Pubdate: Thu, 16 Dec 2004
Source: Alexander City Outlook, The (AL)
Copyright: 2004 The Alexander City Outlook
Contact:  http://www.alexcityoutlook.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2401
Author: Kelly Caldwell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

INMATE CRIES FOUL IN COOSA CO.

According to his mother, Daniel Bryan Kelley will never be the same
after spending a little more than two months in the Coosa County Jail.

"The damage that was done to Bryan can't be undone," Wanda Kelley
said.

Citing abusive and harassing treatment which caused permanent physical
injury as well mental and emotional injuries while in the Coosa County
Jail, Bryan Kelley filed a claim against the Coosa County Commission
Dec. 1.

"It is under investigation," Coosa County Sheriff Rickey Owen said.
"There are always two sides to every story."

The claim states Kelley was denied adequate medical treatment and was
subjected to inhumane and unfit living conditions, but no charges have
been filed against the jail or the commission.

"I don't expect a jail to be a Holiday Inn but they should be treated
like humans," Kelley's mother said.

Kelley committed second-degree assault in November of 2003 and was
placed in the Coosa County Jail at Rockford Nov. 13.

"It was a fist fight and they set bond for $100,000," Kelley's mother
said.

According to his mother, Kelley was put into solitary confinement for
more than 40 days in the Rockford jail.

"The sheriff claimed it was for medical reasons," she said. "He said
that the room was a medical treatment room."

According to the claim notice, the cell referred to as "the hole" did
not have clean water for drinking and washing; it did not have a bed,
and Kelley was forced to sleep on the floor next to the drain hole. It
also did not have a toilet, and Kelley was forced to urinate and
defecate in the drain hole next to where he slept.

"This has been very devastating," Kelley's father, Ray Kelley, said.
"He is not an animal. We treated Saddam Hussein better than the Coosa
County Jail treated my son."

Before being incarcerated, Kelley was diagnosed with a bi-polar
disorder according to his mother and had to take certain medication.
While in jail, his mother attempted to get her son's doctor to treat
him.

"I tried to get them to take him to his doctor from day one," she
said. "The doctor faxed a letter so he could treat him, but the people
at the jail told us they had a jail doctor that would see him."

That jail doctor, according to Kelley's mother, prescribed Kelley with
six different anti-psychotic drugs.

"I did my research on those drugs he was taking and they don't mix,"
she said. "I could see my son progressively getting worse."

According to the notice of claim served to the commission, Kelley did
get worse.

"Day-by-day my son's condition became worse," his mother said. "He
broke out in hives and had tingling sensations from head to toe."

His mother said Kelley was later hospitalized after slipping into a
hepatic coma.

"I have documentation that Bryan was in ICU at Russell Medical
Center," she said. "Dr. Law told us that Bryan's condition was
critical and he had chemical toxic hepatitis."

The mistreatment did not stop with the medical problems according to
Kelley's mother.

"We have inmate witnesses that are willing to tell how bad things are
at the jail and I know this will continue until someone speaks up,"
she said. "I want to see this place straightened up so someone else's
child will not have to go through this."

Coosa County's insurance company Meadowbrook ASI is investigating the
case and according to Martha Mathews of the company, the claim has
been received and the investigation will begin soon.

"We will be gathering the facts and information to make a
recommendation to the county," she said. "We are investigating the
merits of this claim."

Coosa County's attorney John Kelly Johnson did not return numerous
phone calls from The Outlook regarding the claim.

The claim notice does not specify a monetary figure for damages but
requests Kelley should be adequately compensated.

"It is so disgusting to see things that go on in the Coosa County
Jail," Kelley's father said. "They liked to have killed my son and I
think they aught to shut that jail down completely. It is not a jail
it is a dungeon."
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