Ill prisoners forced to work, punished for taking 
sick-leave

"I have six screws in my left ankle and have had 
total reconstructive surgery on my right ankle," a 
prisoner in Texas recently wrote to MIM. 

"I was 
informed that it did not matter, I would work or 
receive disciplinary actions against me. I asked 
the lieutenant to call the medical department to 
inquire about my conditions, and he refused. I 
told the lieutenant I will not work here and he 
proceeded to assault me by striking me in the 
face. 

"I wrote a grievance about this but was told 
by ranking officers that it never happened, and I 
still had to report to work.. After eight months 
and countless cases I finally was seen by a nurse 
practitioner and taken off work." 

This is just one 
of numerous letters MIM has received from 
prisoners in Texas telling us that prison 
administrators force them to work in unhealthy 
conditions or deny them medical care as a form of 
punishment. Administrators also discipline 
prisoners who refuse to work or are unable to work 
because of their medical condition. Here are some 
more prisoner testimonials:

* "My first day of work was not pleasant -- the 
fields. On that day we were human lawn mowers, 
cutting grass with aggies [heavy hoes used for 
weeding], in which the stick part is 5 pounds and 
the steel blade is about 10 to 15 pounds. The 
conditions are terrible. Not only the scorching 
hot sun, but the 20-pound aggie that we have to 
bring over our heads to cut grass with. "I 
received blisters on both of my hands by the end 
of the fourth day. I notified the supervisors, who 
are on horses carrying revolvers, about my hands 
and the condition they were in, and all he told me 
was, 'see you tomorrow.' "[I worked for two more 
days] and by that time my hands were raw, so I 
laid it down [i.e. refused to work]." He went to 
see the nurse and was allowed to take off three 
days from work, supposedly enough time to let his 
hands heal. But after that he received a "refuse 
to work case" when he would not to return to the 
job.

* "I am legally disabled. My benefits were cut off 
because I'm in prison. I've complained in 
grievances that I can't work, I'm disabled, and 
they don't respond." This prisoner sent a copy of 
a disciplinary report, which included the comment, 
"Refused to turn out for his work assignment 
without a legitimate reason."

* "I was basically put in administrative 
segregation because I refused to work in a field 
with an aggie under direct sunlight and not 
getting any money at all for my hard labor." 
Subsequently, he adds, "I sometimes received 
disciplinary cases for being sick and not going to 
their fields."

* "They gave me three cases for not working in the 
field. I had just come out of the hospital for a 
hernia operation, so I refused to work." "I was 
shipped out [a year later] in the field with an 
aggie in hand, and picking up limbs and branches 
and making a bonfire. It took a toll on my health. 
I am 58 years old -- bad health, bad back, seven 
vertebrae out, high blood pressure, diabetes -- so 
I refused to work. That is when I was segregated. 
It's now four years that I am in segregated high 
security."

Federal and state courts have previously ruled 
that prison administrators cannot assign prisoners 
to jobs which could harm them due to an existing 
medical condition; that administrators cannot 
discipline them for refusing to work on health 
grounds; and that administrators must ensure a 
safe and healthy working environment.(1) 

Furthermore, Texas prison rules exempt prisoners 
who are not capable of working from punishment. 
"Offenders who are not capable of participating in 
work or school programs (i.e., those on furlough 
or bench warrant, going through classification, in 
transient status and housing or those with special 
needs) are exempt from participation requirements 
and are awarded the maximum amount of good-conduct 
time each month based on their time-earning 
status, to include 15 days of diligent 
participation credit."(2) 

MIM is circulating the 
petition reprinted on this page, which calls on 
Texas prison administrators to follow their own 
rules. The rules themselves sound great -- they 
are consistent with the principle that preventive 
medical care should lengthen the working lives of 
all people and make them better equipped to 
contribute to society. The problem is these 
prisoncrats simply use them as window dressing.

Health care (or lack of it) as carrot (or stick)

As previously reported in MIM Notes, prisoners in 
Texas work for no pay. The only compensation they 
may get is "good time" credit. Prisoners convicted 
of "aggravated" offenses cannot even get that. 
Furthermore, "good time" credit can be taken away 
through disciplinary cases, including "refusing" 
to work. This "discipline" is notoriously 
arbitrary, often coming down to a guards' word 
against the prisoners. These facts alone make it 
clear that work in Texas prisons is forced labor. 

Prisoners are not free to work for whoever will 
hire them; they have to work for the state. Of 
course, a prisoner is "free" to chose not to work 
-- if he is willing to endure a longer sentence, 
under harsher conditions. Denying medical care to 
those who refuse or cannot work is one more cudgel 
goading prisoners out into the fields. As one 
prisoner writes, "You good comrades can see this 
rotten state is still pulling forced labor so they 
can have slaves to do their dirty work. This is my 
statement of how I was forced to work for free. So 
now it's time to get this in the free world and do 
something about these civil rights and 
constitutional rights. The North fought the South 
and beat their asses, stopped slavery, but it did 
not last too long. This state came up with forced 
slavery labor. It has to stop." Under socialism, 
prisoners will work, but all will be guaranteed 
basic medical care -- which includes not placing 
prisoners in situations where their medical 
problems will be exacerbated.(3)

Notes: 
1. John Boston and Daniel E. Manville, 
Prisoners' Self Help Litigation Manual, NewYork: 
Oceana Publications, 1996, p. 133. 
2. Todd Edwards, "Correctional Good-Time Credits in 
Southern States," in: Regional Resource, Council 
of State Governments, May 2001. 
3. Platform on so-called free speech under the 
dictatorship of the proletariat, 
www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/freespeech.html