Judge favors plaintiff in private prison case

By AP / Canadian Business | December 01, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Nashville judge ruled Thursday that private prison company Corrections Corporation of America must turn over more documents to a magazine that advocates for the rights of prisoners.

CCA had argued that the settlement documents sought by the plaintiff were confidential and handled by the prison’s general counsel, which operates independently and isn’t connected in any way to the state.

But Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman ruled once again that CCA is subject to Tennessee’s open records law because it is the equivalent of a government agency, and that no government entity can enter into a confidential settlement.

Alex Friedmann, a former prisoner who is now an editor at Prison Legal News, sent a letter to CCA in April 2007 asking for information on settlements, judgments and complaints against the company.

He sued CCA when the company refused to turn over the information, claiming it wasn’t subject to the state’s open records law. Bonnyman also heard the case in 2008, siding with Friedmann and ordering the company to turn over most of the records.

CCA appealed, arguing once again that it wasn’t subject to the law. The Tennessee Court of Appeals later upheld Bonnyman’s ruling that CCA is the equivalent of a government agency by running state prisons, and is subject to the open records law.

The prison turned over some documents, such as contracts. But Friedmann is still seeking verdicts against the company and settlement agreements with prisoners.

In her ruling Thursday, Bonnyman said the magazine won’t be able to get the documents until an appeal is resolved, and CCA’s attorneys have indicated they will likely appeal.

However, Friedmann said he doesn’t mind waiting because he views the judge’s latest ruling as a victory that sends a message once again that “CCA is considered a public agency when operating prisons and jails, and must comply with the Public Records Act.”

“This ruling provides some much needed transparency to CCA’s operations in Tennessee,” he said. “CCA has fought hard to avoid releasing records that would be public if sought from any government agency that runs prisons or jails.”

The ruling only applies to Tennessee prisons, not federal prisons or other facilities in other states that CCA runs.

CCA houses 75,000 offenders and detainees in more than 60 facilities with more than 80,000 beds — more than half those under private operation in the country, according to its website. Forty-four of the facilities are owned by the company, which employs 17,000 people.

Witness to a Reprehensible and Uncaring Prison System

Posted on May 22, 2011 on the blog by Disarm Now Plowshares

(from Joe Power-Drutis)

Hello, 
Twenty four hours ago I visited Sr. Jackie Hudson at the Blount County Correctional Facility in Maryville Tennessee, and the information she conveyed was deeply disturbing. By bravely speaking the truth about a reprehensible and uncaring system, Jackie chose to take a personal risk and I want to honor this by passing her message on to you.

This is an account of the struggles of four inmates and their attempts to receive basic medical care.

First is the indomitable and quick-witted (soon to be 84), Jean Gump. Like Bix, Jean’s age and physical presence conceal an interior spirit deeply rooted in the power of love that will always be underestimated by the dark forces so prevalent in our world.

She, like the others, would rather be home with family and friends but is not afraid to pay the price of following the dictates of her conscience. She like the others, consented to going to jail; but, expects these places of confinement to follow the law regarding human rights and rules of imprisonment. But, in the Blount County Correctional Facility, expectations and reality part ways.

Jean is a relatively healthy woman who has obviously taken care of herself; however, she is also under the care of a Nurse Practitioner in Portage Michigan. Jean has been diagnosed with hypertension and carotid artery disease; in other words, the high pressure in her arteries is further complicated by the narrowing of the large carotid artery that feeds her brain. Jean must take one anticoagulant and 2 blood pressure medications to thin her blood and lower her pressure. Failure to do so puts her at high risk for a stroke.

For these chronic conditions she has faithfully taken her medications each day – each day that is until she was remanded to the Blount County Correctional Facility. Though she has made numerous requests for help, she has received no medical assistance, not once has her blood pressure been taken, and she received no medication for nearly 2 weeks. She filled out paperwork for the jail to notify her husband, health care provider and pharmacy; they have received no calls from the jail.

Just for the record, Ralph Hutchison, Erik Johnson and I sang one verse of a less than spectacular barber shop quartet Happy Birthday to You. Moved beyond herself by emotion Jean said, “Don’t give up your day job boys.”
The reality is much the same for 63-year-old Sr. Carol Gilbert. Carol has taken an antihypertensive medication for many years. She too has gone without her medication and no one at the jail has taken her blood pressure.

Three months ago, 76-year-old Sr. Jackie Hudson underwent surgery that left her with residual periodic left-sided chest pain. Several days ago she began to experience severe musculoskeletal pain and made repeated requests for medical assistance. Eventually a nurse arrived and said “Your just one of 500 people here and I am way behind in my work.” Jackie received nothing. That night, many hours after the onset of pain, the night nurse provided her with 2 tabs of Tylenol. Well after this acute onset of pain she was able to receive a “one time” packet of 20 tablets of Tylenol and Ibuprofen due to her indigent status; but was informed she would receive no more. Jackie also suffers from asthma. She was able to take one of her inhalers in with her but is without the needed second one. Jackie also filled out paperwork for the jail to notify Sue Ablao, her health care provider and pharmacy; they also have not received any calls from the jail.

75-year-old Sr. Ardeth Platte is also under the care of a doctor. I do not know the extent of her medical needs but, like Jackie and Jean, Ardeth is receiving no medications or health care.

Though serious, the above matters are straight-forward and easily resolved.
The following is not so.

A woman in the jail experienced a Grand Mal Seizure. Apparently in the early stages of the seizure she was able to tell other inmates a seizure was about to occur, and as the seizure commenced and she was falling they were able to catch her and guide her to the concrete floor.

They called for medical help and the nurse and another woman arrived and stood next to the woman. Several minutes later – while the seizure was still in progress – a half-dozen large men entered the cell block. While a younger guard began yelling at all of the inmates “return to your cells” another of the men kicked the woman repeatedly. Later, inmates reported that kicking a person undergoing a seizure was commonplace, “They think someone is faking it.”

The following day the woman began to experience similar symptoms that occur prior to a seizure and she related to the inmates that another seizure may occur. The inmates called for assistance and a voice over the intercom instructed the inmates to put her on the concrete floor. No staff person, medical or otherwise ever responded. Fortunately the woman’s premonitions did not result in a seizure.

Complicating the health picture even more, the inmates know that, if a medical problem or emergency occurs during the weekend, they are out of luck. No nursing staff are available during the weekend. During weekends, either non medical, non licensed jailers perform nursing duties or inmates get no response at all.

As a LPN I have worked in a number of medical venues over the past 35 years and I have seen nothing to compare with this. How did this high risk, cruel “medical response” become commonplace? These standard operational procedures are not only inhumane; they are illegal.
I wish to share this with you, as I seek guidance and support from leaders in the local community here in East Tennessee about where to go from here.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Epilogue: As I was being given this information yesterday, prison eyes (cameras) and ears (phone surveillance) were upon us; as we spoke between a wall of glass, I wrote down each detail.

It is important to remember that the playground bully is one filled with fear, and the need to control; but, knowing he/she must be careful to protect themselves from the truth.

I just received phone calls from Joe Gump and Sue Ablao; someone from the Blount County Correctional Facility phoned them today inquiring as to what medications Jean and Jackie were on. They were told that Jean and Jackie’s prescriptions will be filled by day’s end and they will be receiving all of their prescribed medications no later than tomorrow, May 23rd.

Help Save the Life of Gaile Owens!

RIGHT NOW

The Tennessee Supreme Court announced on April 19, that it has denied the commutation request, filed on Friday, Feb. 5, on behalf of Gaile Owens. Gaile’s lawyers have already filed a commutation request with the governor. Gaile would be the first woman executed by the state since Eve Martin was hanged in 1820. She would be the seventh person executed by the state since 2000.

WHAT’S NEXT

Governor Phil Bredesen is now the only person who can decide to commute Gaile's sentence of the death penalty to life in prison. It is important now more than ever to show your support for Gaile.

Please make your voice heard by calling or writing Governor Phil Bredesen. Email us at info@friendsofgaile.com and let us know what you are doing to support Gaile.

YOU SHOULD KNOW

* Gaile is the only inmate in Tennessee prison history to receive a death sentence after accepting a prosecutor’s offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.
* Gaile was diagnosed with battered women’s syndrome, a serious mental disorder that courts have recognized as “a female who is the victim of consistent, severe domestic violence.”
* Gaile’s jurors never heard a word about the physical, emotional and sexual abuse she endured.
* Gaile never testified in her own defense because she wanted to protect her young sons from the details of the sexual and emotional abuse she suffered.
* Despite the abuse she suffered, Gaile is, and always has been, remorseful for causing the murder of her husband.
* Equal justice? A recent media review of nine comparable state cases over the past 25 years found that six have since received full probation or early parole, two others are serving life sentences but entitled to parole hearings, and only one, Gaile, is serving a death sentence.
* Gaile is without question an outstanding inmate at the Tennessee Prison for Women, where she works as a clerk and is loved by staff and peers alike.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Want to take action? You can do several things to help Gaile.

1. Sign the petition at www.friendsofgaile.com, and encourage others to do the same.

2. Write letters and e-mails to Gov. Bredesen and his legal counsel, Steve Elkins. Ask them to commute Gaile’s sentence to life in prison.

E-mail: Phil.Bredesen@tn.gov and Steve.Elkins@tn.gov

The Honorable Phil Bredesen (or Mr. Steve Elkins)
Governor’s Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001

3. Call Gov. Bredesen’s office at (615) 741-2001 and tell them you think the governor should commute Gaile’s sentence to life in prison.

4. Write letters to the editors at newspapers in major Tennessee cities.

The Tennessean (Nashville): Submit letters to letters@tennessean.com and include your name, city and ZIP code. Letters should not exceed 200 words.

The City Paper (Nashville): Submit letters to editor@nashvillecitypaper.com and include your name, city and ZIP code.

The Commercial Appeal (Memphis): Submit letters at www.commercialappeal.com/letter-to-editor/.

The Knoxville News Sentinel: Submit letters to letters@knoxnews.com. Letters must not exceed 300 words, and should include your name, address and phone number.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press: Submit letters to letters@timesfreepress.com. Keep letters to 200 words and include your name, address and telephone number.

5. Are you on Facebook? Twitter? Do you blog? Share your thoughts using these social media tools. It’s an easy way to tell Gaile’s story and drive people to action.

--- ---
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court has set a Sept. 28 execution date for Gaile Owens, rejecting arguments that her death sentence should be commuted because she was a battered woman.

Owens was convicted in 1986 of hiring someone to kill her husband.

Defense attorneys asked the court to either commute her sentence or issue a recommendation to the governor to do so. They argued her sentence was disproportionate to similar cases and that she tried to plead guilty but wasn't allowed to.

In its order Monday, the Supreme Court wrote that it cannot consider facts outside the record but noted the governor is not constrained by the same limitations.

A request for clemency has already been sent to Gov. Phil Bredesen.

If Tennessee executes Owens, it will be the first time the state has killed a woman in nearly 200 years.

Defense attorney Kelley Henry had no immediate comment.

Don't Kill Domestic Abuse Survivor Gaile Owens

From Death Penalty Focus

Gaile Owens, a 54-year-old woman and domestic abuse survivor from Tennessee, is scheduled to be executed on September 28.

Owens is seeking to have her death sentence changed to a sentence of life in prison and only Governor Phil Bredesen has the power to grant the request.

The National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women (NCDBW) and the Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (TCADSV) have been working together to support Owens. Owens’ supporters say her death sentence should be commuted to life because:

* Owens may be the only prisoner in Tennessee to receive a death sentence after accepting a prosecutor’s offer of a plea agreement for life in prison. In 1985, after years of sexual abuse and severe humiliation by her husband, Owens hired a man to kill him. The prosecutor’s office said Owens could plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. This offer was made with the approval of her husband’s family. Owens accepted the plea. However, when Owens’ codefendant – the man she hired to kill her husband – refused to take the plea, the prosecutors withdrew the offer.

* Owens’ death sentence is excessive. A recent review of nine cases from Tennessee involving women who have killed or hired someone to kill their partners, shows that six have received probation or early parole and that two received life sentences with eligibility for parole. Only Owens has received death

* Owens was sentenced to death by a jury which never heard critical information about the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse she endured throughout her life, including from her husband. Owens was subjected to physical and sexual violence from a young age. Her husband was but one of the perpetrators of violence against her. When her trial attorneys asked for funds to hire an expert witness with experience in abuse and trauma to evaluate Owens, they were denied.

* The prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. To this date, at least one juror has come forward saying that if she had the information about Owens’ experiences of abuse, she would not have voted in favor of execution. In other words, the proper presentation of this evidence could have resulted in an entirely different verdict and sentence by the jury.

Please Click Here and Act Now!

Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice: Hunger Strike!

The Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice are conducting a Hunger Strike  at the Department of Justice Headquarters in Washington, DC  on June 21, 2010.

Contacts:  Ruby Sales / B.J. Janice Peak-Graham

1-706-323-0246 / 0247 - spirithousedc@gmail.com

We, who are three strikes removed from the center of the power structure of this country, want to raise the political consciousness of the nation while standing as the moral soul of the nation. We are Gray-Haired Witnesses who have struggled from time immemorial within the Black community.  We are building towards a movement in history and we need all people of good will to be a part!  

When Ida B. Wells stood up, she set in motion a resistance movement where many Americans broke their silence against lynching and said NO. She stood for a race of people bereft of political power or resources.  More than 100 years later Gray-Haired Witnesses, Black women with a new Freedom Movement calling on this nation, stand in the spirit of those proud men and women who won hard-fought for victories in struggle and blood.  We speak to the totality of the struggle of the Black woman who is debased regularly as uneducated, immoral, subhuman, whore, bad mother, and welfare queen. We also recognize the systemic racism that leads the police to even arrest the lack woman in the first place, the racism during sentencing, during incarceration, in dealing with social services, education, health discrimination, and beyond.

Over the last 20 years, the women’s population in US prisons has more than tripled.  Most women are in prison as a result of drug selling, addiction, domestic violence and criminal acts mostly related to men.  Too many are victimized by biased and negligent lawyers and judges. The evidence of oppression against Black and poor women significantly increased and continues to mount. Our Sisters are victimized, and subsequently our families, by enormous health care disparities, and emotional degradation through corporate media demonization of our image and place in our community. We now see a coalition of corporate, cultural and political wars fully embracing a White supremacist culture of domination and terrorism.

Our primary focus is the case of the Mississippi Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys, whose almost 16 yrs of unjust incarceration is a shocking revelation of the pure nothingness with which our lives are deemed in the eyes of this society and world, where such egregious travesties of justice are heaped upon our women with hate-filled arrogance and in plain view!  In 1994, the State of Mississippi sentenced Jamie and Gladys Scott  to consecutive double-life terms each for two counts of armed robbery they did not commit.  They did not have prior criminal records, vigorously maintained their innocence, approximately $11 was said to have been netted, no one was harmed or injured and no weapon was ever recovered.

In January, 2010, Jamie Scott suffered failure of both kidneys.  The combination of absymal health care under deplorable conditions has culminated in her steep decline to stage 5 (end stage) kidney disease.  Jamie Scott has now effectively been sentenced to death.  We must address this specific issue with urgency and demand that an Inspection and Observation Team be allowed into the Pearl, MS prison where Jamie Scott is being held for independent evaluation, as well as call on this government to free Jamie and Gladys Scott, wrongfully convicted and with no business being incarcerated in the first place!  The case of the Scott Sisters is a horrific representation of the cases of countless other Black and poor women who have been denied the benefits of true justice and been incarcerated wrongly and in the process punishing, injuring and destroying Black families and children across the nation.

The Gray-Haired Witness are calling on all people of good will to fast and strike and resist with us across the nation on this day. The greatest asset we have is our body, mind and spirit and our willingness to step out of the daily flow of life and stand tall for what is right and just.  In the tradition of race women throughout history and our survival, we declare our presence and we will not be silent and we are not afraid. Our lives have prepared us to come to this place, at this time.

STAND WITH US IN WASHINGTON, DC AND HELP TO BUILD THIS EVENT.  

WE ASK THAT YOU STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH US:

1. Organize attendees to come to the event on June 21.

 

2. Sign your organization/club/church/mosque/temple, etc. on in solidarity with the event.

3. Put a statement in support on your website and link to our blogspot.  Send a mailing to your email list and memberships.

4. Assist in distributing literature for this event to build it to the maximum level.  

5. Assist in garnering press now and at the event.

 

6. Organize a local fast where you are and send a press release to local news outlets about the hunger strike and your local support efforts.

7. Dress and wear buttons in solidarity with us on that day.

8. Assist with donations towards expenses earmarked "Gray-Haired Witnesses" at http://www.spirithouseproject.org/donation.cfm.


We call on our Sisters, our Brothers to join with us to demand what is right.  We must speak loudly and clearly to the devaluation of Black women's bodies and lives.  We want people of all colors to wage a struggle and stand with us on these issues because none of us are free until we are all free.

SHAKEERAH ABDUL AL-SABUUR, Paralegal

FATIRAH AZIZ, ICFFMAJ, African American Freedom & Reconstruction League, Quba Institute

MAE JACKSON, Art without Walls

MARPESSA KUPENDUA, M'Backe House of Hope, Inc.

DEBRA D. NAPIER, PhD.

BJ JANICE PEAK-GRAHAM, OUR COMMON GROUND Communications, Inc., Progressive Alternative Talk Radio 

RUBY NELL SALES, Founder and Co-Director of SpiritHouse project - Public theologian, educator and long time runner for justice

JAMIA SHEPHERD, Founder/President of S.O.P.E. - Support Our People's Efforts 

http://www.grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com 

The SpiritHouse Project

100 6th Street

Columbus, GA  31901

Wexford , Mississippi & Jamie Scott: Cruel and Unusual Health Care.

from the day of Blogging (March 25) for Jamie Scott at Mother Jones.
Thank you both for being in on this one:
------------

Cruel and Unusual Health Care

How Mississippi prisoner Jamie Scott's life sentence could turn into a death sentence.

By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella | Thu Mar. 25, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

---

On February 25, a small crowd gathered outside the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, to push for the release of sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, who are serving two consecutive life sentences apiece for a 1993 armed robbery [1] in which no one was injured and the take was about $11. Supporters of the Scott sisters have long tried to draw attention to their case as an extreme example of the distorted justice and draconian sentencing laws that have overloaded prisons [2], crippled state budgets, and torn families apart across the United States. But in recent months, their cause has taken on a new urgency, because Jamie Scott's unwarranted life sentence may soon become a death sentence.

Jamie, 38, is suffering from kidney failure. In order to stave off further complications, she needs either a kidney transplant or regular sessions of dialysis, a procedure in which blood is drained from the patient through a cleansing filter and then returned to the body. But at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Pearl, where Jamie and Gladys are incarcerated, medical services are provided by a private contractor called Wexford, which has been the target of lawsuits and legislative investigations in several states over inadequate treatment of the inmates in its care. According to Jamie's family, in the eight weeks since her condition became life-threatening, she has endured faulty or missed dialysis sessions, infections, and other complications. She has received no indication that prison doctors are considering a kidney transplant as an option, though her sister is a willing donor.

Jamie's family and legal advisors believe the poor health care she is receiving in prison places her life at risk. The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) has a provision for what it calls "conditional medical release"—but Jamie is not a candidate, department spokesperson Suzanne Garbo Singletary said in an email, because "MDOC policy provides that an inmate must have a condition that is 'incapacitating, totally disabling and/or terminal in nature' in order to qualify." So Jamie appears to be caught in a deadly catch-22. In order to be released from prison, she must convince the MDOC that her illness is terminal or "totally disabling"—and it seems the authorities won't be persuaded of that unless she dies in prison.

Since Jamie became critically ill, her supporters have also appealed to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to consider early compassionate release. They have received no response—and the prospects don't look good: Barbour has a record of being extremely stingy when it comes to issuing pardons. He is also currently engaged in a budget battle with his state legislature to prevent cuts to Mississippi's prison spending, and the early releases [3] such cuts would demand. According to a local television station that reported [4] on the rally at the capitol, a spokesperson for Barbour said that "Jamie Scott was tried, convicted and incarcerated, and she is receiving her care with the Department of Corrections."

A Sick System

In telephone interviews, the Scott sisters' mother, Evelyn Rasco, described the treatment Jamie has received at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF), based on her own observations and information provided by her two daughters. Jamie, who has diabetes and bouts of high blood pressure, said that prison medical staff told her in 1997 that she had high protein levels in her urine, indicating possible kidney problems.

Until recently, however, she received minimal treatment beyond the insulin prescribed for her diabetes. Jamie's physical and mental health suffered last fall when she spent 23 days in solitary confinement (for being found in an "unauthorized area" in the prison gym) and was cut off from her routine of work, classes, church, and occasional visits with her sister. Then, in mid-January, Jamie became seriously ill when both her kidneys began shutting down. She was sent to the prison infirmary and, after a week's delay, was taken to hospital. There, doctors inserted a shunt in Jamie's neck to allow her to receive dialysis through a catheter, and she was promptly returned to prison.

Rather than letting Jamie leave the prison regularly for treatment, prison authorities chose to truck in dialysis machines. About three times a week, Jamie has received hemodialysis in a trailer on the prison grounds—if the machines are working properly, which she reports isn't always the case. At one session, Jamie told her mother, the blood was flowing out of her through a catheter into the dialysis machine—but it wasn't flowing back in, so the treatment had to be stopped. At the end of January, another inmate looked in on Jamie, who was locked up alone in her cell, and found her unconscious. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors told her there were problems with the shunt inserted into her neck. They made adjustments, and she was again returned to prison.

Rasco lives in Pensacola, Florida, where she cares for her daughters' five children while they are behind bars. Since Jamie and Gladys went to prison, Rasco's husband of 30 years died of a heart attack; another daughter died of congestive heart failure; and her oldest son was away for several years serving with the Army in Iraq. In a letter to supporters last year, Jamie wrote [5]: "When I think of the word 'strongest,' I think of my mother. She is 4 feet 9 inches tall and has the strength of Job in the Bible."

Rasco lacks the time and financial resources to visit her daughters often, but in mid-February, she managed to make the trip to Mississippi. When she visited the prison, along with Jamie's 18-year-old son, Jamie was feeling sick but was able to make it to the visiting room. When Rasco returned two days later, she found Jamie in a cell attached to the infirmary. "She was real weak," Rasco said. "She couldn't walk." An infection appeared to have developed at the site of Jamie's catheter, which had filled with blood and pus. Nurses reportedly told Rasco that Jamie should be in the hospital, but the paperwork hadn't been done.

Rasco said that when she entered her daughter's cell, Jamie was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed with dirty linens, near a toilet and wash bowl that had not been cleaned. Prison staff arrived with a plate of food—a hamburger swimming in grease, rice, squash, a piece of cornbread, and a cookie—but Jamie said it looked so bad she couldn't eat it. The doctors at the hospital had given her a list of foods she should eat, including meat, fish, and vegetables, but they were not available, and she did not have permission to purchase food at the prison commissary. (That permission has since been granted.) So Jamie sat on her grimy bed eating a Snickers bar. "She sat right there with me," Rasco said, "and tried to give me a piece." Knowing it was the only nourishment her daughter was likely to have, her mother declined.

Since Rasco's visit, Jamie was back in the hospital for a day after experiencing chest pains following dialysis. Last week, she collapsed and was rushed to hospital, where doctors told the family an infection from an improperly placed shunt had spread through her body. At that point, according to the family, a hospital doctor stepped in and barred the prison from taking Jamie back into her cell, noting that she could die if denied hospital care. As of Wednesday, Jamie is back in prison. Her mother visited her there recently, and according to a person familiar with the case, reported Jamie was very weak and could scarcely walk due to an emergency catheter placed in her groin. She is scheduled to return to the hospital in the next few days, where doctors will prepare her for an operation next week that will attach a permanent fistula or shunt into her body to make kidney dialysis possible. Requests by Mother Jones last week to interview Christopher Epps, the state commissioner of corrections, were denied.

The best medical option for Jamie would be a kidney transplant. Studies show that patients in their thirties who receive successful transplants live considerably longer [6] than those who remain on dialysis. Rasco said that when Gladys Scott, 34, learned of her sister's kidney failure, she immediately offered to give Jamie a kidney. Gladys says that CMCF staff told her that state prisoners don't qualify as donors, and that a transplant would be too expensive, though there is no indication that their statements reflect official MDOC policy. Rasco said that she was hoping the prison would at least let Gladys care for Jamie—feed her and bathe her—as inmates are sometimes allowed to do for ailing relatives. When Rasco last spoke to her, Gladys had not received the necessary permission.

Chokwe Lumumba, a longtime activist and attorney who also serves on the Jackson City Council, is representing the family in the medical matter. In an interview, Lumumba said, "Our first idea is to get some medical attention into the jail. Asking for a private doctor to go in there and see her." But what Jamie really needs, he told me, is "to be in hospital until a kidney transplant."

Singletary, the MDOC's spokesperson, replied to several email inquiries regarding Jamie's care. In one email, she wrote that "MDOC cannot comment on any specific medical condition or treatment for an inmate." In another, she referred to patient privacy laws when asked whether a kidney transplant was being considered for Jamie Scott. Regarding transplants for state prisoners in general, Singletary said that "the state would pay for a needed and necessary transplant" and would do so "when evaluated the Dr. as needed [sic]." Singletary added in another message: "Dialysis units are fully operational with no malfunctions documented in the past several years." She restated the MDOC's policy that "chronic, but stable, medical conditions are not eligible for conditional medical release consideration."

Jamie's care is in the hands of Wexford Health Sources, a Pittsburgh-based private company that provides prison medical services. Wexford's record [7] includes lawsuits by prisoners and current or former employees in at least six states, as well as allegations involving racial discrimination and improper gifts to public officials. In 2006, the Santa Fe Reporter investigated [8] Wexford, which supplied health care to some 6,000 New Mexico prisoners, and discovered widespread complaints, among them that Wexford "refuses to grant off-site visits for seriously ill inmates." The story concluded that "the company's insistence on the bottom line over the care of its charges causes inmates to suffer, sometimes with lasting, even fatal, results. The investigation prompted [9] hearings [10] on prison health care in the New Mexico state legislature, and in December 2006, Governor Bill Richardson ordered [11] the New Mexico Corrections Department to find a new health care provider.

Wexford's reported resistance to allowing inmates access to offsite treatment is particularly relevant to Jamie's case and the potentially dangerous delays she has experienced before being sent to the hospital. The same issue surfaced in a 2002 case in Pennsylvania, where a 26-year-old prisoner named Erin Finley suffered a fatal asthma attack in prison while under Wexford's care. According to the Wilkes Barre Times Herald, Finley's family eventually received a $2.15 million settlement after their lawyer presented evidence showing that "Finley desperately sought medical care for severe asthma she had had since she was a child, but she was repeatedly rejected based on a prison doctor's belief that she was 'faking' her symptoms." On the day of her death, Finley was taken to the prison infirmary several hours after complaining that she was having trouble breathing. A physician's assistant examined her and told the doctor she needed to go to a hospital, "but he refused to see her and left the prison at 2:40 p.m. Twenty minutes later, Finley lost consciousness and stopped breathing," according to the Times Herald. She was finally sent to the hospital—only to be pronounced dead [12].

In Mississippi, where Wexford took over health care for the majority of the state's prisoners in 2006 under a three-year, $95 million contract, the Jackson Clarion Ledger reported [13] in November 2008 that "a search of the federal court system found more than a dozen open lawsuits [7] filed by inmates against MDOC on medical issues." At Central Mississippi Correctional Facility—the prison where the Scott sisters are housed—the sister of a dead inmate said she watched her brother waste away for months from inadequately treated Crohn's Disease, an inflammation of the digestive tract. "He literally starved," Charlotte Boyd said of her brother William Byrd, who died in November 2008. "We watched him turn into a skeleton." Boyd told the Clarion Ledger that people might lack sympathy for prisoners like her brother, a convicted rapist, but "even a dog needs medical attention." She said [7] she believes that "if they are doing him that way, they are going to let somebody else die, too."

In fact, Mississippi has one of the highest prisoner death rates in the nation, according to a review of prison statistics carried out by the Jackson Clarion Ledger's Chris Joyner. The death rate in 2007 was 34 percent higher than in 2006—the year Wexford took over the MDOC's medical care. A December 2007 report conducted by the Mississippi Legislature's Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) concluded that inmates were not receiving timely and adequate medical treatment from Wexford. Among other things, the report found that Wexford "did not meet medical care standards set forth under its contract with the state" and "did not adhere to its own standards in following up on inmates with chronic health problems." When questioned about the report and the high prisoner death rates, the Clarion Ledger reported [14], corrections commissioner Epps "said he is satisfied with the contractor's performance." The budget [15] presented by Epps for the coming fiscal year, which begins on July 1, shows a request of $37.4 million to Wexford for medical services.

In response to questions about care provided by Wexford, MDOC spokesperson Singletary wrote: "Jamie Scott is receiving quality medical care for her condition. Wexford provides basic medical care for all inmates at MDOC prisons. Inmates are sent to hospitals if the need for hospital care arises." Singletary stated that such decisions are made by the attending doctor at the prison, a Wexford employee. Wexford did not respond to requests for comment.

Unpardonable Offenses
On December 23, 1993, Jamie and Gladys Scott, then 22 and 19, were both young mothers with no criminal records. They were at the local mini-mart buying heating fuel when they ran into two young men they knew, who offered to give them a ride. Sometime later that evening, the two young men were robbed [16] by a group of three boys, ages 14 to 18, who arrived in another car, armed with a shotgun.
Jamie and Gladys say that they had already left the scene to walk home when the robbery took place. The state insisted they were an integral part of the crime, and in fact had set up the victims to be robbed. Wherever the truth lies, trial transcripts [16] clearly reveal a case based entirely on the testimony of the victims and two of the teenaged co-defendants—who had turned state's evidence against the Scott sisters in return for eight-year sentences—and a prosecutor who appears determined to demonize [16] the two young women.
Jamie and Gladys were not initially arrested for the crime. But ten months later, the 14-year-old co-defendant—who had been in jail on remand during that time—signed a statement implicating them. When questioned by the Scotts' attorney, the boy confirmed that he had been "told that before you would be allowed to plead guilty" to a lesser charge, "you would have to testify against Jamie Scott and Gladys Scott." The boy also testified that he had neither written nor read the statement before signing it. It had been written for him by someone at the county sheriff's office, he said, and he "didn't know what it was." But he had been told that if he signed it "they would let me out of jail the next morning, and that if I didn't participate with them, that they would send me to Parchman [state penitentiary] and make me out a female"—which he took to mean he would be raped. The 18-year-old co-defendant who testified against the Scott sisters also said he was testifying against the Scotts as a condition of his guilty plea to a lesser charge.
But the prosecutor succeeded in depicting Jamie and Gladys not only as participants in the crime robbery, but as its masterminds—two older women who had lured three impressionable boys into the robbing the victims at gunpoint. (This despite the fact that the oldest of the co-defendants was just a year younger than Gladys.) In his summation, he told the jury:

They thought it up. They came up with the plan. They duped three young teenage boys into going along and doing something stupid that is going to cost them the next eight years of their lives in the penitentiary.
That probably makes me, at least, as mad about this case, simply at least as much, as the fact that two people got robbed. That three young boys were duped into doing the dirty work.

The prosecutor also reminded jurors that while Jamie and Gladys admittedly did not have a weapon, the judge's instructions "tell you that if they encourage someone else or counsel them or aid them in any way in committing this robbery they are equally guilty."
It took the jury just 36 minutes to convict the Scott sisters. And while there was a range of possible sentences for the crime of armed robbery, the state asked for—and received—two consecutive life sentences for each sister. In contrast, Edgar Ray Killen, the man convicted in 2005 of manslaughter in the 1964 deaths of civil rights workers Schwerner, Cheney, and Goodman, received a sentence of 60 years [17]—meted out by the same judge who presided over the trial of Jamie and Gladys.
A direct appeal, carried out by the same lawyers who defended them at trial, failed to overturn [18] the Scotts' conviction, because they were tried for a crime committed before October 1994, when even harsher sentencing rules had been introduced.
During her recent visit to Mississippi, Rasco had the opportunity to confront Epps, the state's corrections commissioner, when she attended a meeting at the state capitol on prison budget cuts. She spotted Epps, whom she recognized from a photograph, walked up to him, and told him about her daughter's poor health and the problems with her medical treatment. According to Rasco, Epps said that he was getting a lot of messages about Jamie, and that he would do what he could obtain a pardon or clemency for the Scott sisters. He told her that he was "giving his word on this," although he had no power to actually make it happen himself.
The person who could make it happen is Governor Haley Barbour, whose past record on pardons does not bode well for Jamie and Gladys. Barbour, who took office in 2004, was initially known for refusing to grant any pardons. In his second term he changed course [19]—but only for a particular set of offenders. A 2008 investigation by the Jackson Free Press found that Barbour had pardoned [20]or suspended the sentences of five murderers, four of whom had killed [21] their former or current wives or girlfriends. All five men were part of a prison program under which they did odd jobs at the governor's mansion. Writing in Slate, Radley Balko, summarized [19] Haley Barbour's pardon policy as "show[ing] mercy only to murderers who work on his house."
Jamie's health crisis has also coincided with a protracted struggle between the governor and state legislators over how to handle budget shortfalls. Throughout, the ambitious Barbour, who is talked about [22] as a possible 2012 presidential candidate [23], has appeared determined to polish his reputation for being both fiscally conservative and tough on crime. With revenue down due to the recession, Barbour implemented a series of deep, across-the-board cuts to state spending in the current fiscal year. He recently vetoed a bill that would have restored some of that funding, primarily to education. At the same time, he asked [24] the legislature to put $16 million back into the Department of Corrections budget. "We have the resources to restore funding to our priorities this year," the governor said in a statement [25], "including law enforcement and corrections."
Against opponents who argued that Mississippi already spends more on prisoners than it does on schoolchildren, Barbour held up the specter of what could happen if prison spending was cut: 3,000 to 4,000 inmates would have to be released early. "The threat of convicted criminals on the streets," the Jackson Free Press wrote [3] in February, "has provided Barbour a rhetorical trump card in budget negotiations." Even in light of such rhetoric, it would be difficult to see the Scott sisters as dangerous or violent offenders, although the state of Mississippi has certainly gone to great lengths to depict them as such.
Nancy Lockhart, a legal investigator and analyst based in South Carolina, has been working with Rasco for several years, organizing a grassroots campaign to secure decent treatment for the Scotts and either a review of their case or some provision for their early release. In interviews last week, Lockhart said that she had helped Rasco appeal to the Justice Department, which informed her that the statute of limitations was up for civil rights claims. They plan to try again, offering proof of earlier letters to the DOJ. They have also organized letter writing and email campaigns to numerous state and MDOC officials, and set up a website. The sisters' group of supporters is growing, but they have received few responses to their pleas.
The Scott sisters will be eligible for parole [26] in 2014, after they have served 20 years—though there is no guarantee they will receive it. In the meantime, Evelyn Rasco is praying for mercy, for a good lawyer—and for her daughter Jamie to live that long.
Updates about the Scott sisters' case can be found on Solitary Watch [27], where an earlier version of this story appeared.

---

Source URL: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/jamie-scott-gladys-scott-haley-barbour-wexford-health

Links:
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-papa/the-scott-sisters-two-lif_b_169468.html
[2] http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/or_20091114_7374.php
[3] http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/behind_barbours_prison_rhetoric_021710/
[4] http://www.my601.com/news/local/story/Evers-Rallies-At-The-Capitol-For-Sick-Inmate/YW1Oe-usD0mpy5qf6yfmxw.cspx
[5] http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/2009/08/letter-from-jamie-scott.html
[6] http://blog.nj.com/ledgerarchives/2009/06/kidney_transplant_vs_dialysis.html
[7] http://www.privateci.org/rap_wexford.html
[8] http://sfreporter.com/stories/hard_cell/594/
[9] http://sfreporter.com/stories/top_10_stories_of_2006_prison_break/1047/
[10] http://sfreporter.com/stories/checkup/700/
[11] http://sfreporter.com/stories/sfr_exclusive_wexford_under_fire/1023/
[12] http://www.privateci.org/pennsylvania.htm
[13] http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2006/07/03/story6.html
[14] http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4211453
[15] http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/FY 2011 Budget Presentation.pdf
[16] http://www.scribd.com/doc/21748820/Scott-transcript
[17] http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-Preacher-Gets-60-Years-in-Prison-for-1964-Civil-Rights-Slayings-66927232.html
[18] http://www.scribd.com/doc/21748684/Scott-Sisters-Opinion
[19] http://www.slate.com/id/2238938/
[20] http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/barbour_helps_domestic_killers_073008/
[21] http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/barbour_gives_relief_to_4_domestic_killers_of_5_total_080408/
[22] http://www.newsweek.com/id/228841
[23] http://motherjones.com/mojo/2009/06/oh-please-let-haley-barbour-run-president
[24] http://desototimes.com/articles/2010/02/27/news/state/doc4b85d6a19ff94674722118.txt
[25] http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=12047247
[26] http://www.mpb.state.ms.us/Parole Board Parole.htm
[27] http://solitarywatch.wordpress.com/

BLACK WOMEN's Defense League: Press Conference Today.

TODAY: NOON

PRESS CONFERENCE: Official "Kick Off" for

"The DIRECT ACTION National Campaign To
FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS NOW !!!!"

FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2010 12 noon

IN FRONT OF THE CAPITOL BUILDING
400 High St. JACKSON, MS

For more information e-mail: nationalmwm@aol.com
Call The Black Women's Defense League @267-636-3802

Official and National Million Woman March & Universal Movements
Black Women's Defense League Unit
P.O. Box 53668
Philadelphia, PA 19105