The Death Of Timothy Souders

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Feb. 11, 2007. It was updated on July 17, 2007.

You wouldn't imagine these days that a mental patient could be chained to a concrete slab by prison guards until he died of thirst, but that's how Timothy Souders died and he is not alone.

Souders suffered from manic depression. And like a lot of mental patients in this country, he got into trouble and ended up not in a hospital, but in jail. It was a shoplifting case and he paid with his life.

As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, no one would have been the wiser, but a medical investigator working for a federal judge caught wind of Souders' death and discovered his torturous end was recorded on videotape. The tapes, which are hard to watch, open a horrifying window on mental illness behind bars.

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In 2006, Tim Souders was in solitary at the Southern Michigan Correctional Center. He was 21, serving three to five years. Though an investigation would show he needed urgent psychiatric care, Souders was chained down, hands, feet and waist, up to 17 hours at a time. By prison rules, all of it was recorded on a 24-hour surveillance camera and by the guards themselves.

The tape records a rapid descent: he started apparently healthy, but in four days Souders could barely walk. In the shower, he fell over. The guards brought him back in a wheelchair, but then chained him down again. On Aug. 6th, he was released from restraints and fell for the last time. Souders had died of dehydration and only the surveillance camera took notice.

His short life began in Adrian, Mich. Souders was a kid whose troubles didn't start until late in his teenage years. It was then, his mother, Theresa Vaughn, told 60 Minutes that he began acting strangely.

"It was January in the wintertime. And you know, he was running around outside with his clothes off, thinking he was a knight, fighting dragons. You know, you lose touch with reality," Vaughn remembers.

He was troubled by anxiety and depression, often in and out of the hospital. After one hospital stay, he was caught shoplifting two paintball guns. He grabbed a pocket knife, threatened employees, and then begged a cop to shoot him. Instead, he was stunned with a Taser.

No one was hurt.

"He had gotten to the point where his thinking wasn't straight, and he was suicidal. And he should've never went to jail," Vaughn says.

In jail, Souders tried to kill himself three times. He pled to resisting arrest and assault, for waving the pocketknife, and ended up in a Jackson County prison complex, with 5,000 inmates. It's a troubled place—prisoners filed suit there in the 1980's and since then, their welfare has been monitored by a federal judge.

When Souders arrived he was part of a national trend: there are 300,000 mental patients behind bars nationwide. That's because starting in the 1960's many mental hospitals have been closing. And as patients ended up in jail, prisons became the new asylums.

"They became de facto mental hospitals and the prisons are ill equipped to handle it," says Robert Walsh, a clinical psychologist working inside Michigan prisons for the past 25 years.

Walsh is an insider. He was a deputy warden and director of psychological services at the prison where Souders died. He retired six years before Souders arrived.

"Given what you see in the Souders videotape, what should have been happening?" Pelley asks.

"What should have been happening was right away, mental health staff should have been consulted and reported to the scene, and they should have intervened. Given that he wasn't assaultive against anybody," says Walsh.

But there was no mental health staff to consult—the psychiatrist was on a seven-week leave.

"Then he should have been replaced. It's too critical a situation," Walsh remarks.

What landed him in solitary was when Souders took a shower without permission. When he broke a stool and used his sink to flood his cell, the chains came out—what the prison calls "top of bed" restraints.

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[l61648]

The treatment of this man a human being should have NEVER been treated this way. This Is America NOT IRAQ Yes he should be restrained but ever 2 hours released and FORCE to drin and or eat. I hope his mother wins MILLIONS and the ones responsible be jailed FOR EVER.

[islenskurone]

This is horrible. Michigan closed state medical treatment centers and instead put those needing medical treatment into the state prisons in Michigan. The guards and others that caused this to happen should be prosecuted and imprisoned.

There are many other horror stories out there about Michigan State prison and it is good to see that the public is mad aware of the inhumane
treatments. This is one of the reasons Michigan is referred to as: Michigan the Prison State.

[plowhandle]

Ronald Raygun was president and HE is the one that emptied the loonie bins and dumped these mental rejects on the streets of America.

Once again, the Republishit Party is to be thanked for the ills of the nation.

More tax breaks for the rich - no tax dollars for mentally ill people - no places for them to seek refuge.

Party of Lincoln. Filth peddlers. Perverts.

[lilguy56]

Wakeup america, this has been happening for years.No one wants their tax dollars going for social ills,so people are allowed to wander around mentally ill. The jail is at fault ,sure, but the american people are also at fault. When you don't care about human beings, this is what happens.Jails are no place for mentally ill people,but since theres no where else to put them,they are left there. Jails have become big business,why should they care what happens to prisoners. An equally appalling story just broke in los angles, a homeless man was driven in a van to skid row and dropped off. He had just been released from a hospital. He was a paraplegic and had a collestomy bag which broke when he was let out of the van unassisted. Homeless people in the area who came to his aide said that the van almost ran over his legs. Over 12 hospitals in la are being investigated for this practise of dumping the homeless.Big business not people.

[billzor]

Please forgive me, I thought that he was in a institution for the criminally insane. that's what w hav here in Maryland, so I just assumed that's what he was being held in. If he truly was in a prison, then, yes, because of his disorder and his behavior, he should've been moved to a mental hospital to recieve proper treatment. Prison employees are no more trained in how to handle the mentally ill than hospital workers are trained to handle hardened criminals. There should be crossover institutions in every state, so that people who fall into these categories can recieve proper care while serving time.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Scott Pelley On The Plight Of The Mentally Ill Behind Bars"

Ahhh. So this is what is meant by "compassionate conservatism".

[justworld1]

Nobody wants to work in a prison. Everyone wants to criticize others who do so. Good mental health professionals avoid the place like the plague. Nobody wants to see an increase in taxes for better rehabilitation and health care. The average citizen thinks they can put people in prison, pay the caretakers poorly, let them out of prison, give them a scarlet letter, no jobs, no opportunities, no psychotherapies, no future. What do you expect? They come back. More and more inmates. Less and less money. Prison employees reflect the public's attitude. Throw them inside and forget about them or take revenge. Prison reform depends on reforming society's attitudes. You cannot expect continued humane treatment when you refuse to allow taxes to increase so government services can be improved. You cannot expect prisoners to change and care for themselves and others in a sensitive way when society treats them as forgotten and despised. If you want reform; be reformed. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee".

[aqha_lady]

oops
"eake"
I meant to type "wake"
sorry

[aqha_lady]

I hope Mrs. Vaughn wins her wrongful death suit. This was inexcusable. Her son should not have died. I believe its time for the Dept of corrections to eake up and smell the coffee and change the way they deal with the mentally ill.

[eherbie1]

The death of an inmate is always unfortunate but have any of you stopped and consider what this inmate may have been doing before he was put in T.O.B.R.(Top Of Bed Restraints) Most of you that have posted responses have no idea what correction officers and staff at a prison go through on a day to day basis. Inmates degrading you, possible assaults from someone who has no remorse for what they do to you. Having to deal with mentally ill inmates is a thin line between protecting yourself and protecting that inmate. These are people that have committed crimes against YOUR society. You don't give us any credit when we protect YOUR society from these people on a day to day basis but you are the first to put our heads on a stick when on of these burdens on YOUR society dies from his own actions that placed him on T.O.B.R. I have had to place inmates on T.O.B.,not something I like to do but EVERY time I have been involved it was needed to protect myself or that inmate. I am not saying that the inmate should have died or that it couldn't have been prevented but remember the media that gave you this story only gave you the story that would bring alarm and bring ratings. Ask them to tell you the story of the heroes that deal with these people every day so that you can sleep at night and not worry about these stains on YOUR society.

Sincerely, A PROUD CORRECTIONS OFFICER

[afsteve]

He took a shower without permission. That's what he was doing to be put in solitary. He flooded that solitary confinement cell, which is what led to TOB restraints for up to 18 hours a day. He did not assault a prisoner. He did not assault a corrections officer. He did not attempt to harm himself. WHAT IS NOT SHOWN IN THIS VIDEO: ONE HOUR BEFORE HE DIED A MALE NURSE CHECKED HIM AND SAID HE COULD BARELY HEAR HIS HEART BEAT. THEN THAT NURSE AND THE CORRECTIONS OFFICERS LEFT HIM THERE TO DIE. Michigan's Corrections Officers FAILED TO DO THEIR JOBS and do informal counts as prescribed in their job duties, which led to the death of my son, who was also Bi Polar. He was a non violent offender and person. Had they DONE THEIR JOBS, I would not have buried my 22 year old son. Of course, in Michigan Negligence isn't enough to hold the Corrections Dept liable. My son's DEATH CERTIFICATE'S CAUSE OF DEATH SHOULD READ: LAZINESS!! Not to mention the HUGE amount of Corrections Officers that are on the take and involved in drug smuggling into the system. Correction Officers that could MAYBE be considered heroes are the exception.