Open Letter To Dallas, Texas Sheriff Lupe Valdez
Dear Sheriff Valdez:This letter is directed to your attention since it is you who is ultimately responsible for the daily operations and activities of the Dallas County Jail, and the humane treatment of all citizens brought to the jail and placed under the care, custody, and control of you and your staff.
You and I both know that what you are allowing to occur inside one of the largest jail systems in the country falls well short of the standards of decency expected of any civilized society.
Overall conditions of confinement in your jail shows blatant disregard for the U.S. Constitution. The wanton abuse and mistreatment of citizens show you have no respect for the general law. The hefty unprofessionalism of most of your jail's staff overshadows anything positive I could possibly point out about the Dallas County Jail.
As you are well aware - because I’ve been told you personally approved it, since October 12, 2005, I have been arbitrarily housed on the 3rd floor of the jail's West Tower in solitary confinement without cause.
Sheriff Valdez, I have violated no rule nor regulation of your jail. Yet I am in isolation and have never been given notice as to why. A due process hearing to a prior DR has never been afforded me since my being placed in this punitive isolation status and stripped of those few rights and privileges being afforded the other citizens here: such as, but not limited to access to courts/ law library, daily recreation/exercise, especially during normal business hours so I can communicate with my attorneys as needed.
There is approximately 95 others on this floor in solitary who have suffered a similar fate as I in regards to their constitutional rights to due process being violated.
One of your guards told me that our placement on this floor is supposedly for psychiatric observation due to some severe mental issue a person has or is having; suicide attempts and/or other incidents that might cause the person or others harm. If these are the criteria, then I should have been excluded. But you, your staff, and I know that other ulterior motives played a part in your housing me here in solitary.
Let's not question any further the highly dubious pretexts you and your staff have likely documented as justification for placing and holding me in solitary confinement. Let's talk about the reality of your confinement area.
I’d like answers to my questions concerning the actions and activities of your staff that I have witnessed or experienced since coming to this floor of the jail. If I were a foreigner, what goes on in this area of the jail could easily be mistaken for evil experiment where humans are used as guinea pigs.
Sheriff Valdez, my questions to you are:
1. What mental health and/or penological objectives are you attempting to achieve by placing someone with mental health problems in solitary, a setting that’s tantamount to being in a dog kennel, and then denying that person the basic human rights and needs of decency, hygiene, health and self-respect?
2. What mental health and/or penological objectives are you attempting to achieve by allowing your guards to serve our food to us by dropping it on these filthy floors and kicking or shoving it under the cell door to us?
3. What mental health and/or penological objectives are you attempting to achieve by subjecting each of us to the cell lights that you never dim or turn off as the other housing areas of the jail do at night? This is not healthy for us and if they can securely be turned down or off in other areas of the prison they can be turned off here.
***There are hundreds of references dealing with biological clocks, circadian rhythms, melatonin, and the Photobiological & Pathological effects of light at night on animals and plants. According to the research, you are creating harmful conditions for human beings. Here are just a few of the many links a google search will produce. Kay Lee
* Biological Clocks Drive Cyclic Behaviors
* Light at Night and Risk of Breast Cancer -- Colorado HealthSite
* Pathological Effects of Exposure to Light at Night on Humans (.pdf 20K)
* Dark side of the graveyard shift
* Exposure to light and sleep pattern alteration
* Lighting for the human circadian clock: recent research indicates that lighting has become a public health issue4. 'Under Observation' is an overused excuse in your jail to justify your setup on this floor, but nothing could be further from the truth. No one here is actually 'under observation'. No one is coming by to periodically observe us in these units. In fact, it’s nearly impossible for one of us to get a guard or medical/psych staff member's attention because of how things are set up. During the past month, I have only been able to get anyone from your psych staff to stop and briefly talk to me on only two (2) occasions. Why do you and your staff pretend we are under observation when we actually are not?
(5) What mental health and/or penological objectives are you intending to achieve by housing us in cells where all the call buttons have been disconnected, thus leaving us without any means except banging on the cell doors, to summon staff. How does this serve mental health objectives, especially in cases of emergencies?
(6) What mental health and/or penological objection are you attempting to achieve by denying us the basic human rights to regular showers, shaves and haircuts so that we may keep ourselves clean and presentable at all times. You know this has a positive effects on a persons self-esteem. What purpose could it possibly serve to give us a motel sized bar of soap to clean ourselves, our hair, our clothes, and our cells? Are you making a joke when you claim to provide the necessary hygiene products needed for human health and sanitation?
(7) What mental health and or penological objectives are you attempting to achieve by allowing the regular use of excessive force by guards against those who held on this floor and then denying the subjects of these undocumented acts of violence the right to be examined and their injuries treated by your medical staff? I’ve seen it happen too many times during this past month. We'd like you to send someone down here to just watch what your staff is doing. If you saw it for yourself would you continue to claim it doesn't happen in your jail?.
(7b) In fact, on November 02, 2005, I was introduced to the “Black Gloves and Boots Therapy” by five of your finest rogue guards, who coincidentally did not have name badges/tags on their uniforms. I know by exposing this it shall result in a belated fabricated disciplinary report being written against me for some alleged rule violation. So be it, the truth needs to be known. What objectives do these rogue officers help you achieve?
(8) What mental health and/or penological objective do you plan to achieve through allowing the acts of coercions and intimidation to forcibly medicate persons who never posed a threat to jail property, themselves or others? And will the same objective be achieved by allowing your staff to withhold medications that are supposed to be handed out to those who really need it?
(9) What mental health and/or penological objective are you attempting to achieve by denying us the means and opportunity to clean our cells completely; to dust, sweep, mop and sanitize as jail rules and regulations mandate? Instead the current policy and practice is just like keeper does in the animal cages at the Dallas Zoo: A trustee comes by once a week to sweep our cells out and leave. Nothing more.
(10) Does the Dallas Mayor, County Commissioners, district court judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, local mental health agencies and the Texas Commission on Jail standards know about the draconian conditions of confinement being imposed on a certain class of citizens placed under your care, custody and contest? If they don’t know, I’ll inform them for you.
Sincerely,
Lakeith Amir-Sharif
BIN: 05081644
500 Commerce Street
Dallas Texas, 75202
