September
2, 2013
by Mutope Duguma
Written Aug. 25, 2013 – How long must we continue to
suffer? On Aug. 23, 2013, early in the morning, Pelican Bay State Prison Ad Seg
(Administrative Segregation) was emptied out and placed on two buses. Every
individual on the buses had been on the hunger strike since July 8, 2013, and
there was not one medical staffperson on those buses.
The trip was an eight hour
trip that subjected Lorenzo Benton to extremely low blood sugar. We had to
demand that the bus be stopped immediately, which led to a 40 minute delay.
They had three cars from SSU (Special Services Unit) escorting the whole trip,
but not one medical staffperson, knowing that we had been on a hunger strike 45
days when they placed us on those buses.
Lorenzo Benton’s eyes were
blurry; he couldn’t see nothing. I tried to take his pulse but couldn’t get one
because his heartbeat had dropped so low. We switched position on the bus with
Danny Troxell and Frank Clement so that Lorenzo would have more space. This did
nothing for him.
We asked for water and the
sergeant of transportation said he was instructed to not give us nothing but
Gatorade. I said, “We can’t have water?” He said no. I said, “Where is the
Gatorade?” Initially Abdul, HB and Mutawally demanded that they go back, but I
asked how far are we from a medical facility going forward. Sergeant said six
miles. We were already on the road 50 miles.
I told Lorenzo to gulp down
cups of Gatorade because when my sugar is low and eyes are blurry, I just need
the Gatorade to clear it up. After gulping down three canteen cups – 12 ounces
– each he started to see a little better and he felt better. The sergeant asked
him was he all right and if he was going to make it. The sergeant was pissed
off that there wasn’t no medical staff on this trip, considering who was being
transferred. At least he let us see these sentiments. If he was sincere or not
I don’t know.
How long must we continue to suffer?
Once we got to New Folsom
Prison (California State Prison Sacramento) we got nothing, and that is our
status right now as I write this. They say on Aug. 26 it will get better. The
officials knew we were coming a week in advance, so it is no excuse for
subjecting us to such cruelty.
We also are receiving low
quality vitamins, down from the high quality vitamins that the receivership
ordered. [California prison medical services were placed under receivership by
the federal court because at least one prisoner a week was dying due to medical
abuse or neglect. – ed.] The Gatorade is a better quality, but we are suffering
because of what we are being denied, although the hunger strike alone should be
enough suffering.
But denying us linen –
while holding us in ice cold cells – equals torture. It’s obvious that these
actions are intended to break us, but the 60 of us have a collective strength
and are committed all the way to the force feeding, for better or worse.
We can only hope that our strength is a reflection of
your strength. All RACES – prison solidarity.
We do not care about how
much worse our conditions get because the pain and suffering from not eating
trumps it all. Also, the only prisoners in PBSP Ad Seg who were left there were
Sitawa Jamaa (Ron Dewberry), Todd Ashker, Antonio Guillen and Arturo
Castellanos, our four reps. We can only hope that they are safe under those
circumstances. Everyone on the bus is medically on high risk status (see CDC
Form 114-D), and everyone is doing very bad as well.
And it’s old age, middle
age and young age prisoners inside that 60, and we can only hope that our
strength is a reflection of your strength. All RACES – prison solidarity. We
don’t believe that CDCr CSP-Sac can force feed each and every one of us at the
same time, because obviously we will deteriorate at the same time.
[In a note dated Aug. 26,
he adds: We’ve been on vitamins and Gatorade since July 25, 2013, to now, which
is to sustain our organs, but they will eventually start going when our body
weight is gone. I am down 63 pounds now today, according to their scale.]
One Love, One Struggle.
Mutope
Send our brother some
love and light – and writing paper, envelopes and stamps to share: Mutope
Duguma (James Crawford), D-05996, CSP-Sac ASU B8-232L, P.O. Box 290066, Represa
CA 95671.
March 22,
2013
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.
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
