A System of Complete & Total FAILURE
CSO II *******
Retired Perryville officer
It's easy to second guess or pretend to have the answers to the tragedy of Marcia Powell. I'd like to first start off by saying the officer's involved with her death are not to blame. Inmates "offenders" cannot be moved by anyone without permission, EVER. Even if the officer's had thought it was to hot to place anyone in a holding cage they do not have the authority to disobey an order. Hundreds of thousands of times prior to Marcia's death inmates have been placed in outdoor holding cages. I have seen numerous times when inmates refuse to leave the cages used as recreation pens or holding cells and have to be forcibly removed from them.
Marcia Powell should have never been at ADOC she should have been at the State Mental Hospital in Phoenix. Powell was an habitual criminal and biological serial killer. The state of Arizona had total disregard for her well being and the well being of others she came into contact with on a daily basis.
Perryville Prison has tens of hundreds of security problems and it was built wrong from the very first day it opened. A friend of mine officer Brent Lumley was murdered at the same unit Marcia Powell died at. Perryville Prison is one of the most unsafe prisons in Arizona, I know I worked there and many other prisons private and state.
The newly appointed director Charles Ryan is not new to the Arizona prison system. He knows and has known for years Perryvile prison is unsafe not only for staff but for inmates also. The holding cages are not new to Perryville. Lumley unit named after hero Brent Lumley is women's maximum security. Why are inmates doing 2 years for prostitution being sent to maximum security prisons?
The officers are not Dr's, nurses, interns, orderlies, counselors or any other inmate support oriented description or function. The officers are Correctional Service Officers their primary goal is CARE, CUSTODY and CONTROL. Inmate medical records are not made available to the officers EVER.
The officers in this case did their jobs. They were given orders to "roll up" inmate Marcia Powell and place her in a holding cell to be taken to CDU (complex detention unit). The officers were never given orders to take her out of the holding cage. While doing security checks the officers observed "breathing living flesh." That's all that is required by ADOC policy and procedure. It wasn't until Marcia Powell was actually going to be moved out of the holding cell the officer realized she was not just sleeping but was in grave danger and called for a medical response.
Right now as you read this tens of thousands of inmates are sleeping in their cells, holding cells, rec pens, transports, trailers, huts, tents, hospital beds, and so on. The officers are not nurses they don't check pulses, if the inmate is alive you have done your job.
Marcia Powell was alive when she left Perryville Prison for the last time. She died when Vader pulled her plug at the hospital.
PS: No one I know likes Donna Hamm or her "death row husband" or Chuck Ryan and 99.999% of the people I know don't like the idiot reporters in this cow town of Phoenix Arizona. ADOC is not a hotel if the officers had moved Powell out of the holding cage without permission and something happened to her anyway they would have been fired on the spot. Ryan is using this single incident to try and influence someone for his own benefit. This is a scam by the good ole boys within the system to capitalize on a tragedy nothing more nothing less.
Retired CSO II Perryville Prison
Perryville Lumley Unit
The officers and Supervisors are most likely going to take the fall for a bad system. The State dumps psycho patients on the yard officers rather than treatment facilities where they belong. Marsha Powell was not a criminal she was sick. Prison was her home and the only place she could go because she could not care for herself on the street. She was a victim of the legal system, the predators on the yards, and the Psycho Dr's at Perryville. The medical department at Perryville knew she needed more help than the CO's are trained to deal with, yet threw her in SMA rather a psycho hospital. Please don't blame the yard officers for doing everything they were allowed to do by a system they are forced to follow. The bottom line fact is Medical providers farted off their responsibility for the care of Marsha Powell onto security staff, May she rest in peace her suffering over and God will judge us all for how we cared for her in the end.
Webmaster: The Lumley Vampire Newsletter
I agree with the above letter. Everyone blames the officers for an administrative problem. I also believe Chuck Ryan is using this incident to influence the sell of the prisons. I also think Ryan can use this incident like Dora did to demote, fire or transfer staff and replace them with friends that our loyal to the current administration. That's what the good old boys network is all about.
As far as the officers unions go WHERE IS THE SUPPORT for the officers. AZCPOA is their own worse enemy. The Corrections Officers image is being questioned here and the only thing Michael Duran is writing about is what happened to the union money under the last AZCPOA administration. Hey Duran' Dora is gone GET A CLUE.
Idiot reporters, not so much the reporters as the idiot anchors and media outlets. People's hearts are torn apart in horrific tragedies and these idiots are on TV dancing and telling jokes in the same segments. I don't watch the local news anymore it's worthless and 9 times out of 10 they report the wrong information for political reasons and ratings.
Charles Ryan is president of the ADOC good old boys. Ryan is not the problem it's the governor Jan Brewer. The state basically imposed a death sentence on Powell carried out by Ryan shortly after midnight. The state of AZ basically murdered a mentally ill woman on death row for prostitution.
Officer ADOC:
I wonder why this tragic death began on the day before and ended on the morning of the legislative session involving privatization and other budget issues. I wonder why Ryan was so quick to pull the plug. I wonder why this death made the news so fast at such a sensitive time when the numerous other deaths and or assaults were never reported. Kinda makes you wonder if there was a specific strategy used as this critical time in DOC. I wonder how many staff that will be "investigated" are in fact union members and if the new self elected President Michael Duran will be involved. How heroic would that be for him?, Will that remove the bad light hanging over his head for embezzlement of union funds? Will the staff involved be used as sacrificial lambs in an attempt to gain funds and stop privatizations?
I have seen allot of things covered up and manipulated in my years of service to the Department, but I truly think that the higher ups could have stooped this low, in this critical time. Is it just me? What do you think?
Shawn
Prostitution is not a victimless crime as so many people have written. It's a felony to solicit prostitution in AZ when you knowingly have AIDS. There is hundreds of other disease spread by prostitutes to unsuspecting clients. Former whores at Nevada's legal brothels have reported numerous safety concerns involving disease. Legal prostitutes in NV routinely work with herpes and while they are starting or are on their menstrual cycle. Psychiatrist routinely counsel NV men that engage in unsafe sex with hookers. "It's a risk to them and their families." The NV center for disease control have reported over 30 recent cases of syphilis traced to craigslist.com
Marcia Powell was a serial killer police officers that work Van Buren have an obligation to the community to enforce laws and secure public trust that some kind of system is in place to curb the mentally ill from harming themselves and others.
