by Mutope Duguma, Sitawa N. Jamaa, Abdul O. Shakur and Sondai K. Dumisani
Gov. Brown has declared that the prison crisis that allowed prisoners
to die is over and that prisoners are receiving good care. His words,
not ours.
It is obvious that the governor has not produced any data that
supports his claim. Furthermore, the governor is deliberately
misinforming the public, because he and the officials of CDCr – the
secretary and undersecretary – are arbitrarily choosing not to provide
the public with adequate information that pertains to the incompetence
that continues to endanger prisoners by murdering them through direct
medical neglect and incompetence.
In this photo taken as part of federal litigation over California
prison conditions, prisoners await a group therapy session at Mule Creek
State Prison. How could being confined in tiny cages dissuade prisoners
from committing suicide? – Photo filed in U.S. District Court briefings
We prisoners have read the Los Angeles Times article by Paige St. John, “
California suppressed consultant’s report on inmate suicides,”
dated Feb. 28, 2013, and we can only hope that justice will continue to
prevail, by not only maintaining the oversight of CDCr’s “health care
service,” as well as extend it to the very root of the problems that
cause the very many deaths and suicides that are happening throughout
CDCr.
Solitary confinement in California and throughout the United States
is real. The lingering of human beings – i.e., prisoners – in these
torture chambers (SHUs and Ad Segs) indefinitely has basically created
the result that led to human beings dying unnecessarily inside these
solitary confinement torture units.
Alex Machado, Christian Gomez, Armando Morales, John Owen Vick and
Hozel Alonzo Blanchard are all men who should be alive, by all means,
and the fact that the CDCr has reported 32 deaths by suicide in the year
of 2012 alone should be more than enough reason for the oversight to be
continued – and expanded as well. The CDCr’s own experts afforded them
the procedures to follow in order to prevent such deaths. However, not
only did the CDCr attempt to suppress this report and now the evidence
in it, but the CDCr had the audacity to request that the United States
District Court destroy that report.
The
governor and the officials of CDCr are arbitrarily choosing not to
provide the public with adequate information that pertains to the
incompetence that continues to endanger prisoners by murdering them
through direct medical neglect and incompetence.
Thankfully, for the lives of California prisoners, the judge refused
to cooperate with such a conspiracy. Suppression of evidence like this
is not an isolated act, because we prisoners know that the licensed
vocational nurses and registered nurses and doctors do not responsibly
oversee the CDCr health care services. Their actions are influenced by
the local officials and officers who have total control over the prison.
Alex
Machado, Christian Gomez, Armando Morales, John Owen Vick and Hozel
Alonzo Blanchard are all men who should be alive, by all means, and the
fact that the CDCr has reported 32 deaths by suicide in the year of 2012
alone should be more than enough reason for the oversight to be
continued – and expanded as well.
Prison staff relationships are intermingled through personal
relations – marriage, family, friendship – and are reflected by the
transitions from health care services to corrections or vice versa. A
good example as to how much the officials and officers control health
care services can be seen in the two 2011 prisoner hunger strikes.
On July 2, 2011, prisoners held in solitary confinement in SHU and Ad
Seg for years, subjected to torture and cruel and unusual punishment in
violation of our U.S. constitutional rights, decided to go on a
peaceful hunger strike, in which over 6,000 of us participated.
The only reason we received adequate health care services (medical
treatment) during our July 1, 2011, hunger strike that lasted to July 20
is because the federal receivership oversaw the medical treatment;
prisoners were weighed, vitals checked, vitamins provided daily. This
prevented thousands of prisoners from suffering when many emergencies
could have resulted in thousands of prisoners dying, due to CDCr
Secretary Matthew Cate and Undersecretary Scott Kernan violating a
verbal agreement to implement our reasonable Five Core Demands, an
agreement that resulted in us ending our first hunger strike.
The only
reason we received adequate health care services (medical treatment)
during our July 1, 2011, hunger strike that lasted to July 20 is because
the federal receivership oversaw the medical treatment.
Therefore, we decided to go back on our second hunger strike on Sept.
26, 2011, in which 12,000 prisoners participated throughout CDCr,
clearly demonstrating that there is a widespread problem of deliberate
medical neglect and torture inside CDCr solitary confinement units.
During our Sept. 26, 2011, hunger strike, which lasted to Oct. 13,
2011, the federal receivership allowed CDCr to oversee the health care
services. The result of this action not only placed prisoners’ health at
risk, but CDCr immediately implemented a policy protocol for overseeing
the hunger strike that was catastrophic for prisoners: Thousands
suffered and several died when CDCr was allowed to have control over the
hunger strike, in which hunger strikers were denied medical treatment
throughout the hunger strike.
The prison guards have no medical training yet were allowed to say to
medical personnel that a prisoner was faking – “He’s not sick” – and
oddly enough, the medical staff tended to allow this to be the authority
on which they proceeded. Thousands of prisoners suffered behind this
ill advised information. We received no daily checkups, no vitals
checks, no vitamins, no weigh-ins conducted under CDCr medical
supervision. Many times medical problems were treated too late and by
this time the damage was done.
The conflict of interest lies in the relationships between the prison
guards, who are responsible for providing security only, and those who
are responsible for providing health care services, food and religious
services etc. Unfortunately, the prison guards have structured the
prison environment around the deprivation of the prisoners, simply to
demonstrate its dominance over prisoners, which creates severe violation
of prisoners’ constitutionally protected rights.
During our
Sept. 26, 2011, hunger strike, which lasted to Oct. 13, 2011, thousands
suffered and several died when CDCr was allowed to have control over
the hunger strike, in which hunger strikers were denied medical
treatment throughout the hunger strike.
The Bill of Rights’ 10 original amendments
and Reconstruction amendments 11 through 27 of the Constitution –
particularly important in respect to prisoners, the First, Fifth, Eighth
and 14th Amendments – are deliberately violated routinely. The many
settlements of prisoner lawsuits in years past speak volumes to this
fact.
Gov. Brown’s current changes have not rendered any justice or humane
treatment of prisoners thus far, and the death count and the many
prisoners held inside solitary confinement, who suffer from numerous
ailments and torture, only seem to exacerbate this problem. Therefore,
we prisoners can only hope, in the interest of our livelihood and
humanity, that the courts expand their oversight and open up an
independent investigation as to
why prisoners are held unjustly in solitary confinement.
Send our brothers some love and light:
- Mutope Duguma (James Crawford), D-05596, D1-117 up, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
- Sitawa N. Jamaa (Ronnie Dewberry), C-35671, D1-117 low, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
- Abdul O. Shakur (James Harvey), C-48884, D1-119 low, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
- Sondai K. Dumisani (Randall Ellis), C-68764, D1-223 low, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
