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March 25, 2014

New York: Corrections Officer Arrested over Death of Rikers Prisoner Who Ate Soap Ball 
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In New York City, a corrections officer was arrested by FBI agents
Monday over the death at Rikers Island of a mentally ill prisoner whose
pleas for help went unheeded for hours. Jason Echevarria was a
25-year-old prisoner with bipolar disorder. In August 2012, he ate a
packet of detergent and began vomiting and pleading for medical help.
According to the complaint, Captain Terrence Pendergrass repeatedly
ignored reports Echevarria was ill, at one point telling a subordinate
he shouldn't be bothered unless "there was a dead body." The next
morning, Echevarria was found dead in his cell. According to the medical
examiner, the linings of his tongue and throat were burned off by the
soap chemicals. Earlier this month, Echevarria's supporters rallied to
call for Pendergrass's firing. The victim's father, Ramon Echevarria,
described his son's time in the prison's solitary housing unit, or SHU.

Ramon Echevarria: "When you put a person in a SHU for two months, six
months, you're breaking this person's mental capacity down to zero. He
did something bad, fine. But treat him as a human being, not like an
animal. He has rights. He has civil rights. He's got rights in this
world."

Last week, news emerged a mentally ill homeless veteran had died in an
overheated cell at Rikers. An official told the Associated Press Jerome
Murdough "basically baked to death."

 

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