A report of a statewide protest demanding that Governor Davis release battered women prisoners and end his illegal no-parole policy.
by Diana Block
Over 200 people protested at Gov. Davis’ offices in four cities across California last Tuesday, demanding that Davis release battered women prisoners and end his illegal no-parole policy. The protesters accused the governor of playing politics with the lives of those inmates who are eligible for parole and in some cases have been granted a parole date by the state parole board, only to have it snatched away by Davis.
Protesters were outraged by the fact that in 2002 alone, Davis reversed the parole recommendations for seven battered women in prison. On June 20 he denied release to Maria Suarez who had been sold into sex slavery at the age of 16 and was physically and sexually abused for five years before a neighbor killed her abuser and Maria was charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Maria has spent 20 years in prison and was recommended for parole in January 2002, only to have her date taken by Davis.
Flozelle Woodmore was 13 when she met her batterer and 18 with no prior criminal history when she pled guilty to firing a single fatal shot to his chest. She has been in prison for 15 years and was recommended for parole in March 2002 but was denied by Davis on Aug. 2.
These incarcerated survivors are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the illegal parole policy in place in California. Since January 1999, there have been over 9,000 parole suitability hearings for “lifers” (approximately 20,000 prisoners with indeterminate life sentences), but only 123 (1 percent) have been recommended for parole by the Board of Prison Terms. Davis has reversed the parole recommendation in all but two cases, both of them battered women.
In San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego a wide range of people gathered to voice their anger about this state of affairs and to deliver hundreds of signed letters to Davis’ representatives calling upon the governor to end his illegal no-parole policy. In San Francisco, over 100 people held signs with the pictures of battered women prisoners and listened to messages from the women inside as well as family members such as Paula Bunney, whose daughter Marcia has been in prison since 1981.
“My daughter was abused much of her life,” said Bunney. “She?s had a good record in prison. She should be released.”
In Los Angeles the crowd included many family members, representatives from the religious community and Rose Ann Parker, the only convicted murderer to actually be released under Davis? administration. In San Diego the physical reality of abuse was represented by women “wearing” bruises, blood and scratches on their faces, necks and arms, who stood silently in front of Davis’ offices handcuffed to each other with duct tape across their mouths. And in Sacramento a delegation met with representatives from the offices of Sens. Sheila Kuehl and Richard Polanco, who congratulated the organizers on their work and pledged their support on this issue.
According to Olivia Wang, coordinator of the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison, which initiated the protest, “Without remorse or compassion, Davis is sacrificing battered women for his own political goals.” The rallies indicate that many members of the community no longer find this position tolerable and are ready to act to insure an end to this travesty of justice.
For more information, call (415) 255-7036 ext. 6 or visit freebatteredwomen.org.
Category: CCWP Archives from our Website
by Diana Block, CCWP/San Francisco, Donna Willmott, LSPC
Senator Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Prison Construction and Operations, opened unprecedented hearings on October 11 and 12 at Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) and California Institution for Women (CIW) by thanking the women who had agreed to come forward to testify and emphatically warning prison staff, including Director of the California Department of Corrections (CDC) Cal Terhune, that retaliation by prison staff against those who were courageous enough to come forward would be met with severe consequences.
Delays in Treatment and Falsified Tests
Wednesday’s session at VSPW in Chowchilla was attended by over 100 prison activists, lawyers, family members and media representatives in addition to several state legislators and their aides. Former prisoner Pat Shelton described how she was serving an eight month sentence for a parole violation when she discovered a lump in her breast. She was not seen by a doctor until five months later by which time the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. She is now struggling with terminal bone cancer and came to testify in order to try and make a difference around how other women were treated in the future.
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| Several women prepare to testify at the hearings. Behind them sit CDC officials including Director Cal Terhune (since retired). |
Charisse Shumate, the lead plaintiff in a class action law suit against the CDC filed in 1995, told how she lost sight in one eye because of delays in treatment of a sickle cell anemia related condition and implored the audience not to forget that “we are human beings.”
Ellen Richardson detailed how the CDC ignores the particular problems of a population where one third of the women are over 40 and need help with osteoporosis, menopause and many other critical issues related to aging. “We are our own best doctors” she asserted.
Epidemic Hepatitis C
In a panel devoted to the life threatening problems of women living with HIV and Hepatitis C , Beverly Henry, a self-disclosed HIV+ woman, told how she accidentally discovered that she had Hepatitis C since the prison never notified her of crucial test results. She and Judy Ricci, also HIV+, painfully described watching friends die of Hepatitis C (which is epidemic with approximately 54% of the women infected) while prison staff disregarded obvious symptoms of distended abdomens and eyes “the color of pumpkins” and refused to provide necessary liver biopsies.
The medical section of the hearing concluded with a devastating description by Gloria Braxton of the way in which prolonged misdiagnosis and mistreatment of her uterine cancer led to her current terminal cancer which has been made even more excruciating because of the denial of medication for her chronic pain. Gloria insisted that she should be granted compassionate release, which by law she is qualified for, in order to be able to spend the last six months of her life at home.
Health Care away from CDC
At many points throughout the medical testimony the legislative panel appeared horrified by the stories they were hearing. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) said that the stories “curdled her stomach” and angrily concluded that “these women have been given two sentences – one by the court and one by the institution.” “From what I’ve heard, cats and dogs are treated better than some of these people” Carl Washington (D-Compton) exclaimed. Dr. Corey Weinstein and other prisoner advocates called for a non-profit public health care institution to take over the provision of medical care for state prisoners and the legislative panel promised to consider these recommendations.
Tearing Mothers and Children Apart
The legislators also promised to look into recently issued CDC regulations which further undermine the fragile connection between women prisoners and their children. These “underground regulations” apparently are in violation of state laws, as they only allow 48 hours after delivery for women who give birth in prison to find a relative who can care for the baby before placing the child in a foster home. If no suitable relative is found, children are given away to foster/adopt homes in the county where the mother is incarcerated and the mother is not allowed to know the identity of the family who has her child. If she is unable to reunify with her child within six months (by being released) the child automatically becomes eligible for adoption.
by Janice Jordan, CCWP/San Diego
Day 2 of the Legislative Hearings started at CIW with a group of women who shared their stories about Battered Women’s Experience/Syndrome. For the majority of those testifying, this had been their first arrest. They all have indeterminate life sentences (nine to life, twenty-five to life, etc.) The studies presented by the expert witnesses indicate that men accused of killing their partners only receive an average of sixteen years. Within the criminal injustice system women usually have to speak to male police, male lawyers, male judges and male psychiatrists about their abuse at the hands of men. Women kill in order not to be killed by their abusers; however they don’t always do it in “the heat of passion” so it doesn’t qualify as self-defense. Many of these women were not allowed to bring their history of domestic violence into their trials because they occurred before 1992 when the laws changed on this matter. The majority of the women had been eligible for parole for years and they urged the Parole Board to consider their history of abuse in deciding upon release as has been mandated by the law since 1996. We know that Theresa Cruz’s recent parole denial is evidence of the lack of awareness and neglect which the Parole Board practices on an ongoing basis.
Sexual Abuse in Prison
The last segment of prisoner testimony came from women who had experienced sexual abuse and assault. One woman testified of assaults she experienced at Chowchilla and Valley State. The other, a former prisoner from CIW charged with a drug-related, non-violent crime told of her two weeks of abuse at the hand of the prison chaplain. “When you come to prison you’re scared. You look to fit in somewhere” She didn’t fit in anywhere but thought she’d be safe in the chapel. There are now four women who have a lawsuit against this chaplain.
I didn’t reveal the names of the prisoners, not for privacy reasons, but because the more I heard, the more it was apparent that of the 11,000 women incarcerated in the California state prison system, any one of them could be represented by the few at the hearing. I want them to know we are carrying their stories wherever we go.
By the end of the second day’s testimony, the systemic problems within the California prison system were more than obvious. The significance of the hearings will only be realized if the flood of testimony about problems is translated into actions which begin to remedy the drastic situation. And beyond these needed but limited steps recommended to correct the worst outrages, advocates for prisoners will continue to work for the abolition of a system based on control, punishment and warehousing of human beings.
To get a copy of the videotape of the hearings contact Senator Polanco’s office at 916.334.6175.
by Diana Block, CCWP/San Francisco, Donna Willmott, LSPC
Twenty-two women sent statements to Sen. Richard Polanco for inclusion in a packet of materials for the Legislative Hearings on the Conditions of Confinement for California Women Prisoners, held at Valley State and California Institution for Women on October 11 and 12, 2000. Following are excerpts from a few of those statements. For a full set of documents submitted to the hearings, including all the prisoner documents, please send $15 to LSPC, 100 McAllister Street, San Francisco, CA 94102.
From “Creating a National Campaign for Women with HIV” by Sandra Massey:
“In our society it is the height of hypocrisy to relegate ‘convicted criminals’–fellow humans who may or may not have committed a crime (an unconscionable percent are now publicly known to be factually innocent of the charges)–to horrifying and barbaric conditions and deliberate premature death. Further, it is the absolute height of idiocy for our society to expect ‘prisoners’ who have witnessed society’s ‘heart’ firsthand to return to them with anything greater than a loathsome revulsion for the class of beings who publicly admit they don’t care if a ‘prisoner’ lives or dies.
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| Christina Avilan spoke about the impossibility of recieving adequate medical care if a prisoner does not speak English. |
So long as our society does not experience pain and outrage that motivates change in state officials who not only have the audacity of deeming an individual of no social value, but also goes on to deliberately murder that individual, and as long as there is no demonstrable outrage at our elected officials who knowingly spend billions of dollars every year to prosecute, imprison, and in many cases execute citizens the officials know are factually innocent, then prison officials will continue to perform their passive executions of the prisoners in their custody regardless of the nature of the medical condition for which they deny life-saving medical treatment.”
From Asali Richardson:
“I’ve experienced a lot of things in VSPW and while officers aren’t perfect, the sworn oath should be upheld regardless of their personal opinions and views. As long as they get paid to do a job with professionalism, they need/should do the job. We females are mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, etc. Our punishment is the time sentenced and the setting away from family and society — not the cruelness, bigotry, open hatred and the abuse applied by the very hands that are sworn to protect us.
From Patricia McCaskill:
“During an emergency appointment, I thought I had a lesion on my vagina. Dr. D___ put a plastic shield on covering his face and two pairs of rubber gloves. Before he attempted to check me he left the room, touching door knobs on several doors, and then returned to the examination table but was not willing to change the gloves! …
There are groups of patients tested for serious conditions/diseases, including myself, who were not informed of positive results in a reasonable time span by the regular yard physician nor the doctor ordering a test. Some of us were informed by other physicians seeing us for other reasons. I was told my hepatitis C positive results eighteen months later by a relief physician. I still await explanation and recommendation for treatment if any is available.”
From Judy Ricci:
“Why should any of you care about a bunch of prisoners that are safely locked away? Because each one of us is someone’s grandmother, mother, child, wife or friend. Because it should not be about cost cutting over care giving. Because most of us are coming out to free society, sooner or later. Multiply the [HIV/Hepatitis C] infected population here times 32 other state prisons and the public health risk begins to look pretty frightening, and the need to do something significant becomes obvious. Imagine how many future infections in the community could be avoided if every infected prisoner were made aware of their status, learned the responsibility every human being with a communicable disease has to protect the next human being, was given information, monitoring and treatment if treatment is warranted. Bottom line, this issue needs to be aggressively addressed. If not now, when?
From Charisse Shumate:
This is not about me. This is about we. As I sit here trying to express these sad but true facts about the issues at CCWF…First of all, thanks to an inmate named Joann Walker, may she rest in peace, who put her life on the line to make the California Department of Corrections know how important it was to reach other inmates about the hard cold facts of HIV behind these walls. She spoke out loudly and clearly. She was a “we” person, not a “me” person. … When I first came behind prison walls at the California Institution for Women (CIW), lifers worked in unity. They were big sisters to each other. We fought for the betterment of all inmates. We explained to the short timers on parole violations the importance of helping one another. … Charisse Shumate knows no other way but “we.” Will you please join the we and get the hell off of me. The real warrior is on a never ending battle. Pray for us as our lives are on the line.
Many thanks to all who signed petitions for Frankie’s release!!
California Coalition for Women Prisoners challenges the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) and its destructive effects on our communities. All communities and all people suffer from the abusive nature of this system that punishes those deeply in need of healing. The PIC sustains itself by further entrenching racism and systemic racial discrimination to which all forms of discrimination are connected.