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3 dead after Philly attack Tribune Content Agency PHILADELPHIA — Three people were killed and 11 others wounded in a mass shooting late Saturday night on South Street amid chaos that erupted on legendary blocks that have long been among the region’s most popular gathering places. “Once it started I didn’t think it was going to stop,” said Joe Smith, 23, who was standing outside the Theater of the Living Arts on South between Third and Fourth streets, when the shots rang out around 11:30 p.m. “It was chaos,” said Eric Walsh who was closing up the outdoor seating area of O’Neals, a bar near Third and South. He saw a young woman collapse to the ground on the corner. “People were coming off the street with blood splatters on white sneakers and skinned knees and skinned elbows,” said a visibly shaken Walsh. “We literally just were balling up napkins and wetting them and handing them to people.” Officials had not released the identities of the dead, saying only that one was a 25-yearold man and another a 22-year-old woman. The names and conditions of the wounded, seven of See Shooting, Page A7
Capitol hearings to begin Tribune Content Agency WASHINGTON — The deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, shocked viewers watching live around the world and, at least in the moment, infuriated Republican congressional leaders who fulminated among themselves against the role Donald Trump and his allies played in egging on the rioters. But the short-lived horror over the worst attack on the seat of U.S. See Capitol, Page A7
Tojo Andrianarivo/CalMatters Photos
Susan Ottele looks through hundreds of handwritten letters that her son, Adam Collier, mailed to her from prison between 2016 and 2020.
Inmate shuffle: How State of California bounces around its mentally ill prisoners By Byrhonda Lyons and Jocelyn Wiener CALMATTERS
On the last day of Adam Collier’s life, he had breakfast in his cell in Kern Valley State Prison. He wrote two letters, one to his mother, the other to the guard who would later find his body. During the previous four years in prison, Collier had been hospitalized for mental health A list of Adam Collier’s prison transfers. Over four years, crises 14 times. His he was transferred 39 times. many letters to family and friends wobbled California’s prisons first level of care and failing between lucidity and came under court moni- to adequately document gibberish. His medical toring for rampant abuse his history of self-harm. records proffered and neglect of prison- Earlier this year, his graphic descriptions of ers with mental illness, parents filed a wrongself-harm. Collier had the system is still failing ful death complaint in originally landed in prison to protect its sickest federal court. The California Departfor exposing himself to inmates. For many of women in public while these men (the vast ment of Corrections and failed high on meth. Ashamed majority of people behind Rehabilitation and delusional, he tried bars are male) prison is to respond to several to castrate himself with not a place to heal. It is a requests by CalMatters for an interview but a broken plastic cup place to disappear. The constant relo- sent written answers because he believed it cation that Collier to emailed questions. was God’s desire. The prison system’s experienced is a symptom Department representaresponse to Collier’s of the system’s broken- tives declined to comment ness. Too often, in lieu on Collier’s case, citing increasing anguish? of an effective treatment health privacy laws. Transfers. Corrections spokesBetween 2016 plan, challenging inmates and 2020, the Cali- are simply moved along, person Vicky Waters said fornia Department of a CalMatters investiga- the department, along with California CorCorrections and Reha- tion has found. After Collier’s death, rectional Health Care bilitation transferred Collier 39 times, ping- state overseers found the Services – which are ponging him between department had “poorly jointly responsible for mental health crisis beds handled” his case. The medical services to the and increasingly high- Office of the Inspector state’s prison inmates – security prisons at a General, which provides provide “quality medical pace so fast he told his independent oversight and mental health care.” “Much like it works mother, Susan Ottele: of prisons, described an array of internal prob- in a community health “I’m f----- dizzy.” On Oct. 17, 2020, at age lems, including clinicians care setting, individuals improperly delaying Col- may need to physically 43, he killed himself. Three decades after lier’s referral to a higher move to the appropriate
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facilities to receive the necessary level of care,” Waters said. Several attorneys and researchers steeped in advocacy for this population said they were stunned by the speed at which Collier was shuffled around the system. Some told CalMatters they initially didn’t believe it until they saw the documentation. “I don’t think the system is designed where anybody says, ‘Stop. Take a step back. What does he really need?’” said Margot Mendelson, an attorney with the Prison Law Office, cocounsel in the ongoing federal, class-action suit about the state’s treatment of inmates with mental illness, known as Coleman. For many inmates, the churn continues. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation agreed on May 5 to release transfer data that CalMatters had requested in March, but has thus far failed to
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provide it. However, data collected by CalMatters from the department’s public website between June 2021 and May 2022 showed that, while most of the state’s prison inmates rarely move, a subset is being transferred frequently. According to CalMatters’ analysis of the data, of the 86,118 inmates who had been incarcerated at least 12 months prior to last June, 1,988 moved at least four times this past year and 32 moved eight times or more. Several of the inmates who moved the most frequently told CalMatters they were being treated for mental health conditions. Even as the state shrunk its overall prison population in recent decades, the ranks of inmates with mental illness continue to swell. In April 2000, one in eight California prison inmates had a diagnosed mental illness. This year, one in three do, See Prison, Page A7
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