Paris man helps inmates cope with prison life

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Paris man helps inmates cope with prison life
Written by Cindy Belt
http://www.parisbeacon.com/index.php...d=1374&Itemid=

Tuesday, 28 June 2005
Through his job, a Paris man has met some of the most well known criminals in the country.
Dr. William N. Elliott of Paris, licensed clinical psychologist, recently retired as the head of psychology services at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind. After 20 years of service, Elliott decided to retire. However, retirement didn’t last long because he accepted a similar position as the lead psychologist at the Rockville Correctional Facility in Rockville, Ind.

Elliott said that his top priority on a daily basis while working for the penitentiary was to help inmates cope with the experiences of being incarcerated. The majority of the inmates, Elliott explained, were career criminals with multiple prior convictions and incarcerations. He also devoted a great deal of his time to crisis intervention, working to prevent inmates from committing suicide or inflicting self-mutilation. He explained that an inmate’s goal during self-mutilation is to attract attention, get revenge or gain power and control.

“The inmate reaches a peak level of anxiety and the self-mutilation distracts him,” said Elliott. He added that some inmates become what he defined as chronic self-mutilators.

Elliott came to Terre Haute in 1973 to pursue a Master’s Degree in Criminology at Indiana State University. It was while he was at ISU that he met his wife, Sandy, a Paris High School English teacher. In 1985, Elliott earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in counseling psychology from ISU. He joined the penitentiary in Terre Haute as a staff psychologist, and in 1992 he was named chief of psychology services. He also served as an adjunct assistant professor in the Criminology Department at ISU from 1980-2004, and he was a psychologist/psychotherapist for the Park Medical Group in Terre Haute from 1992-1994.

In July, 1999, Elliott encountered an inmate who was responsible for the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh arrived at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute on that day.

Elliott said McVeigh was one of 20 inmates who was brought to Terre Haute in a 24-hour period. The 20 inmates had each been sentenced to death under federal statutes, and the only federal death row in the United States is at the Terre Haute penitentiary. Elliott explained that federal rules for executions were finalized in 1993, and the basic guidelines were completed in 1995. Work immediately began to prepare the Terre Haute penitentiary for executions.

Through a joint effort with United States Marshals, Elliott said that the 20 death row inmates were flown to Terre Haute.

“It was all very hush, hush getting them there,” said Elliott who added that it was one of the most well planned and organized operations in federal law enforcement history.

Once McVeigh’s execution date was set for June 11, 2001, Elliott headed the team that was in charge of coordinating all aspects of the care of the victims’ families as well as the survivors of the bombing who all witnessed McVeigh being put to death. He said that those who witnessed the execution were selected by a lottery system in Oklahoma City.

Elliott said that he worked with the victims’ families and survivors from the minutes their plane landed at Hulman Field in Terre Haute until the minute they left which was approximately a 48-hour period of time. This group included individuals who represented the federal law enforcement officers who were killed in the Oklahoma City explosion.

“It was all very quiet, very discrete. We worked to shelter and protect them from the media. Everything went off without a hitch. It was a highly successful event,” said Elliott who also credited the work of Harley Lappin, warden of the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute at the time of the McVeigh execution, who is now the Director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

Elliott’s work surrounding the McVeigh execution also included devoting time to preparing the staff for the event. He explained that staff became acquainted and established relationships with the inmates, and many times the execution of an inmate becomes difficult on the staff. This was the case, Elliott said, for the two inmates whose executions were carried out after McVeigh’s.

Eight days after McVeigh’s execution, Juan Raul Garza was put to death on June 19, 2001. He was sentenced to death in August, 1993, in Texas for the murders of three other drug traffickers. Elliott said there was a striking difference between the executions of McVeigh and Garza. Elliott described the media circus and national as well as international attention that surrounded the McVeigh execution.

“Nobody came for the execution of Garza. Nobody really paid any attention,” said Elliott.

Later on March 18, 2003, Louis Jones was executed at the Terre Haute penitentiary. He was sentenced to death in November, 1995, also in Texas, for the kidnap/murder of a young female soldier.

Elliot described McVeigh as a very private person who remained somewhat aloof during his encounters with him, unlike Garza and Jones.

“Both Garza and Jones were very well liked by the staff,” Elliott said.

He described the three men as having philosophical attitudes about death.

“They worked months and years to come to terms with being put to death,” said Elliott.

Once an inmate was put to death, Elliott said his team conducted debriefing sessions for any member of the prison staff who had anything to do with the execution.

Elliott added that no family member of McVeigh, Garza or Jones witnessed their executions which was at the request of each of the inmates.

The inmates Elliott worked with ranged in age from 18 to 70. He said they were high level drug offenders, murderers and bank robbers. He said that there are no ways to determine the exact cause as to why they committed crimes or no set of factors that can predict if someone is going to enter a criminal life style.

The majority of the inmates, he said, do “cut off all ties” with their families. First, geographically it is difficult for family members to travel to Terre Haute for visits, and secondly, the inmates’ rationale is that its just too hard to do time if they have to worry about people on the outside, explained Elliott.

Elliott said that the inmates are able to also “cut off” all of their emotions which enables them to commit crime after crime.

The doctor finds this concept to be totally opposite with his new assignment as lead psychologist for the Rockville Correctional Facility which is a women’s prison. He said the women prisoners are more willing to admit that they’re having problems. They are willing, he said, to self-disclose and work on psychological issues rather than just problems in prison.

Another big difference is that the women’s prison is a medium security level. However, the inmates do range in age, similar to Terre Haute Penitentiary, from 18 to 70. He said many of the women inmates are serving prison sentences for anything from welfare fraud to forgery to murder. Many of the women are in prison as a result of their role in their husbands or boyfriend’s drug offenses.

He said that almost all of the women prisoners have children and that they prefer to talk about their children rather than discuss the reasons of their incarceration. He added that the majority of women prisoners in Rockville have a history of substance abuse, and most have been physically and sexually abused.

Looking back over his years with the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Elliott shared a few memorable cases. He remembers one inmate, “Tony,” whom he worked with for 15 years in the Bureau of Prisons. The man suffered with a bipolar disorder and often tried to cut himself with razors.

Elliott explained “Tony” prided himself in never being without a razor. Elliott was proud of the relationship that he developed with the inmate as the managed to “defuse him” on several occasions and eventually the number of times he harmed himself reduced considerably. Elliott also remained “on-call” for “Tony” as well as other inmates who might be experiencing a similar problem. Just hearing Elliott’s rather soft and somewhat soothing voice over the phone defused a lot of problems for the inmates.

Elliott also added that “Tony” was sent to another penitentiary for a two-year period where he and a fellow prisoner murdered an inmate by bashing his skull with a fire extinguisher. “Tony” was only two to three years from being released from the prison system when the murder occurred.

>Later, “Tony” confessed his actions to Elliott who he knew would have to report the murder.

“He committed the murder because he said he had to prove to the other inmates that he was a real penitentiary convict and didn’t want to lose face. He had criminal pride ... a convict mentality. Respect from fellow inmates is all that was important to him.” said Elliott.

“Once a year he would come to see me about problems his daughter was having. I would try to explain to him that he couldn’t be a father just one day a year,” said Elliott.

It seemed, Elliott explained, that “Joey” thought by doing a good deed once a year, others wouldn’t look at the bad things that he did.

Also, through his years with the prison system, Elliott presented training sessions throughout the country on criminal thinking, dealing with inmates and inmates’ resistance to treatment for those employed with the prison system. Additionally, he wrote Game Over! Strategies for Redirecting Inmate Deception as a guide for prison staff to deal with inmate manipulation. He said the purpose of the book was to help protect staff from being compromised by inmates.

Elliott is extremely proud of the award he received in 1998. He was named Psychology Services Staff Member of the Year, Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is voted on by the entire prison system.