For the final 4 years, Tom Girardi’s day by day life has been organized round his dementia prognosis.
At an upscale assisted residing facility in Seal Seashore, members of an around-the-clock nursing workers bathe and costume him, take him to the restroom, ensure that he eats, stop him from wandering away and remind him many times the place he’s and why.
On Thursday, Girardi’s standing adjustments from affected person to inmate. The 86-year-old disbarred trial lawyer, a authorized legend who as soon as towered over California’s justice system, turns into inmate 43156-510, one among greater than 150,000 individuals federally incarcerated.
How the jail system will deal with Girardi’s cognitive issues throughout his seven-year sentence for stealing from purchasers is unclear. Along with common prisons and minimal safety camps, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has six medical facilities that take care of in poor health inmates. One in Massachusetts operates a small, overburdened dementia unit.
The method of evaluating a brand new inmate for psychological or bodily sickness and deciding on an acceptable location can take weeks or months, and the company mentioned it couldn’t touch upon the place Girardi may find yourself.
A BOP forensic psychologist testified at a June listening to, throughout which a federal choose in Los Angeles heard proof about whether or not Girardi needs to be sentenced to jail or an acceptable medical facility and about how prisons can safely home individuals with dementia by, amongst different issues, assigning them “inmate companions” to information them by their days.
“The Bureau of Prisons does make lodging for people who’re growing older and have vital medical points,” mentioned Brianna Grover, who works at a jail medical heart in Butner, N.C.
Pressed on whether or not Girardi may find yourself residing with violent, youthful offenders or in “a concrete cell with a bunk mattress,” Grover mentioned it was doable — relying on what officers decided was probably the most acceptable facility for him.
Girardi exits federal court docket in August with Natalie Degrati, an investigator with the Federal Public Defender’s workplace.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)
Girardi’s legal professionals have repeatedly predicted the worst.
“I’ve not seen an occasion the place I assumed somebody obtained good psychological well being care” in jail, J. Alejandro Barrientos, who was a part of the crew that represented Girardi throughout his trial, informed The Occasions. He added: “For those who’re aged and serving a jail sentence, I feel it’s type of harsh in a means that it’s not harsh for somebody who’s lots youthful.”
Till he was sentenced final month, Girardi’s protection crew was imploring the trial choose to let him serve his jail time period within the Orange County nursing residence the place he has spent the final 4 years. Incarceration, they contended, was a de facto demise sentence given his age and in poor health well being, and his lack of short-term reminiscence meant he would don’t have any understanding of why he was behind bars.
“For Tom Girardi, there may be no significant punishment,” Deputy Federal Public Defender Samuel Cross mentioned on the sentencing listening to.
The choose rebuffed the argument after reviewing stories from Grover and a BOP neuropsychologist, each of whom examined Girardi earlier this yr.
“They decided that he nonetheless possesses a baseline capability to perform on a day-to-day foundation, that he presently retains his independence as to his actions of day by day residing,” U.S. Dist. Decide Josephine L. Staton mentioned from the bench in Los Angeles in June, ruling that jail was an acceptable punishment web site.
State and federal prisons are more and more confronting dementia amongst their inmates. As a consequence of longer sentences from tough-on-crime initiatives of the previous, the jail inhabitants is graying. Greater than 1 in 5 federal prisoners is older than 50, in accordance with inhabitants information printed by the Division of Justice. The variety of prisoners affected by dementia is troublesome to find out, prison justice specialists say, as there are few analysis research on inmates and little concrete information.
California has opened reminiscence care operations in two correctional amenities, a 30-bed unit on the jail hospital in Stockton and a 35-bed unit in Vacaville. The federal BOP launched a 36-bed “reminiscence dysfunction unit” in 2019 on the jail medical heart in Devens, Mass.
Previous to Girardi, one other disgraced determine in Southern California energy circles, former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, cited issues about dementia care behind bars in making an attempt to keep away from jail. Baca was recognized with early stage Alzheimer’s in 2016 earlier than he was sentenced to three years in jail for obstruction of justice and mendacity to FBI brokers. Baca’s legal professionals prompt his cognitive decline was a sentence of its personal, however the choose presiding over his case rejected the argument.
“As terrible as Alzheimer’s is, it’s not a prison penalty,” U.S. District Decide Percy Anderson informed Baca at his sentencing, including, “Alzheimer’s illness isn’t a get-out-of-jail card.”
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, heart, in 2017 stands along with his spouse and protection attorneys, together with, proper, present L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman.
(Damian Dovarganes / Related Press)
The extent of Girardi’s cognitive decline has been the topic of dispute since 2020, when his agency imploded amid allegations of misappropriated funds. With purchasers demanding their cash, Girardi’s brother had him positioned in a conservatorship, citing as proof a prognosis of Alzheimer’s illness from a Lengthy Seashore psychiatrist.
The State Bar of California, which was going after Girardi’s legislation license, rapidly forged doubt on the prognosis, suggesting doable malingering, a chorus later picked up by federal prosecutors pursuing wire fraud fees. Specialists in dementia retained by the federal government acknowledged that he had some cognitive decline, however discovered proof he was exaggerating his signs.
Staton, who presided over his trial, embraced the view that Girardi was affected by dementia but additionally malingering. She discovered him competent to face trial.
After his August conviction, Girardi was despatched to the Butner jail hospital for six weeks of remark. Tracy O’Connor Pennuto, a neuropsychologist for the federal jail system, decided he was not malingering and contributed to a report that concluded Girardi had “reasonably superior dementia” with “some options of Alzheimer’s.”
“His distant reminiscence — or his long-term reminiscence — was fairly effectively intact. It was newer data that he had problem with,” Pennuto testified on the June listening to the place proof of his health for jail was introduced to the choose.
That dynamic was on show when Girardi was referred to as to the witness stand as a part of the listening to final month. Although he had solely left his nursing residence to attend court docket, he maintained beneath oath that he had been crisscrossing the nation.
“The Worldwide Academy had a gathering in New York. Then I had a case … in Oklahoma,” he testified, earlier than mentioning stops in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Buffalo.
On the witness stand, Girardi claimed he lived in Pasadena, the placement of his former mansion, which was offered in 2022 to pay collectors. As he walked again to his seat on the protection desk, his pants started to fall down. When his legal professionals tried to make an official document of the wardrobe malfunction, Staton, the choose, famous that Girardi “realized that that was taking place, and reached down to tug them up after which maintained maintain on them.”
Within the Seal Seashore dementia ward, Girardi has spent most days sitting alone at a desk scribbling “lots of of pages of unintelligible notes” on a pad, in accordance with a letter his brother, Robert, wrote the choose. He added that Girardi believes he’s nonetheless training as a lawyer.
Robert Girardi has lined the price of his brother’s nursing residence care, practically $750,000 since 2021, in accordance with his letter. If Girardi is shipped to a jail hospital facility, the estimated price to taxpayers will probably be at the very least $102,857 yearly, in accordance with authorities figures from 2022.
BOP officers have mentioned sending Girardi to the company’s Massachusetts dementia unit. It has features of a nursing residence reminiscence care ward with pink partitions, festive decorations, music remedy, artwork lessons and bocce ball, in accordance with printed stories. Different inmates act as caretakers for the unit’s residents.
The ability has come beneath criticism not too long ago. A authorities audit discovered extreme understaffing, which resulted in insufficient medical care. Solely 16 of its 36 beds have been crammed on the time of the audit. Some violent inmates with out dementia have been housed within the dementia unit and posed “a security danger” to different inmates and jail workers, the report discovered.
Girardi may be despatched to a daily jail, as Baca was. The previous sheriff’s lawyer, Benjamin Coleman, recalled that within the Texas jail, Baca had problem doing fundamental duties, resembling filling out the shape for his spouse and others to go to.
“He was lucky that different inmates helped him with stuff,” Coleman mentioned. “If it was as much as him, he normally wouldn’t be capable of do it.”
Another choice for Girardi is a jail medical heart in Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Massachusetts or North Carolina. Throughout his month-and-a-half keep on the Butner medical heart, Girardi had problem at instances discovering his means again to his bunk. All cells there have the inmate’s title and picture posted outdoors, however staffers needed to take the extra step of enlarging Girardi’s picture.
Whereas on the Butner facility, Girardi additionally refused to go away his cell for a number of hours at a time or stand for normal headcount, recalled Grover, the jail psychologist, who testified that he, every now and then, threatened workers with lawsuits.
Even with medical care, Girardi’s prognosis is poor, testified Pennuto, the neuropsychologist at Butner.
“He won’t enhance,” Pennuto mentioned. “He’ll proceed to say no over time.”
