DANGEROUS JAILS – PART 2: The Death of the Mamma’s Boy
April 16th, 2009 by 
Celeste Fremon
NOTE: 2ND OF 2 PARTS. READ PART 1 HERE
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Helen Jones tried to keep her voice even and in control when, after a few opening questions, I asked her how she learned about her son’s suicide. Twenty-two-year old John Horton hanged himself March 30 after being kept in solitary confinement for more than a month in LA’s Men’s Central Jail. He spent nearly every hour of every day in a closet-sized cell with no windows, no furniture save a bed, and a lamp that produced very little light. John Horton had, according to information obtained by ACLU attorney Melinda Bird, given plenty of signals that something was desperately wrong. But reportedly no one paid any attention.
“Two sheriff’s deputies came to my daughters apartment and told us that my son was dead,” Helen said flatly. Her daughter is 23, a year older than John, she said. “I have two children, a boy and a girl, and I’m close to both of them.”
I noticed that Helen Jones could not yet bring herself to use the past tense. In the pause that followed, I suspected that she noticed too.
When we continued again, Helen said that she had not been unhappy that her son was in jail. To the contrary, she was optimistic that the arrest would be the wake up call he needed to get him off of drugs and back on a positive path.
John Horton had originally been arrested for drug possession in 2007. At that time, he accepted a plea agreement and was ordered by the judge to go to a drug rehab. Horton agreed eagerly. But on the day he was supposed to report to the rehab facility, he never showed up. As a consequence a bench warrant was issued in his name.
Fast forward to late February of 2009. Helen Jones was worried about her son. She didn’t see him use drugs but she knew something was amiss, “He was a good boy. But he was messed up, she said. He loved kids. He was talented boxer. But he was having problems, she said, and she was at a loss to know what to do about it.
Finally one night Helen found John overdosed. She was fairly sure he had taken a bunch of pills. Scared, she drove him to the emergency room of St. Francis Hospital.
At the hospital, the existence of the arrest warrant was discovered. Once Horton was determined to be out of immediate danger, he was taken to Men’s Central Jail.
Helen went to visit him a day later and he still seemed very groggy. I’m alright, he told her. I’m reading the Bible. It’s okay.
Helen Jones wasn’t sure. So she made a point of going to the jail again a couple of days later. This time she was told her son could have no visitors. Nor could he make phone calls. “He’s in protective custody,” the deputy said. No one seemed to have an explanation for this PC designation.
Helen tried again a few days later still. She was told once again that John could have no visitors. Worried, she asked to see the Watch Commander, who was singularly uninformative. “My son needs to know I’m here for him,” she told the officer. “He needs my support.”
Helen Jones next saw her son on March 16 when he went to court to face the consequences of his AWOL from rehab. According to Helen, the judge seemed to see that John was no hard core criminal but a young man in need of help. In any case, he sentenced Horton to two years in fire camp, a plum of a program only open to nonviolent, low-level offenders. He would technically be incarcerated but he would learn a trade and get back in good physical condition. Helen Jones was incredibly relieved. Overjoyed, really.
“When I talked to him, he was relieved too,” she told me. There would be no more running. No more drugs. “He was already planning what he would do in two years when he was released. He wanted to come out and go back to boxing. That was his plan.”
Helen actually thanked the judge.
Yet, there was one thing that concerned her during the hearing and that was her son’s mental condition. He was behaving strangely.
“He wasn’t all the way right,” she said. The judge who, according to Helen Jones, recognized that Horton was in some kind of state of mental distress, told her that John would be in the medical unit of the jail for at least the beginning of the two or three weeks it would take to arrange the transfer to fire camp. He told her that she shouldn’t worry.
A few days later, Helen Jones again went to visit her son, but was once more told he could have no visitors, and could not make phone calls. “He’s supposed to be in the medical unit,” she told the jail staff. No, he was in “protective custody,” they said. Again there was no explanation.
She went again. And again.
The last day that Helen went to visit her son at Men’s Central Jail, it was on a weekend. This time she was told he was in “disciplinary custody.” Frightened and furious, she asked how he could go from isolation in protective custody to isolation in disciplinary custody, when a judge had supposedly slated him for the medical unit. Had John done something wrong? The staff said they could give her no information.
Helen again asked to see the watch commander. She was told that seeing a watch commander was not possible. By this time, Helen had been trying to visit her son for a month and had been repeatedly put off. She was not about to be put off again. She worked her way up the command structure until finally the watch commander did come out to talk to her. He was very polite, she told me. Kind even.
Since it was the weekend, he said, if she would come back the following Wednesday, he would get to the bottom of things and have an answer for her then.
Wednesday turned out to be too late. “By Monday he was gone,” she said.
John Horton hanged himself on Monday, March 30.
Helen Jones and I sat quietly on the phone for a while after she told me the last part of the story. I too am a mother, I said. I too have a son. Mine is 23, I said, the age of her daughter.
“My daughter’s having anxiety attacks,” Helen said softly. “She was really close to her brother.”
We were silent again.
“When you think back to happy times with your son,” I asked carefully, “what first comes to mind?”
Until that moment, Helen Jones’ tone had remained remarkably steady . At my words, her voice caught and then broke with an audible shattering.
“I remember that I was loved,” she said, suddenly speaking through a cascade of sobs.
“My son loved me. He was a mama’s boy. He was big and strong but he wasn’t afraid to hug his mamma. The girls used to tell me that they liked that about him. ‘You can trust a mamma’s boy’ they told me. He would hold my hand, and not think anything about it. That’s what I miss. I miss being loved by my son, my beautiful son”
She cried some more. I cried too.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“No. It helps for somebody else to hear me,”Helen Jones said.
Her voice caught again. “I don’t want him to just be one more death that nobody notices.”
“He won’t be,” I said. And I hoped very much I was telling her the truth.
Posted in LA County Jail, LASD | 
25 Comments »
April 16th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Sound like Momma’s boy would have been much safer in Joe Arpaio’s Tent City Jail, then in LA Men’s Central Jail.
Below is a 2005 study of Suicides and Homicides in Local Jails and prisons by DOJ. By there account both have decreased especially in the large county jails.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/shsplj.pdf
April 16th, 2009 at 6:08 am
Arrg – I hate reading my own typos 10 seconds after a post.
April 16th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Guaranteed that John Horton was being targeted and punished mercilessly by overzealous LASD jail guards. The ritual of placing new rookie’s at the LA County jail for a year, because of the feeling that if one spends too much time at County they will become sadistic and brutal is not without merit. But brutality and sadistic behavior by prison guards is a constant that is even more problematic at LA County jail which houses the largest population of inmates in the country, many, many, who are mentally ill, many who are career criminals and highly positioned gang members.
The LA County jail is an open cesspool where one can score drugs easier than on the street, where gang shot-callers run the place and have life or death power over the majority of inmates, where ugly racial tension is a way of life, and where the LACS guards are instructed to never show any kindness or weakness in resolve, they are taught to react to any threat verbal or physical to their authority, with violence and brutal tactics, who often resort to petty, immature, and over the top retribution, like what happened to John Horton.
He was no doubt isolated and subjected to extreme sensory deprivation and torture by the LACS guards for something like making a threat, talking back, not shutting up when ordered too, acting nuts, not moving fast enough, or any number of perceived one-upsmanship or lack of fear traits that the guards and their cohorts view as a threat to their image and character, especially in front of other LACS deputy’s.
The County Jail is an ugly demented fortress of depravity that probably should be demolished for everyone’s sake.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Really heartbreaking, Celeste. Thank you for bringing this to light.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Another typically sad story to come out of this outdated, overstressed prison /jail system, but I need to take umbrage with Quixote’s scenario. As usual he goes straight to the throat of the jail operator’s with all his usual rhetoric, when another also typically common occurance is that upon “coming down” from his drug binge John Horton was preyed upon by the ruling inmate social structure, the Mexican gang element. Assuredly the young man was in a low level of defense due to his physical state, and he was also white or black (no one said) and the law of the jungle took place and the poor guy was put in PC. He was at the age when schitzophrenia usually starts and quite possibly the lack of attention caused his self-inflicted demise. I would never defend the cops, the jailers, etc. They’ve proven to be heartless and incompetent time and again, but lets not forget the sick society that pervades this City Jail, and that is most definitely in the direct control of the Latino gangs. There can be no argument there. Maybe the commenter should divide his vitriol evenly.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Clancy, place your umbrage and vitriol somewhere else. If you read my comment carefully and without your usual donquixotephobia you will see that I didn’t mention any race and neither did Celeste in her fine post. There are gangs and racist’s of all stripes at the county jail and although it seems to be important to you to castigate the Chicano/Latino population whenever you get the opportunity I would advise you to seek help for your predilection.
Vitriolic, obessive, ethnocentric behavior can be torture but you can always get help through the use of modern medicine and therapy.
April 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Looks like Clancy’s sucking hind tit now. Lol.
Booze is the answer for you Clanz.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Well there’s don quackers defending his cholos to the gate. It seems as though Mr. Clancy put up a logical response and the notorious cholo defender did his usual squat. Yes it was a great post by Ms. Fremon, and no there was no distinction of race by Ms. Fremon to her credit, but you can always count on quackers to raise the issue. Past comments from “the don” have shown he has some distant familiarity with the Central Jail. How can he possibly deny that this poor kid wasn’t preyed upon by the cholo gangs that permeate that draconian institution? All the off the wall trickery from this guy can’t detract from the facts that the kid was abused by more people than the ones in uniforms.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Does anybody care about Don BesaCulo’s comments?
I’ll ask
Santiago
Drinking With Tony
Conchita
Big Betty
Marty Sin Pantalones
Wally
Jim
Mustang Sally
April 17th, 2009 at 12:16 am
Oh! I get it. Those names are all aliases (no apostrophe) quackers uses to confuse/ dilute the mix and elude the focus from the original point. It’s a common tactic sometimes called (by him even) divide and conquer. Bravo slick maestro!
April 17th, 2009 at 5:44 am
And speaking of racism, xenophobes, vitriol, draconian and divide and conquer, I just read this alarming story about Obama !!!!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-border-czar15-2009apr15,0,3201075.story
President Obama has appointed a Southwest border czar, here is but another example of using fear and racism to oppress the poor hard working mexicans trying to cross the border to provide much needed goods and services for the lazy gavachos.
We should all be angry at Obama for trying to “secure†the border (divide and conquer), and for fueling the paranoia of mexican drug cartels, who are the new boogey men. Any and all mexicans should be able to cross the border, when and wherever they choose, there are no borders
April 17th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Warning: The person above posting as “StillNoScript” is not the same StillNoScript who’s posted comments at blogs such as “InTheHat”, or who is a member of message boards, Streetgangs.com and Politicalgroove.com. I understand I have no rights to this screen name, but just wanted to get the word out that it’s NOT me who’s posted under “stillNoScript” in the above comments, considering the offensive content coming from the troll using the name. Thank you.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I have established a blog if anyone is interested in what I have to say. This “trolling” business has got to stop. Any suggestions would be appreciated. You can check me out at:
http://stillnoscriptsworld.blogspot.com/
Thanks for what you do Celeste.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
This is truly heartbreaking. Thank you Celeste for bringing it to our attention.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Well, I’ve been to jail. And let’s just say it is a nightmare. My life story is an episode of “scared straight”. I’m from Santa Cruz. Did time in Folsom, Quintin, and Soledad. I was there when George Jackson got fragged. Got my certificate of rehabilitation, and it’s no joke. Today, I live in Kansas and breed snakes. Anyhow, let’s just say that there’s things that happen to you in prison that never change you. Frankly, the only problem I have with the system is that it’s too liberal. I support the prisons and the guards, and law enforcement in general. I was a criminal, and it was their job to watch over me. Just wish they would have done a better job. I’m still in therapy, and I still get nightmares and wake up in cold sweats. It’s made me a racist, in some respects. I mean, when something like this happens to you, you just hate everyone that so much as looks like the people who did it to you. I’m getting help for that, too. And, I did vote for Obama. That was a huge step. But it’s still hard. Just don’t go to prison, kids. Stay out of trouble. Stay out of gangs. Keep your head on straight. God Bless all of you.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Thanks, Still No Script (the real one). And to the readers, the IPs are indeed different. The fake StillNoScript is someone quite familiar who uses different screen names and tediously comes around to attack Don Quixote.
BITH/Gava Joe, thank you for your comment and your honesty. I admire your courage.
April 19th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Hey you do the crime , you gotta do the time. Or let the time do you.
April 19th, 2009 at 4:24 am
Celeste you might want to check out the IP address of SNG and Still No Script(the real one). I think you’ll find that those are the same individual also. Still No Script (real) is trying to discredit SNG who belongs to another blog.
April 19th, 2009 at 8:16 am
As long as you’re perusing IPs check out Robbie Tom. The guy may curiously have the same one as either of the Still No Scripts. But let me add that it would be a waste of your time and you’d be better served to delete all of us as we mostly just loiter around watching for a fight. I’m too old for this shit.
April 19th, 2009 at 10:48 am
No, it’s me, sweetheart. I’m from San Jose, dabbled around in gang life, but I’ve grown up. Red, red, red. Red and blue! What are we, designing a flag? There’s just no color in the gang life! LOL. Lots more color, now. My life is a rainbow flag. Peace.
April 19th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Yeah I know what you mean SNG I’ve been flying my rainbow flag in Sacramento for years. I wish I was locked up with all those big sweaty bad men. I’ll drink some pruno with Mundo. whoo hoo !
April 19th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Thin ice, #21.
(BTW, since you persist in using the screen names of others I have no choice but to refer to you as a number.)
April 20th, 2009 at 11:37 am
i told you about this a long time ago celeste, don’t think that don quixote and the real sns are above using multiple names and posting nonsense with these other fools that what they all do.don quixote is a racist who loves to call others racist and they all play this game i have seen it on alot of other blogs.its funny where ever don shows up this happens.
June 6th, 2009 at 12:23 am
A female deputy got away with murdering my friend. Read this story of a female on the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Boxing Team.
June 6th, 2009 at 12:24 am
I completly forgot to include the site address. (Yes, I’m blonde)
articles.latimes.com/2006/may/28/local/me-gavira28
or just google: ANEL MANRIQUEZ MEN’S JAIL MIKE YOUNG