Justicia Ahora: Resist State Violence this Friday.

Ricardo Levins Morales

National Day of Action Against Police Brutality

Friday, October 22, 2010 11am- 1pm

MEDICAL NEGLECT
IS VIOLENCE:

STOP KILLING THE PRISONERS!!!

Arizona Department of Corrections
1601 W. Jefferson St. (at 16th Ave)
Phoenix, AZ 85007
(park in the SE lot at Wes Bolin off Jefferson - the ADC is across the street.)


17 suicides/15mos
5 homicides/9 months
6,000 HCV+ prisoners and counting…

HARD TIME HEP C ALLIANCE - AZ
http://hardtimehepc.blogspot.com

For more information, contact:
Peggy at 480-580-6807 or
prisonabolitionist@gmail.com

ALL FAMILIES WELCOME:
CHALK, BUBBLES,
and GREAT PEOPLE WILL BE THERE.

PLEASE WEAR BLACK.
(and come prepared to kick some Hep C ass)

Scott Watch: Praying for a Mississippi Miracle

For those of you unfamiliar with Jamie and Gladys Scott's story, here's last March's Mother Jones article about them, and here's the Free the Scott Sisters' blog; leave some love there for their mom, Mrs. Rasco.

This has been one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice I've ever heard of. But today is a day of great hope...

-----------------

UPDATE FROM MRS. EVELYN RASCO SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Dear Supporters:

Mrs. Rasco has requested that I inform all supporters of the following:

The September 16, 2010 rally was a great success. In addition, she has asked me to report that buckets, and buckets of money were collected at the rally and she hopes that the collections will be used to benefit Jamie and Gladys.

Currently, we are waiting to determine what the decision of the Pardons and Parole board will be. We have learned from indirect sources that the meeting with Governor Barbour's representative has resulted in a pardon packet being passed to the Pardons and Parole board for a decision.

I've included a few links of the most recent media attention. This is the most publicity that the sisters have received in 16 years.

MSNBC News- Mrs. Rasco and NAACP President Ben Jealous - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39217086#39217086

USA TODAY - http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-09-14-scott-sisters_N.htm

September 15, 2010 rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrooQ8ZwvpY


I would like to thank all supporters of this case. Without each individual person -- this case would not be where it is today. We cannot stop now -- please remain until the sisters are free.

THANK YOU!

Peace and Blessings!

In Solidarity,


Nancy Lockhart

Jamie Scott, Prisoner Abuse, Self-defense.

Things are not looking any better for Jamie, folks. I've been working all morning on this and still have more links to embed for you, but here's a start. Please read and think and act today.

Mississippi's prison health care services are privatized. Here's a little info about the company that contracts with Mississippi to provide their prisoner health care, Wexford Health Sources, Inc. (that’s the link to their rap sheet with the guys at Private Corrections Working Group; there are more news links at the bottom about New Mexico's investigation. Just Google Wexford if you want their propaganda). 

That's who's doing the day to day care. The Mississippi Department of Corrections is no doubt in on it, of course - they monitor the contract, and I'm sure they set the limits for what they'll pay them for - which bring this back to the Governor's office and the legislature, really. Dealing with the people at the level of the prison administration – even the medical administrator - seems to be a waste of time.  

Now, I'm no lawyer – I’ve been going to school for nearly 2 decades and still haven’t been able to finish my BS in Justice Studies, so keep that in mind. But I've been reading up on some of this stuff that's been coming to my attention lately, and I think I should at least pass what I do know – or think I know – along. We’re not going to get better care for anyone unless the state knows we're well-armed and that Jamie's complaints can't get tossed out right off the bat for her failing to "exhaust administrative remedies" (thank Bob Dole and Bill Clinton for championing the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which is routinely used to deny relief or protection to victims of institutional abuse in correctional settings on technicalities. Signed in 1996, it gutted federal protection of prisoner rights and legal recourse. We need to tear that thing up and start over.)

The Mississippi Department of Corrections, of course, knows full well that Jamie needs to be grieving every single thing in writing, if she isn't already - or there will never be recourse if they continue to harm her. They probably won't be advising her to take that route; here’s their administrative remedy policy. She then needs to get copies of that documentation out of the prison on a regular basis, because prisons are notorious for searching litigants' cells and destroying whatever possible evidence they may have against them (I'm sure Mississippi is already covering themselves on this one). As far as I know, no prison employees have ever been prosecuted for destroying evidence (which usually includes prisoner as well as state property) that might be used against their institution - though you know what would happen to any of us if we tried to destroy evidence the state had against us in a civil or criminal case...

I wonder how much of this has to do with the “duly convicted” being constitutionally designated as slaves of the state? The 13th Amendment really did leave us with some problems.

Don't ask how someone as sick as she is should be expected to know all the hoops she has to get through to get help, and then leap through each one. I don’t think the law takes that into account. Or the fact that some states – like Arizona – go to extremes to make it hard for prisoners to access the resources necessary to represent themselves or even just assert their civil rights. You have to know the law and grievance procedures from the start, because the steps involved have time frames for filing and responding to grievances (I guess that’s to protect the right of the state and their employees to a timely settlement of such issues – though we never seem to get timely settlements). Judges seem to love to tell prisoners that ignorance is no excuse.

As far as I can tell there's no assurance that you'll be protected from retaliation if you do pursue grievances - there will likely be retaliation of some kind. But this is how prisoners - women prisoners, in particular - have managed to change the conditions of their incarceration - they grieve everything and take it to court.

It should not just be Jamie grieving her care - all the other women who have suffered harm as a result of the same shoddy standards need to grieve too. En masse – but make sure it’s the best of the best cases you put forward if you’re showing a pattern of civil rights violations (that’s necessary to prove a Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act violation. Personally, I think the potential claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act need to be explored more. By an attorney, not me.)

If/when it gets to court, the first thing that the judges will look at is whether or not the prisoner (not the prison) followed proper procedures to seek relief before getting there. It just isn't fair to the poor prison administrators if prisoners they've harmed don't have to overcome extraordinary hurdles to even get their case heard in the courts. For some women that’s meant filing a grievance about sexual harassment by guards while the officers their complaint is about continue to have access and exert influence over their lives through the course of the “investigation.” It’s very easy to hurt a prisoner and get away with it. Women are set up to be assaulted by other inmates just as readily as men are.

In many cases the prisoner is also threatened with being prosecuted for filing frivolous complaints or false charges if their perpetrator ends up being cleared of everything. I don’t know how often most DAs take that approach with women who aren’t imprisoned who report that they’ve been victimized, or if that tactic is just reserved for prisoners who accuse the people with the authority of state violence and the keys to their chains of being the criminals.

In any case, there’s a tremendous disincentive for prisoners to report rape, assault, or other abuse or neglect. They will not necessarily be protected from their assailants once they make their accusation, and there are so few people in the system whose primary interest or responsibility is prisoner welfare – everyone works for the state, to serve the interests of the state. It is in the best interests of the state to cover up the more atrocious examples of corruption and abuse, as well as to minimize public shock over the dehumanizing nature of standard operating procedures for prisons. But it is in the best interests of the people (that’s us) to know what’s going on in those places – throughout the criminal justice system, really – and to be empowered to change it.

There are some good links in this article about Wexford's adventures in New Mexico prisons, where they eventually lost the contract to do business and got sued. Similar stories seem to follow them around the country. Scott family and friends might want to see what more you can find out about this company's history in Mississippi. Are there any lawsuits by prisoners pending there? You’ll need to dig deeper than Google – dig into the state’s court websites. How long have they been around? Check out what folks in the Mississippi Prison Talk community have to say about the health services. Are there patterns of neglect surfacing there? What about grievances that have been filed at the prison or throughout the system?

I’ll put more thoughts on strategy for the Scott Sisters’ family and friends into a separate private message. In general, though, the more supporting documentation you have that is accessible and organized now, the more likely it will be we can get an investigative journalist in and help you get legal assistance as this unfolds. First the fight to save her life, and the lives of other Mississippi prisoners – this is injustice regardless of what Jamie’s convictions or sentence may be, though it’s clearly all about how little a lifer is worth to the rest of us. 

The justification for this kind of rationing is the same slippery slope that made it okay to conduct medical experiments on African Americans, on prisoners, insane asylum patients, soldiers, and the mentally impaired for so long: their lives just aren’t worth the lives of the members of the “public” (still considered to be white upper-middle-class America -many of whom, of course, are repeat offenders of some crime that have just never been caught).Guess a lot of experimentation is still done on  prisoners.

Well, as a member of the American public (albeit the poorer class), I have to say that I don’t care much for Nazi science and “medicine” being practiced in America in my name, against my people, over my strenuous objections. Nor do I think will many other people, if this is brought up in the context of a conversation about the history of southern prisons, prisoners and the crimes of the medical profession in America.

Especially when it comes to black women. Scholars who have studied women’s resistance to slavery should also be shining some light on women resisting their criminalization and the conditions of incarceration or the terms of their punishment – women resisting violence.

That’s what Oprah should really be most interested in herself, if anyone can get her ear: her PR people are probably just thinking in terms of human interest stories and ratings, but Oprah herself would pick up on the broader ramifications of the Scott family’s fight - the ways in which racism today is so cloaked and insidious, and the depth of the injustice still done to so many as a result. The racism is systemic and multi-faceted (intersecting with gender, class, sexual identity/orientation, etc.) – we need to elevate it to the proper level right away, because most of the prison administrators (and probably most guards in the department) are people of color themselves who have been well-indoctrinated to support the state line and positioned to act as examples of how non-racist the state is. 

Jamie's life has been determined by the state to not be worth certain medical and environmental interventions that would be standard if we were basing prisoner health care on community standards (for the poor, of course). But we don't use community standards for them anymore - we base prisoner health care on what is “constitutionally mandated” - which is about as bare bones as you can get. Prison doctors basically have to commit at the very least negligent homicide or intentionally mutilate you in the course of what constitutes more than just gross malpractice to prove that you didn't get a constitutionally-mandated level of medical care. And the damage done to you as a result of the neglect or abuse has to be permanent (or lasting, as of the time of the case).

That's what's so wrong with prison health care across the country - the laws have been changed at some point to lower standards because too many prisoners were winning lawsuits, prisons were having to clean up their acts and cut back on the rape and violence, and the states were facing hefty federal fines. Prisoners weren’t being “frivolous” with lawsuits any more so than non-prisoners – they were defending themselves against state violence and dehumanization, and finally getting justice done.

And most of us out here since the 80’s with a voice and a vote who should have known better let most of it get undone again because we weren’t paying attention.

We need to pay attention, now. And we'll have to get these laws changed again – which means hitting candidates now with questions specifically about the Prison Litigation Reform Act (good ACLU fact sheet for prisoners), the Prison Abuse Remedies Act, and – in Arizona – what we need to put into Marcia’s Law to protect our people from abuse and rip out the prison systems revolving door and meat-grinding machinery. That means a lot of folks here need to study-up. We need to be more literate than the Department of Corrections on our stuff – and have the empirical evidence in hand.

Can you imagine if it was that hard to prove negligence or malpractice in the community? If people could just so casually be left to die – all the while begging for help – because our medical providers have to determine whether or not our lives should be saved based on some formula applied to our crimes of our youth or addictions and the nature of our punishments, there would be a health care consumer revolt. Help me pin this down folks - do some research out there. This is what's happening in every state I'm coming across: dealing with just about any health care issue for prisoners the standard of care to research is "constitutionally-mandated".

I'll have more on this issue, because the same minimum standards of care for prisoners and mandate that one exhausts all administrative measures before seeking relief in the courts is a huge problem for prisoners in Arizona, of course. In the meantime, here's who we could end up with providing our prisoner health car too (the people who do Mississippi and once did New Mexico....), if they bid on our ADC medical care contract, too (everyone knows that our prison health care services are supposed to be privatized this year, too, right?).

By the way, in doing all this research I came across an interesting article on the last Medical Director for the Mississippi Department of Corrections. At some point along the way this woman would have made decisions to ration prisoner health care – maybe even signed off on cutting Jamie’s life short by excluding certain treatments from the prisoner “benefits” plan. I wonder if the fact she embezzled nearly $100,000 from the department has anything to do with the fact that they can’t “afford” to give Jamie – a woman accused of stealing $11 over 15 years ago - her medically-recommended diet even as her kidneys are failing. That woman is likely to get house arrest for her crimes. She’s arguing that prison would be cruel and unusual for her because she was in a position of authority over inmates.

It’s not a good thing for an abolitionist to say – I’m far from perfect, folks – but it sounds to me like a prison term for the former medical director of that place might actually, for once, bring a measure of justice to the institutions’ victims. I have to admit, I do want some of these people to pay more than restitution – I want a chunk ripped out of their lives, too. I want them to know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of their abuse…which is precisely the kind of mentality that landed us where we are today, with mass incarceration, and increasing numbers of young people being thrown away for life. I guess if the violent retaliation Americans call criminal justice isn’t changed by us, who will it be changed by? Do we really want to leave this multi-headed hydra as our generation’s legacy?

I don’t think so. At some point here, in the course of protecting our people and dismembering this beast, we need to figure out what we’ll do with the perpetrators of state violence if we ever get our hands on them. We need to make them examples of restorative justice, not more retribution. When we seek justice, we need to avoid dehumanizing and brutalizing others as they do, and instead use every opportunity to help people and communities heal and be kinder in the future. As for the ones with no conscience – the sociopaths and CEOs who would rape the world for their own greed or grisly pleasure – I’m still not sure what to do with them, but they don’t get an embrace and another chance to offend from me. We need to protect people from them – beginning with protecting our prisoners.

Here’s the latest bad news on Jamie and the State of Mississippi. Please do stop and drop Gladys a note, too, and let her know what you’re doing to help. It will mean a lot.

-------------------------------

Nancy Lockhart sent a message to the members of Free The Scott Sisters.

Subject: Urgent Update - Jamie Scott ~ By Sis Marpessa ~ ACTION IS NEEDED!

Jamie Scott is presently locked down in a cell in the infirmary on a hospital bed on the men's side of the prison.  She has had some of the toxins removed from her body through a temporary catheter, but she is still seriously ill and should be hospitalized! The prison has known that Jamie was sick for some time, yet her condition was allowed to manifest and deteriorate to this level and we do not trust them to provide her with sufficient medical care at all, their track record with Jamie is horrendous!

Jamie Scott was a healthy young woman in 1993 when she was snatched away from her family for no good reason and locked down in tortuous conditions for 15 yrs, now her condition is life-
threatening, must this horrific injustice now become a death sentence?!

Gladys Scott is extremely upset by all of this, as you can well imagine.  As reported earlier, she has offered one of her own kidneys for Jamie and was told that as a state prisoner she doesn't qualify.  With each passing day she is becoming more and more alarmed and could really use some cards/ letters from supporters:

Gladys Scott #19142
CMCF/B-Bldg.
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, MS 39288-8550

Please continue to contact the governor's office, we cannot rest or believe that our efforts are in vain.  Call into talk radio, enter info on as many blogs, Ning groups, etc., as possible, we need to really make a very loud NOISE in order to be heard! We need all of your ideas and talents, thank you all!

JAMIE SCOTT, #19197, IS SUFFERING CRUEL AND INHUMAN PUNISHMENT!

BE DIRECT BUT PLEASE BE COURTEOUS

(same numbers/contacts as in previous posts)

 --------------

The Wexford Files

from the Santa Fe Reporter

By: 01/16/2008

Our ongoing investigation into prison health care in New Mexico.


Outtakes, March 21: "Let There Be Light"
Outtakes, Feb. 7: "Audit ABCs"
Outtakes, Jan. 10: "Under Correction"
Top 10 Stories of 2006, Dec. 20: "Prison Break"
Outtakes, Dec. 13: "Wexford Under Fire"
Outtakes, Nov. 29: "Backlash"
Outtakes, Nov. 22: "Unhealthy Diagnosis"
Outtakes, Nov. 8: "Prison Audit Ahead"
Outtakes, Oct. 25: "Medical Test"
Outtakes, Oct. 18: "Corrections Concerns"
Outtakes, Oct. 4: "Medical Waste"
Outtakes, Sept. 13: "Checkup"
Outtakes, Aug. 30: "Inmate Care Critics"
Outtakes, Aug. 23: "Unhealthy Proposal"
Cover story, Aug. 9: "Hard Cell?"

------------------

Mississippi: Medical Neglect is a Violent Crime.

For anyone who's just dropped in: Whoever you are, wherever you're from, please stop for a moment. We're asking you for maybe five minutes of your time a few days a week for the next little while to help change a family's life. We aren't even asking for money - maybe a few stamps or long distance phone calls. Just be a fellow human being who cares about what happens to them, and about justice. There's evidence that these women were wrongly convicted, but regardless, I don't see how anyone can read anything other than racism into a double-life sentence for an $11 robbery in which no one was hurt. That's the penalty for claiming your innocence in America. The guys who really pulled it off got the deal. 

As for the State of Mississippi: you should consider yourselves on notice that medical neglect has already been found to constitute cruel and unusual punishment in the case of prisoners in America. The suffering and neglect that Jamie Scott is experiencing now should really be litigated not only as a civil rights matter, but as a criminal assault on her as well. I frankly think her family has standing to sue the state for their prolonged agony, too. How do you compensate a child for taking their mother away from them for so many years? Or a mother for taking her daughters? How will you compensate them if you let her die, and then she's exonerated? 

Who, exactly, is Mississippi contending that it needs to protect from these women, anyway? You're essentially threatening to execute a young woman who has a fairly convincing innocence claim out in the American public now. Her life is in your hands, and you say she's not even worth enough to feed a medically-recommended diet to. That sounds to me like a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. You don't want those people mad at you, too. They don't like being discounted and left to die invisibly in any kind of institutions.


We say Jamie's life is worth the special diet and more: her humanity is not what’s in question here: yours is. Medical neglect of this magnitude should constitute violent crime of the torture variety, and we doubt that Jamie is the only victim in your prisons. You are positioned kind of like an EMT standing over a woman whose life could be saved by the medicine you have in your hand, but you won't administer it because it's not on the formulary for the poor. One twisted rationale holds that it's cheaper to let them die in medical crisis than to treat them properly for chronic, expensive conditions.  Besides, what value is a life that's going to be spent in prison, anyway?


The relationships people have with each other in prison should never be underestimated; they will likely either help facilitate healing or cause more damage. There's been much documentation about the harm done people in prison when they have little human contact. There's also a whole lot on how prisoners have helped eachother. We are in no position to denigrate the relevance of one woman's existence, even if she is buried for life - double life - under a mountain of State secrets and hidden behind concrete walls. 

Prisoners often have only each other to turn to to help them survive what is an extraordinarily traumatic ordeal. Even if one isn't among the many who end up being physically or sexually assaulted in the care of the state, there is the constant dehumanization, humiliation, stress, and threat of state and interpersonal violence in prison. It is like surviving a war zone; people there are the casualties and collateral damage of our economy, and we put many who have already been victimized in with serious predators. We put them into prison instead of hospitals or safe housing, where many might otherwise be.  

Anyway, the contributions of lifers to others passing though their world can be of great value - I can think of a few people serving long sentences who have probably helped more than a handful of other prisoners leave prison more intact than they would be otherwise - which is a service to all of society.  Charisse Schumate is an example of just one woman who died in  prison saving the lives of fellow prisoners.



Of course, it would be much cheaper all the way around to send the Scott sisters home and let Jamie get community-based health care. Anyone who argues that they pose some kind of threat to society that justifies tens of thousands more dollars a year being spent on imprisoning them needs to take another look at who really endangers the American public: the real criminals all got bailouts last year, while the rest of us got laid off, driven into bankruptcy, and foreclosed on. 


We all know that Jamie would not be seeking what should be lifesaving treatment in a prison trailer clinic if her family was wealthy. Socioeconomic class is not supposed to be the measure of the value of a person's life, however - not by most religious or ethical standards; certainly not by Christian standards. Yet the State of Mississippi is able to imprison, bury and execute her (in that order) only because she is poor, and despite the lack of due process observed – due only upon receipt of payment, apparently - you consider her case to be closed and the sisters to be long since disposed of. 

This kind of punishment and execution was not part of Jamie's sentence, though. Those of you who are prison bureaucrats and medical professionals involved in the process of denying prisoners health care: be prepared to defend your actions against the people you've hurt, or stand with us and help us change the way your system routinely chews up poor people of every color (and no color at all) and calls it justice. 


Arizona does that too, of course. They all do. That's why we're rising everywhere in resistance when we see this kind of thing happening anywhere. We may not have a lot of say in states where we aren’t residents, but we’re citizens of the US, and each of us has a core group of activists and two US senators (as well as a handful of congress members) we can lobby, and Mississippi may well become an example of what’s wrong with “corrections” in America today, not what’s being done right. 

If that’s not a fair characterization, we encourage you to correct us with a reply. Perhaps we'll end up lobbying for federal funds to help your state implement reforms you've been dying to make - as long as they're the kind of reforms which lead us away from this madness instead of reinforcing the very foundations of the prison industrial complex. We will not be collaborators with you, but we will invite you to collaborate with us.


But first you must do something about the Scott Sisters. Have you ever even faced their family? Have the Scott sisters left anyone's family grieving for them like Mississippi has?


You can expect a furious new Prison Watch to emerge from the heart of Mississippi out of this, where even more volunteers will amplify the Scott family's voice, and those of other men and women who have been forgotten, neglected and abused in your prisons. They will work to protect and liberate prisoners of the state, and organize around not only the conditions they are subject to, but also around these larger issues of racism, classism, and misogyny as they are expressed in your own piece of our massive prison industrial complex. Lawmakers and law enforcement in Mississippi cannot claim ignorance or suggest that this kind of abuse of women prisoners when it comes to their health care is an aberration - or exaggeration - any further.  

The truth will pour out of there in story after story like this as prisoners and their families, and ex-prisoners and honest public servants begin to amplify their voices. All the political tools of mass manipulation about prisons, criminals, and justice will be dragged out for critical analysis by the people who know how the system really works, what really goes on inside, how it got to be this way, and what needs to be done to change things. That's what happens in state after state, once the websites go up. I suspect more people realize they don't have to be ashamed for being or loving a prisoner and standing up for their rights, and they finally begin to talk about things they've had to hide. it's very healing, I think. You can be the enemy they're being hurt by, or you can join our side.




Unless it becomes part of the solution - whereas now it is apparently an obstruction - this administration at the Mississippi Department of Corrections may end up being retired before the current governor. As far as we're concerned (that would be the collective "we" of the "America the beautiful" that Mississippi is a part of), the citizens you have the most immediate and pressing duty to protect are the ones who are vulnerable precisely because they are in your custody. If you can’t protect them from your own staff, prisoners, and machinery, you sure can’t be trusted with the rest of the public’s safety.

Jamie needs to get the best care possible so she can live long enough for both her and Gladys to be exonerated or pardoned. Bad enough that the state is responsible for wrongful imprisonment; it may be best not make it wrongful death, too.

We will continue to report and respond to updates from the Scott family. This post goes to Mississippi’s elected officials and the DOJ, as well as media, to make sure they are all on notice. And, of course, it’s going out to all of our sister prison watches as well.

Let’s fire up Mississippi.

Margaret J. Plews

Arizona Prison Watch

-------------------------------

Nancy Lockhart sent a message to the members of Free The Scott Sisters.

--------------------
Subject: SICKENING ROLLER-COASTER RIDE FOR JAMIE SCOTT!! ~ From Sis. Marpessa

SICKENING ROLLER-COASTER RIDE FOR JAMIE SCOTT!!

Mrs. Rasco was informed at 6:00 a.m. that Jamie Scott was returned to the prison infirmary after having been told that her body was full of toxins and that the medication she had been receiving at the prison contributed to the condition she is in today! In typical sadistic fashion, the prison told Jamie that they are not paying for her to have a special diet and that they will be moving her back to the horrible, leaky and moldy building where she was living.  As if all of that wasn't bad enough, she was further informed that she will be taken to a trailer to receive dialysis instead of the hospital!

While Atty Jaribu Hill is working on legal support for Jamie, we MUST continue to advocate for her.  Mrs. Rasco wants us to flood the governor's office as he has released inmates in the past who have been convicted of far worse crimes than which Jamie and Gladys are accused.  Mississippi is also making
deep budget cuts which have included discussions around the release of inmates, and there is no reason on this earth why Jamie Scott should continue to be locked down in her serious medical condition, it is cruel, inhumane, and DEADLY, she has many aggravating conditions, is severely depressed, and there must be COMPASSION!

If you work in the medical field please make that known when calling/writing so that it can be made plain that there are medical professionals aware of this prison's culpability in this previously healthy young woman's deterioration into such a serious condition, which they continue to downplay to this very moment!

We also continue to feel strongly that if we could put the light of mainstream media on this case that it would make a huge difference. PLEASE include calls and e-mails to the media.  If you're from overseas, please make sure that they know that fact.

Thanks again to you all, we have an enormous fight on our hands and we need all of the help we can get!  We know that they expect us to give up, but we must push even harder!
----------------------

JAMIE SCOTT, #19197, IS SUFFERING CRUEL AND INHUMAN PUNISHMENT!

BE DIRECT BUT PLEASE BE COURTEOUS

Governor Haley Barbour
P.O. Box 139
Jackson, Mississippi 39205
1-877-405-0733 or 601-359-3150
Fax: 601-359-3741
(If you reach VM leave msgs, faxes, and please send letters)

(FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ANY AND ALL MAJOR MEDIA YOU HAVE INFORMATION FOR, DON'T BE LIMITED BY THESE LISTINGS AT ALL!)

MISSISSIPPI MEDIA:

WLBT
(601) 960-4426 newsroom
(601) 355-7830 newsroom fax
http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=241208&nav=menu119_8_8
"Stribling, Wilson" <wstribling@wlbt.com>, ( Asst News Director )

WAPT TV
calling 601-922-1607. To report news tips, call 601-922-1652.
to submit news to the MGR, news anchor or anyone use this link
http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;www.wapt.com/contact/index.html

WJTV
Phone: (601) 372-6311
Fax: (601) 372-8798
http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;www2.wjtv.com/jtv/online/site_information/contacts/

FOX40
601-922-1234
http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;www.my601.com/content/contactus/default.aspx

GENERAL MEDIA:

NBC TODAY SHOW: Today@Nhttp://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;BCUNI.com

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Nightly@Nhttp://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;BC.com

Listing of NBC/MSNBC Show e-mails at http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10285339/

NBC News
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CBS NEWS
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Fax: 212-975-1893

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ABC NEWS
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Phone: 212-456-7777

CNN NEWS TIP FORM: http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html
CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1784

Joe Madison: Joe.Madison@xmradio.com

Geraldo Rivera:  atlarge@foxnews.com

USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22108
Phone: 703-854-3400
Fax: 703-854-2078

Associated Press
450 West 33rd St., New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-621-1500
Fax: 212-621-7523
General Questions and Comments: info@ap.org

Dr. Gloria Perry, Medical Department (601) 359-5155
gperry@mdoc.http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;state.ms.us

Margaret Bingham, Superintendent of Central Mississippi Corrections Facility
(601) 932-2880
mbingham@mdoc.http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;state.ms.us
FAX: (601) 664-0782
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, Mississippi 39208

Christopher Epps, Commissioner of Prisons for the State of Mississippi
601-359-5600
CEPPS@mdoc.http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;state.ms.us
723 North President Street
Jackson, MS 39202

Emmitt Sparkman, Deputy Commissioner
(601) 359-5610
esparkman@mdoc.http://www.facebook.com/l/c6f0f;state.ms.us

Congressman Bennie Thompson
Washington, D.C. Office
2432 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5876
(202) 225-5898 (Fax)

Jackson, Mississippi Office
3607 Medgar Evers Blvd
Jackson, MS 39213
(601) 946-9003
(601)-982-5337 (Fax)

Congressman Alcee L. Hastings
Washington Office
2353 Rayburn Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515
Tel: (202) 225-1313
Fax: (202) 225-1171

Congressman Jeff Miller
Washington D.C.
2439 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4136
Fax: (202) 225-3414
Toll Free Phone Number to District Office
Pensacola, Florida
Phone: 866-367-1614
=============

Urgent Medical Action: Prisoner Tom Manning.

From the defenestrator:


"Tom Manning is a Vietnam veteran, working class revolutionary and US political prisoner. He militantly struggled against the war in Vietnam and supports the right of self-determination of all oppressed peoples. Tom Manning was captured in 1985 and sentenced to 53 years in federal prison for a series of bombings carried out as "armed propaganda" against apartheid and U.S. imperialism. He tirelessly fought against racist, genocidal capitalism in the USA. Tom Manning was also wrongly sentenced to 80 years in prison for the self-defense killing of a New Jersey state trooper."

Tom Manning is an anti-imperialist revolutionary. The following came in today from the Jericho network. Looks like the alert is still on, so email the prison people if you can, and cc the Jericho folks on it.

-----------------

Paulette, I just rec'd this from Tom:

 

"On the medical situation, folks should demand that I be sent to Butner, NC, the Federal Medical Center for cancer treatment, monitoring, etc". --Tom Manning

Jericho has also spoken with his attorney who has already called and sent a request to get Tom moved and suggested we do the same. Here is the information needed to both call and write the Cumberland warden as well as other officials at the federal bureau of prisons.

1. Ask for Warden- However I received a reply by phone (1/22) and was told every request for a transfer for Tom must be in writing either by Fax or e-mail.  So if you can please e-mail or fax this request.

 
1 Follow the info below if you want to put vocal pressure on the Warden.

2. Have Tom's # ready "Thomas Manning 10373-016 recent transfer from USP Hazelton

3. If you reach the warden or his/her secretary explain that Tom has recently been transferred from Hazelton and had not received the medical care needed for the growth in his groin area, lump under his left nipple or the growth under his shoulder blade. His records have been reviewed by an outside doctor who urgently recommended a biopsy to check for cancer in these areas. Tom asked you to ask for an immediate transfer to the Federal Prison Hospital facility at Butner,  NC to get the necessary medical procedures done.

4. If you get a recording please leave your name and phone # for them to accept our seriousness  regarding Tom's health.

5. If you fax either place a letter be sure to give your information as well as Tom's full name & number.

6. Please send us any information you are given so that we can put pressure on the correct dept.

IF YOU KNOW OR ARE A DOCTOR OR MINISTER/IMAM PLEASE FAX A LETTER TO BOTH THE WARDEN AND REGIONAL OFFICE USING YOUR LETTERHEAD AND ASK FOR A REPLY.

THANK YOU FOR YOU HELP PAULETTE  ALBQ.JERICHO@GMAIL.COM
& ANNE AT NYCJERICHO@GMAIL.COM

Phone:  301-784-1000  ask for warden
Fax:  301-784-1008
E-mail address²:  CUM/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

Mid Atlantic Regional Office press #1 for inmate services & you will probably have to leave a message.
Federal Bureau of Prisons
302 Sentinel Drive
Suite 200
Annapolis Junction, MD 20701

E-mail: MXRO/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV^* Phone: 301-317-3100

--
Free All Political Prisoners!
nycjericho@gmail.com • www.jerichony.org

Jamie Scott Update: SOS

David Hope Rosser sent a message to the members of Free The Scott Sisters.

--------------------
Subject: 1/19 EMERGENCY UPDATE

1/19 EMERGENCY UPDATE

Thanks to everyone who is calling and e-mailing, we are still in emergency mode for Jamie. Mrs. Rasco has still not been able to get information on Jamie at this point in time and is understandably beyond upset We are going to enlarge our efforts the following ways right now:

1. Yesterday some of us were told that we needed to be contacting Paxton Paige, Health Services Administrator at the prison who would make the determination as to move
Jamie to a hospital, his number is: (601) 932-2880, ext. 6647, if sent to voicemail please leave a message (Jamie Scott is #19197).

2. We must include Media and Politicians in our calls/letters.

3. Sis. Jamia Shepherd has put out the call in her e-newsletter for someone that can help or knows of someone who can help with bringing Mrs. Rasco from Pensacola, FL to the prison in Mississippi. Please share any info with us that you may have regarding that, thank you!

DON'T LIMIT YOUR CONTACTS WITH THOSE LISTED HERE, PLEASE INCLUDE RADIO, NEWSPAPERS, ETC. AND SHARE WITH US WHO YOU'VE CONTACTED SO THAT WE CAN ADD THEM ON. THANK YOU SO MUCH, PLEASE CONTACT AS MANY AS YOU CAN SO THAT WE CAN MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
----------------

NBC TODAY SHOW: Today@Nhttp://www.facebook.com/l/c0fe2;BCUNI.com
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Nightly@Nhttp://www.facebook.com/l/c0fe2;BC.com
Listing of NBC/MSNBC Show e-mails at http://www.facebook.com/l/c0fe2;www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10285339/

NBC News
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10112
Phone: (212) 664-4444
Fax: (212) 664-4426

CBS FEEDBACK FORM: http://www.facebook.com/l/c0fe2;www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.php
CBS NEWS
524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893

ABC NEWS CONTACT FORM: http://www.facebook.com/l/c0fe2;abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&cat=Good%20Morning%20America
ABC NEWS
77 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777

CNN NEWS TIP FORM: http://www.facebook.com/l/c0fe2;www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html
CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1784

USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22108
Phone: 703-854-3400
Fax: 703-854-2078

Associated Press
450 West 33rd St., New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-621-1500
Fax: 212-621-7523
General Questions and Comments: info@ap.org

Congressman Bennie Thompsom
Washington, D.C. Office
2432 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5876
(202) 225-5898 (Fax)
Jackson, Mississippi Office
3607 Medgar Evers Blvd
Jackson, MS 39213
(601) 946-9003
(601)-982-5337 (Fax)

Congressman Alcee L. Hastings
Washington Office
2353 Rayburn Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515
Tel: (202) 225-1313
Fax: (202) 225-1171

Congressman Jeff Miller
Washington D.C.
2439 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4136
Fax: (202) 225-3414
Toll Free Phone Number to District Office
Pensacola, Florida
Phone: 866-367-1614
========================

Tea Partiers at the Trough

Getting ready to go to bed (it's 3am now) I made a last stop in my email box, and sure enough, there was something provocative waiting for me: The Health Care Freedom Act For Arizona - click in and you'll find the actual proposed bill and a summary - as well as their strategy, which is a disgusting perversion of "freedom" as being something that can only come at the cost of people with nothing left to steal anything from...some of you are even going to try to get more out of us by shifting the tax burden from the wealthy on to the poor, through income tax and sales tax changes.


This opposition to accessible health care has nothing to do with "freedom" - that's just the pretty red white and blue paper they wrap this garbage in to sucker people into thinking they need to defend America from...other Americans - and my god, all those immigrants too! It's about keeping insulin from diabetics, and inhalers from kids with asthma, or trimming real food out of the grocery trip in order to buy those life-saving necessities. Food, or medicine? That's a tough one.


Now frankly, these people have been whining for decades about having it all their way, like we're talking about whoppers. Granted, I think the plan that's passing through congress is going to help Americans about as much as the Medicare Rx plan did - anyone who invested in the pharmaceutical industry when the thing was being worked out must have known who would really be making off with the government's money, and it isn't people on Medicare.


I'm drowning in the that damn doughnut hole right now: every year, around May, my prescriptions are no longer covered by Medicare D (even though I have to pay the premium year-round), and I have to either change my meds or shell out over $1000/month for them until I've spent another $4500 of my own money, then they'll step in and cover them again under catastrophic care. Then in January 2010 it starts all over again. I won't pay that money to those people for those drugs, so I slide by on what I can tolerate this half of the year. So, I should be a little more mellow from January to May  next year.



Anyway, it disturbs me greatly that there are so many proud people and politicians carrying on this way, in a continuing effort to block uninsured Americans from getting medical attention. I'd like to say that our founding fathers would roll over in their graves - but I don't think they gave a shit about the rest of us, either. They sold us out to the devil after that war was over. They codified the gross dehumanization of people who had been abducted and enslaved, excluding them from the protections of the constitution, and designating each of them and their descendants to be valued as 3/fifths of a human being for tax purposes.


Maybe it's fitting, then, that the Tea Parties are what they've latched onto - a resurrection of the glorious days leading up to the Revolution that freed all of about 10% of the population to vote, hold office, make laws, etc. - and kept women, Africans and their descendants, certain immigrant groups, and Indigenous peoples (including Latinos already settled in Northern Mexico when it was invaded, raped and stolen by Americans so that the land as well as cheap labor could be exploited to their fullest...)



So, let me guess: this whole tea party idea was strategized by a white male far-right republican who has no clue of the real history of this country, or who is just counting on everyone else being clueless (he may be right). This has been going on for over a century - working people trying to get decent wages, health care for their families - this is nuts. You tea baggers wouldn't have shit for health insurance today if it wasn't for the kind of people you're trying to deprive of having any too. The poor, the working class, minorities, veterans, persecuted immigrants - not to mention generations of socialists and communists and anarchists - all who have had to fight through the years to access the basic resources needed in this country to survive. 

Maybe I'll go to the next tea party and take pictures of cars and people there - I wonder how many have a car like mine - or maybe took the bus because they don't have one at all? 

Real American "Patriots" - as my Dad taught me - aren't selfish, privileged, spoiled, whiny brats who protest only when they think another group's progress or liberation might disrupt their own power base, profit margins, social comfort, or the delusion that all is well in American now that racism is over.Good patriots look out for each other - that meaning ALL of us, not just you people watching your own backs, and leaving us vulnerable to the fallout of perpetual economic inequality.



Tea Parties have become just pathetic. That's not "self-empowerment". That's the most effective, pervasive mechanisms of oppression the very wealthy have: scare the middle class into keeping down the poor - by cutting services, access to food, impeding our ability to organize effectively in our workplace (and prisons!!), withholding lifesaving care from a dying children or and elders, increasing sales tax while cutting taxes on the wealthy (via income and property tax breaks)...that's some pretty nasty stuff. You might as well be standing at the edge of the bridge coming out of New Orleans after Katrina hit and thousands tried to escape - but they we're going into that community, that's for sure - the sheriff and a bunch of other people were armed and waiting for them.

That's what the tea partiers make me think of - not "Revolutionary" heroes (mine would be Nat Turner, John Brown, Harriet Tubman - those people were revolutionary - and heroic). These tea partiers represent some of the worst characteristics of Americans: bigotry, self-interest, short-sightedness. They just ooze meanness, and fundamentally seem to lack the courage to really try to make the world a more just and healing place for everyone other than themselves.



Considering all that, it makes it hard to take seriously any of the politicians who cater to or help organize them and egg them on. They should be embarrassed to be in a public forum with them.


Some of us know that we're all in this together. So are they, only not with us - or we aren't allowed to be with them, I guess is how it goes. Some of us should either work harder or accept our diminished station in life. Besides, there are free clinics around, and some people think that if we end up stealing our medication and going to prison, at least we'll get good health care there. 

Prisoners have a shorter life span that free people - did everyone know that? It's a combination of things - they're often sick already when they get there and if they're poor (which is usually the case) they may not have had medical or dental care for years. There's a higher incidence of HIV and Hepatitis C in prison, as well as other communicable diseases, like TB. If you're fighting colon cancer and can't keep weight on or nutrients in your body, you have to buy your own daily vitamins - for about $20 a month. If your poor, then you're screwed. 

There always a few exceptional individuals in any insitution, no matter how brutal or corrupt it may be, but I've heard enough from prisoners and ex-prisoners about the health care in AZ prisons, which sucks. People die all the time there for lack of prompt, competent medical attention. And now we're hiking the cost of their co-pays again? You know, to someone who only makes ten cents an hour, increasing the co-pay from $3 to $5 is pretty drastic - especially since we're also talking about cutting prisoner pay (to what? what left?). Some folks are just too old or sick or confused to even work if a job was available. What do they do for basic needs in prison if they have no family who can help - or if their family is now struggling too much because they lost a breadwinner?


That's enough for tonight - I'll be up till dawn if I don't stop here.