Roy Exum
My greatest horror is what are we going to do when what happened last summer in Warren County, Ohio, takes place in Hamilton County, Tn.? A lawsuit was filed in a Cincinnati court last weekend that a female inmate, who had voluntarily turned herself in on a four-year-old warrant, was repeatedly raped, denied medicine as her epilepsy escalated, and only after eight days was taken from the county jail to the hospital in a “catatonic state.”
As the story about a 38-year-old woman in Cincinnati is now getting legs, the lawsuit alleges the woman was raped by three or four corrections officers who covered the windows of her suicide-watch cell with black garbage bags. She was going into seizures and withdrawal as her epilepsy medicine was withheld. She was forcibly attacked with no way to protect herself. She was Tazed, stripped naked, and horribly violated. The water in her cell was cut off, forcing her to drink from a filthy toilet. Oh, and when the men violently attacked her, her shoulder was fractured so badly it later required orthopedic surgery.
Yes, when the victim first surrendered herself she told the jailers she was ill. As she was screened, she told them the dose of epilepsy medicine she was prescribed, that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, battered woman syndrome, and clinical depression. Quite obviously she would have never turned herself in if she had an inkling of what would allegedly occur.
Mind you, right now this is no more than an allegation but this picture is coming into view around the country. Hamilton County jail is over-crowded, often by as many as 100 extra inmates, and 40 percent of the jailed population is prescribed psychotropic drugs. Right now, this despite urgent pleading by Sheriff Jim Hammond, we are under the suggested corrections staff ratio by at least 25 trained officers. It is a powder keg!
It isn’t a matter of “if” a catastrophe will happen, it is only anyone’s guess when it will occur. I believe we have an exemplary law force in Chattanooga. Between our city cops and our sheriff’s deputies and marvelously trained officers at the municipalities within our county, they can handle anything … well, almost anything.
An internal affairs investigation just released by the sheriff’s office has found a deputy who was being shadowed by a 27-year-old law-enforcement student should be charged with conduct unbecoming to an officer after he accosted the woman. The report said he asked to see her nipple, attempted to kiss her on different parts of her body and engaged her in a sex-laden conversation. The allegations bolstered by a tape of the conversation, Sheriff Hammond believes the woman was the victim from the very start and the officer has quietly retired.
You don’t think the same type of pervert – right here -- could force himself on a mentally-affected woman who, despite a doctor’s direct order, was not given her medicines? My heavens, she even wrote, “God, please help me!” on the wall of her cell using her own blood as the vehicle to make her plea.
A paralegal from a law firm visited the woman and, according to the Washington Post, found the victim “rigid, staring blankly ahead, unblinking and unable to walk.” Further, on May 9 “the lawsuit claims, she was found naked in the shower room, staring complexly unresponsive, unable to communicate, pupils dilated, mouth open, eyes rolled back in her head.”
Get this – SEVEN DAYS LATER –the woman was taken to the hospital. Semen was found in her urine – a sign of forced intercourse -- but she was “psychologically unable to be evaluated” following rape-kit protocol. You think! It took SEVEN DAYS to get this woman from the bowels of hell to medical help. None of us can possibly conceive how she endured another week.
Guess what, such a wait happens all the time in Hamilton County. Our Moccasin Bend Mental facility, with 150 in-house beds, now serves 52 counties in Tennessee. All law enforcement knows you can only get a chance to be seen at Moccasin Bend if you are in danger of suicide or homicide at this very moment.
One of the counties Moccasin Bend serves is McMinn County. After I wrote a story about “Inmate X” who wipes waste from his colostomy tube everywhere in the Hamilton County Jail – it is beyond belief – Sheriff Joe Guy, the president of the Tennessee Sheriff’s Association last year and a noted expert on the national level, shares this email with me:
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“Thank you for your article. Almost every Sheriff in Tennessee is having the same experience. Due to a lack of beds, the mentally ill are forcibly held for long periods of time in ERs and, even worse, in jails, where “if” they have actually committed a crime, it is almost always related to their mental health condition.
“Sheriff’s patrol officers are forced to respond to and transport patients, and Sheriff’s corrections officers are tasked with caring for them. With so few metal hospital beds available in Tennessee, I think it's safe to say that most severely mentally-ill persons in our state are being cared for and treated by jails rather than hospitals. Something has got to give.
“We need more hospitals and a more accountable mental health division of our state health department, and we need conversation. Thanks again for adding to the conversation.”
Joe Guy, McMinn Co Sheriff
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Yes, Joe, something does have to give. In Bradley County, the overcrowding is so bad a federal judge could shut the jail down faster than a Donald Trump signature but there are viable solutions. New bonding procedures, weekend courts, and homeless programs can and will save millions. These are splendid ideas that are working in North Carolina, Florida and other states.
But the boldest truth is that if the state of Tennessee – and other states like Ohio – would meet their moral obligation to mankind, and accept responsibility for those suffering from mental illness, we would not have the problems every county sheriff in Tennessee is now forced to lock behind bars.
Trust me, we are on the verge of being every bit as horrified as the court clerk in Cincinnati …. you know, the one who just read the raped woman wrote “God Please Help Me” on the wall of her cell. In her own blood.
And still had to wait another week for any medicine.
royexum@aol.com