Prisoners’ relatives describe ‘atrocities’ behind bars, urge Missouri DOC oversight
A prisoner claims he lost his legs after he was bit by a poisonous spider and did not receive the medical attention he needed. He now uses an electric wheelchair.
A 27-year-old pregnant prisoner with a disease that breaks down blood cells nearly died because of a lack of care, a relative asserted. She was given no prenatal medicine. Later, doctors at a hospital begged prison staff to remove her shackles so she could deliver her baby.
A transgender woman claimed to have been beaten and raped by two guards at a men’s prison in eastern Missouri, though prison officials have said the accusation is false and cited video of the incident.
These were among the allegations leveled for hours Tuesday by tearful relatives and friends of prisoners in the Missouri Department of Corrections as they urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would create a 10-member DOC oversight committee. The group would be charged with investigating complaints and collecting data on prisoner deaths, suicides and assaults, among other things.
The legislation, House Bill 1922, was sponsored by Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins, a Democrat from St. Louis. For months, she has been making unannounced, hours-long visits to DOC’s 21 facilities across the state to check on conditions and hear prisoners’ stories.
“I have learned that individuals incarcerated have cried out for help for years — before I was even thought of or born — to no avail,” she told members of the Special Committee on Criminal Justice.
Collins, whose father died in prison in 2007, called conditions in the facilities “deplorable,” noting she has seen mice and cockroaches in the kitchen at Farmington Correctional Center in southeast Missouri.
She has heard of misdiagnoses and rejected hospital referrals. Prisoners have also told her of being “brutally” attacked. During one recent visit to South Central Correctional Center in Licking, an incarcerated man who had swollen eyes mumbled, “COs (correctional officers) beat me.”
“Things like this happen all of the time and get swept under the rug,” Collins said.
Proponents of Collins’ legislation say it would provide much-needed accountability to DOC. Members of the committee — which would include four lawmakers, a criminal justice professor, a physician and a former prisoner — would monitor DOC’s compliance with federal and state laws and identify issues that include sanitation, “livable temperatures,” sexual abuse and denial of rights.
Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for DOC, said the department does not have a position on the bill. She disputed the accuracy of at least one of the incidents discussed at the hearing.
And in an email, Pojmann said assertions that there is no oversight or accountability of DOC is not true. Allegations made by prisoners or other people about staff conduct and living conditions, among other issues, are investigated, she said.
DOC noted it has internal investigators and an office that probes issues relating to “civil rights, unprofessional conduct” and allegations of sexual misconduct. It also operates a 24-hour hotline where people can anonymously report staff concerns.
“There is a system of checks and balances built into the structure of the department and built into the larger context in which the department operates,” Pojmann wrote to The Star.
Additionally, Pojmann said DOC facilities have trained medical staff on site 24/7 at no cost to prisoners. She said the death rate inside the state’s prisons is “significantly” lower than the death rate for Missourians on the outside.
The legislation introduced by Collins was drafted by several incarcerated people at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, including Bobby Bostic, who was sentenced to 241 years in prison for a robbery when he was a teenager, and Lamar Johnson, who St. Louis’ circuit attorney has determined was wrongly convicted in a 1994 murder.
Rep. Yolanda Young, a Kansas City Democrat, called the legislation “overdue.” Rep. Tony Lovasco, an O’Fallon Republican, said he would vote for the bill and described it as a “pretty favorable measure.”
No one appeared before the committee to oppose the bill. No one from DOC testified.
The legislation would also allow for the oversight committee to review decisions made by the parole board, which Rep. Dean Van Schoiack, a Savannah Republican, thought might be difficult given everything else the group would be tasked with looking into.
The Rev. Darryl Gray, a former Kansas correctional officer who serves on St. Louis’ first Detention Facility Oversight Board, said the committee would not review all parole decisions, just ones that trigger grievances, such as if a prisoner believes they were unfairly denied release.
Gray, who testified in support of the bill Tuesday, said lawmakers should consider adding a correctional officer to the proposed committee and giving the group subpoena power. He said numerous states, including New Jersey and Washington, have similar boards, which would also benefit correctional officers.
“We wish that Missouri was the first, but we hope it won’t be the last,” Gray said.
The cost of the committee could exceed $110,000, according to a fiscal analysis. Its members, who would not be compensated but could be reimbursed for expenses, would meet at least four times a year.
Throughout the hearing, loved ones of prisoners described what they called “atrocities” behind bars. One relative told of how prisoners pull out their own rotting teeth, while another said her loved one found cockroaches in his food.
The parents of one prisoner said he was thrown in “solitary confinement” after he filed a Prison Rape Elimination Act complaint. He was penalized, they said, for seeking help. The only way he could get out, his father told lawmakers, was to recant his allegations after he spent more than two months “in the hole,” during which he lost 10 pounds and his mental state deteriorated.
Women who have filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by staff at Chillicothe Correctional Center in northwest Missouri have also said they believed it was policy to send prisoners making such complaints to “solitary confinement.”
Pojmann, DOC’s spokesperson, said some things mentioned at Tuesday’s hearing were true — like staffing shortages — while others were not. She said she could not comment on specific cases that were brought up.
One Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, report discussed was investigated and “found to be without merit or evidence,” Pojmann said. She said the Justice Department audits DOC facilities and that all are currently in compliance with PREA.
Pojmann added that DOC does not use the phrase “solitary confinement” and instead segregates prisoners for various reasons, such as at times for their own protection from further victimization or retaliation.
In a separate situation, Rita Barr told lawmakers that her brother’s two months of complaining about numbness in his arm was mostly ignored until he had a heart attack and a stroke. He can now no longer feed himself, walk or speak. He relies on other prisoners to care for him, which Barr believes could have been prevented had he not been turned away from the infirmary.
“What type of life is that?” she asked about his current state.
At least one relative was troubled by the lack of air conditioning in some state prisons. DOC said that’s the case because the buildings’ infrastructure don’t support it and noted that “some Missouri public schools are not air conditioned.”
Legislators also heard from Lori Curry, who runs an advocacy group called Missouri Prison Reform. She noted there were several stabbings earlier this year at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.
Caring correctional officers have also expressed concerns to Curry. She said she recently heard from one who said a prisoner had laid in his urine for days.
“Staff kept saying he was doing it for attention,” Curry said. “Eventually they found out that this man had ... leukemia.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 1:02 PM.
