The Death Of Timothy Souders

Scott Pelley On The Plight Of The Mentally Ill Behind Bars

(CBS)  But Michigan prisons have not been safe for mentally ill prisoners who have died needlessly. At least one starved to death, and others died of dehydration like Souders. Jeffrey Clark, a paranoid schizophrenic serving time for robbery, died of thirst in solitary. His sister, Bonita Clark-Murphy, pored over investigative reports of his death.

"There are reports that he had his mouth up against the plexiglas window, begging and pleading for water and air, and for someone again, to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to that, that's why I say Jeffrey was tortured," she says.

Clark-Murphy filed suit against the state; she claims the warden told the family that her brother died of an infection.

"We buried Jeff, not even knowing what happened," says Clark Murphy.

"It seems that the prison officials expected to tell you that this was natural causes, and that you'd just leave it alone," Pelley asks.

"Absolutely. And they were so wrong," she replies.

Jeffrey Clark was locked in solitary in the heat of the summer with his water turned off. And four years later, the heat index in solitary was over 100. Souder's was also water turned off.

He became delusional, refusing water when offered. But not even that was a medical emergency to the staff. "Souders has refused. Officer asked him if he needed water. He replied, ‘No,’" an officer could be heard on the tape.

After Souders' death, federal Judge Richard Enslen, who oversees the prison, wrote that inmates are exposed to an "unauthorized death penalty at the hands of a callous and dysfunctional health care system that regularly fails to treat life- threatening illness."

"I understand that it's easy to take individual cases and to sensationalize them, and you know, relentlessly replay the facts of an individual case. But I also think it's unfair," argues Caruso.

"But director, fair to say, people starve to death and die of thirst in your prisons?" Pelley asks.

"Any death, any incident like that in our custody is a tragedy. I will not deny that. It is not…that certainly isn't something that, you know, we set out…I mean, we have people come to us dying," she replies.

"They don't come to you dying of thirst and dying of starvation. How can that happen under your custody?" Pelley asks.

"I'm not gonna address cases that are under litigation. I cannot do that," the prison system director replies.

The Souders case is under litigation. His mother, Theresa Vaughn, is suing. She says the prison never told her how her son died. She found out in the "Detroit Free Press."

Vaughn has seen the videotapes of her son's last days and says they give her nightmares. "I cannot believe anyone would treat another human being that way at all. That they can watch over a four day period, slowly declining, slowly dying before their eyes," she says.

Asked if she things the guards meant to kill her son, Vaughn tells Pelley, "I don't believe anybody meant to kill Tim. I don't believe that they meant to hurt Tim. But they did. They did hurt him. And he did die. He's not comin' home. He's not comin' back. And he is gone. And he was only 21 years old."

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Since 60 Minutes first reported this story, guards who kept Jeffrey Clark locked up while he was dying of thirst were found guilty of gross negligence, and the Clark family was awarded almost $3 million. The legal case over the death of Timothy Souders is still pending.