CONN. LAWSUIT FILED ABOUT WALLENS RIDGE

Inmate Said To Be Mentally Ill

The suit named only Connecticut officials and agencies as defendants, not
the supermax prison.

A mentally ill inmate hanged himself with a bedsheet after he was
improperly transferred to a Virginia supermax prison where harsh conditions
contributed to his psychiatric decay, a lawsuit claims.

The suit was filed Thursday in Bridgeport, Conn., by the family of David
Tracy, a 20-year-old inmate sent from his home state to Wallens Ridge State
Prison to pull the last few months of a 2 1/2 -year term for a minor drug
charge.

Connecticut prison officials shipped Tracy to the Wise County facility
after "turning a blind eye to the flashing, million-watt strobe lights that
spelled out: 'Don't send this young man to his mental health death in
Virginia,'" Bridgeport attorney Richard Bieder said.

Before his transfer, Tracy attempted suicide five times and exhibited other
behavior that should have indicated he was not suitable for supermax
confinement, the suit states.

Although the lawsuit named only Connecticut officials and agencies as
defendants, it made allegations of improper psychiatric care at Wallens Ridge.

Inmates in need of mental treatment must speak to a psychologist or
counselor at their cell door, "where guards and other inmates may freely
listen and where privacy and confidentiality are non-existent," the lawsuit
alleges.

The suit also claims that the policy at Wallens Ridge was not to provide
psychiatric care to out-of-state inmates until receiving authorization from
their home state, except in life-threatening emergencies.

"A person's mental health condition should not result in one being treated
like a 15th century dungeon prisoner," Bieder said.

The lawsuit accuses the Connecticut Department of Correction and the
University of Connecticut Health Center, which provides health care for the
state's inmates, with improperly transferring Tracy along with 500 other
inmates to Wallens Ridge in 1999 to ease prison overcrowding.

Christina Polce, a spokeswoman for the Connecticut Department of
Correction, said Thursday she had not seen the lawsuit and could not
comment on details. She did say that Tracy met the criteria for transfer to
an out-of-state prison.

Tracy was found dead in his segregation cell the night of April 5, 2000.

Officials said he fashioned a noose from his sheet and hanged himself from
the bed. An autopsy found his death was a suicide, and notes found in the
cell and written in ink on his hand were consistent with that, officials
said at the time.

Larry Traylor, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, could
not be reached for comment Thursday.

In the past, critics of supermax prisons have been especially concerned
about the treatment of the mentally ill in facilities that are designed
more to warehouse than to rehabilitate.

"Mentally ill inmates should not be confined for prolonged periods in
super-maximum security conditions," concluded a Human Rights Watch report
on Red Onion State Prison, a 1,200-bed supermax identical to Wallens Ridge
that is also located in Wise County.

"The conditions of isolation, enforced idleness, surveillance and control
pose serious risk of aggravating their symptoms and precipitating
psychiatric decomposition," the report stated.

Thursday's lawsuit was the second time in as many months that the transfer
of Connecticut inmates to Wallens Ridge spawned legal action. In February,
the American Civil Liberties Union claimed in a class action lawsuit that
five-point restraints used to strap inmates to beds for up to two days at a
time constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

An ACLU attorney said at the time that Wallens Ridge treats small-time drug
dealers and petty thieves like they were Hannibal Lecter.

Although the two supermax prisons were designed to hold the "worst of the
worst" in Virginia, a surplus of prison beds has prompted the state to
import inmates from other states - some of them serving short prison terms,
like Tracy was.