I am grateful to investigate reporter Wendy Halloran for giving Tony Lester’s preventable and painful death the attention it deserved, leading to a small cash settlement as well as an admission of guilt and a promise from the Arizona Department of Corrections to do better.
For the full story of what happened to Tony, please see the comment (below) by his aunt, Patti Jones, to the related blog post, “FBI files Color of Law suit over 2012 Rikers Island Death.”
Wobbly Warrior's Blog 
Thank -You Susan Chandler for keeping this most critical matter at hand alive!! It is my eternal LOVE for Tony and sincere passion to help orchestrate this much needed change, to put an end to this cycle of deliberate indifference to human life that has been allowed to exist for decades. I will never stop my quest for JUSTICE for what the Lester family has lost, until there is legislation enacted to help protect our Severally Mentally Ill within our criminal justice system. Blessings
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I’m grateful for your commitment to this cause, and wish you swift and lasting success, Ms. Jones. If you decide to author a petition or get additional media coverage, please come back and comment with related links, so that I can try to promote them. Thank you!
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AGAIN Susan, deepest gratitude for helping us keep Tony’s tragic story alive to bring public awareness to the deplorable prison conditions that exist, you may always email me at the email that is registered and I will continue to follow your blog! I am wondering if there is a FBI contact that you may know that perhaps I could speak to in regards to them looking into Tony’s tragic death, the Sgt in charge the night Tony resigned her post two days after Tony committed suicide, She now works for the Federal Prison Bureau in Tucson Az, the other correctional officers were severally disciplined with 80 hrs. unpaid suspension for neglect of duty for failing to render aid… So in essence they did nothing but waiting for tony to die.. I called and spoke to several psychologists and pleaded for their intervention and NO ONE listened .. I will send things to you for your assistance to navigate this change. Patti
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Susan, your courage and willingness to support controversial causes related to human rights are deeply appreciated by those who still believe that justice does not come with a checkbook and political corruptive behaviors.
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How very kind of you, Carl; thank you.
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Please don’t thank me for anything, Patti – the only reason this blog is about various forms of public corruption instead of interior/exterior design is because I can’t get out from under corruption myself.
This FBI website – http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/color_of_law – has information about Color of Law investigations, and to the right of the page has links on where to file local complaints. “Failure to keep from harm” seems to be applicable.
Word of warning, the the FBI may well ignore you, as they have me, even though many of the incarcerated innocents I advocate for were convicted by officers, prosecutors and judges with an established history of framing innocents and keeping those frame-ups intact for decades.
Sure hope that your experience will be the opposite of mine. If you hit a wall with the FBI, perhaps Ms. Halloran can help.
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Susan Chandler, I just want to ask for your assistance in helping me to get this petition circulated I would greatly appreciate this !! I am also enclosing the National Sheriff’s Association Treatment and Advocacy center’s recently published publication, please read under Arizona on Pg 30… As Always Best Regards Patti http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/immediate-resignation
Click to access treatment-behind-bars-abridged.pdf
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Thank you for letting me know about the petition, Ms. Jones. I’ve signed; and shared it on Facebook and Twitter. The link you provided for the report led to a 14 page document in which Arizona was portrayed in a good light as concerns incarcerating the mentally ill.
The unabridged report – available at http://tacreports.org/treatment-behind-bars – accurately portrays Arizona as abysmal in providing care for the mentally ill … on page 30, as you described.
Thank you very much for your continued commitment to protecting the mentally ill behind bars.
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Thank -you Susan! We will pursue this fight to ensure all HUMAN rights of our Severally Mentally Ill are are ensured regardless whether they are in custody.. I am in this for the long haul!!! Blessings
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I wish you swift success, Ms. Jones. Godspeed.
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Susan, you might want to check out a book I wrote with the help by Patti Jones – titled, From the Womb to the Tomb – The Tony Lester Story, it is available everywhere – here is a link in case you are interested. http://www.amazon.com/Womb-Tomb-Tony-Lester-Story-ebook/dp/B00S1JLPZ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421166510&sr=8-1&keywords=books+toersbijns
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Thank you very much, Carl, for writing about Tony, and for making your book available so inexpensively. If you have other links for non-Amazon sources, please do post them here … a lot of activists are boycotting Jeff Bezos’ oppressive empire however we can. Thanks again!
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Susan
Ms. Simon Smith who just recently published a impressive publication in the GUARDIAN!! This is such elated news as Tony’s voice lives and is being heard GLOBALLY on a WORLD WIDE level!! This is most inspirational and will further inhibit our fight to implement a much needed change!! As Always deepest gratitude Patti
http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/mar/07/for-mentally-ill-too-often-prison-means-solitary-neglect-and-even-death
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Such welcome news, Patti; I’m so happy for you, and so grateful to The Guardian! I’ll share the article now, and publish something later to share again. Thanks for letting me know!
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You are most welcome !! This is such huge !! I appreciate the help in getting the word spread !❤️
Sent from my iPhone
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