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Prison Report for August 27, 2010

Submitted by andys on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 12:56pm
Listen to this and other prison reports at www.ontheblockradio.org (broadcast Fridays 9pm 88.1 fm)
 
This is the PA Prison Report for Friday, August 27, brought to you by the Human Rights Coalition: Fighting for the Rights and Lives of Prisoners. HRC is a group of current and former prisoners, family members, and supporters, whose ultimate goal is to abolish prisons.
 

The News from Inside

 
SCI Huntingdon Prison: People in the restricted housing unit at SCI Huntingdon continue to report violations of DOC policy and human rights. At the beginning of June, Hayden Marshall was charged with assaulting an officer during an altercation with another prisoner in the yard. Since being put in the restricted housing unit, he has been denied personal hygiene supplies and has been stripped of legal documents. He reports finding chewing tobacco in his food, being denied meals, showers, and clothing, and being verbally harassed for writing grievances on offending officers. HRC was alerted to the situation when two other prisoners wrote about his ongoing abuse and about him being taken to an isolated part of the prison. On June 28 Marshall was forcibly assaulted, beaten while shackled and on the ground, and removed from his cell after an attempt to hang himself. He has been consistently sprayed with O.C. chemical weapons –pepper spray- despite having asthma. Marshall wrote to HRC from a camera cell, requesting immediate transfer and relief from guard retaliation and abuse. Family members continue to monitor the situation.
 
SCI Cambridge & Muncy prisons:
Over the past year, the HRC-Fed Up!’s Women’s De-carceration Project has received dozens of reports of medical neglect and misconduct of medical staff mainly in both SCI-Muncy and Cambridge Springs but also in some county jails. Of the nearly 50 women who have written to HRC-Fed Up!, over half have expressed their desperation and frustration over the lack of competent attention and care in the prisons. “I have to push my uterus back up inside of me which causes so much pain I can’t move for three days.” says Margaret who needs three surgeries, among them a hysterectomy. Her requests for these surgeries were denied by the Bureau of Health Care Services, who claim that the surgeries are not medically necessary. Another prisoner, Cheryl, was not given the medication she needed and was forced to take the wrong medication. Says Cheryl, “The nurse tried to force me to take Prozac, by telling me the doctor just ordered it. I tried to make her understand I only see the medical doctor. They are not my meds.” Margaret and Cheryl are among many women who are not receiving the surgeries or medication they need to function on a day-to-day basis.
 
Not only have women received limited, if any, basic medical care, some have been denied proper prenatal care, which have led to miscarriages. During Diane‘s stay in a Philadelphia county jail, she had a number of medical problems that should have been looked into more closely. “I put in a sick call again telling them I have not received a period in 5 months and I have not moved my bowels in two weeks,” said Diane. “They gave me some laxative and sent me back to my unit.” Her unborn child died 6 months into her pregnancy. “This is very hard for me being in jail and grieving with the [loss] of my son…Sometimes I am alright but most of the time I think about what my baby would be doing right now.” The emotional scars caused by the death of her child could have been avoided if her request for help would have not gone unanswered. With the increasing population of women incarcerated and the lack of competent medical staff who can adequately address their particular needs, more and more women are bound to suffer the same fate.
 
SCI Albion: After more than a month on hunger strike and phone calls from the Human Rights Coalition, a prisoner in the solitary confinement unit at SCI Albion, Maurice Williams, participated in conference call with a state dietitian and dietary-medical personnel during the third week of August in order to resolve problems regarding his being given an appropriate diet. Mr. Williams suffers from Crohn's disease and his condition was exacerbated after being attacked with pepper spray during a cell extraction in July. Multiple prisoners have reported that Mr. Williams has lost as much as 70 pounds after spending the month of July and part of August on a hunger strike to protest the prison's refusal to grant him a medically appropriate diet. Mr. Williams reports that his food issues appear to be resolved.
 
SCI Rockview prison:
 
SCI-Rockview prisoner’s settlement agreement revises the Pennsylvania Department of Correction’s Incoming Publication Review Committee’s determination policy.
 
On July 19, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania approved the settlement agreement in the case of Basil Allah Yates, (the Plaintiff) v. Rodney V. Painter, et al., (the Defendants) Civil Action No. 3:09-CV-0899.   The Plaintiff’s Section 1983 lawsuit claimed the Defendants Incoming Publication Review Committee denied him of his First Amendment Right. In the settlement defendants “agree to revise how the Incoming Publication Review Committee determines whether religious publications should be denied or approved by including in the process the Facility Chaplaincy Program Director and/or the Religious Accommodation Review Committee.” The parties “hereby agree to settle and compromise Plaintiff’s claims for relief, fees, and costs, in the total amount of $2,000. This amount shall be paid by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on behalf of the Defendants into Mr. Yates’s prison account.”   Additionally, the defendants further “agree to provide Mr. Yates with the following publications: (1) Tricknology of the Enemy; (2) The Announcement; (3) History of the Nation of Islam; (4) How to Eat to Live; (5) The Theology of Time; (6) 7 Speeches; (7) The Flag of Islam; (8) The Meaning of FOI; (r9) The Supreme Wisdom Volume 1; and (10) The Supreme Wisdom Volume 2.”
 
 
SCI Dallas: Guards working in the solitary confinement unit at SCI Dallas have been "deliberately starving Delacy Pressley" according to a report received on Monday by HRC-Fed Up! This is the latest in several reports regarding guard mistreatment of Mr. Pressley, including physical abuse, withholding of water, and encouraging him to commit suicide. In a letter sent to HRC/Fed Up! at the end of April, Mr. Pressley reported that he was "hearing voices constantly everyday" and that he is no longer being given medication that he has been taking since 1996 for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. 
 
This week marks the one year anniversary of the suicide of Matthew Bullock at SCI Dallas on August 24th. Mr. Bullock hung himself while in the solitary confinement unit. He had attempted suicide repeatedly while confined in the PA DOC. Despite a history of severe mental illness and a judicial order that he serve his sentence in a "secure mental health facility", Mr. Bullock was held in solitary confinement, had all of his medications terminated, and was subjected to abuse by guards who encouraged him to commit suicide.
 
SCI Coal Township prison: Several prisoners observing Ramadan in the Restricted Housing Unit at Coal Township have reported that prison officials are refusing to adjust the evening meal schedule to allow them to eat their lunch and dinner meals after sunset, forcing them to either abandon the religious practice for health reasons or perform their daily studies in a half-starved condition. HRC has received reports that as of August 22, prison officials had not addressed the situation with kitchen staff and were instead requiring the men to attempt to seek change using the grievance system, a lengthy process which upholds prisoners' claims less than 2% of the time. Update 8/30/10: Fasting prisoners have further reported that guards have called them ‘cave monkeys’ and ‘terrorists’ and denied them yard time and showers; prison officials have suggested to Muslims that they not practice Ramadan next year—see HRC Action Alert 8/30/10
 
Virginia: Earlier this year, Pennsylvania began shipping prisoners to Michigan and Virginia to due to conditions of overcrowding in our state prison system. Over the past five months, men who’d been transferred to Virginia’s Green Rock State Prison have begun writing back to HRC to report mistreatment and abuse, including being placed in solitary confinement for minor infractions of prison rules. One prisoner reported that he was thrown in the hole for refusing to shave, despite telling guards that he was prevented from doing so by his Islamic faith. After several days of being held in a lockdown cell, he was transferred to Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, a Supermax solitary confinement facility notorious for the abuse of prisoners, where he was held for weeks until he agreed to guards’ demands that he shave.
 
The Human Rights Coalition is now investigating the treatment of Pennsylvania prisoners transferred to Virginia. If you have a loved one who’s been transferred to Virginia, please contact us at 215-921-3491.

The News from Outside

 
Pittsburgh: The Justice for Terrell Johnson campaign threw a block party for prison justice on August 14 that drew 90 people to the Hazelwood community in Pittsburgh for an evening of food, music, face-painting, fire-juggling, and a speak out against prison injustice. On the Tuesday after the block party, which was known as the Freedom Festival, a crowd of 20 gathered for a press conference outside of City Hall to once again demand the immediate and unconditional release from prison of Terrell Johnson, a Pittsburgh resident who has spent 16 years in prison for a homicide he did not commit. The Justice for Terrell campaign spoke to television, radio, and newspaper reporters about new evidence in the case before heading over to the courthouse to deliver more than 500 petitions to the District Attorney demanding Terrell's release. Terrell has a new trial scheduled for October 18th. For more information on the case, go online & google “justice for Terrell”.
 

Announcements

 
Every Wednesday: Prison Letter Writing Night at the LAVA space at 4134 Lancaster, 6-9pm. Come help us stay connected with the many prisoners who write to us with news from inside, with words of wisdom, or who are in need of help. That's each Wednesday, 6-9pm, at the LAVA community space at 4134 Lancaster Ave
 
If you'd like to know more about the Human Rights Coalition or would like to get involved, call us at 215-921-3491, email info@hrcoalition.org, or visit our website at www.hrcoalition.org.
 
This has been the Human Rights Coalition Radio Report. Keep Fighting!