From the Womb to the Tomb: The Tony Lester Story - a Tale of Lies

By Carl Toersbijns

An in-depth book about twenty-six-year-old Tony Lesters preventable suicide and how he struggled to be recognized as a special needs person from the time he was arrested to the time he died. Real case documentation that has been validated by internal reports and inspections. This book will make you think about the role the criminal justice system plays with those seriously mentally ill and experiencing coping and functional difficulties.

No political slandering here; just the facts as they were reported by KPNX investigative reporter Wendy Halloran and myself and how the family sought help in exposing the wrongful death of their son, nephew, leaving behind a young girl left without her father ever coming home to her.

This book comprehensively covers the police report, the rule 11 procedures, and the investigation into his death. Also included are excerpts from the ACLU findings and how they applied to Tonys personal crises and how his needs were downplayed due to cultural beliefs inmates are manipulators and always have a motive, thus they are liars and unworthy of trust or care for their problems.

Based on the same dynamics found by the ACLU experts, this reveals the shoddy work of the states medical and psychiatric care standards applied in ad hoc conditions because of lack of commitment, resources, staffing, and training. Tony experienced the perfect storm when he was incarcerated and died in less than four months of doing time.

An exclusive peek at a crisis situation still simmering inside the department of corrections systems that has failed him and thousands of others. It shows how his treatment needs were ignored as well as his pleas unheeded resulting in his death and how they compare to todays findings still broken and still not fixed.

This book is an in-depth detailed layout of the culture, the practices, the deliberate indifferences toward the mentally ill and how mentally ill persons are victimized and criminalized by political and criminal justice approaches and dynamics toward the seriously ill persons and how they must deal with the stigmas and discrimination of being a mentally ill person inside Arizona prisons.

Dynamics include sociopolitical ramifications for being incarcerated, suicide watch culture, adequate care and treatment, security attitudes toward these special needs persons, and much more.
Real case scenarios listed from the ACLU class action lawsuit that resembles or duplicates Tonys plight, frustration, and situations that ended his life. This book illustrates shoddy death investigations, marginalized attitudes about human values in prison and other cultural influences that dictate how prisons are run, prisoners are mistreated and even some darkness on solitary confinement in the detention units and max custody facilities. A real wakeup call for many who have family members in prison and others wanting to change prison conditions.

Included are the familys frustrations with an agency which boasts the best defense of keeping secrets behind closed doors and the struggle KPNX and Wendy Halloran went through to get the secret video.

All in all, it is an in-depth account of how a wrongful death leaves people devastated and asking the most frequent question: why? When you read this book you will see the root of causes. After you read this book, you will understand the agony and despair a mentally ill person endures when they are labeled, ignored, or ridiculed by the system that is supposedly protect them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781503522466

Carl Toersbijns

Carl Toersbijns (retired) has worked in corrections for over twenty-five years. He held positions of a correctional officer I, II, III (captain), chief of security for a mental health treatment center, program director, associate warden, deputy warden of administration and operation in both the New Mexico and Arizona Department of Corrections. He is an experienced prison professional and specializes in consulting and developing strategic plans for sound correctional practices, mental health treatment, security threat groups, and training and staff development. Carl is currently resident in Riverside County, California, but calls Mesa, Arizona, home. As an author, Carl has published three books in the Wasted Honor Trilogy that includes Wasted Honor I, Wasted Honor II, Wasted Honor / Gorilla Justice as well as written semiprofessional correctional blogs on Corrections.Com and guest writer for Yahoo. These books are insightful references to prison management procedures, practices, politics, and cultural diversity issues related to staff-inmate relationships and administrative decision making. He currently serves as a vice president of Law Enforcement Officers Advocacy Council and also serves on the advisory board of David’s Hope Inc. Carl’s prison philosophy is all about the safety of the public, staff, and inmates. “I believe my strongest quality is that I create strategies that are practical, functional, and cost effective.” Experience / consultant / advocacy and prison reforms 2005–2014 Prepared, created and provided written summaries or narratives of case by case situations and made assessments accordingly to rule of law, policies, and procedures as well as correctional best practices. In conjunction with David’s Hope, a mental health advocate, I drafted operational standards and procedures for the seriously mentally ill from intake to housing to operational concerns leading to treatment, compliance with medication, multidisciplinary team decisions, housing, individual treatment plans, incentives, self-studies, and stabilization / therapeutic environmental conditions. Arizona Department of Corrections June 2005–April 2010 Facilitated a safe and secure prison environment on behalf of the complex warden and carried out duties and responsibilities assigned and identified according to policy and procedures, administrative directives, and routine and emergency operational issues based on the main focus of public safety, staff safety, and an orderly prison environment. Employed with the Arizona Department of Corrections Strength in investigations, report writing, interviews and interrogations, internal affairs and employee misconduct reviews. Loss control assessments. Develop lesson plans, instructor for instructor trainer. Strong computer skills and administrative skills to perform special staff safety projects with deadlines and citations or references. New Mexico Corrections Department Deputy Warden Operations September 1985–May 2005 Contributed to the overall success of a sound correctional team that operated an adult men prison according to rule of law, policies, and procedures and best practices developed by accreditation and compliance standards. Organizations: Arizona Gang Investigators Association Associate, member since April 2014 Present additional organizations LEOAC vice president Yahoo Associated Content writer David’s Hope Inc. volunteer advisory board Correctional Officers Brotherhood (Facebook) administrator Corrections.Com writer. Volunteer experience and causes sentencing reforms. David’s Hope Inc. October 2011–January 2013 Civil Rights and Social Action Worked on community related topics involving the seriously mentally ill persons in our community and the criminal justice system in areas of sentencing, programing, adjustment, and treatment opportunities. Skills-based volunteering (pro Bono consulting) Causes Carl cares about: —human rights —animal welfare —children —civil rights and social action

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Carl Toersbijns.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/26/2014

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Contents

Introduction

The ACLU Wins a Big One

Tony’s Rights were Violated

Deceptive Depositions

Tony, a Human Being

Failure to Render aid

Wendy Halloran –the Secret Video

Tony Lester, a Native American

The Police Report & Rule 11 Findings

A preamble to a death sentence

The Roots of Tony’s Dilemma

Rule 68, the nuclear option

Tony’s Law

DEDICATION

Dedicated to those special needs persons -

Some people deserve prison and others deserve jail diversion programs and stay with their family while they get treatment. My book is geared to motivate people to see how these mental health diversion programs can help the person facing a life filled with psychotic episodes and misunderstandings by bringing attention to the horrors, frustrations, stressors and anxieties they suffer inside a prison setting. Some people deserve second chances.

I am not advocating for career criminals. I am talking about the first offenders who needs help - not jail or prison. We have too many people locked up already today who can cope and function better in diversion programs. This phenomena impacts the young, the old, the veterans and the non-veterans. We need to let them know they are still part of the family as well as the community. We are all family~

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

Blessed Mother Theresa

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INTRODUCTION

There is no such thing as a weird human being, it’s just that some people require more understanding than others. ~ Tom Robbins

W RITING THIS BOOK was most difficult for me. It was a challenge to maintain a balance between right and wrong, past and present with a strong focus about tomorrow. The title, From the Womb to the Tomb is about the human race. It’s about all of us being bound to others, past and present. Our lives are not our own, we are linked and bonded to each other whether we accept it or not, we are also part of the fu ture.

This book is not about overcoming society’s rules, laws or customs. This book is about overcoming cultures and understanding social and political establishments which exist today. It’s about boundaries people impose on themselves and others. Boundaries between people and other people that in every aspect of our lives, join us together. Boundaries that serve as nothing but blurred lines.

History tells us people have oppressed other people. There are many true stories of people oppressing other people and what this book writes about is the culture that controls one of society’s establishments – our prison systems.

There is hope still. Through awareness, education, effective listening and clear communications, people can change their thoughts through learning how things are connected. No one stands alone, no one suffers alone as we are all aware that when people work together, things can get done and make significant changes.

What we need to do is work together. What we need to do is to realize how we are connected to each other and realize we are all members of the human race. There are no exceptions to this rule. There are no excuses, reasons or denials acceptable to ignore the plight of the human race and not do something about it. It’s a matter of preservation of life as it is rotting away.

It doesn’t have to be obsessive. It does not have to be a radical approach and go off the map. We are intelligent enough to realize we live by our moral code and that code is based on honor, integrity and character. It is this character of the book that appeals to you so may know how one being, a very young man, was struck down in the prime of his life by circumstances that may impact many other families who have family members diagnosed with mental illness.

This tale of lies is about Tony’s Voice, a 26 year old young Native American man who died a horrific death inside an Arizona prison. This prisoner, this human being, Anthony Lester, aka Tony, was incarcerated for a serious crime that was hailed to be one of the county prosecutor’s best efforts to ignore mental health illnesses within the community and the state of Arizona, as these men and women, ignore the mental health laws applicable to protect such vulnerable and disabled persons.

Tony Lester was a mentally ill person. He was convicted, imprisoned and sentenced as a criminal. Nothing that I write or feel will change that. He violated the laws of Maricopa County and was sentenced to serve his time in prison. His presiding judge was Teresa Sanders, a sitting judge who presided over many felony cases in Mesa, Arizona. Someone who meant well, but fell short of her desired intent to protect Tony from further harm.

I have reasons to believe this judge did the best she could, under the circumstances as she amended the sentencing report with a trivial mental health recommendation for the state to consider upon intake in prison. Under current law, this was trivial because it was not enforceable in nature.

Regardless of whatever else is written, I will not defend or make excuses for Tony’s acts or mistakes what many have called a major crime. There are however, extenuating circumstances that will be brought to the light so that the entire truth will be told and not just what was printed in the police report or court docket. Tony deserves the truth be told at the very least so his death was not in vain.

Through Tony’s Voice, we will describe to the readers how his needs and the needs of many other confined severely mentally ill (SMI) persons were deliberately and indifferently ignored by medical and mental health professionals because of the duress and pressure put on them by corrections administrators. The ACLU class action lawsuit, Parsons versus Ryan, is an important document to read so you can further grasp the horrible and atrocious conditions which existed when Tony died.

Persons who are in positions of power and who sought to save money are or were instrumental in creating this chaos. These individuals set the tone and culture of the prison population and use fearful tools to keep them in line with their own philosophy of cruel and toxic prison management styles that marginalized death and devaluate human beings.

So how this story comes together is articulated in an arrangement of critically sensitive court and investigative documents provided by me through his aunt, Patricia Lester Jones. This is the woman that stood by her sister, Tony’s mother Eleanor, and not only took the fight for truth and justice to the media and the courtroom, but shouted it out loud throughout the country.

Since Tony’s preventable death, Patti Jones has advocated for the rights of the mentally ill and the inequalities they receive by our criminal justice system and the public. Patti Jones is a kind and compassionate human being who brings with her goodwill and intelligence as well as a big heart.

She is focused on her task to bring forth those ideas that are best for the protection of vulnerable and exposed persons that needs society’s understanding and help. She is asking for help and support to allow them to cope and function within a free society as well as facilitate the right resources to handle prison life as it stands, no matter how unfair it may be.

Patti knew Arizona prosecutors weren’t interested in the causes of Tony’s illness but only their statistical success of aggressive prosecution styles and their conviction rates. This is a disease in Arizona. There are many cases that exemplify this culture, bred by these aggressive prosecutors and their salacious desire and appetite to fill up our prisons with first-offenders and mentally ill people.

Patti has sworn to fight for justice for every mentally ill person incarcerated as well as those who are free in our society. She has spoken through Tony’s Voice the, concerns, the legal ramifications and the social consciousness of the community of the severely mentally ill and their families. Hand in hand with allies, she advocates for the truth, justice and changes. Today, she is seeking help to pass Tony’s Law, a rigorous plan to protect the SMI from criminalization and victimization by the criminal justice system. An outline of the proposed bill is at the end of this book and the last chapter of Tony’s story.

There was little doubt she would give this fight a second thought. One should not underestimate her tenacity to bring forth the truth and reveal the horrific practices entailed within Tony’s story. It is reasonable to believe, once you know how Tony died, the same passion will infect you as you also learn to understand why he had to die.

It should also be mentioned that there is a second significant person who was very instrumental in telling Tony’s story as it would not have been made possible to even bring it to the level it has risen. A special person who has remained in the background for the last several years, while working on this story, so she could expose the entire tragedy with facts and not just emotions.

This story would not have been written or told without the help of Investigative Reporter Wendy Halloran, who works for a Phoenix television station and has been standing alongside Patti from day one since the tragic death of Tony occurred. I have been fortunate to work with Wendy on numerous other occasions and can vouch for her abilities to find the truth or get close enough to it to bring secondary questions to the forefront.

It was this persistent and tenacious investigative reporter who took the time to discover and disclose the facts of this most preventable suicide that took place several years ago and is still echoing inside the minds of those families who have sons and daughters locked up inside these state prisons. A lingering reminder of the horrific death Tony suffered as he took his last breaths while others were merely watching him die.

Tony’ needless death was an excellent example of the kind of person suffering and inflicted pointless pain by the incarcerated mentally ill who have no support to deal with their crisis. Wendy has received several awards for her investigative reports, but none more coveted that the Emmy Award for her story on Tony’s Voice.

The inscription read, The First Amendment Coalition of Arizona (FAC-AZ) presented its inaugural STAR Award, for Supporting Transparency and Advocacy Recognition, to Wendy Halloran, investigative reporter for KPNX-TV (Channel 12), for pursuit of public records relating to her story, Watching Tony Die."

Halloran received her award at the 2013 Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards Gala and Auction, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013, at the University of Phoenix Stadium, in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). Her news video segment of the story has reached thousands of homes throughout our country and brings with it an unambiguous message that is strong and clear that mental illness is stigmatized by our society today and that death has become an acceptable fate for those suffering from the illness while in prison.

Mental illness in our country and state has long been ignored by too many leaders and politicians. Prosecutors have ignored existing laws and rules of decency to assist in the protection of those vulnerable to harm and suffering. This needs to change and it needs to change quickly for people are dying.

Society and the legal system has criminalized the mentally ill to the point where they have been discarded and dumped along the wayside like some old useless broken down used and worthless automobile that sits in an abandoned and out of the way junkyard, waiting for someone to come tear them apart for some scrap parts.

If this analogy offends you then you are in the right place to read about Tony’s Voice and how his suffering and death caused a revolution of civilized and civic-minded individuals such as Patti Jones, Cecil Ash, Mary Lou Brncik and many others who support them in this journey to hear what Tony had to say when he passed away not so quietly.

Somehow, his death left a legacy behind. A legacy that will be told again over and over again in the history books regarding mental health needs and treatment for those who can’t take care or speak for themselves. His voice will never vanish and when his law has been enacted upon, it is only then when Tony’s voice will fade or evaporate like the smoke through a keyhole, but only after it serves its purpose.

A legacy which will never be forgotten by those that knew him, knew of him and read about how he suffered as a mentally ill person in this place called Maricopa County, Arizona. This county is one of the harshest counties in the southwest under Sheriff Joe Arpiao and mental health persons are suffering daily because of their criminalization by this system. Maricopa County, where it’s a prosecutor’s paradise and where they can wield their excessive power anyway they want to, just because they can.

Reading about the tragic chain of events of our nation’s deinstitutionalization process that has occurred the past several decades, it is reasonable to conclude that this action of locking up the mentally ill has impacted many persons with severe mental illness (SMI) in a most negative manner as they are most vulnerable and exposed to more victimization than in any other setting compared to other groups of people in our society.

Translating this fact into the roles of our state prisons, which are basically a reflection of our societal behaviors, only with a deviant factor on the scale, there are a lot of problems that need to be fixed. The difference of course is the fact that prisons house those considered to be influenced with an extreme criminal intent and other felonious behaviors.

Under current practice, there are many misleading facts that don’t support extreme convictions of crimes that are serious enough to be incarcerated for such lengthy sentences. Today, people are put in prison for a pre-determined time to serve by judges who enforce tough and rigid sentencing laws.

This is compounded by the fact that according to the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), it was the states that create the deinstitutionalization of our state hospitals since the late 1980’s. Since then, the criminal justice system has shifted those who would have been routinely admitted into such a treatment institutions, into our prisons.

There is some serious data that is shocking to say the least of the high risks that are posed to these mentally ill persons whether in our communities or inside our prisons. It is logical to infer that the same types of behaviors occur inside a prison, more likely to be more severe, as it does in our communities.

There are many surveys out there conducted for reasons to validate or acknowledge the growing need for societal and community mental health needs. Every survey has demonstrated a huge growth of mental health concerns in our schools, our homes, and communities. Because of this growing problem, there has been more attention paid to crime and how the mental ill persons fare with their contact with the criminal justice system. Truth be told, they don’t fare well and need help.

Regardless which survey you found or used to make a comparison, they all have results that illustrates more than one quarter of persons with SMI had been victims of a violent crime in the past year. This is a rate more than 11 times higher than the general communal rates even after controlling for demographic differences between samples provided.

The annual incidence of violent crime in the SMI sample (168.2 incidents per 1000 persons) is more than 4 times higher than the general population rates (39.9 incidents per 1000 persons) (P<.001). Depending on the type of violent crime (rape/sexual assault, robbery, assault, and their subcategories), prevalence was 6 to 23 times greater among persons with SMI than among the general population in our communities.

Drawing the results and putting them into the prison setting where the ability to maintain order and lawful conduct has been curtailed due to physical plant deficiencies, (overcrowding) staffing (understaffed) and activities (major idleness), there are factors being ignored for the SMI persons who live within such a disconcerted setting, exposing them to further dangers already described in these surveys.

This conclusion is based on the natural or in this case, unnatural behaviors of the predatory world that exists inside prisons and the fact that more than 26 % of the prison population have severe mental illness or disabilities.

Disabilities or other mental disorder challenges are being addressed through mass unjustified placements into segregation and administrative housing areas, lack the proper infrastructure and commitment for sound deliveries of evidence-based in-cell programs for treatment, education or basic living conditions.

This defeats all principles of establishing sound safety purposes. This is compounded by diverse and reckless classification practices in general population and special housing areas, causing an unbalanced prison setting prone to be volatile and unpredictable for anyone and not just the mentally ill persons.

As a general rule, these SMI are housed with other behavioral disorder persons who prey on the weak and victimize them to gain the upper hand in their prison social status and power grabs. This survey revealed that crime victimization is a major public health problem among persons with SMI who are treated in the community. Criminal justice studies recommend directions for future research, propose modifications in public policy, and suggest how the mental health system can respond to reduce victimization and its consequences. The same can be applied to the prison setting only exponentially worse for the persons who are SMI.

The same studies should be initiated for our prison systems to enhance the management of this public health problem and protect those who are unable to protect themselves. Certainly not implying we live in parallel worlds, there are enough commonalities to research a common link as well as a solution to this type of discrimination in both worlds.

Ever since my self-imposed retirement from prison work, I have been working on documenting and revealing prison management shortcomings and abuses that exist within our prison systems either in Arizona or anywhere else from where the request was made. I feel compelled to bring this to the surface of the public’s view and show a need for transparency and accountability.

These abuses are results of neglect and a very cruel and toxic culture. Whether they were enacted or inflicted willfully or coincidentally due to faulty practices, the reports will rarely admit or identify such a conclusion. However, it cannot be denied to exist. Torture is torture regardless how it was inflicted.

I write these stories for two reasons: the first is to create an interest in the subject matter and secondly, create a debate or a mental awakening about the story so that whatever it is I am writing about does not become obscure and forgotten like so many times in the past.

More importantly, that the criticism for telling the truth and exposing the flaws of the penal administration creates enough friction and sufficient political heat that something must be done about it to offset any negativity my story might have created.

Again, what I seek is a balance in justice. I didn’t do this to undermine the correctional officers or any specific members of the administration. I didn’t do this for personal gain. Most of my work is free. Most of the time is spent helping families with their issues dealing with their imprisoned sons or daughters. I don’t get paid for writing my ideas and concerns while expressing my viewpoints as it stands. Most of my work is done for free so others can benefit from my knowledge and experience in running prisons and how to ask for help related to mental health crisis events in their lives.

I also do this to protect those who work so faithfully the toughest beat in the criminal justice system and get no recognition whatsoever. They have a most difficult job and do the best they can with the tools and training given or provided. These men and women have no buffer in their political world and only those from the outside can speak out loud without breaking their code of silence.

However, these officers are prone to be ill prepared to handle or manage mentally ill persons as their experience levels are severely limited or non-existent. Still, society and the media are quick to blame them when failure arrives at the front door via the shortcomings of many critics and media outlets who fail to report the whole story.

I do this to protect those who do their jobs by pointing out deliberate indifference which are embraced by administrative politically inclined jockeys who allow deviations from policies and give tacit approval to do the job as misfits out of control. I write about the horrors and torture within prison systems nationwide because it happens and is being ignored. The culture inside has a strict code of silence and its taboo to talk about it in any shape or form. This needs to stop immediately.

Last but not least I delve into these controversial situations and conversations because they reflect a conspiracy to hide the truth. This conspiracy, whether voluntary or involuntarily is real and it exists. Since retirement, I have been sought to speak this truth and now I am printing it for others to read and see for themselves.

Conspiracies are not always created or planned. They occur or are developed because of the impact of the code of silence and unethical conduct. They happen because of the fear of telling the truth and accepting the consequences for such honesty.

Many officers just fear being wrong, even when they aren’t. It is the uncaring culture that dictates this phenomena, not individual moral ethics. It goes back to saying it’s easier to say you are sorry than to ask for permission. The guilt factor is diminished when you are caught in a lie but the agency backs you up for lying to hide the truth.

They back you up because they review the incident and re-write the events to lessen their culpability. They seek more information in their favor and delete or purge anything that is incendiary or questionable in a follow up review.

This method of cleaning up the documents provides a better defense when it goes to court. At the same time, this is where the state’s case is the weakest and most vulnerable. The main problem about going to court is the fact that most of the time, depositions are taken an under oath, their own versions without the coaching at the time of incident, is often much different than what they wrote.

It’s the nature of the beast inside prisons, to lie to protect themselves or others, but when an employee is put in an environment where they take an oath to tell the truth, there are opportunities to glean relevant and important hints and information that has been omitted in the reports and may be segue to other avenues of exploring the truth.

THE ACLU WINS A BIG ONE

First, accept sadness. Realize that without losing, winning isn’t so great. - Alyssa Milano

A LETTER CAN TELL so many things if you read it in the right tone or perspective. A letter can reveal the truth about something or someone or it can tell lies. The entire arrangement of words used to communicate a message or story of the event is based how the words are used and what their meanings imply or ref lect.

Such is the letter written by a most courageous woman. Patricia Jones, the aunt of the deceased Tony Lester, a young soul who died inside an Arizona prison. Unfortunately, this young man met his death when he committed suicide as a means to be somebody else’s voice. Her journey to find the truth since his ill-fated death on July 12, 2010, has since been relentless.

Her mettle has been solid, without any weaknesses, in her resolve to tell the truth and her will to make Tony’s story be told is bold. She has reached out to many sources, seeking the truth as this truth has been elusive and told in so many ways. There are still a lot of questions left untold as well as unanswered.

The latest letter Patti wrote was addressed to a United States Senator. She had put her faith and trust in Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, the Chairman of the Judicial Oversight Committee and who is looking into solitary confinement and the effects of such placements in isolation.

The letter was written with joy and jubilation. It reflected a recent landmark case in Arizona, related to the prison conditions inside the prisons and a major, shift changing, class-action lawsuit by inmates who had suffered or