In response to following statement:
"...Even more important, if you have reached a "certain" age, they have to provide you with medical care at an extremely good level, The US Prison system right now is one of the biggest geriatric centers in the country due to the large number of older prisoners serving LONG sentences."
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Excuse me for interrupting, you are right about the graying of US Prisons, but if you are thinking the prison system provides a satisfactory level of medical care for old or sick folks, I have to correct you.
I've been corresponding with a couple hundred prisoners and their families for six years, as well as several prison reform groups. The most inhumane and disgusting weapon used in prison is medicine.
AIDS patients have reported by the hundreds that guards flush their meds down the toilet while the dying patient watches. Crohn's patients spending nine months in the hole without medical care. Prisons refusing emergency surgeries, broken bones not set for months, contact lenses so old and dry they make blue eyes look green; dentures that don't fit, nitro snatched from heart patients; Legally prescribed medicines refused, yet Thorazine is given like candy in some prisons.
A man entering prison with two artificial legs had them taken away because they "could be used as weapons," then guards gave him a top bunk and a kitchen job so they could amuse themselves.
I have a cancer patient so sick he qualified for the compassionate release, but when they discovered him with 1/10th gram of cannabis trying to stop vomiting, they said and meant: "You can just die here."
I have a non-violent offender who's been denied surgery to remove three bullets in his back from the gun of a cop. I have a glaucoma patient who lost one eye due to denied medical care.
I have a prisoner who's been isolated for four years because he wouldn't eat the fish. His medical records said he had a severe allergy, but that meant nothing to the guard.
I could go on and on, but my message is, DON'T expect even adequate medical care in America's prisons.
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I, too, as an ex-corrections officer, saw inhumane treatment with medication being changed for new prisoners, only to have them have seizures. A man sitting in the hot 92 degree sun waiting for over an hour for medical care for a fractured knee, bone showing, when the nurses station was only 300 feet away. A vet would have given more care to a dog!
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My husband had his teeth pulled a year ago. Every appointment to take impressions has been canceled. A friend went 15 years trying to get teeth. Another man had a glass eye that needed to be replaced, but the prison said, "NO, take the eye out and just wear a patch." This young man had lost his eye at 9 months of age due to cancer his eye socket was in terrible shape from lack of medical care. I have known several elderly men with cancer who died alone & screaming in pain & no one would give them meds; Pete Wilson would not allow compassionate release... Thanks ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
You know, Kay Lee, they have a policy at Holman Prison in Alabama that if a prisoner is serving LWOP [life without parole], and they are old and/or infirmed, they cannot go to the Hamilton Prison Hospital Facility, which is like a nursing home for prisoners where it is reported that they receive proper medical care and old age assistance. Thus, many of the aging and infirmed men at Holman are subjected to medical neglect, while being exposed daily to young prison gangs, unprotected by the guards in there.
In Patrick Swiney's Case an innocent man, serving LWOP, now aging [age 55], a heart patient who suffers with spinal arthritis and emphysema must be subjected to the further indignities of being helpless against young prison gang members who know (1)that he is a former police officer, and (2)that he is vulnerable. I've seen the roster there. Many of the young healthy gang members are on "no duty" status, meaning they are not assigned to jobs. But Patrick who was on "no duty" status because of his health condition, was changed to "work" status after he wrote his "Too Late To Debate???" article. Now, he is having trouble doing the work and has to lie down to catch his breath. If he stops working, his visiting, phone and store privileges will be taken away, so he continues to work, trying his best to keep the guards from noticing that he's slowing down. He needs to be transferred to the Hamilton Prison Hospital Facility but they won't do this because the policy is that they don't allow such medical care when a person has LWOP. This is in accordance with the Medical Profession's "no harm" oath, right? Blessings,
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I could go on and on. It's nice to know there is someone else who knows the truth. The media is more interested in ratings than the truth!
Meghan
Sherry Swiney
ALABAMA HEADQUARTERS
Executive Director, PATRICK CRUSADE
www.patrickcrusade.org