Wasco State Prison

Suicides

December 2005 - Convicted child molester Jared Pereira, 28, hanged himself in his cell on December 2, using paper plates and cups to shove down his throat and cut off air circulation. Despite being on "suicide precaution," when the registered nurse who found him unconscious in his cell, it was already too late, and he was pronounced dead at 7:15 that night at Delano Regional Medical Center. The convict had been sentenced to 15 years to life on November 10 for several counts of child molestation committed while in Kings County. (2 December 2005 The Fresno Bee)

Discussing the health conditions at California state prisons in the mid 1990s, a former Wasco State Prison psychiatrist, Dr. Jean Dansereau, was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle as saying "I think the people who run the Department of Corrections suffer from hubris and are extremely arrogant even in the face of federal lawsuits." He condemned the prison for failing to adequately provide essentials of mental health care to inmates:

"In 1992, we went to the warden at Wasco with a box of 400 inmate requests to be seen because they were hearing voices, were manic-depressives or were suicidal, and still the prison administration refused to hire more psychiatric staff. "We had people cutting their wrists. We had people who were grossly psychotic being thrown in the hole (solitary confinement) because there weren't enough psychiatric beds." (3 October 1994 The San Francisco Chronicle)

Later, the same psychiatrist was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article as saying that "there was no coordinated system to identify [mentally-ill inmates]," and that correctional staff had "fiascoes" when prisoners were brought out of their cells, "shipped around the state," and brought back to the reception center "psychotic, readmitted," and "rehospitalized at tremendous cost to the taxpayer." In another outwardly scathing critique of the management of Wasco, Densereau went on to say that Wasco was "wholly inadequate and well below any standard of care that I've seen anywhere." (12 August 1993 Los Angeles Times). At the time, many prisoners being admitted to the reception center at Wasco needed psychiatric medication but didn't have the papers to determine the correct prescription and dosage. Beyond waiting months to receive their drugs for the first time, some inmates ended up "cutting their wrists just to be able to receive medication."

 Post your prison stories, news, or announcements for this prison here!
This is a new discussion board seeking contributions from correctional employees, past inmates,  and  anyone significantly connected to Wasco State Prison.
We welcome any new contribution, including personal thoughts, future directions, criticism, comments, responses, commentary, proposals, discussions, awareness campaigns, or anything else you think is significant to this prison.