Death of Another Woman Prisoner
by Judy Greenspan,
HIV in Prison Committee
In all of my years
of prisoner advocacy, I have never had a more nightmarish
and haunting night than my visit with women prisoners at the
Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla on Friday,
December 15, 2000. Members of the HIV in Prison Committee
of California Prison Focus (including myself) witnessed the
seventh death of a woman prisoner since November 9th.
We undertook this visit to
continue our advocacy efforts on behalf of women prisoners
with HIV, hepatitis C and other serious illnesses. We visited
with a woman who recently suffered a stroke after being forced
to take the wrong medications by prison medical staff. We
visited with women with hepatitis C who are not receiving
any education, care monitoring or treatment for their disease.
We visited with a woman living with HIV who recently survived
an attack of AIDS-related pneumonia without receiving any
medical treatment from prison staff. We talked with every
woman about the six deaths that occurred since November 9—three
of the women who died had HIV (and possible hepatitis C co-infection).
(And, by the way, the local county coroner has a policy of
not doing autopsies on HIV-positive women prisoners, so we
will never know the real cause of medical neglect that precipitated
their deaths.)
At about 6:45 pm, we saw
a group of guards and MTAs (Medical Technical Assistants)
race to the back room behind the visiting room. While we could
see only bits and pieces of what was going on, there was clearly
a medical emergency happening. Not surprisingly, six deaths
in a month made medical staff respond quite quickly to this
emergency. An IV pole was brought in and MTAs were trying
to perform CPR on a yet unidentified prisoner. We could see
much of the motion but not the whole picture. Several of the
women prisoners in the visiting room were standing on benches
near the window so that they could see what was happening.
There was a lot of commotion going on. One of the women who
had a good view of the back room said that the woman on the
floor wasn’t breathing anymore.
We knew the woman was dead
when guards forced the two women porters in the visiting room
to go into the back room and don gowns, masks, goggles, and
gloves to clean up the bodily fluids that the woman expelled
all over the floor before dying. The guards just stood around
without any expression—supervising. The terrified look in
the eyes of those two women continues to haunt me. They were
porters in the visiting room and never expected to have to
clean up vomit, urine and excrement after a woman had died.
Are there any international human rights sanctions against
this callous abuse of women prisoners?
The death took about 45 minutes,
during which time no prisoner was able to move in or out of
the visiting room. At least 15-20 women prisoners also witnessed
this death. I can only imagine how women inside CCWF are feeling
right now—seven deaths, who is next?
We are demanding (even louder
than before) an independent investigation into these deaths.
We have asked California State Senator Richard Polanco, Chair
of the Joint Subcommittee on Prison Construction and Operations,
to conduct this investigation, and to bring in a panel of
doctors and specialists to review these women’s medical files.
We have also demanded that the MTA system be suspended and
competent medical staff be brought in from the public health
sector to save the women’s lives. This is a life and death
situation for the women inside CCWF. If something is not done
soon, many more women will die.
The women prisoners I was
meeting with have seen a lot of death and dying inside the
Central California Women’s Facility, but even they are deeply
affected by the current death toll. These seven deaths come
in the wake of the dismissal of the Shumate case (class action
litigation challenging medical neglect and abuse at CCWF and
another women’s prison) and the historical two-day long legislative
hearings held in October inside two California women’s prisons.
I can only conclude that
there is a war going on against our sisters at CCWF and they
are losing.
Please call, fax or write
to Senator Polanco today. The address is:
Senator Richard Polanco,
Chairperson
Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations
Room 400 State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 324-6175;
Fax: (916) 327-8817
We are working within a coalition
of groups to stop the death toll at CCWF. Contact us [see
Resources] to get involved and to get on our rapid response
list. We will post events on our web page (www.prisons.org/hivin.htm)
and also keep you informed. Keep in touch. We need to let
the women inside know that they are not alone and that we
support their right to live and to receive health care.
Chowchilla petition
Women prisoners are
fighting for their lives. Join the fight for adequate medical
care for HIV-positive women at Chowchilla. Women with HIV
receive substandard care. They are forced to stand in line
outside in the raw valley weather once a day (for one to two
hours) to receive their daily bag of HIV medicine. Women who
are too ill to stand in the med line do not get their medications
at all. Medications are still not renewed in a timely fashion.
Opportunistic infections are often misdiagnosed due to the
ignorance of medical staff. HIV-positive women feel that their
confidentiality is continually violated by the med line. Women
prisoners want consistent, adequate and accessible HIV care.
What you can do: Send a protest letter!
(Sample letter)
To: Warden Teena Farmon
P.O. Box 1501
Chowchilla, CA 93610
Fax: (559) 665-7158
I am deeply concerned about
the mistreatment of HIV-positive women at the Central California
Women’s Facility. Forcing women to stand outside in med line
in inclement weather does not guarantee consistent access
to life-extending HIV medications. Women who are too ill to
stand in line are not receiving their HIV medications. The
confidentiality of HIV-positive prisoners is being violated
on a daily basis on pill call line. Many women with HIV have
already quit their HIV therapy due to the hardship of standing
in line and the confidentiality violations. We urge you to
provide consistent, adequate, confidential and accessible
HIV care. Women prisoners deserve the dignity of taking their
medication on their own in the privacy of their cells.
Sincerely,
(Your name and signature)
CC: Director C.A. Terhune,
California Department of Corrections,
P.O. Box 942883,
Sacramento, CA 94283;
fax: (916) 322-2877
Show your support to the
women inside by sending letters and stamps to Beverly Henry,
W72830, 510-06-02L and Judy Ricci, W69939, 511-16-1L, both
at P.O. Box 1508, Chowchilla, CA 93610.
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