4,500 women?s beds, out-of-state transfers go ahead anyway
Governor Schwarzenegger?s proposals for prison expansion got nowhere in the special session he called specifically to push through his disastrous solutions for a prison system in crisis. Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) (CCWP is a member organization of CURB) played an important role in making legislators aware of the fundamental problems with the Governor?s proposals. CURB?s arguments influenced the positions of editorials and op-eds in major newspapers around the state. The petition with 1,000 signatures from women prisoners from CCWF and VSPW, collected by Justice Now, was displayed during the special session, demonstrating women?s strong opposition to the 4,500 bed proposal which masquerades as reform but is really another version of prison expansion.
Yet lo and behold, the CDCR is proceeding to solicit proposals from private companies to construct and run the new 4,500 bed facilities as if the proposal had passed in the special session.
Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency and has begun to transfer prisoners to out-of-state private prisons in Indiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arizona. (So far the CDCR has said that women will not be among those transferred at this point.) The transfers are another terrible ?solution? to the overcrowding. Transfers distance prisoners from their families and community and effectively prevent any public oversight of the conditions which they face.
Both the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the Service Employees International Union have filed suit against the transfers because they oppose using private companies for jobs usually performed by state employees. However, a state judge decided to let California send 2,260 prisoners to other states although she said she recognized that the transfers may be illegal.
Prisoners have other ideas as to how to solve the overcrowding. In a suit filed by the Prison Law Office, they asked to limit new admissions of prisoners until there is a significant decline in the population. Their proposal centers on redirecting minor parole violators to home detention, electric monitoring programs or residential treatment centers instead of sending them back to prison.
Clearly what is needed is a drastic reduction in the prison population through fundamental changes in sentencing structure and the parole system for starters. To get CURB?s list of 50 Ways to Reduce the Number of People in Prison in California, go to www.curbprisonspending.org or write CURB, 1904 Franklin St., Ste. 504, Oakland, CA 94612.
Category: Issue 34 – Fall 2006/Winter 2007
by Linda Field, former prisoner, survivor
September 1, 2006, dawned a beautiful morning full of hope and anticipation. I left the mountains driving to the Central Valley area and enjoyed all that my freedom offered. I was going back to prison this morning. Unlike the first time I went, I was excited and truly looking forward to the day.
Cheryl Orange Jones joined me as we headed to Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. When we arrived, Andrea and Marisa from Free Battered Women were there, waiting to escort us in. I had no fear in my heart, only joy. I was going to visit my sisters.
We entered the visiting check-in area and I waited to see the reaction of the correctional officers. We were greeted cordially and proceeded to check in. As I am in a wheelchair, I had to be ?wanded? to make sure I was not bringing in any contraband. The sergeant apologized, as he did not have a female officer to do this. I silently thought of the many times a male officer had patted me down, intimately, thinking me much taller than my 5’1″. I remember going on tip-toes to avoid his thumb.
We were greeted by excited women, who swarmed us. Nikki Diamond and Pat Caetano were waiting for our arrival. They too had returned to the prison to encourage their friends still inside. As the gym filled with inmates, we started. A beautiful version of ?Independence Day? was sung and many eyes teared as the meaning crept into hearts.
I wanted to sit with the audience because that was where my heart was. Our message was do not give up hope because we are out there fighting to get every battered women released from her prison. We do not want any woman to return to a battering situation. Battering doesn?t just affect them, but their children also. They will think it is normal, but we know it is not. No child should have to grow up in fear and no adult should have to cower down in fear.
When Nikki spoke, so many knew her personally that the energy could be felt in the gym. Teary eyes and heartfelt feelings caused the women to rise to their feet and clap for her. Nikki opened her heart to them and spoke about her own abuse as a child and many were able to relate.
As we were limited on time, there were many things left unspoken but the most important message was, we are family, God loves you and will not forsake you, and neither will your sisters outside. We will carry the torch of freedom and fight to get you released. We will not be quieted, we will not give up hope that someday all of us will be free on the outside and on the inside.
We were able to come here today because of the efforts of Free Battered Women and the Habeas Project. I was in prison for 19 years on a 25 to life sentence for killing my husband who abused my children and me. On January 3, 2006, I was taken back to court and re-sentenced to voluntary manslaughter, 13 years, time served, no parole. I am free now and will continue to fight to help free my sisters.
We love each and everyone of you. Remember Charisse Shumate who said, ?Battered No More.?
by Pam Fadem
Prison is bad for your health?physically, mentally and emotionally?and we have plenty of proof! But work in prison?often a mandated part of programming to meet parole and release criteria?is more and more becoming a serious threat to the health and safety of all prisoners.
A recently released report, ?Toxic Sweatshops: How UNICOR Prison Recycling Harms Workers, Communities, the Environment and the Recycling Industry,? documents how the US Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) exposes prisoners and staff at 7 federal prisons (including Atwater here in California) to cancer-causing toxic chemicals while working for slave wages in UNICOR?s electronic waste recycling business. The report goes on to condemn the BOP for trying to cover up these health and safety violations, and recommends an immediate halt to the BOP program.
Just as with workers in the electronics industry outside prison walls, work for Allwire Corp. at CCWF?s Joint Venture program raises many health concerns about the toxic materials that workers come in contact with during the assembly of circuit boards and other electronic components including inhaling and skin contact with toxic chemicals.
Other jobs have health risks, too:
Doing farm work (cultivating almond trees and growing alfalfa) women are exposed to toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Garment industry work presents many health hazards including injuries from broken sewing machine needles, asthma and other respiratory illnesses from the lint, and allergic reactions (hives and other skin problems) from the chemical coatings on the fabric.
In warehouse work for prison supplies women are exposed to physical injuries from lifting, stacking and carrying.
Making dentures, partials, and night-guards in a dental lab for State prisons and veterans? homes women are exposed to chemicals and dust during manufacturing, though this is a desired job because the training makes a woman employable on the outside.
The bottom tier of available jobs includes, central kitchen where women are sometimes burned by the heavy, hot pans, porters, yard crew, and other maintenance such as of electrical appliances.
Just as workers outside prisons have fought for legal rights to decent wages and work conditions, there is a history of struggle inside prisons across the U.S. over health and safety, as well as respect and fair wages. But as the editorial says, the U.S. Constitution outlawed slavery everywhere except in prisons.
by Shelbi Harris, VSPW
The health care system in CDCR has failed us as human beings. Continuous neglect has caused premature deaths. Did the U.S. Constitution stop protecting us from cruel and unusual punishment because we went from citizen to inmate? If help does not come soon, death will be the new prison epidemic.
MTAs are allowed to pre- and misdiagnose us on medical emergencies through a window. How degrading and inhumane is that? We see an RN who can only give us the CDCR?s ?cure-alls? of Motrin or Tylenol and send us on our way. If we?re lucky we?ll get a referral to the yard doctor who hardly seems to exist anymore. Then the Daily Movement Sheets are full of appointments that never happened. Sacramento only sees the numbers on a page, never following up to see how many of us were actually seen, no less treated.
We have real serious issues here that need someone?s attention: premature deaths, preventable diseases, misdiagnoses and delayed treatment (or no treatment), and prolonged pain and suffering. We are exposed to infections and illnesses daily (such as staph infections, STI?s and scabies) with no protection other than the preventative measures we take on our own. The CDCR should meet us half way in preventative care by supplying gloves, disinfectant, hand soap, adequate access to laundry facilities, mandatory posting of preventative care signs (like the ADA and court ruling posters), and to follow their own rules and standards outlined in Title 15.
The inmate population is counting on Bob Sillen, the Federal Receiver. Hang tight. Help may finally be on its way. I, along with thousands of other inmates, look forward to the implementation of procedures, policies, and treatment in the CDCR health care system.
On October 30, 2006, the Coalition for Accountable Health Care met with Federal Receiver Robert Sillen. The coalition includes CCWP, Justice Now, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, The Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), Women?s AfterCare Program & Services (WAYPASS), the Transgender in Prison Committee (TIP), All of Us or None and the Family Advocacy Network.
The Coalition presented the Receiver with its perspective that the best way to deal with the horrendous medical conditions in California prisons is to reduce the extreme overcrowding of the prison system. As long as 174,000 people are being squeezed into facilities meant for half that many, it is impossible to fundamentally improve medical care. The solution is not to build more prison beds even if they are hospital beds because this is just another form of prison expansion (not to mention the horrifying examples of prison hospitals that already exist). History shows that any time prisons are expanded California finds more prisoners to fill the additional space. The state of crisis in California?s prisons is made worse by this overcrowding and it is impossible to provide real health care in this prison system. Sillen?s plans focus on recruiting new medical personnel, replacing the MTA position with licensed vocational nurses and expanding prison health care facilities by building up to seven new prison hospitals. Although agreement was not reached on whether overcrowding was the fundamental issue, the discussion opened up many important areas of debate.
The Coalition presented many specific examples of the health care crisis in California?s women?s prisons, of most of which Sillen was not aware. When the coalition presented the lack of medical translation services and its impact on the health care of Latina and other immigrant women, Sillen agreed that this was a critical area which had received little attention up until now. He recognized that he needed more regular information about the conditions in women?s prisons, and the Coalition will be developing a means of getting this to him on an ongoing basis.
The meeting was an important step in developing an ongoing relationship with the Receiver. It also fosters a growing positive collaboration among groups who are organizing around health care for women and transgender and gender variant people in prison.