What happens when you put good people in an evil place called prison?

Does humanity win over evil, or does evil win?

“We have become a nation of prisons, but how are we going to take care of our prisoners? We cannot. What is the true cost of continued Nevada prisoner warehousing? It cannot be calculated. Can a Nevada prison sentence become a death sentence? Yes, it can, and in many cases it has.” (April 14, 2009, to the Nevada Prison Board by Mercedes Maharis, MA, MS, MA, Lifetime member of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), Washington, D.C.)

Merecedes Maharis also voiced the opinion that excessive force being exercised inside Nevada prisons is worse than that of the conditions at Abu Ghraib.

At the April 14, 2009 Nevada Prison Board Meeting, accounts of prisoner abuse and neglect were presented. Stories of beatings; inmates teeth being extracted instead of dental treatment being performed; long time prisoners developing Hep C, the only way they could have caught it was from the medical staff reusing needles in the medical clinics; guards are reported to be sadistic and routinely exercise excessive force; reports of long-time prisoners attacking and devouring new inmates through domination by fear and sexually assaulting new inmates; reports of a prisoner who was left to die in his cell of gangrene, he rotted to death. The result: Prisoners become withdrawn, depressed and show signs of extreme stress and begin behaving in pathological ways.

Nevada prisons defy logic and common sense, and evidently house a high level of human abuse from the staff towards the inmates.

“The system is broken” stated Assemblyman Segerblom on April 2, 2009, at the Nevada Corrections Committee (NDOC) meeting.

According to Ms. Maharis, reports show that two hundred twenty-six Nevada prisoners died between January 1, 2000, and June 4, 2007. More recent figures are not available; tracking this information is not a priority to the Nevada Department of Corrections. This must mean that death certificates are not being filed, because death certificates are a matter of public record.

Ms. Maharis, also reported that Randell G. Shelden, UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas) criminologist and author, has thrown in the towel. Why? He does not believe that change will ever come from inside the Nevada prison system.

I learned the following information from the website Nevada Prisoner Voice and I confirmed this information through Nevada’s Government Directory: The NDOC does not employ any psychiatrists and only 36 psychologists.

Many of you know that I worked in the healthcare industry for many years. We all know that medicine has become specialized, with specialities even having sub-specialities.

The NDOC does not employee any psychiatrists and only 36 psychologists. Psychologists cannot prescribe drugs to treat mental illness, but psychiatrists can, and the NDOC does not employ psychiatrists; who is writing prescriptions for these inmates with mental health issues? A medical doctor?

Asking a medical doctor to manage psychotropic medications would be like asking an orthopedic surgeon to manage psychotropic medications. It is not their specialty; they are not qualified to write those types of medications. Medicine has become specialized, and doctors are familiar with medications in their specialities. To write medications outside those specialities could, and should, jeopardize their DEA licenses.

That being said, who is effectively caring for inmates with mental health problems? Who is writing these prescriptions?

(http://telephone.state.nv.us/directory/employees/LocalFrames.asp. If you go to this site and in the “title” box on the left type in psychiatrist, the result will be ‘no records found’ and entering psychologist will return 36 records for the search.)

I have repeatedly stated that it is well documented in the literature that incarceration causes Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; with just this little bit of information I have provided, it should be easy to see why. You take someone already diagnosed with a high level of PTSD and subject them to this environment, what will happen? Do you think their PTSD is going to improve?

I remember someone telling me that prison would make Patrick a better person; somehow I don’t see that happening.

When I think that this prison system could be Pat’s future, it makes me physically ill. Evil people belong in prison. Joseph Patrick Lamoureux is not an evil person. What happened on September 19, 2008 was not a crime, it was a tragedy.

I understand the severity of the charges against Pat; which means I also understand the necessity of making certain that each and every expert witness for his defense be present for his trial.

I can only pray that human compassion will elevate in each and every one of you after reading this. The findings of the ACLU about the current conditions that Pat is being detained in was stressful enough; to have a better understanding of the Nevada Department of Corrections Prison System is almost more than I can handle.

Why should you donate to Pat’s legal defense when you are barely making it yourself; or perhaps you have already donated. Whichever scenario you fit in, I urge you to read this post again, and as you do, remember what a Veteran is: A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America,’ for an amount of ‘up to, and including his life’. He put his life on the line for your life.

PLEASE – let your good conscience and human compassion guide you; we must keep Pat from being subjected to the future that looms before him. If all you can afford is $5.00, sending that $5.00 is not going to destroy your life; not receiving it might destroy Pat Lamoureux’s life.

Without the funds available to get these expert witnesses, Pat Lamoureux will go to prison. Let me say that again; Without the funds available to get these expert witnesses, Pat Lamoureux will go to prison.