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Health care is prisons is neither healthy nor care


This is a letter from a prisoner at Tamms supermax in Illinois.

We need some serious assistance with the administration of Tamms 
Corruption Center on various issues such as medical, transfer 
procedures, grievances, and continued placements in such infamous 
concentration camps. I and others on the wing with me have 
experienced deliberate malfeasance in the Tamms Health Care Unit.

I've had abdominal problems since 1998, when I first started 
requesting to see a doctor about the problem. I was compliant with 
all procedures and medications that were prescribed (medical 
records would clearly substantiate my stance).

After being so compliant, I finally realized that the medical 
staff and doctors had prescribed every medication based on an 
assumption and not a thorough medical check-up to see what the 
problem is. They ask asinine questions, then tell you to drink a 
lot of water and you should feel better. If you're working out, 
they tell you that you're working out too much. If you're not 
working out, they tell you to work out and you should feel better. 
It's always some hypocrisy to avoid a thorough check-up, which 
would lead to them giving us the proper medications.

On assumption alone they have prescribed many medications for my 
medical situation. First Maalox, which didn't work; then antacid 
tablets, which didn't work; then Tagamet, which not only didn't 
work but made my medical concerns worse! Acknowledging this, I 
immediately stopped taking this Tagamet medication and clearly 
stated my reasoning to the pseudo-doctors and nurses.

I filed grievances, complaints, etc., and all went unanswered  --    
just as my sick-call request is being denied because they are 
calling me "non-compliant" for not taking medication that proved 
harmful to me and did not address the condition that they didn't 
even bother examining fully!

After my sick-calls being denied, I filed more grievances which 
have gone unanswered. They lie and say "we never got them." This 
treatment compelled me to hunger-strike for 10 days to compel the 
"Health Care Unit" to give me a thorough medical check-up. 
Needless to say, they still haven't done so, and my abdominal 
pains are continuing right up to this day, while the Health Care 
Unit continues to refuse to call me in or answer my request slips.

It is clear to me that the prisoncrats of Illinois have 
deliberately deceived society with a steady diet of hypocrisy, but 
one can only deceive for so long. I sincerely hope this brings 
some life into a movement against this corrupt administration, and 
shows what really goes on here behind the deceiving walls of Tamms 
Corruption Center.

That was a letter from an Illinois prisoner

This next piece is from a CD entitled Voices of the Drug War:

[Drug War CD Track 8 nancy. About furniture factory injury. 2:42 
v2/2 show 23 (2001)]

The November Coalition, recorded Nancy as part of a CD entitled
"Voices from the Drug War." The November Coalition can be
contacted on web at www dot november dot org

We'll hear from Nancy again later in the program.

Things are not very different in Louisiana as this letter writer 
reports:

Indeed, we are having serious problems with the criminal injustice 
system in Louisiana, just like with the disciplinary "Injustice" 
system throughout the entire penal system in this country. For 
instance, at this correctional facility, the private security 
contractor, Wackenhut Corrections Corporation, in an on-going 
perverted disciplinary hearing process, has been arbitrarily and 
capriciously issuing orders for loss of the maximum 180 days good 
time credit. This is what each qualifying prisoner earns for good 
behavior (for non-serious, non-violent institutional rule 
violations). Prisoners have been stripped of their due process 
right to present a suitable defense to counter prison security's 
practice of fabricating and falsifying disciplinary reports 
against prisoners. This results in the massive loss of hard earned 
credit for good conduct, including other improper sanctions 
imposed for minor incidents. Prisoners call this a kangaroo 
disciplinary system of injustice.

The loss of massive good time prolongs the duration of the 
sentence. Also, we are penalized severely for accessing the 
medical department for ailments, regardless of its gravity. They 
prosecute us for seeking medical attention as "aggravated 
malingering". 

That was a letter from a prisoner in Louisiana

Like wise as this Kansas prisoner will report, the prisoners are 
denied medical care and routinely risk death as a result. 

I am writing this for your campaign dealing with the medical 
situation in prisons. Personally, I don't know too much about 
medical "policies" and such but I can tell you about medical 
"practices". Let me tell you what I witnessed on August 10th, 
2000.

Approximately around 2:45 a.m. I had heard an inmate yelling at 
the Sergeant and another C.O. for help. He was complaining that he 
was real dizzy and had groin and chest pains that were real 
severe. Both officers just sat around doing nothing to help the 
inmate even after he had yelled that he was laying on the floor.

Around 3:25 a.m., a nurse came in after the inmate was calling for 
help for 40 minutes. The nurse went up to the inmate's door and 
looked in his window. She asked him what was wrong and he told her 
about his pains and dizziness. Without even taking his pulse or 
any other vitals, she told the hurt inmate to turn in a sick call 
slip and walked away. Then around 4:00 a.m., the inmate's door 
slot was opened for his breakfast and he asked for help. I could 
see that this inmate was laying on the floor. This officer didn't 
help the inmate. A little while later, a Captain came in and went 
to talk to the inmate. I heard the inmate crying and pleading for 
help. The captain told the inmate that the nurse had already seen 
him and now they were refusing to give the inmate medical 
treatment until he made a sick call later that afternoon. After 
that, I heard the inmate plead for help until 5:30 a.m. when he 
suddenly became quiet. 

About 3 hours later, around 9:00 a.m., I watched several officers 
open up the inmate's cell where he was laying on the floor 
unconscious. I watched them carry him out on a stretched where he 
still appeared unconscious. Then they finally took him for medical 
help. He later came back and was ultimately alright, but it just 
goes to show that these prison staff don't really care about the 
well-being of inmates. Luckily this inmate was only unconscious 
but after seeing that I wonder if I might find myself in a similar 
situation needing help but instead of being found unconscious, I'm 
found dead.

That was a letter from a prisoner in Kansas, 14 August 2000.

[Drug War CD Track 11 nancy tooth "free medical" 2:49 v2/2, show 
23 (2001)]

That was another except from "Voices from the Drug War" produced 
by the November Coalition at www dot november dot org.

Students organize Books for Prisoners drive and inspire prisoners

Students at the University of Michigan worked with the Maoist 
Internationalist Movement and the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist 
League to collect books as part of MIM's Books for Prisoners 
Program. Students on many other campuses hold similar fund 
raisers, collecting books and money. We invite other students to 
get involved in this important work. Contact us for information 
and materials to hold your own book drive on your campus.  After 
receiving a book from the University of Michigan, a Colorado 
prisoner had this to say:

I received the newspapers and the book you sent me. That book is 
just what I was looking for. I'm still studying and reading it and 
I can't put it down. Please tell all the brothers and sisters at 
the University of Michigan to please stay in the struggle with us 
because comrades in here need them to be our voices out there and 
we will be their voices in here! Me and the rest of our comrades 
in here are studying every day and night, even when we are on 
lockdown, we still find ways to get our study done in our cages.

-- a Colorado Prisoner, 2 April 2000.

The following report of torture behind the walls is from a 
Pennsylvania prisoner.

Torture in Graterford, Penn

I wish to address some matters that I think are important for MIM 
to know about that have been happening to me in Graterford Prison. 
I was hogtied for 7 days without food and water, and medical 
didn't come down to see my until 24 days afterwards. I was beaten 
3 times. Hogtied means that they cuff you from behind, then leg- 
cuff you, then they cuff the handcuffs to your legcuffs in back of 
your body. Then they got a razor and cut off all my clothes and 
turned the air below 50 degrees. Then they left me there.

I lost the use of one hand and part of one leg for life. I had 
surgery two times but nothing worked. After I tried to look for a 
lawyer I was transferred from where it happened to make it harder 
for me to find a lawyer. Until this day I'm still looking for a 
lawyer to take my case. I am very much illiterate. I have so much 
evidence and not much time to file this.

Now I am at SCI Greene County where they help out by denying me 
showers, yard, and food, and calling me a snitch because I want 
the correctional officer's to go to court and also a deputy lost 
his job because of it. I also have razor cuts and a night-club 
crack on my head. It is just not right for anyone to go through 
this treatment.

That was a letter from a Pennsylvania prisoner.