
Stephanie Feliz
Last week, California Department of Corrections officials “discovered” a crisis. In the past eighteen months, four women prisoners at the California Institution for Women, or CIW, in Chino killed themselves … or were killed by willful neglect. On February 17, 2015, 73-year-old Gui Fei Zhang killed herself a day after being released from suicide watch. Weeks later, on March 6, 2015, 34-year-old Stephanie Feliz hanged herself. Feliz had attempted suicide before and had sought emergency mental health the day she died, according to sister inmates and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. A year earlier, on February 24, 2014, 31-year-old Alicia Thompson killed herself, and a few months later, on July 30, 23-year-old Margarita Murguia hanged herself. April Harris, a sister prisoner in CIW, explained Margarita Murguia’s death, “She was there for her own protection, not because she did something. Apparently her mom was dying of cancer and they refused to let her see her mom. She tried to kill herself with every denied request. She finally did it.”
She finally did it. A woman hanged herself that night? No, a woman was hanged. When does the count of women prisoner suicide reach crisis? What is California’s policy?
After Stephanie Feliz’s death, April Harris, a CIW prisoner, wrote, “We have women dropping like flies, and not one person has been questioned as to why … I have been down almost 20 years and I have never seen anything like this. Ever.”
California has touted its California Institution for Women as a model, because once, over a year ago, it received a passing grade for its mental health care provision. But that was, or may have been, then, and this is now. Now, CIW is overcrowded. Designed for 1398 prisoners, CIW houses 1833 women. According to the California Department of Corrections, CIW is at 131.1% capacity, down from a peak, in May, of 131.7% capacity. Its suicide rate is more than eight times the national rate for women prisoners and more than five times the rate for the entire California prison system.
Mental illness “haunts” women’s prisons, nationally as well as locally. According to some estimates, 60 to 70 percent of women prisoners, against 30 percent of men prisoners, have recently experienced mental illness. Prisons report that around 30 percent of women prisoners have been diagnosed with severe mental illness, and 30 to 60 percent are living with drug addictions. One third of women prisoners “experience recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal impulses, and to have made prior suicide attempts.” How do states respond to women’s high and higher levels of complex mental illness and suicidal impulses and attempts: “Women are less likely than men to receive psychiatric treatment in correctional settings, despite their high incidence of mental illnesses.”
Women prisoners and supporters, such as the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, know these numbers in their bones, and they have not been silent. They have continually and loudly denounced the conditions and called for a thorough overhaul, beginning with releasing most of the prisoners. When the women of the California Institution for Women participated in last July’s statewide hunger strike, they called attention, with their bodies, to the State assault on their bodies, minds and souls. They identified a crisis of health care and a crisis of caring in Chino, and the State looked the other way. How many women have died in State custody and how many more will die before the `crisis’ is `resolved’?
(Photo Credit: California Department of Corrections / AP)
Thank you for posting this article and valuable information! I did some chaplaincy intern work at CIW! The women are real people with beautiful souls and real issues! I pray that significant positive action will be taken –releasing those that do not need to be there and meeting health and spiritual needs so these women can heal their minds, bodies, and spirits .
[…] months ago, California Department of Corrections officials “discovered” a crisis. In the previous eighteen months, four women prisoners at the California Institution for Women, or […]
It’s a lie all of them are committing suicide. Some of them get overly roughed up by the co’s there needs to be an investigation. I know cause I was there.
[…] of Kayla Renea Miller, in Huron Valley. From the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska to the California Institution for Women to SCI-Muncy in Pennsylvania to the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, women were […]
I was there a few years ago actually I was servings a prison term at ccwf and went out to court I was at cow pending transport back to ccwf walking the yard at cow I remember thinking what is that a heat would come up from the ground scary they should of shut it down a long time ago
[…] From Harmondsworth and Yarl’s Wood to Eloy Detention and Kane County and Los Angeles, and beyond, women are dropping like flies, and their families ask, “Why?” and “Who […]
Inmate Suicide, Suicide Attempts Not Being Properly Handled By Calif. State Prisons http://www.capradio.org/articles/2017/08/18/inmate-suicide,-suicide-attempts-not-being-properly-handled-by-calif-state-prisons/
More women in California prisons are trying to kill themselves. What can the state do to protect them? http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article167785097.html
California Women’s Prisons story http://www.orovillemr.com/general-news/20170817/correction-california-womens-prisons-story
The Incarcerated Women Who Fight California’s Wildfires https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/magazine/the-incarcerated-women-who-fight-californias-wildfires.html
‘You’re Cooking in There’: Every Summer, Those Behind Bars Face Triple-Digit Temperatures https://rewire.news/article/2017/08/22/youre-cooking-every-summer-behind-bars-face-triple-digit-temperatures/
Auditor: Inmate suicide rate too high at Chino women’s prison http://www.pe.com/2017/08/18/auditor-inmate-suicide-rate-too-high-at-chino-womens-prison/
Inmates witnessed a suicide attempt. They received coloring pages instead of counseling. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/they-witnessed-a-suicide-attempt-they-received-coloring-books-instead-of-counseling/2020/07/25/e4490bfe-cdbd-11ea-bc6a-6841b28d9093_story.html
California’s Inmates Continued to Work During COVID-19 Spread https://www.govtech.com/em/safety/Californias-Inmates-Continued-to-Work-During-COVID-19-Spread.html
27th inmate dies from complications of COVID-19 at California Institution for Men in Chino https://www.championnewspapers.com/news/article_2d6a794e-1d32-11eb-a749-bb2c92cee225.html
Coronavirus outbreaks are reported at many correctional and health facilities in San Bernardino County https://www.fontanaheraldnews.com/news/coronavirus-outbreaks-are-reported-at-many-correctional-and-health-facilities-in-san-bernardino-county/article_72fc8d2a-5c49-11eb-bf45-f3b040af7958.html