A vigil for Charlene Liberty in the ongoing fight for change
“She was someone who cared about life and goals, and when she went into the prison she became more worried about dying. She felt hopeless and just wanted to kill herself. It’s horrific and cruel what they did to her in there; the people who did this need to be held accountable.”
June 15, 2022, 12:53 pm
By Shivani Nishar
Charlene Liberty was full of energy and charisma. She was athletic from a very young age and loved to rollerblade, play soccer, go camping, explore, and dance. Her sister Elisha and mother Mary fondly remember her burgeoning dream of becoming a surgeon. “She used to dissect frogs, creating labels for each part, and she would watch TV shows about doctors all day long,” Mary shared of Charlene’s unbounded curiosity.
The Liberty family, in community with the Stop Torture RI Coalition, held a vigil at the State House on Tuesday. The family and friends remembered Charlene in life and death as they advocated for the end of solitary confinement in Rhode Island prisons and necessary change in the state’s behavioral healthcare system.
Charlene followed her passion for medicine and became a certified nursing assistant, working at a residential facility that supported people with cerebral palsy. “I started there just after she left to go work somewhere else,” said Mary. “And everyone would say: ‘Where is Charlene?’ They all loved her there.” After working at the facility, Charlene endeavored to go back to school to become a phlebotomist.
A profound Christian faith was central to Charlene’s life. Elisha recalled, “We loved to listen to lots of music, but sometimes she would just start getting rid of everything that wasn’t Christian music. She’d be throwing away the ‘Biggie’ CD’s! Jesus was everything to her.” Throughout her life, Charlene received comfort and internal peace from Jesus, looking to Him for hope to overcome her struggles.
Charlene’s relationship with God was reflected in the love she held for her friends and family. Elisha and Charlene were very close and spent a lot of time with one another. “My favorite memories are watching her be with my children and expressing how much they mean to her and how much she loves them,” Elisha fondly shared.
As she struggled with addiction, Charlene was incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI). Her family described how hard prison was for her and how much it changed her. Elisha recounted a time when Charlene had been medicated and was feeling dizzy. Charlene described warning the officers she was going to fall if she was forced to be in a certain position, and subsequently fell and hit her head. “The guard was like, ‘I’m not dealing with this,’” Elisha continued. Her mother and sister criticized how the guards would tease and bully Charlene, making fun of her for her prior relationships. “She had one of those personalities that would just crumble under that. She went in as a quiet person who was afraid,” Mary remembers. “She would always just say, ‘I want my Mommy.’”
Elisha and Mary became increasingly aware of how harmful being in the ACI was for Charlene. Guards continuously punished her for alleged Department of Corrections (DOC) rule violations which led Charlene to engage in self-injurious behaviors. They remember a time when Charlene jumped off a bathroom sink and went into a coma for three days. When they visited the prison, they could not obtain any information about what had occurred or her medical status. “A correctional officer came in and saw us and said ‘Oh the Liberty situation, that’s not serious,’” Elisha said.
But, Charlene’s “situation” was indeed serious. In 2019, she was put in solitary confinement, euphemistically termed restrictive housing, for days on end. While there, Charlene had multiple suicide attempts and engaged in additional self-injurious behaviors. As per the lawsuit, the response from staff was to place her in “leg shackles and belly chains, as well as a restraint chair,” while also using pepper spray to address her self-harm. After one of her suicide attempts, Charlene was hospitalized and then promptly returned to her cell in solitary confinement. The violence Charlene endured was so severe that she was one of six plaintiffs in an ongoing class action lawsuit against the Department of Corrections.
Charlene was released from the ACI to Eleanor Slater Hospital, where she survived additional negligence and abuse. It was later confirmed that Charlene was the patient whose hospital room was forcefully searched by a dozen correctional officers in December 2021. According to Charlene’s family, she was discharged this year without an appropriate treatment plan or support system, which is being investigated by Disability Rights Rhode Island.
Less than two months after her release from Eleanor Slater, on April 7th, 2022, Charlene unexpectedly passed away. Elisha proclaimed, “She was someone who cared about life and goals, and when she went into the prison she became more worried about dying. She felt hopeless and just wanted to kill herself. It’s horrific and cruel what they did to her in there; the people who did this need to be held accountable.”
Roberta Richman, who was the warden of the Rhode Island Women’s prison from 1990 to 2001, commented, “It’s heartbreaking that after so many years after we have been aware of these vulnerabilities, that people in prison are still placed in these extreme conditions. Solitary confinement just exacerbates mental illness, it always does.” Legislation (H5740, S0030) to end the use of extended solitary confinement in Rhode Island was heard for the second year in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, and was again held for further study.
A special thank you to Charlene’s mother, Mary, and sister, Elisha, for giving us a glimpse into Charlene’s beautiful life. May she rest in peace.
