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Vol. 71/No. 9      March 5, 2007

 
Letters
 
From behind prison walls
As a female prisoner I write this letter to raise awareness of this country's incarcerated men and women and of the human and civil rights abuses committed against them. In any capitalist country justice cannot be blind. The "justice" meted out to the wealthy is vastly different to that received by the working class poor, whose numbers comprise the majority of our inmate population.

Minor and nonviolent offenders join the ranks of the forgotten, providing a cheap and endless labor supply for the private prison industry. Within the Mississippi Department of Corrections, workers maintain a 40-80 hour workweek and are paid a maximum of $300 per month. Some earn as little as $35 per month. Capitalist pariahs no longer have to travel to the third world for a cheap source of labor. We are right here in our own state and federal correctional facilities, housed in unbearable conditions, working as slave labor with no voice to better our existence.

Medical care is either ineffective or nonexistent. Staph infections are rampant and often go untreated. One woman begged for treatment when a sore on her upper thigh became infected. She received no care until slipping into a coma for two weeks, after the infection became systemic. This occurred near the time of her release, so after a lengthy in-hospital recovery she was returned to the prison and her confinement was extended in an amount equal to the length of her hospital stay.

In addition to medical abuse and neglect, inmates are routinely subjected to violence and threats of violence. One common practice is for inmates to be awakened during the night and marched in their under clothes to an outside concrete yard. There they are ordered to lie on their bellies with head and shoulders raised off the ground, arms and legs crossed behind them. They are required to maintain this position for lengthy periods of time.

This open letter is a cry for help. Conditions here and in many of the U.S. state and federal prisons are an atrocity. For more information, please contact the National Association for Equal Justice, www.2008EqualJusticeMarch.org.

A prisoner
Pearl, Mississippi

Interesting web site
I would just like to say I stumbled upon your web site and will be checking up on it. It does interest me and when I graduate from college, your presence will be a great asset. Until then keep up the work.

H.S.
Charlotte, North Carolina  
 
 
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