By Janet McConnaughey
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A homeless paranoid schizophrenic man spent months in solitary confinement without psychiatric medicine or being treated for injuries inflicted by himself and other inmates, according to a lawsuit against Tangipahoa Parish.
By the time Roger Mason, 52, was moved to a state mental hospital a year ago, he had an infected wound from a rag he had bound tightly around one wrist, according to the suit filed Monday against the Parish Council, the sheriff, the jail warden and a jail nurse.
"The rag was embedded in Mr. Mason's arm, the skin growing over the rag in places," according to the lawsuit filed by The Advocacy Center and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mason tied the rag around his wrist "because he believed he had to protect himself from 'the robots,'" the lawsuit said.
It also alleged that three broken ribs and an open wound on Mason's back went untreated for months. The injuries were inflicted by inmates who attacked him during his one daily hour out of solitary confinement.
"Jails may be overcrowded and understaffed but no budgetary constraints can excuse the heartless treatment experienced by Mr. Mason," said Lois Simpson, executive director of the Advocacy Center.
Attorney Clifton Speed, who represents the parish council, and District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said Tuesday that they could not comment because they had not seen the lawsuit. Sheriff Daniel Edwards did not immediately return a call.
"This lawsuit was filed because of the gross mistreatment of a man who's been deprived of his basic human rights," Marjorie Esman, executive director of the Louisiana ACLU, said Tuesday.
She said poor conditions and lack of mental health care have been a problem for some time at the jail, but could not give details. The lawsuit made a similar allegation about general lack of mental health care in the jail.
According to the lawsuit, Mason was arrested April 18, 2009, on an aggravated assault charge and was held for about two months. A jail record on April 27 described him as malnourished, psychotic and schizophrenic, with a history of abusing drugs.
Sometime during those nine days, a doctor at a community health center prescribed the anti-psychotic drug chlorpromazine. A health center record dated April 27 noted that Mason had been unstable for years and needed long-term hospitalization.
He got out of jail in June and was arrested again on Aug. 18, accused of going to a relative's neighbor's home, asking her for food and then throwing cake at her.
The jail has no unit for suicidal, homicidal or psychotic inmates, the lawsuit said. Without regular medication, Mason "devolved into florid psychosis," unable to talk coherently and smearing feces. Deputies put him in a cell alone for 23 hours a day.
His public defender got him moved to the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System hospital Jan. 26, 2010.
"He arrived in a filthy jumpsuit soiled with dirt and human waste," the lawsuit said.
It said the wound on his wrist was immediately obvious, the open sore on his back was found when staffers took him into a shower, and the three broken ribs were discovered about a week later when he was X-rayed after complaining of chest pains.
Published: Fri, Jan 28, 2011
