OR: Suit Filed in Death of Mentally Ill Prisoner

The family of Billy Owens has filed a federal civil rights suit against the State of Oregon and eleven prison officers for failing to adequately care for mentally ill prisoners, and for allowing excessive force by prison staff to go unchecked.

The family of Billy Owens has filed a federal civil rights suit against the State of Oregon and eleven prison officers for failing to adequately care for mentally ill prisoners, and for allowing excessive force by prison staff to go unchecked. Owens was a prisoner at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, Oregon. He suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. He had been in the disciplinary segregation unit for 70 days at the time of his death. Prisoners in the disciplinary segregation unit spend 23 hours a day in isolation.

A report issued by the Oregon Advocacy Center said that Owens began to stab himself in the neck with a broken pen. Officers went into his cell and repeatedly sprayed Owens with pepper spray. Five officers in riot gear eventually dragged Owens from his cell and pressed his face against the floor. The official cause of death, issued by the Oregon State Police, was accidental asphyxiation. A review of the Department of Corrections security tape shows officers laughing and talking while Owens lay dying and when an officer attempted to revive him, someone asked for a round of applause.

John Lambert, the attorney representing the Owens family, says he hopes the suit will lead to better treatment of the mentally ill in Oregon’s prisons, including how they are punished for misconduct. In addition to the charges that correctional officers were too slow in giving medical attention to Owens, the lawsuit also maintains that Robert Lampert, former Snake River superintendent, repeatedly ignored complaints concerning the abuse of inmates by officers. Lampert is now director of the Wyoming Department of Corrections.

Source: The Oregonian