ADHS attorney named Jeff Bloomberg were summarily fired on the basis of the by then highly publicized scandal at ASH. Both Nelson and Noriega had been central to the first articles published in this blog circa April-May, 2012, and many others, as well. This firing led to our June, 2015, article entitled: "Dear Cory, Donna, Joel, and Will: I hate to say I told you so. But I told you so."
October 19, 2015. "Three more top officials let go from Arizona State Hospital." Dave Biscobing. Herein more fallout specific to the extent of evidence provided in this blog and other like media sources about issues at ASH since April, 2012. As this 2015 process played out, the credibility of author PJ Reed increasingly gained undeniable confirmation, in defiance of the attempt early on of all involved parties- AKA "Rat Bastards"- to egregiously shroud abuses of ASH patients and the generally substandard care practices and conditions at ASH. These attempts included a span of threats posted to the blog itself, one example being: "This person pj reed or whatever their name is is lying about the good hearted souls that work at ASH. Someone needs to shut this asshole up now." Could not make it up- any of it- if I had to.
May 01, 2017. "Phoenix police search for sex offender who escaped from Arizona State Hospital" Fox News Atlanta. Right off it need be said that, if only Cory Nelson, Dr. Steven Dingle, and all other involved parties had reported the escape of murderer Jesus Rincon Murrieta in 2011, April Mott would still be alive today. But it not outstanding in itself that ASH administrators chose to report this particular incident to media; it is, after all, nothing more then reasonable due diligence in a context of the public trust by which all ASH/ADHS staff are employed.
December 16, 2017. "Police arrest Michael Graham after escape from Arizona State Hospital. Joe Enea. ABC Ch15. This particular incident- Michael Graham's escape from ASH in 2017- acted as a first alert to author, PJ Reed, of the grave possibility that ASH's current CEO, Dr. Aaron Bowen, is no more capable of meeting his responsibility(s) to the public trust then were the ones fired in 2015. Two escapes in less then seven months. But more specifically, it was the Hospital's characterization of escapee Graham as a "low risk" threat, in graphic contradiction to Graham's lengthy record as a known violent offender affected by serious mental illness. Herein, an issue on point with the cover up Jesus Rincon Murrieta in 2011, the consequent murder of April Mott, and the attempt of ASH administrators to defer the significance of the escape itself as a means to avoid meaningful oversight on the behalf of the public trust. Rhetorical phrasing that is nothing short of propaganda, consistent with current ADHS Director Dr. Cara Christ's fall 2015 declaration in a personal email to PJ Reed that "Things at ASH are much better then they were prior to this spring...."
December 14, 2017. "Arizona State Hospital top doc has history of sexual misconduct, harrassment." Dave Biscobing. PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse published our own article about the criminal history of ASH chief medical officer in December, 2015. Fact is, Dr. Steven Dingle has an established public record as sexual abuser of women working directly under his authority. See "Of Dr. Steven Dingle. Continued" December 17, 2015. He was exposed as such when working as a senior medical doctor in a private Phoenix area hospital circa the late 1990s, an exposure that led him being removed from that hospital's staff, which any person of reasonable conscience would agree with. Following which, Dingle worked his slimy character into the construct of the ADHS construct, and onto the primary care staff at ASH. The above cited 2017 article by Dave Biscobing arose on the basis of a current patient's concern about Dingle's known record, which the patient expressed in a publicly convened meeting of the ASH Human Rights Committee in November, 2017 (now identified by law as the ASH Independent Oversight Committee). Upon seeking to raise this issue, however, the patient was unlawfully cut off mid-sentence by ASH CEO Dr. Aaron Bowen, who declared "I am not going to allow anyone to call my CEO a sexual predator in public!". Bowen action in this matter was a gross violation of the patient's protections via the First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights. Shortly following Bowen's action, an attorney working for ADHS, Greg Honig, willfully sought to omit this aspect of the meeting's public record, therein exposing himself as unethical and arguably unqualified as licensed attorney.
September 09, 2018. "Arizona State Hospital Sued For Withholding Records On Patient's Death" Will Stone. KJZZ 91.5 news radio, Phoenix, AZ. As with our longstanding collaborative relationship with ABC Ch15's David Biscobing, investigative journalist Will Stone of the Phoenix area NPR news outlet has been in contact with the staff of this blog publication since late summer, 2018. This relationship was established with the assistance Phoenix attorney Holly Giezl, who has been present at meetings of the ASH Independent Oversight Committee on a number of occasions since 2014. The suit specific to this article was filed by the Arizona Center for Disability Law (ACDL), which as per federal law is to be provided with patient records upon request. Herein we see that ASH's current administrators are willfully engaged in an effort to keep such records out of sight, even in the case of an advocacy resource such as ACDL, which is assigned the task of ensuring that ASH be operated in a manner consistent with federal law and policy. And as stated, such cover ups of records are designed to out the patient interests behind the selfish desire to preserve administrative status quo and related acts of unlawful misconduct.
October 10, 2018. "Stabbing renews questions about patient safety, oversight at Arizona State Hospital. Will Stone. In this matter, attorney Holly Geizl, mentioned above as a dedicated advocate in the interest of the ASH patient community, is representing the interests of an ASH patient near mortally stabbed by another patient who was to be watched on a 1:1 basis due to his very well known violent tendencies. Lapses in such protocol are common at ASH, often in a manner that the staff of this blog contend amounts to willful acts of negligence. Point in fact: In January 2012, after having been actively speaking out about the corruption there for a period of nearly thirteen months, a staff technician (name unknown) literally led a man who was known as one the most dangerously violent patient's at ASH to an outside table where author PJ Reed sat alone, minding his own business. This man was always in full shackles when allowed onto the main grounds at ASH- but not on this date. As said, Reed was alone, and it need be said that there were a a number of other outside tables where those two could have sat; as such, this was an obvious attempt to put Reed's life and limb at grave risk of harm. Could not make it up if I had to.
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As stated at the outset of this discussion, the above record of ongoing substandard care practices and conditions at ASH are a mere smattering of such reports. There has been little in the way of proven evidence to the effect that ASH is any better run today then it was circa 2011-15. Instead, what have seen is a further pile up of crucially published media reports since ADHS Director Dr. Cara Christ appointed Dr. Aaron Bowen to serve as the ASH CEO.
The direct similarity of these reports to the details in the Rolling Stone article is glaring. PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse contend that this record is why ASH must not be privatized. To allow the profit incentives of any contracted private care provider ahead of the rights and care needs of a highly vulnerable population is inhumane, bottom line. Issues arising in privatized corrections facilities only occur due to the fact that, the more privatized any such public institution is, the more opportunity there is for administrators to get away with questionable if not egregious misconduct. As exemplified already in the longstanding policy, What happens at ASH stays at ASH.
We further contend that this is precisely why Dr. Cara Christ and Dr. Aaron Bowen have actively sought to eliminate the presence of ASH's on-site advocacy resource, the Independent Oversight Committee. Point in fact: I learned while hospitalized at ASH that such a committee was required at ASH by state administrative law, but that there wasn't one, in fact. When I contacted state officials about the issue at the time, I was advised that that an attempt had been made to meet this standard of law, but that there was no public interest. Shortly after I discharged from ASH in February, 2012, I personally sent a memo to former ADHS Director Will Humble and tactfully demanded that such a committee be established. This occurred within 60 days, and since its establishment , there has been no shortage individuals willing to serve in context. The prior claim, thus, of there being "no public interest" turned out to be utter bullshit.
This body of good hearted advocacy in the interest of ASH's patient community is not only required by state law, but is also a valuable tool that functions in the public interest. Because as a public hospital, ASH is required to maintain alignment with contemporary federal health care law and policy, and not to mention established medical standards across the board. It too often requires the presence of public interest advocacy resources when it comes to preserving and protecting the rights and care needs of at-risk populations, be it the seriously mentally ill, at-risk children, or the at-risk elderly (and on that list can go). This a known fact, and is consistent the history of public mental health care institutions.
paoloreed@gmail.com
