Alexis “Alex” Machado was a prisoner at Pelican Bay State Prison’s
isolation units for nearly two years when he took his own life on
October 24, 2011.
According to the autopsy report, Machado was last seen alive at
approximately 12:15 AM “as he was examined and then cleared by medical
staff for a complaint of heart palpitations.” Thirty minutes later, at
12:45 AM, an officer found Machado and reported that “….Machado [was]
hanging inside his cell…” He was seen “sitting on the floor with a sheet
tied to his neck and the sheet tied to the top bunk.”
Concluded the autopsy: “The decedent died as a result of asphyxiation
due to strangulation by hanging.” Toxicology reports were negative.
As institutional records and letters from Machado in the year leading
up to his death show, he had been suffering severe psychological
problems in response to his prolonged isolation. Once a jailhouse lawyer
whose writings were both clearly and intelligently composed, his mental
state would decline at Pelican Bay.
Machado had been incarcerated since 1999 on a robbery charge and a
related shooting. He was sentenced to an 80-to-life prison
term. Described as an intelligent and thoughtful man with a warm smile
by his sister, Cynthia, he generally experienced no problems in his
initial 11 years of incarceration. For most of his time, he was held at
Kern Valley State Prison.
Things began to change in late 2007, when a race riot took place.
“The prison said he was the one who started the riot,” according to
Cynthia, “when he really had nothing to do with it.”
His involvement in the riot would result in his being placed in
Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) in December 2007. Though he was
never officially found guilty for the riot, prison gang investigators
would begin to build a case for his validation as a gang member. In
December 2008, he was placed in the ASU again for “manufacturing a
weapon”; in January 2009, a confidential informant was officially cited
by prison officials as evidence of his gang activity.
He was finally validated as a gang associate, in large part due to
the confidential informant, on February 4th, 2010. In his appeal of the
validation, he argued that the source items used in his validation were
insufficient, saying that “these allegations are not true and I
initiated nothing.”
Drawing by Machado of his niece
He further charged in his appeal that his validation as a gang member
was in retaliation of his acquittal in the racial riot case.
He was sent to Pelican Bay to serve an indeterminate SHU sentence on February 17th, 2010 from the Kern Valley ASU.
Being screened into Pelican Bay, he reported no psychological problems.
Soon after arriving, however, he reported in letters that he was
consistently harassed by the guards. In a letter dated March 10th, 2010,
he wrote that “when I first got here an officer told me that he was
being pressured to make a bogus psychologist referral on me…I guess they
want to make it look like I am going crazy.” He reported that guards
took him to debrief in an attempt to make him look like an informant.
Further, he was told that a green light (hit order) had been placed on
him; a claim that he didn’t believe.
An ASU classification document indicates that he received some mental
health services in May 2010, and previously in October 2009.
A mental health chronos indicates his first significant problem at
Pelican Bay surfaced on January 24, 2011 with a mental health referral
from a correctional officer for paranoia.” Also beginning in January, he
was noted to have decreased the number of showers he took, from a
regular of three a week to only once or twice a week.
He received a 115 (rules violation report) on March 1, 2011 for
”willfully resisting” officers after “fishing line” for communication
with other inmates was found and he refused to “cuff up.” He told the
health care worker who saw him after his extraction with pepper spray
that “I want you to put down that they are denying my legal mail.”
On May 31st, a mental health referral reported that he “stated he is
being watched, listened to, cell has bugs and cameras. He also stated he
hears knocking on all his cell walls.”
Things would decline significantly in June. On June 5th, a mental
health record reports that he was depressed, anxious, poor
hygiene/grooming, hallucinations, paranoia and delusion. He reported
that is presenting complaints were listed as “hearing voices, can’t
sleep anxiety a ttacks, someone/something controlling thoughts, hasn’t
cleaned cell in three days.”
Days later he would receive another referral for anxiety and
reporting increased heart rate and breathing. On June 12th, he was
placed in a crisis room for threatening to kill himself.
The following is from a Counseling Chrono dated June 21, 2011:
On Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 1440 hours I was summoned
to the cell of Inmate Machado…by Registered Nurse…Upon looking in the
cell window, I observed a noose hanging from the air duct. I observed
the No-Tear Mattress lying on the cell floor torn apart. I ordered
Machado to submit to handcuffs, to which he complied. After handcuffing
Machado I placed him in holding cell #136 so Dr. N could speak with him.
I returned to cell 188 and observed feces smeared on the right wall. It
appears Machado had torn off the outer layer of the mattress, fashioned
a noose from it, and tied the noose to the vent…
Just days after the incident, he was issued a notice that he would be placed in Pelican Bay’s Administrative Segregation Unit:
You were endorsed by the CSR on 02/04/10 to serve an
indeterminate SHU term, due to your validation as an Associate of the
…prison gang…On 06/22/11, your Mental Health Level of Care (LOC) was
elevated to Correctional Clinical Case Management (CCCMS), PBSP-SHU
Exclusionary; therefore, your placement in PBSP-SHU is no longer
appropriate. Due to the above, on 06/22/11, a decision was made to place
you in the PBSP Administrative Segregation Unit. Single celled due to
prison gang validation.
By June 30th, he was deemed to have “active psychotic symptoms” but had a low risk of suicide.
On July 6th, he threw his breakfast through his food port and refused
breakfast the next day. On the date of the incident a referral
indicated ”inappropriate behaviors”, “hallucinating” and “poor impulse
control.” The referral notes that he believed “electromagnetic pulses
are interfering with his thoughts.”
A mental health document says later that “[he] is believed to be in a
desperate situation with an equal amount of anxiety. During ICC in Ad
Seg, he refused the debriefing process; hence his situation appears to
be deteriorating possibly leading to [his] current state of mind.”
In June and July, he was variously diagnosed with Antisocial
Personality Disorder and Brief Psychotic Disorder. According to his
sister, though he was officially granted a vegetarian diet for religious
reasons, he would primarily subsist on an unhealthy cheese-only diet
due to his being allergic to peanuts, the other primary component of a
prison vegetarian food tray. This is believed by his sister to have been
one of the factors that contributed to the already physically and
mentally stressful environment.
Alex Machado’s Suicide Note
Machado’s sister noticed her once coherent and seemingly adjusted
brother decline in his time at Pelican Bay. “I noticed he started
writing strange things, about seeing things,” she says. Around this
time, she and her mother called Pelican Bay after receiving a despondent
letter from Alex. “I’m afraid for my sons life,” Machado’s mother told
one of his mental health counselors.
Though CDCR has previously gone on the
record
to say that he was not a participant in the hunger strikes, the Machado
family believes that he in fact did participate in the strikes. He
reportedly mentioned the strike many times in letters sent to his
family.
In late July or early August, he sent a letter to his sister claiming
that he saw “someone I know and I saw another in pieces and demons…I
don’t know the significance of it…I hope it was a hallucination.” He
wrote that was taken to the infirmary for leg pains, where he further
wrote:
I was handcuffed in a cell and was being watched by two
officers I never seen before…I was handcuffed for what seemed like an
eternity. I felt like I was in that room handcuffed for days but it was
only an hour…the shooting in my case flashed in my mind and they
suggested I died that day in the shooting and that I was now in
‘purgatory’ or in ‘Dantes Inferno.’ I felt trapped. I thought I was
condemned to be handcuffed in that cell forever. They made me believe I
was killed in real life. I thought I was caught in another realm. I saw
insects in the cell and demons. It was way out I don’t know what
happened…
Also written while at Pelican Bay, Machado reflected on his decade
long incarceration, writing ”I wish my life was different and that we
could all be out there together…I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck and I
have been away from home for a long time now.”
In the final months of his life, he would continue to spend over 22
hours a day in a small cell. His letters came less and less frequently.
During his time at Pelican Bay, he told his family not to make the over
700-mile trip to visit him. He didn’t want them to see him in chains.
Though his letters in the two months leading to his death were
increasingly distorted, he did have some glimmer of hope. He had secured
a lawyer who was in the process of challenging his original criminal
conviction.
His sister describes his plight this way,
“It takes one inmate informant to report you falsely. Then you are in
solitary confinement. When you want to fight to get out it is
impossible because of all the torture that goes on in there physically
and mentally.”
After years of isolation, paranoia, and gradual deterioration, he took his life.
“He was a loving brother, son, and uncle…raised by a single mother
and got lost in the system,” says Cynthia. “He wanted to be treated
fair.”
The Machado family welcomes any assistance in getting Alex
Machado’s story out. If you’d like to contact the Machado family email
the author of this article at: Sal_SolitaryW@yahoo.com.
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