Inmate Healthcare

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A Letter from Prison:

Diane Reports From Texas County Jail

Diane , author of An Unreasonable Woman, is almost two months

into a 150-day sentence in a Texas jail for a misdemeanor trespassing

charge. The conditions in the County jail are deplorable,

according to , a dedicated activist exposing injustice wherever

she goes. Now is breaking through the walls of fear that

prevent so many inmates from speaking forthrightly to the

administrators of the penal system. She has written a public letter,

addressed to County Sheriff T. O'Connor, describing

abusive conditions within the jail, violations of basic inmates

rights, horrifying reports of the withholding of medical treatment

from ill women who were jailed on non-violent charges, and the lack of

a functioning avenue for inmates to address these problems within the

system.

's jailing stems from a political action at a Dow Chemical

facility in her hometown of Seadrift, TX, in 2002, when she climbed a

tower at the plant and hung a banner reading " Justice For Bhopal, " in

reference to the thousands of Indians killed following a toxic release

of methyl isocyanate in 1984 by Dow subsidiary Union Carbide.

For updates on , please visit

www.chelseagreen.com/2005/items/unreasonablewoman/fromjail.

Diane 's letter follows:

Jan 20th 2006

Sheriff T. O'Connor

County

101 North Glass St.

, TX 77901

CC:

Sheriff B. B. Browning

Calhoun County

211 South Ann St.

Port Lavaca, TX 77979

(Additional CC recipients are listed at the end of letter.)

Dear Sheriff O'Connor:

I am a female inmate in the County Jail, TX, though I was

arrested on criminal trespass charges in Calhoun County. I was given a

sentence of 150 days plus a $2,000 fine for protesting Dow Chemical

Company's refusal to appear in Indian courts in response to charges

against its wholly-owned subsidiary, Union Carbide, and its treatment

of the survivors of the toxic-leak disaster in Bhopal, India, where a

catastrophic pesticide release has killed over 20,000 people to date.

I am a fairly new inmate and have only been here since December 10,

2005, yet I have a number of grievances. Many of these come from other

inmates and you may ask why they don't report them themselves. Well,

it's pretty simple: there is absolutely no effective avenue to raise

issues and if there is, the inmates have certainly not been made aware

of it. There is a standard form that inmates can use to make an

attempt at communication, but the response can take anywhere between a

week to never.

There is no information available, no pamphlet explaining the

procedures or the rights of the inmates or even something as simple as

" when is commissary. "

I asked to see the law library since the inmates rarely see legal

counsel, but was told that there is not one available. If inmates ask

for legal counsel they are told, " You'll see one when your trial comes

up, " and usually that's ten minutes before one goes to trial.

The women in this jail are predominantly African American or Hispanic

and very poor. Most of their offenses are minor, for things like

traffic tickets or soliciting or violating probation—all non-violent,

yet they are forced to remain in the cell without counsel for long

periods of time. I don't think I am bringing up any issue that you are

not aware of. I spoke with someone within the jail system (I will not

name him), and he is aware of the length of time inmates have to wait

for legal counsel and a trial. He has talked to a judge about the

problem and the judge apparently said something along the lines of,

" Yes, we got a problem. "

So you can understand my concern to at least have access to a law

library. Though jail personnel told me that the only time access to a

law library is provided is when legal counsel isn't available, I have

still not had access to either.

When I requested, nonetheless, access to the law library on my title

form, a week later I got the answer, " We do not have a WRIT ROOM. "

Well, that certainly explains everything. No WRIT ROOM. No Law Library.

Next, I asked for the jail's standards. These are the minimum

standards that jails have to maintain, and inmates have the legal

right to request and receive a copy of the standards. When I made my

request I got a response a good week and a half later asking, " what's

your concern? "

My concern is that inmates have no voice, no access to legal counsel,

no law library, no WRIT Room, no jail standards. That is my concern,

but you can bet I didn't write that on the next form I dropped. I

could see I'd be " dropping forms " until this jail slid to hell in a

breadbasket. So this is partly why I am writing you. I figure that you

are next in the chain of command, and I am listing not only permission

to see the jail standards for ALL inmates—but other grievances and

concerns that have come up in the time I have been here.

Healthcare

I don't know if you are aware of the series of investigative stories

by Mike Ward and Bill Bishop of the Austin American Statesman about

the dismal state of health care in the Texas state prison system. What

the reporters were able to discover was a systematic neglect and

mistreatment of ill prisoners, the use of healthcare as a means of

punishment, and stupid, dangerous mis-administration of medicine that

can lead to viral and bacterial resistance and potential

epidemics—epidemics that will hardly remain within prison walls.

I know that the state prison system is separate from the county jails,

but if you haven't read this report, then you should, because similar

neglect is happening in your jailhouse. I have only been here one

month, in one cellblock, and have collected these three instances

directly from the inmates about their experiences with the

County Jail. The cases cover approximately 10 years, so you can see

this is a long-term problem and seems to be continuing a legacy that

the Texas prison system has built for itself. It seems to be downright

overkill to repeat that, yes, all these girls are very young and poor,

and either Hispanic or African-American.

1. DeLeon

Ms. DeLeon was jailed for 18 months in the county jail on drug

charges. The entire 18 months Ms. DeLeon was jailed, she was suffering

due to gallstones. The response from the healthcare of the jail was to

dispense Milk of Magnesia and tell her to lie down on her cot.

Eventually, Ms. Deleon's condition got so bad that she was shaking and

had chills and fainting spells. Again, the response was Milk of

Magnesium. Finally, towards the end of her 18-month sentence, Ms

DeLeon collapsed in pain and an inmate called the guards. was

rushed to Citizens Hospital, where it was found that her gallbladder

had ruptured. She was told that they almost lost her. Ms. DeLeon did

not file a lawsuit for criminal neglect because she was afraid that

she would be punished and lose her position as trustee in the jail.

2. Lacy Leyva

Ms. Leyva had been arrested and jailed for one month. During that time

Ms. Leyva was suffering severe pain in her kidneys, but she was only

given ibuprofen every 8 hours for the pain. Pain and chills were a

steady diet for Ms. Leyva, but she was only given advice to lie down

and take ibuprofen. Finally, after one month, Ms. Leyva was discharged

and she went to the hospital and was immediately admitted for kidney

failure. After Ms. Leyva was discharged from the hospital, she got a

call from the jail on her cell phone saying, " Go to the hospital. We

believe your kidneys are failing. "

3. Shandra

Ms. was picked up on a warrant even though her file stated

that Ms. should not be picked up because she was 6-7 months

pregnant and she had a very rare uterine condition. However, Ms.

was thrown in jail while pregnant, and her condition

worsened. She began bleeding, and the nurse was reluctant to believe

her and said, " show me your bloody pad. " So Ms. was subjected

to the humiliation of proving that she was really in pain and bleeding.

Eventually, Ms. was put in isolation where she was removed

from contact with people, which Ms. hated. This was her first

child and she was very afraid since no medical staff was around.

Eventually, to keep her from complaining, Ms. was given Benadryl.

When Ms. was finally returned to the cell, her water broke.

She was told that she was hallucinating, that her water hadn't broken.

Then the nurse told her that she shouldn't worry, she wouldn't have a

baby until a month later. Then they proceeded to put Ms. back

into isolation, even though she was frantic not to go where there was

no contact with people. Ms. was alarmed about the baby coming

early, especially since the nurse had expressed great disdain for even

performing a sonogram to determine the baby's condition.

When Ms. became agitated about going into isolation, the

sergeant told her that she was going into isolation " the easy way or

the hard way, " and the hard way was being shocked with a taser gun. A

female guard was so alarmed that she grabbed Ms. ' stuff and

coaxed her to the isolation room.

Sure enough, Ms. proceeded to go into labor without anyone

present and the baby was coming out breach! Worse still, the baby was

arriving while Ms. was on the toilet; so to get help Ms.

had to crawl approximately 60 feet to reach a button on the

wall. After three attempts to call and saying that she was in labor, a

female guard arrived. The baby was hanging with its feet first down

around Ms. ' knees.

There was pandemonium followed by a rushed ride in the ambulance to

the hospital. The baby was dead and Ms. was handed the dead

child in a blanket. She was not told that the baby was dead, and she

only realized the fact when she saw on her own that the child was not

moving or breathing. No attempt was made to call her husband. When,

much later, he got word, he rushed to see his new baby. He was handed

the dead baby in a blanket. Ms. was not even allowed to

attend the baby's funeral. Later, Ms. said that you, Sheriff

O'Connor, called her into your office and told her that the

unfortunate incident was not your fault, but the fault of the jail

administration under the previous sheriff, Ratcliff.

Given the long-term consequences and terrible suffering imposed on

these women, it is my hope that you will take this situation seriously

and give it the consideration it deserves.

Cell window

Another complaint is that the only window within our cellblock is

either covered with a Venetian blind or plastered with paper. We never

know the time but are told that we are on `short time' and don't have

need of another. You would think that locking a person in a cinder

block cell for months on end for a trespassing misdemeanor is

sufficient punishment, but apparently not! I feel that the stress

levels of the inmates would be reduced with more visibility through

the window, and stress is a real problem here.

Reading Material

This might be a good time to point out a piece of paper plastered to

our window. It is a memorandum to all inmates that, henceforth, no

books bought from bookstores will be accepted. This is a jail where

the library consists of a single metal cart with about 30 dog-eared

romance novels.

In this county jail, few diversions are allowed—I might even say

none—and perhaps that is one reason why these women inmates make roses

out of toilet paper and create their own stationery out of toothpaste

and map colors. I am a little reluctant to tell you this in the fear

that the guards will make a run on the roses and confiscate them as

" contraband. "

What this jail administration hopes to accomplish by refusing reading

material to the inmates is beyond me. It seems counter-productive to

any form or rehabilitation and only exists to cruelly punish the jail

population.

Access to High School equivalency program

Since most of the inmates are very poor, young and from minority

groups, I was astonished to discover that while GED (high school

equivalency program) is offered, it is also used as punishment. A

32-year-old woman in my cell who is struggling to better herself and

raise her nine-year-old child, had entered the GED program, but was

kicked out because she passed a note in class. This is merely one

instance I've heard. But I know for a fact that many inmates do not

have their GED. I wonder about the jail's reluctance to encourage the

inmates to pursue their GED. It is a well-known fact that a person

with a GED receives higher paying jobs than a person who doesn't, they

have more job satisfaction, and they are less likely to get in trouble

with the law in the future. Kicking a woman out of a GED class for

passing a note sounds totally counter-productive!

Humiliating Treatment

I realize that some of these grievances may mean nothing to you and

you may be thinking that the treatment meted out in Texas prisons is

nothing like the kind of abuse in Abu Ghraib in Iraq. That's true, for

what it's worth, but I want to inform you that I've read reliable

reports, and have experienced horrendous treatment myself. While I was

in the County jail in Houston for five days, I joined fellow

inmates stacked into cold holding tanks for hours and hours so that we

were forced to sleep on cement floors strewn with trash and waste from

backed-up toilets, while guards showed up at periodic intervals

yelling " Pigs! " We were eventually shuffled into rooms where we were

forced to strip our clothes and ordered to parade in our panties, then

spread-eagled on the wall. These were women, some picked up merely on

traffic violations, who hadn't even been produced in front of a judge

or seen a lawyer yet! Then 70 of us were packed into a 10- x 20-foot

holding cell for over an hour. A guard occasionally opened the door

and calls us " stupid bitches! " because the noise was loud.

On December 10th, I was transferred to County jail, where I

was kept in a freezing holding tank for over six hours, then put into

the cell where I am currently housed, with only one thin mat to sleep

on a concrete floor. I was not given a blanket or sheet or any type of

hygiene kit because I was told there were none available. I never

received a blanket from the jail. After 3 days, an inmate who left the

cell gave me her blanket. Then too, after about three days, I received

a hygiene kit so I could finally brush my teeth and comb my hair. All

prior requests for a towel or toothbrush were met with " Drop a form. "

In my experiences I consider myself relatively lucky, and because of

my activism I have supporters outside who have constantly supported me

by calling the jail and sending letters.

Most inmates are not so fortunate. This letter is partly for them. It

is said that a civilization is judged by how it treats its weakest

members. It is my hope that you will recognize the seriousness of your

job and of the issues raised in this letter and respond accordingly.

Sincerely,

Diane