Since last summer, Daniels has been locked in a bare room on the fourth floor of the Maricopa County Hospital in Phoenix. It's a jail unit for criminals who need medical care. But Daniels has never been charged with a crime. He's there because he's been judged a menace to public health.
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Nurses watched him take his morning pills. They lectured him not to skip evening doses, taught him how to give himself intravenous medicine, and warned him to put on a face mask when he was in confined public spaces, like a store or bus.
Daniels admitted that he didn't.
But when public health workers asked him whether he wore a mask, he lied: "I already said that I was sorry. But that's not enough."
Daniels also didn't take a high-powered antibiotic when he was supposed to, leading to his becoming "extensively" drug resistant.
Now he feels trapped in a nightmare. He hasn't showered in months. He gets no exercise or fresh air.
"He's not seen the horizon, seen a tree, from his locked room for 10 months," said Dan Pochoda of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona. "He has a light on 24 hours. There's a video camera in the corner of the room that takes pictures of his every activity in that room 24/7. His mail is opened routinely.
"For most of the 10 months, he has not been allowed a TV or a telephone, and he has absolutely no activities during the day. It is taking, predictably, a terrible toll on his psyche. I believe it is not helpful for the physical treatments as well," Pochoda added.
There's no telling when, or if, treatment will make him non-contagious. Until that happens, he'll remain locked up.
The ACLU recently filed suit on Daniels' behalf. It doesn't seek to get him released — only to have him treated in more humane conditions.
