Before he died of thirst, a mentally ill inmate in Michigan who had refused water was strapped down on a concrete slab for 17 straight hours. Timothy Souders, 21, should have been released at least every two hours during the four days of "protective" restraining that a federal judge deemed "torture" and subsequently banned. Correspondent Scott Pelley investigates Souder's Aug. 2006 death in a report that questions the plight of 300,000 other mentally ill inmates in U.S. jails. Pelley’s report will be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. "I cannot believe anyone would treat another human being that way at all," says Souders’ mother, Theresa Vaughn. "That they can watch over a four-day period – slowly declining, slowly dying before their eyes," she tells Pelley. She has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. 60 Minutes discovered the long period of restraint – and two others of 12 and 16 hours, respectively – after a painstaking review of time-coded prison surveillance video. It has also learned that a nurse at the facility, the Southern Michigan Correctional Center, was dismissed after Souders’ death for failing to recognize this dire condition. Michigan Corrections Director Patricia Caruso says she cannot comment directly on Souders’ case because of the lawsuit, but contends that restraining is done to protect the inmate and others around him. "I have correctional officers who become accustomed to having urine and feces thrown on them by prisoners…who have prisoners who are so injurious that they will open their bodies to remove organs," says Caruso. She also says those who are restrained are unchained at least every two hours and allowed to move about. The state of Michigan is appealing the decision by federal judge Richard Enslen to ban the kind of restraints that were used on Souders Souders, who suffered from bipolar disorder, was serving time for assault and resisting arrest. He had been placed in "top-of-bed restraints," meaning chained down by the hands, feet and waist, for flooding his cell. Prior to that, he had attempted suicide three times in jail and before jail, had been hospitalized for mental problems and placed on medication. The former director of psychological services at the prison where Souders died viewed the surveillance tape and says the mental health staff of the prison should have been alerted. But at the time of Souders’ restraining, the staff psychiatrist was on a seven-week leave. "Then he should have been replaced. It's too critical a situation," psychologist Robert Walsh tells Pelley. Walsh has studied Michigan prisons extensively, finding that staff often think they can punish psychotic prisoners into better behavior and sometimes insist that inmates exhibiting insanity are not mentally ill. He gave an example. "One man, he enucleated his eyes, cut them out, because he felt they were offending God," says Walsh. "The psychiatric and psychological staff considered them to be malingerers and manipulators that went to extremes," he tells Pelley. "Or a man who disembowels himself…he’s manipulating," says Walsh. Souders is part of an unfortunate national trend; there are approximately 300,000 mental patients in prison, 16 percent of the incarcerated population, according to U.S. Justice Department statistics. Since institutions began closing in the 1960s, the mentally ill have become the homeless and the incarcerated. In the Michigan prison system, other mentally ill inmates have died of dehydration, like Souders, and at least one has starved to death. Vaughn finds it hard to accept the death of her son. "I don’t believe anybody meant to kill…to hurt Tim, but they did," she tells Pelley. "And he did die. He’s not coming home. He’s not coming back and he is gone and he was only 21 years old." Souders, seen her in restraints

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Feb. 8, 2007 A 66-year-old Brazilian saved his grandson from the grip of a 16-foot-long anaconda by beating the snake with rocks and a knife for half an hour, police said Thursday. "When I saw the snake wrapped around my grandson's neck I thought it was going to kill him," Joaquim Pereira told the Agencia Estado news service. "It was agonizing, I pulled it from one side, but it would come back on the other." Pereira's 8-year-old grandson, Mateus, was attacked by the anaconda near a creek on his grandfather's ranch in the city of Cosmorama, about 250 miles northwest of Sao Paulo. While the boy was playing with friends, the snake attacked and wrapped itself around him, police officer Hudson Augusto said. Anacondas are not poisonous, but kill their prey by coiling around them and squeezing until victims suffocate. "It brought me to the ground and bit me," the boy told Globo TV, which showed footage of the dead snake. "Then it started crawling up my neck and began suffocating me." Mateus' friends ran to get his grandfather, who reached the scene and battled with the snake until it released his grandson. The boy was rushed to a hospital and needed 21 stitches on his chest where he was bitten. Police said anacondas are not uncommon in the region, but attacks on people are rare.

A 43-year-old Louisiana woman charged in Collier County with aggravated child abuse for piercing the pubic area of a 13-year-old girl as a way to keep her from having sex received a year in jail Tuesday and agreed to testify against the girl’s mother, who also is charged in the case. Tammy Jane Meredith, of 4250 Blount Road, #50, Baton Rouge, La., gave the girl the body piercing against her will and at the request of the girl’s mother, who is charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse. She could face up to 30 years in state prison if convicted. The girl had been sexually active with two adult men, and that qualifies as sexual abuse because of the child’s age, said the prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Steve Maresca. But after learning of the sexual activity, the mother had Meredith pierce the girl’s private area with a post and a connected hoop, authorities said. “There are allegations of sexual abuse involving the child, and to keep her from being sexually active, they put a piercing on her privates,” Maresca said. The women also altered the girl’s hair in an unusual way as a form of punishment, according to court records. It happened sometime around August to October 2004, although investigators aren’t sure of the exact date. A 13-year-old can’t legally consent to sex with an adult. The investigation of those allegations is ongoing, Maresca said. The mother and daughter aren’t being identified by the Daily News because of the allegations of child abuse. Donald Day, the attorney representing the mother, said it’s debatable whether she committed child abuse or even did anything illegal. He said it’s more of a parental rights case involving a mother who was at her wit’s end. “If you had a 13-year-old girl who was having sex repeatedly with 30-year-old men, and you’ve tried everything you know to do and you can’t stop her, what would you do? Why wouldn’t you put a ring down there that would physically stop her?” Day said. Day said the ring made it difficult or impossible for the girl to have sex. Day said the mother had tried every other form of discipline, and they didn’t work. The girl ran away repeatedly. So even if most people may agree the piercing wasn’t appropriate, the issue is whether the government can punish a parent trying to discipline her child, he contends. “It was a young girl who was basically out of control sexually, and the mother put what you might call a chastity belt on her. And the prosecutor says that’s cruel and unusual punishment for a parent to do,” Day said. “I think there are a lot of different arguments you can look at it either way.” Under a plea agreement with the prosecution, Meredith pleaded no contest in Collier County Circuit Court to a lesser charge of child abuse and one count of operating a body piercing service without a license. Both are felonies punishable by up to five years in prison. She received a yearlong jail sentence, about nine months of which she already served after her arrest, according to court records. She also will serve two years of probation. Maresca and Meredith’s defense attorney, Leonid Kremenchuker, told the judge, Elizabeth V. Krier, that Meredith would agree to testify against the mother. Before pleading in court, Meredith gave the prosecutor an idea of what she’d testify to during a trial, a common practice called a proffer. Her minimum sentence was around three years in prison under state sentencing guidelines, but Maresca said he agreed to go below that because of Meredith’s cooperation in the case involving the mother. Kremenchuker said he couldn’t comment on the facts of the case. He said he had a good defense and was prepared for trial. The prosecution offered an improved deal, especially so it could get Meredith’s testimony against the mother. “It’s a fair resolution in this case,” Kremenchuker said. The piercing couldn’t prevent sex and at most was uncomfortable until it became infected, Maresca said. Day said he’d never seen in the court records any proof it became infected. So if there’s no proof of actual injury, then there’s no child abuse, he argued. “What about piercing a 3-year-old child’s ears? Is that child abuse? The child didn’t want it. There’s harm there. There’s blood there. Is it different here because it’s a different body part?” Day said. The girl was removed from her mother’s custody and has a guardian ad litem, who was in court Tuesday for the plea. The guardian, who is appointed by the court system to represent the child’s interests, said the girl is doing better. Meredith agreed to turn herself in Monday to begin serving her sentence. If she fails to show up, she will receive the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The mother is set for trial Feb. 19. She has pleaded innocent.