CONCORD – The mother of a young man who is locked up at the State Prison for Men’s Secure Psychiatric Unit even though he hasn’t committed a crime says she has been banned from visiting him and threatened with arrest because she brought a cellphone to take his photo during her last visit.
Shelly Peterson Raza said prison corrections officers confiscated her phone on Jan. 30, and told her she was under investigation for bringing the phone, which is considered contraband, into the prison.
Raza was visiting her son, Corey Peterson, to celebrate his 24th birthday. Corey has been housed at the prison for about 18 months because he was deemed unmanageable at New Hampshire Hospital, the state’s facility for the mentally ill.
Raza brought balloons that day. It was a no-contact visit by phone from behind a glass partition. Raza blew up the balloons and had Corey pretend to hold them from the other side of the glass so she could take his photo with them.
“I wanted to take his picture because I thought it might be the last time I see him alive,” Raza said.
Raza felt that desperate because she is worried about Corey’s treatment at SPU. Raza has been banned for the last nine months from the family/staff meeting. She was told it was because her presence caused Corey to become overly stimulated.
Corey has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but his mother believes he suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder. She said he hits and kicks people without any intention to harm them.
But if he touches a corrections officer, he gets handcuffed and taken down to the floor, sometimes hard, which leaves him with scrapes and bruises, Raza said.
Raza knew cellphones were prohibited but didn’t think she could face a felony charge if she broke the rule. Raza believes she is being singled out because she has complained about Corey’s treatment in SPU.
Jeff Lyons, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, confirmed that there is an ongoing investigation into the incident.
“I can confirm that Ms. Raza was observed by staff in the Secure Psychiatric Unit during a no-contact visit with Mr. Peterson in possession of a cellphone,” Lyons said.
The staff informed Raza that cellphones are prohibited inside SPU and any of the buildings on the grounds of the state prison, he said. “They confiscated the phone to conduct an investigation into whether she will be charged with bringing in contraband, which is a Class B felony punishable by up to 3 ½ to 7 years in prison,” Lyons said.
Lyons said it is routine to ban visits until the investigation is resolved. If charges are brought, the case will be prosecuted by the Merrimack County Attorney’s Office, he said.
At various times in the past, the Department of Corrections has said there were anywhere from seven to 16 people not charged with a crime housed in SPU.
SPU is under the direction of the Department of Corrections but has a mental health treatment program that is run by a private company called MHM Services.
The patients who haven’t been charged with crimes are co-mingled in SPU with people sentenced under a variety of state laws including patients deemed incompetent to stand trial and not guilty by reason of insanity. They also include inmates who have been convicted of murder, sexual assault, robbery and assault.
Corey was taken to Concord Hospital this week because of a reaction after getting electroconvulsive therapy, according to his mother.
During his first three months at SPU, his family couldn’t visit, she said. “We couldn’t have any contact with him.”
Raza concedes her son has serious problems. She said while removing a hangnail, he became obsessed with making it “even” and ripped out all his fingernails and toenails.
“The doctors are so sick of me,” she said. Raza said she writes everything down when talking about Corey’s case because she had a brain tumor removed seven years ago and as a result sometimes has trouble processing information.
Raza said she wants Corey moved out of SPU, insisting he shouldn’t be locked up in prison. Corey was a popular football player in high school in Pelham, she said, and he has wrestled with mental illness since his senior year.
He has never committed a crime, she said. Raza worries about retaliation against her son because she is speaking publicly. But she doesn’t want corrections officers in charge of Corey.
Raza said she wants Corey housed in a medical treatment facility, not a prison.
“Somebody has to say something about what goes on there,” Raza said.