Whisper
#byefelicia
Kyle Lee Payment required eight stitches after using a razor that he alleges was provided to him by corrections officers to cut his wrists and arms during a 2013 suicide attempt at a Washington prison.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/wash-inmate-suit-alleging-guards-gave-razor-article-1.1887258[...]
lawsuit filed by a Washington state inmate who claims a corrections officer gave the reportedly suicidal prisoner a razor to finish the job will go to trial.
Kyle Lee Payment required eight stitches after breaking the razor and using the blade in February 2013 to cut his wrists and arms during what could have been a prevented suicide attempt
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Payment, who was originally imprisoned for a 2004 assault charge, asked to see mental health specialists, but two officers
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Corrections Center took him out of his cell for a shower instead and handed him the razor, Payment claimed in a handwritten grievance filed against the officers.
"You think I want to put up with him for the next 30 years?" one of the officers told the other, Payment wrote.
The guard then allegedly handed the razor
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to Payment and said: "Here. You're going to need this. That is if you are really serious."
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original lawsuit named several other defendants including the Clallam Bay superintendent, but U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton dismissed them from the case.
The judge kept the corrections officers in the suit because if Payment's claims are true, Steven Weed and Randy Simonson gave Payment the razor knowing he was suicidal
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Payment has been held at the facility's Intensive Management Unit due to unruly or violent behavior, the newspaper reported, and has a history of assaulting corrections officers. His original sentence has been extended due to several convictions for those assaults.
A response to Payment's initial grievance cited a communication breakdown that was not intended as malicious or deliberate, documents show.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024203178_inmatelawsuit1xml.htmlA federal judge has ordered to trial a lawsuit by a state prison inmate who alleges that corrections officers took him to the shower and gave him a razor after he had threatened suicide.
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The prison alleges Payment is a perpetually violent and troublesome inmate who has been housed at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center since first incarcerated in 2004 for assault. A motion by prison officials to dismiss the claim states that, almost since his arrival, he has been held in the Intensive Management Unit, where inmates are locked down most of the time because of unruly or violent behavior.
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Payment’s original prison sentence has grown after his being repeatedly convicted of assaulting corrections officers. At the time of the incident, he was facing a new charge of custodial assault with a 30-year sentence.
On Feb. 20, 2013, corrections officers subdued another unruly inmate using pepper spray, and Payment and the other inmates in the unit were locked down
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At the same time, Payment reportedly pressed the call-button in his cell and announced he was suicidal and needed help.
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officials say Payment has a long history of declaring false medical emergencies and believe he was taking advantage of a “chaotic situation to create a scene because he was upset” over losing his recreation time.
“This was no suicide attempt,” prison officials said
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Two corrections officers were sent to his cell, and according to Payment asked if he wanted his shower. They then escorted him to the shower and gave him a “kit,” which included soap, a tower and a safety razor.
The razor was included, according to prison officials, “due to a miscommunication among staff.”
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prison policy restricts inmates considered violent or suicidal from having razors or other items they might use to hurt themselves or others.
Payment claims one of the guards whispered to the other, “What, do you think I want him around for the next 30 years?”
He claims the other guard, on giving him the razor, told him, “You are going to need this, that is if you are really serious.”
U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton dismissed several defendants, including the secretary of the state Department of Corrections and the superintendent from Clallam Bay, from the lawsuit. He allowed claims against the corrections officers to stand. In his ruling, he noted that at least one of the corrections officers knew of the suicide threat and that, if Payment’s claims are true, “decided to issue the razor to him despite this knowledge.”