Judge Won’t Halt Force Feeding of Inmate

Ethical quandary

Miles acknowledged that prison physicians are in a delicate situation. While they work for the corrections department, they are ethically bound to protect the rights and interests of their patients, including the right to refuse medical treatment.

Ben Turk reads a list of demands and rule and policy changes that hunger strikers are seeking outside the state Department of Corrections headquarters in Madison on July 5. Protesters are trying to pressure the Wisconsin Department of Corrections to reduce use of solitary confinement including ending a form of indefinite isolation known as administrative confinement. Turk later presented the demands to Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook. Photo by Coburn Dukehart of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

He said doctors should advise inmates to take vitamins during a hunger strike to avoid permanent nerve and brain damage. And Miles said prison officials should make the process more humane by offering to leave feeding tubes in place rather than removing and reinserting them multiple times a day through the nose and into the stomach, which can cause pain and inflammation.

Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said inmates are not allowed more-permanent feeding tubes “for security reasons.”

It remains unclear why corrections officials did not offer DeLeon an electrolyte drink when he initially declined drinking water, saying the Waupun water — which has a history of high lead and copper levels — was making him sick. DeLeon testified that officials refused to offer him a Gatorade-type drink, as called for in DOC policies, “on purpose in order to get the court order … to force feed me.”

David Liners, state director for the faith-based group Wisdom, watched a video of the force feeding of inmate Cesar DeLeon during a hearing Thursday in Dodge County Circuit Court in Juneau. Liners said the process appeared “painful” and “humiliating.” Photo by Coburn Dukehart of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Two members of the statewide faith-based group Wisdom attended Thursday’s hearing. Wisdom state director David Liners said the video of DeLeon’s force feeding was “hard to watch.”

“What a horrible way to go through your day,” Liners said. “It was obviously very painful and uncomfortable and humiliating.”

The ongoing hunger strike in Wisconsin is aimed at ending administrative confinement, a form of solitary confinement that can go on for years, even decades. Such a status is reserved for prisoners who are considered a threat to others or the security of the institution. At least two states, Colorado and California, have ended such long-term solitary confinement.

The Rev. Kate Edwards, a member of the faith-based group Wisdom, said the ongoing hunger strike has brought public attention to the plight of Wisconsin prisoners held in a form of indefinite isolation called administrative confinement. Photo by Coburn Dukehart of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

One of the hunger strikers, LaRon McKinley Bey, said he has been in administrative confinement — which entails 23 hours a day alone in a solid-walled cell — for more than 25 years. The United Nations has declared that such isolation beyond 15 days is tantamount to torture.

The Rev. Kate Edwards of Wisdom said the hunger strike has drawn attention to the 100 or so inmates who are locked in a indefinite solitary confinement “with absolutely no end in sight.”

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s reporting on criminal justice issues is supported by a grant from the Vital Projects Fund. The nonprofit Center (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

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