***UPDATE: Nikko has been moved to another facility with the FLDOC- further away from his family, which causes undue hardship. This move can only be called more RETALIATION by the abusive FLDOC*** Nikko is no longer in Union CI-he is now located at Suwannee.
This is a call to action…on behalf of Nikko Albanese from his mother Heather Chapman:
“I Received a Letter today about my son. From an inmate who is at the same prison. He said it was a gross display of cruel and unusual punishment.The severe isolation, lack of Medical Care and just straight abuse from prison staff. He said my son Nikko is Unresponsive, Staring at Walls, Drooling from his Mouth. He has Stopped eating. What the Hell have they done to my son? Nikko Albanese is Deteriorating in Solitary confinement.For the past 4 years in Solitary confinement Due to retaliation. I filed a complaint against the sergeant for not doing his job.I was told by that Sergeant that I had made a mistake. A very big mistake. And that I would never see my son alive again. Florida Prisons are notorious for murdering inmates as if they have no life value. Time after time it’s an unpunished crime. They’re murdering my son a slow painful death.
Before Solitary confinement, Nikko was engaging, quick wit, funny and a bit of a smart ass. Nikko has a high IQ is very intelligent. Well mannered well spoken and very handsome.
Now Nikko has been found in a catatonic state three times. Has been misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and given the wrong extremely dangerous medication. Completely isolated from mother and family three years. Absolutely no physical contact of any kind. I’m not allowed to give my child a hug or even touch his arm. If he is out of his Cell Nikko is completely shackled. 3 guards must escort him. Well hold him up. The ankle shackles dig into his flesh making every step extremely painful. This is the third time Nikko has been unresponsive and stopped eating. obviously he is deteriorating from the severe isolation it is difficult for him to stand much less walk. The shackles and the three guards are a bit of an Overkill..
. I have witness my own child Unresponsive Staring at Walls Drooling from his Mouth and unable to make eye contact with his own mother. The State of Florida has forbidden me to comfort my son who is so cruelly suffering with a hug.
He has lived in a dark 6×9 cell for the past 4 years. He has gone years without seeing the light of day. Unable to visit with his own sisters for the past 4 years. Christmas time I’m not allowed to send him a pre-approved Christmas package.He is aloud 4 books ,5 pictures no TV no radio. No clothes, socks, underwear or sneakers. Only prison issue plastic slide shoes, prison issued pants and top with holes. Hospital scrubs. he is issued a sweatshirt for a few months of the year. The guards are not even allowed to speak to him. Absolutely no physical contact of any kind. I’m not. When I visit Nikko. It is on death row.
No. Nikko is NOT violent. No one was injured in his crime.
So how is this possible? How can the State of Florida get away with murder?
Matthew Walker, Randall Jordan-Aparo , Jerry Washington, Latandra Ellington, Darren Rainey just to name a few. They all died in a Florida prison at the hands of guards in the most unjust ways imaginable. Most of the guards didn’t even lose their job.
“In testimony before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, the inspectors cited cases where they were told to withhold information from prosecutors, to close investigations into staffers who were politically connected and to avoid bringing criminal charges no matter how much evidence they had.”BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND JULIE K. BROWN -Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
My son is dying in a Florida prison cell…… because I filed a complaint against Florida prison guard.”
Warden Diane Andrews at Union Correctional Institution says everything is great. Nikko’s is on the medication he should be. He is receiving adequate Medical Care. He’s on CM status.
HELP US SAVE NIKKO PLEASE!!!
Nikko Albanese B11083
SIGN HIS PETITION AND SHARE!!
Nikko’s Mother: Heather Chapman https://www.facebook.com/heatherchapman40
561-396-7980
Prison Reform Movement's Weblog- America: Land of the Free, Home of the Incarcerated 
1. Heather Chapman said, “My 5 foot, 11 inch son has gone from his normal 160-pound weight to a skeletal 120 pounds after enduring solitary confinement for two years, where he remains today. My son seems to be starving to death in the Florida prison system. He looks like the Holocaust victims in Hitler’s concentration camps. Please help us. Please save my son.”
2. I would like you to meet my son, Nikko Albanese. Before the mental health crisis that led to his arrest, Nikko was a bright, loving, dependable, compassionate and quiet young man. He enjoyed slot car racing, listening to music, and being with his friends. He is an adoring older brother to two younger half-siblings. Nicole and Jackie look up to Nikko, and we all miss him very much. But to the State of Florida Department of Corrections, Nikko is known as DC Number B11083 and is currently housed in special confinement unit at the Union Correctional Institute in Raiford, Florida. My son is currently serving two concurrent sentences for robbery with a gun and possession of a gun. Nikko was sentenced at the age of 19, and his earliest release date is November 11, 1021, at which time he will be 28 years old.
3. Nikko was diagnosed with early onset bipolar disorder at the age of 10. At age 11, he started receiving social security disability. The State of Florida classified Nikko as disabled because of the bipolar disorder. He has been medicated for bipolar since the age of 10. His bipolar disorder medication completely contained his condition. Nikko may have had bipolar disorder and took medication, but other than that he was just an average kid. Most family friends were not even aware Nikko had bipolar disorder or took medication. The proper medication works well for Nikko. It evens out the chemicals within his brain. As long as Nikko was taking his medication, things were fine.
4. When Nikko turned 18, the health insurance and Social Security Disability stopped. According to the law, Social Security considered Nikko to be an adult. I was told that when disabled children like Nikko turn 18, they have to reapply for Social Security Disability as adults. I guess I should have known this, but Nikko had been on his health insurance and Social Security for so long that I just assumed it would continue. As I was gathering records and filling out all the necessary paperwork, Nikko did not have any medical insurance to pay for his medication, doctors or therapy. Once I completed all of the necessary documents and submitted the information from his doctors, I was told by Social Security that I am NOT allowed to fill out and submit the paperwork for Nikko. Rather, he must to do it himself. By this point Nikko had been off his medication and out of therapy for nearly a year, and his condition went from bad to worse. The discontinuation of Nikko’s psychiatric treatment caused the mental health crisis that resulted in Nikko’s crime.
5. Nikko’s history of mental illness is very well documented, and the Sentencing Court was made fully aware of my sons’ history of psychiatric hospitalizations, past treatments, history of medications, and the need to receive the properly prescribed medicine for his continued treatment behind bars. The Court received copies of all his medical documents prior to his sentencing. In fact, the Court ordered that Nikko be examined by a Court appointed forensic psychiatrist.
6. Dr. Crosby was selected to evaluate Nikko. Over the period of several weeks, he met with my son and did an extensive evaluation in which he concurred with the diagnosis as stated in the mental health documents the Court received earlier. Most importantly Dr. Crosby told the Court that Nikko was in “a severe bipolar crisis that required immediate medical attention.” I was told that the county facility and ultimately the State Department of Corrections would address his medical and mental health needs.
7. For some reason, all of Nikko’s medical and psychiatric records were sealed by the Court (including the court-ordered evaluation). When Nikko was transported into state custody, these crucial records did not go with him. Shortly after Nikko arrived at the state prison, he was placed in solitary confinement. Nikko wrote to me and told me that he continually filled out medial request forms to receive medical and psychiatric treatment, but the prison administrators never responded.
8. Over the next two years, Nikko continually received disciplinary reports and sanctions. The ultimate result of the numerous sanctions was the suspension of all visitation privileges, and he could receive no telephone calls or packages. Nikko spent an excessive amount of time in solitary confinement. He was subjected to an unwarranted use of brutal force, restraints (including electronic) and chemical agents to “manage” my son, when in fact he was merely crying out for help. Nikko needed someone to recognize that he had mental health issues that were being ignored.
9. In February 2014, my son was found in his solitary confinement cell in a catatonic state. He was immediately taken to medical. For a human being to become catatonic is a very long and painful process. It should also be noted that this was the first time in his two-years of being in state custody that he received any form of medical/psychiatric attention for his previously diagnosed conditions. Nikko was then housed in the medical unit for seven to eight months and ultimately received a diagnosis of schizophrenia by the facility mental health team. He was eventually returned to solitary confinement for an alleged series of incidents that occurred while he was in a purportedly catatonic state at Charlotte Prison in Punta Gorta, Florida.
10. On September 19, 2014, I received a call from Corrections officials saying that they were moving my son to “a closed management prison”: Union Correctional Institution, where he is currently housed. I requested and have received copies of all of my sons’ medical and mental health records since he was placed in State custody as well as copies of his disciplinary records.
11. To this day, Nikko is still in a medical unit that the Florida State Department of Corrections refers to as a “TCU Unit.” Whatever they want to call it, it is still solitary confinement. They just call it a different name. Whenever an inmate in this unit is removed from his cell for whatever reasons, including a shower, he is handcuffed and shackled. It’s possible that Nikko may spend the remainder of his time in prison in a TCU unit.
12. Throughout his childhood, Nikko was successfully treated for bipolar disorder. Nikko was damaged by not receiving medical care for over two years and is presently diagnosed as being schizophrenic. Inmates in the TCU units are not allowed to receive any packages, be it holiday packages, sneakers or clothes. Because of Nikko’s declining condition and his fear of words and pictures contained in letters, books or magazines, he has absolutely no communication.
13. The sentencing court misled me. I was told by the sentencing court that my son would receive immediate medical and mental health care and that the state facility would be made aware of his condition. Why was it that Nikko did not receive any care until two years after arriving at a state facility? Why did Florida wait until he had deteriorated to a catatonic state before treating his mental illness? How could any human being allow this to happen to another human being?
14. My anxiety about Nikko has grown as I continually read and see videos about the mistreatment and deaths of inmates in Florida who are being held or were interned at some of the same correctional facilities as my son. I worry because my son is not in a position to protect himself against violent assaults. Use of excessive force is unacceptable, but corrections officers are seldom censured. There is no need for excessive force, especially for someone who is catatonic like my son was.
15. Someone needs to be held accountable for such violent and brutal behavior that the State of Florida’s correctional staff has used on mentally ill inmates. It scares me, because no one is being held accountable for the brutal assaults, the mistreatment or inmates’ deaths – even when such deaths are ruled “homicide”. As I read about the torture and wrongful deaths that happen to Florida prisoners in the newspaper and see films about abuses on television, I wonder how many other cases of brutality do we not hear about. The new Secretary of Corrections has placed a “gag order” on those who were going public about what goes on behind those steel doors, closed gates, locked and secure fences.
16. After two years of being denied all contact, I was allowed one phone call with Nikko on January 5, 2015. My sister had called the warden at Union Correctional Institution. In exchange for my phone call, she had to promise that she would get me to stop my public outcry for help. She had to promise that I would not go to the press or others if I were allowed just one phone call with my son. It was during this phone call that I realized my son didn’t remember me. He has trouble with long term and short term memory. His speech is delayed. Nikko is deteriorating to the point where he cannot read or write letters. He cannot have books of any kind in his cell; apparently, the words and pictures in books disturb him greatly.
17. I realized during this precious phone call that my son is deteriorating rapidly. The medical records that I have obtained from the prison clearly state that Nikko is deteriorating. The only connection I have with my son right now is through the prison doctor, Dr. Biskey. The doctor told me that Nikko has not come out of his cell in weeks, maybe months. It is evident that my son is slipping out of reality, out of society and into a kind of protective shell. I am afraid that he will continue to decline until it will be so bad that no one will be able to reach him.
18. Nikko has been in solitary confinement for over two years now. Effects of being in long-term solitary confinement can mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia. For this reason, I question whether Nikko truly does have schizophrenia or if could this be a misdiagnosis. The bottom line is that my son is not being treated for any of his preexisting conditions. He is being treated only for the “newly diagnosed” schizophrenia. Nikko was doing well when he was treated for bipolar disorder as a teenager. If only I had not been prevented from applying for Nikko’s medical insurance and social security when he reached age 18, none of this might have happened.
19. Nikko has been visited by two separate organizations in Florida who advocate on behalf of people with disabilities, both of which have declined to help. Why would these “trained professionals” ask Nikko specifically about alleged abuse, neglect, inadequate medical care, and deterioration? Why would they ask Nikko these questions right in front closed circuit cameras and audio recording equipment, with armed prison guards within earshot? My son was in survival mode, knowing that if he answered them truthfully he would be in danger. Nikko probably is already in danger simply because these people went to see him. Why would anyone trust Nikko’s word anyway? Nikko is an inmate. He committed a crime, and as such, society and courts of law view him as untrustworthy. His word means nothing. I’m sorry but that is the reality of the situation. What does it matter what my son says?
20. The proof is documented in the medical records, the disciplinary records and in the current physical and mental state my son is in, the majority of which is probably attributable to the two years of solitary confinement he has endured. I now have NO contact with Nikko. The prison suspended all visitation privileges until late this summer. Who is going to be my eyes and ears? Who is going to look out for my son? Who has his back – certainly not the State of Florida Department of Corrections or the private company that provides inmates with medical and mental health care.
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A coalition of 14 human rights groups on Thursday called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Florida state prisons, contending that “immediate intervention” is necessary to stop the widespread abuse, neglect, torture and deaths of inmates in the Florida Department of Corrections.
In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, the group cited a list of suspected criminal and civil rights violations against prisoners, including: torture and death by starvation, excessive use of force, medical neglect, misuse of solitary confinement, suicide, sexual assault and death and torture by scalding.
As examples, the letter cites 17 inmates who allegedly died under one or more of those conditions, as well as three others who continue to suffer as a result of violence and neglect suffered in the state prison system.
“Given the Florida Department of Corrections’ pattern and practice of consistently failing to remedy these pervasive and egregious problems, only the Department of Justice can properly address these violations,’’ the coalition wrote.
The group, headed by Florida’s ACLU, expressed particular concern about the abuse and deaths of inmates who suffer from mental illnesses, citing several who have died in recent years under suspicious circumstances. One of those inmates, Darren Rainey, died in 2012 after he was left for more than two hours in a shower with temperatures in excess of 180 degrees. Rainey’s death is already the subject of a federal civil rights inquiry, as well as a state criminal investigation. Rainey, who suffered from schizophrenia, was allegedly forced into the shower by corrections officers at Dade Correctional Institution near Homestead and left there, as punishment, for bad behavior.
The Miami-Dade medical examiner has yet to release his cause of death, and the criminal investigation into his death is still pending.
Several other deaths at Dade Correctional Institution were cited, including Richard Mair, another inmate who suffered from mental illness who hanged himself at the prison in 2014. He had previously complained that he and other mentally ill inmates were being sexually violated, beaten and mentally abused at the prison. After his death, a suicide note was found sewn into his boxers that listed a number of abuses, and it contained the names of officers whom he claimed were regularly beating inmates or forcing them to fight each other for sport.
His death and the allegations he made has never been investigated by police or by the corrections department.
Other examples included Ricky Martin, a 24-year-old convicted burglar, who was killed at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution. He was beaten, stabbed and stomped on by a fellow inmate despite numerous pleas by him and other inmates to stop the killer, who had vowed earlier in the day to kill Martin because he was white. Corrections officers were warned, but ignored the pleas, according to more than a dozen inmates interviewed by the agency after the death. No corrections officers were disciplined.
Nearly all the cases cited in the letter were part of an ongoing series about corruption and violence in Florida prisons by the Miami Herald. For more than a year, the newspaper has reviewed thousands of documents, conducted hundreds of interviews and visited prisons where prisoners have alleged they’ve seen or they themselves have been mentally, physically and sexually abused. In most cases, few, if any, corrections officers or wardens were held accountable. And the circumstances surrounding the deaths were often covered up, according to witnesses.
In recent months, the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) has made several reforms to try to improve prison conditions. More than a dozen corrections officers have been fired and arrested, wardens have been forced out and regional directors have been ordered to reapply for their jobs. Gov. Rick Scott and new prisons Secretary Julie Jones have ordered an overhaul of the agency, and some changes have already been implemented.
McKinley Lewis, FDC’s communications director, said the agency is committed to ensuring the safety of Florida’s 100,000 inmates.
“Many of the issues raised by the ACLU are the subject of past or present criminal and administrative investigations which involve multiple local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. FDC is confident that our ongoing reforms, and current leadership, will continue to move our agency in a positive direction that focuses on our vision of inspiring success by transforming one life at a time,” Lewis said in a statement.
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said those reforms are not enough to change the culture of the Florida’s prison system, which is the third largest in the nation. Cover-ups are so ingrained in the prisons that far too many corrections officers are still able to harm inmates with impunity, he said.
“An appalling 346 people died in Florida prisons last year…it is the responsibility of the Governor’s office to ensure the safety of the state’s prisons. But under the leadership of Gov. Scott, conditions have deteriorated,’’ Simon said in a statement.
He also pointed out that the agency has failed to investigate potential wrongdoing, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is handling some of the death cases, is taking far too long to give closure — and justice — to families of inmates who have died.
“Many of the FDC and FDLE investigations into instances of death and/or abuse of prisoners are languishing. The investigations have been ongoing for more than three years without any conclusion in sight,” he said.
Gupta is in charge of the Justice Department’s civil rights division and is the nation’s top civil rights prosecutor.
The coalition’s letter was also signed by Robin Cole, president, National Alliance on Mental Illness; Steve Wetstein, Stop Prison Abuse Now; Randall Berg Jr., executive director, Florida Justice Institute; Christopher Jones, director, Florida Legal Services Inc.; Rev. Dr. Russell Meyer, executive director, Florida Council of Churches; Adora Obi Nweze, president, Florida Conference of NAACP Branches; Jeanette Smith, executive director, South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice; the board of trustees of Temple Israel of Greater Miami; Amy McClellan, president, the Key Clubhouse of South Florida; Marc Dubin, director, ADA Expertise Consulting; Tania Galloni, managing attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center, Florida; and Paul Wright, director, the Human Rights Defense Center.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/special-reports/florida-prisons/article39340566.html#storylink=cpy
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File a 42 USC 1983 action under the (USCA8) ,and file complaint to FBI, and State Dept of Justice …
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Reblogged this on Social Action.
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