At 9 a.m. Sunday Brophy College Preparatory, 4701 N. Central Ave., is blessing and dedicating a plaque in memory of Marcia Powell.
Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, died from heat-related complications May 20, hours after she collapsed in an uncovered outdoor cell at the Arizona State Prison Complex - Perryville in Goodyear.
Father Eddie Reese, the president of Brophy, was approached by a Brophy alumnus who was searching for an appropriate place to memorialize Powell. Reese suggested the school's chapel yard.
Powell, who suffered from mental illness, was caged in the hot sun for nearly four hours.
According to a 3,000-page report, Powell, 48, asked for water, but was denied. She requested a restroom break and was denied. After she collapsed inside the cage May 19, prison staff found Powell's body smeared with feces.
The Department of Corrections internal investigation showed that lengthy confinements in outdoor cages had become a common practice over the past two years as officers tried to "wait out" prisoners who were being transferred to another unit, agitated or refusing to return to their cells.
"Waiting out" prisoners meant corrections officers did not have to use force to return inmates to their cells.
But it also meant inmates were regularly left outdoors for longer than the two-hour maximum dictated by prison policy.
The practice has since been discontinued as part of a raft of reforms initiated in the wake of Powell's death.
As a result of Powell's death, 16 people in connection with the incident were disciplined, with five employees fired or forced to resign.
Following the dedication, a 10 a.m. Mass will be celebrated in the Brophy chapel in memory of Powell and all those in society who are lost or forgotten.
For info, 602-264-5291 or brophyprep.org.
AP/Arizona Department of Corrections
Marcia Powell, 48, died May 19 at a hospital after spending four hours in a holding cell the day before at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville in Goodyear.