A woman prisoner in the US state of Arizona has died after being exposed to ferocious temperatures while being held in a cage, waiting to be transferred to a mental health facility.
The death of Marcia Powell, a 48 year-old prostitute serving a 27-month sentence, has been met with outrage with activists describing the conditions at the prison as "medieval and barbaric."The state prison has launched a criminal investigation into the matter after Powell was exposed to the raging desert temperatures for four hours before dying in hospital the following day.
"We're hoping (for results) at the end of the month," said Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson."She was only supposed to be out there for two hours."
There are 223 similar cells in all ten of Arizona's penitentiaries, and they have been in operations since the 1960s.Since Powell's death, they've all been shut down.
"It's our responsibility to ensure the care and custody of the inmate population," said Arizona Department of Corrections director Charles Ryan, who believes the prison system failed Powell."The death of Marcia Powell is a tragedy and a failure. The purpose of the investigation is to determine whether there was negligence and to remedy our failures."
Welfare activists say the open-air cells are contrary to basic human rights."It's insane, it's medieval," said Donna Leone Hamm of Middle Ground Prison Reform, a local inmate advocacy organization.
"It's barbaric in the state of Arizona to put a dog outside in the heat without protection or water for any length of time.""For the Department of Corrections to do that routinely to prisoners is an indication of how far we have to go in this country to learn about human rights."
Summer temperatures in Arizona can swing from 36 to more than 49 degrees. A healthy adult male could die in five hours without water in 42-plus temperatures.The Arizona authorities are conducting their own investigation, but the Justice Department and FBI have been asked to do their own independent investigation due to doubts for an impartial inquiry.
"The big problem for us is that the (department) is conducting its own investigation," said Hamm."There is some criminal liability here. They should not be investigating themselves ... It's unconscionable."
There have been past cases of prison guards contacting authorities after some prisoners were placed in these cages for up to ten days."The department calls them outdoor enclosures," said Hamm.
"They're cages, like dog runs with chain link fence on the sides and top. They're tall enough for a human being to stand in, with no seats or chairs."We are suspicious about whether Marcia Powell was provided with water when she was in the cage."
