Marcia J. Powell vs A Broken System

I am passing along this email message from Stella Pope Duarte, author of If I Die in Juarez, and an article by the Arizona Republic, "Tragic Cage Death Ends Woeful Life", written by E.J. Montini. There is little to add here; however, we need to remember that prostitution is usually connected to domestic and sexual violence and is also an ignored community issue as you will read. Unfortunately, we go back to the question of how to get people to care, get involved, and get those who fall into prostitution out. Like domestic violence/abuse, victims still have to make that decision and take that step (human trafficking is another story), but they must have someone light their way.


From: Stella Pope Duarte Date: May 24, 2009 11:20:36 AM MST Subject: Marcia J. Powell

Dear Friends,
E. J. Montini's article in todays Sunday Republic, May 24, 2009, said everything I had wanted to say, and he didn't miss a beat..it was eloquently written. Marcia J. Powell's death in an outdoor cage at Perryville should have everyone in Arizona outraged. For over three years I investigated the murders of over 500 young women in Ciudad Juárez, and now I see the same heinous crimes being committed here in Phoenix. This latest TRAGIC death of a woman who ran away from home at the age of 15, and God knows what her life had been at home...diagnosed as mentally ill, locked up at Perryville State Prison for two years for prostitution, ignored and degraded by society, now brings new attention to the ABSOLUTE violation of human rights being committed in Arizona. May we all turn briefly in our own busy lives to say a prayer for Marica and for all those caught in the grip of an UNJUST, and CRUEL correctional system. May we have the courage to move forward in defense of all those who have no voice, but ours.
love to all,
Stella Pope Duarte

(The cage she died in with a populated
control room 20 feet away.)

Montini's Columns & Blog 'Ancora imparo'

Tragic Cage Death Ends Woeful Life

Marcia J. Powell, a mentally ill prostitute and drug addict, died like a dog last week, roasting in a cage in the fearsome sun at the state prison at Perryville.

She was 48 years old.

Her final tortured hours in an outdoor enclosure last Tuesday mimicked those of a 5-year-old law-enforcement canine named Rik that died at Perryville in 2007 after having been left by handlers in an exercise run for three hours. Temperatures that day reached 105.

The temperature in Powell's cage last week exceeded 107. She was locked up for an hour longer than the dog before she collapsed.

There are many questions to be answered by the Department of Corrections about Powell's final hours. But her death is only the gruesome exclamation point on a long list of institutional failures that got her there.

DOC officials say that Powell had a rap sheet going back decades and included at least 10 sex and six drug convictions. She'd been in and out of Arizona prisons since 1994.

Records indicate that she left home in California at 15 with a ninth grade education, no marketable skills and a serious mental illness. A pre-sentencing report describes her as bipolar.

Last summer she was sent to prison for just over two years on a prostitution charge.

“It's awful the way this woman died,” said Donna Leone Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform Inc., which for years has advocated for Arizona inmates and their families. “No one cared much about her when she lived. I hope at least that we care about the way she died.”

DOC is investigating the incident. Several employees already are on administrative leave.

After Powell collapsed she was taken to the hospital and placed on life support. A spokesman for DOC told me that the department was unable to locate any family members. So when the time came to decide whether or not to pull the plug on the machines keeping her alive, it fell to prisons director Charles Ryan. Powell was taken off life support at 11:15 p.m. Tuesday and died at 12:42 a.m. Wednesday.

“The death of Marcia Powell is a tragedy and a failure,” Ryan said later. “The investigation will determine whether there was negligence and tell us how to remedy our failures.”

I'm not so sure.

For one thing, DOC should not be conducting the investigation. It should fall to an outside agency. The governor should demand it.

According to Middle Ground's Donna Hamm, she contacted then prisons director Dora Schriro in late 2007 about the practice of placing prisoners in outdoor cages.

“Because no one had died or had been permanently injured I couldn't get anyone – including the press – interested,” Hamm said.

Questions like that are only a beginning.

Powell's horrific death and her woeful life should finally get us to ask why Arizona's failed mental health system transforms county jails and prisons into mental health institutions.

It should get us to ask why we criminalize people like this but don't adequately treat them, since it's clear that taxpayers end up footing the bill for their care one way or another.

Powell told state officials that she had two children who were given up to foster care, but DOC says the state has no record of that. Police also checked the address of a name she'd listed as a friend on prison records but found no one living in the abandoned house.

In spite of spending years in the system, Powell's life remains a mystery. Her death is a tragedy, although perhaps not on the level of Rik the law-enforcement dog.

There was a large public outpouring for him.

(Column for May 24, 2009, Arizona Republic)



Stella Pope Duarte
E.J. Montini Article
The Real Cost of Prison's Weblog
Channel 15 Coverage on Powell's Death

Charities and Donations

Recently, the Arizona Republic wrote a four-day series on twenty-two charities and where their money goes as a warning to all of us. In light of the new reduction of charitable tax benefits for those who make more than 250K a year, this is a blow to the efforts of fundraising and much deserved exposure of those who take advantage of the system.

Over the past couple of years, it's become clear that charity is big money and big business. The tax exemption status is an honor system put forth by the IRS because they do not have the means to audit the 1.8 million charities under their exemption umbrella. This may change, however, due to organizations that abuse that honor system.

There are two questions that have always come to mind while working in the nonprofit sector:

1. With so much money and inkind donations floating around, why is there still so much need? Why aren't issues being resolved?

2. Where does all this money go?

The first question is loaded. Issues exist, i.e. hunger, homelessness, abuse are alive because of human nature and they require more than one answer; however, it's the output of aid to those in need in comparison to the input of funds and gifts meant to feed, house, shelter, etc. that is in question. For example, the article from the Arizona Republic, "Following the Donations", shows that 8,884 pounds of medicine sat in a warehouse in the US and Canada, while the website claimed it was sent to the Philippines and Guatemala. By the end of the convoluted journey of this medicine, after being passed around on paper to several related charities in the US, it finally ended up in one faith based mission in Guatemala and one in the Philippines. The website claimed it got dispersed to clinics in the Philippines and hospitals throughout Guatemala. Makes one wonder how many instances like this happen when the public is told one thing and the charity does another.

The second question is quite easy to answer. People forget that nonprofits are still businesses. Nonprofit workers are either volunteers or they are paid staff. People who start, build and manage nonprofits full time, need to be compensated fairly. Unfortunately, as most business owners know, salaries are typically the biggest overhead. Be wary of large organizations that claim a very small percentage of money goes to salary. According to the Arizona Republic, "charities spend most on their own salaries, expenses." This is especially true with middle charities who take money and then disperse to other charities rather than donors giving the money directly to the cause they want to support.

In any nonprofit organization, there are still expenses in travel, supplies, monthly services that need to be addressed. The misperception that because you are a nonprofit, you should do and get everything for free is just not reality because it is still a business. Unfortunately, some nonprofits pay six and seven-figure salaries to their employees and take some pretty hefty sums for perks and bonuses. To get to that level, the nonprofit is mostly likely quite large and receiving tens of thousands if not millions a year.

There are many reasons why the issues of hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, etc. are unresolved, but very little excuse as to why the numbers are continuing to climb when there are so many generous people pouring funds into the nonprofit sector, expecting to bring about change. When you give to a charity, not only research their financials, but think HARD about whether you want to donate to a middle charity or to directly to the organization in need. The middle charity is not there to stem the flow of hunger or child abuse, they are there to collect money for other charities and they are not doing it as volunteers.

This type of nonprofit, such as the Combined Federal Campaign, is supposed to stem the flow of donation requests made to Federal government employees and to large billion dollar corporations. There is little if any oversight into fund disbursement by the CFC and it's very unlikely that they work as volunteers, which means a chunk of those millions are going to salaries, not to child abuse and education for the poor. Furthermore, if a middle charity claims they are watchdogs in ensuring transparency and accountability of money investments on behalf of donors, this is really unnecessary duplication because the organizations who apply for these middle charity networks already have to prove transparency. In other words, you as the donor can go directly to that charity who got the money and see the very same thing that you could from the middle charity and save millions of dollars that would otherwise go to services.

Arizona Republic: Perfectly Legal (Four day investigative report) If these links expire, please notify me and I will post them as pdf.

Excellent response to the AZ Republic article with some valuable links

CEO Salary comparison by Charity Navigator (They tell you to consider the size of the charity and the charity budget...ideally the larger the budget, the more help to people/animals rather than the higher the salary, but that isn't reality.)

Giving Hope to Adults

I know it's been a while since I posted and there are many topics that have come up over the past couple of weeks to choose from. The previous post was about giving hope to kids; this time it's giving hope to adults.

This issue is near and dear to my heart and stems from a couple of conversations I've had with people about the importance of domestic violence prevention or breaking the cycle of violence. Through the research I've done to obtain corporate sponsorship (still looking), a majority of donations are made to three main categories: kids, healthcare, and education. All of them are very important; however, I feel strongly that adults must be given the same amount of attention as the kids.

As a community we see the value of children in their innocence, trust, and helplessness to help themselves in unfortunate circumstances. Absolutely, they have no control over their environments and as adults, we MUST get involved to help as a community. However, once they become adults, they are seen as damaged goods. How unfortunate.

I believe differently about survivors and victims of domestic abuse. The adults are just as valuable and important as the children in breaking the cycle of violence and more help must be made to them in way of prevention as well as services. Some of the most dynamic, inspirational, and powerful individuals who don't just talk, but take action to help victims are those who have been there. If we can help the adult women and men change from survivor to thriver, they can become the most influential and strong advocates for change.

There is NO age limit on when a person can be healed and prosper. In fact, the more adults who become prosperous and healthy individuals, the more they can make a difference in the lives of children. After all, they have been there and know exactly what it feels like and what needs to be done. Remember when you fly on a plane? The flight attendant says to put the mask over your face before putting it on the child's face. Take that analogy to DV and you can see that rehabilitation for the adult abuser and help and healing for the adult victim MUST be addressed to stop the cycle of violence. Especially if they have children involved, which is common. Don't forget that DV knows no bounds and as an adult you are NOT damaged goods. It's never too late!