Scott Watch: Contact MS NAACP.

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

from Free the Scott Sisters-------------------------

Greetings all,

Mrs. Rasco recently learned that Jamie's condition is unchanged and that when last they spoke she was being worked up for a possible urinary tract infection.  She was mentally strong, however, and very grateful that her mother and supporters are sticking by she and Gladys through all that they have suffered.

MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps, whom we've been contacting for months regarding the disastrous level of Jamie's care and who's  been steadily misinforming people that she's not as sick as we've regularly documented, even after she had to be hospitalized several  times for high toxicity and infections that almost took her life, is  being HONORED as the KEYNOTE SPEAKER by the Jackson County, MS NAACP at their upcoming banquet on April 30, 2010!

Link: http://www.gulflive.com/sendthispage/sendthispage.ssf?http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-living/2010/04/christopher_epps_to_speak_at_freedom_fund_banquet.html

How could this branch, which is actually portrayed as an activist branch that has courageously taken on the police dept. and most recently the fire dept., completely ignore the sickeningly outrageous case of the Scott Sisters!  And to add insult to injury, laud Christopher Epps, who covers up the low-budget, some-timey care that denies Jamie Scott regular medications, regular dialysis, and the specific diet she has been told repeatedly that she needs to maintain any semblance of health. The medical care is said by inmates there to be abysmal on every level, and particularly so for Jamie Scott, with end stage kidney failure!

This is a smack in the face to Mrs. Rasco, to whom Epps made false promises of relief for Jamie, as well as Jamie and Gladys Scott, their  supporters, and the community at large!  This organization should be fighting on the front lines for justice for the Scott Sisters and not inviting Christopher  Epps to some banquet!  And what of the  National NAACP, why are they NOT responding to the many requests that have been made of them for the past 15 years to become involved in this case!

This is the final indignity and must not go unchallenged.  This bureaucrat should not pompously sit up there picking his teeth and pontificating while Jamie Scott lay suffering in one of the very prison cells that he oversees, a prison cell that she (nor her sister) should even be in!

Please contact the president of the Jackson County, Mississippi NAACP, Curly Clark, and ask him:

* Why is the NAACP distinguishing a man who would allow a woman to deteriorate in a prison on his watch until she is now at end stage of kidney failure?  

* Why does the NAACP want to hear from a man that won't permit this same, very seriously ill woman to be housed in the Medical Bldg. on the grounds of that facility so that she can be cared for by her sister and instead has her housed in a mold-infested, damp, breeding ground for the infections which have repeatedly threatened her life?  

Ask Jackson County NAACP President, Curly Clark, and State President, Derrick Johnson, why they are not involved in the fight for justice for the Mississippi Scott Sisters, a shocking and internationally known atrocity occurring right in their own backyard! 

This entire event should be protested if Epps remains on the program and attendees given refunds for their $30 tickets!

Curly Clark, President, Jackson County NAACP 228-762-9692 

Derrick Johnson, State President Mississippi State Conference NAACP

1072 West J.R. Lynch Street

Jackson, MS 39203

Phone: 601.353.6906

Fax: 601.353.1565

Website: www.naacpms.org

===================

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Subscribe to our group:  Send a blank e-mail to scottsistersupdates-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and share information!
Facebook Group: Free The Scott Sisters
Facebook Fan Page: Free The Scott Sisters
Free the Scott Sisters Petition:  http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Free-Jamie-Gladys/index.html
Free the Scott Sisters Flyer: http://www.scribd.com/doc/28847395/Scott-Sisters-Flyer-Black-23-Mar-2010-20
Legal Transcripts: http://www.scribd.com/Scott%20Sisters

SCOTT WATCH: Urgent Hospitalization Needed.

Called Commissioner Epps, Dr. Perry, and the US Department of Justice, leaving messages for all. Specifically asked the DOJ to initiate a CRIPA Investigation of the MDOC immediately re: women's health care.


More people need to do that - call the DOJ and ask for a CRIPA investigation, telling them why. CRIPA is the "Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act", the DOJ HAS to investigate if given good cause to believe that  a pattern of violating civil rights is occurring (cruel and unusual health care is a constitutional violation that they are responsible for), and the pressure of an investigation may help to save Jamie's life right now- as well as the other women suffering like her behind those walls.


So, call them, fax the DOJ copies of documents we can pull off line about Jamie's health care crises, etc. - then they have paper copy in hand, with paper trails leading right to them, which no one can deny. All of us are witnesses, from wherever we are in the world. It's astonishing to think that the DOJ could claim to be so blind to Mississippi in 2010.


Too bad Holder's up for the new Supreme Court position. That makes it all the less likely, ironically, that he'll exhibit courage and liberate or protect anyone right now. So, we need to put the pressure on.


In solidarity with the women in Mississippi's prisons, from your free friends and radicals in Phoenix. Rock on.


Let's get Jamie through this, and be sure not to leave any of the other women fighting with her behind. 

Peg

---------------------- http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com-------------------------

4/13 URGENT JAMIE SCOTT MEDICAL UPDATE!
 

Jamie Scott is again in medical crisis and we are asking everyone reading these words to push the prison to hospitalize her!

Jamie woke up last night in a puddle of blood from the painful catheter in her groin area. The catheter had green liquid, showing signs of infection. The guard called the doctor and was told to clean her up, change her bandage, give her a Tylenol, and send her back to her unit without anyone examining her at all! When she arrived back at the building she began vomiting uncontrollably and is still unable to keep anything down as far as we know. The most recent update today is that she is in the prison clinic and not in the hospital.

We need the prison to know that we are on top of what's going on and that Jamie Scott needs to be hospitalized now.

More updates will be sent out as soon as they come available.

Christopher Epps, Commissioner of Prisons for the State of Mississippi
601-359-5600
CEPPS@mdoc.state.ms.us
723 North President Street
Jackson, MS 39202

Emmitt Sparkman, Deputy Commissioner
(601) 359-5610
esparkman@mdoc.state.ms.us

Margaret Bingham, Superintendent of Central Mississippi Corrections Facility
(601) 932-2880
mbingham@mdoc.state.ms.us
FAX: (601) 664-0782
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, Mississippi 39208
Dr. Gloria Perry, Medical Department (601) 359-5155
gperry@mdoc.state.ms.us
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)

Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
HOTLINE: 202-353-1555
PHONE: 202-514-2000
202-307-6777 fax
PLEASE CONTACT POLITICIANS AND MEDIA

A complete list of politicians to send Scott Sisters info to is at:
http://www.commoncause.org/siteapps/advocacy/search.aspx?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4860375

A complete list of the media that we have listed (feel free to send to any others that
you wish to!) is at http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/2010/01/119-emergency-update.html

Scott Watch: Emergency Surgery. Demand Hospitalization.

Mrs. Rasco received word last evening that Jamie was rushed to the hospital in terrible pain with the intention of getting her pain stabilized and returning her directly back. She was examined by a doctor who determined that infection had spread through her entire body and that the veins in her neck had collapsed. He said he would not treat her pain and then release her back to the prison as they wanted because she would die from the blockages and the constant catheter infections. The doctor angrily stated that the MDOC had dropped the ball when it came to Jamie's medical care. He said she should have been admitted long-term to clear up her infection when she was previously sent there instead of quickly returning her back to the prison on antibiotics. He scheduled her to have emergency surgery to insert a shunt into her groin for the purposes of dialysis.

As of the time of this posting Mrs. Rasco doesn't know if Jamie is still in the hospital or back at the prison, as usual the prison is not forthcoming with information and the family is in a constant state of anxiety and extreme worry. All we can say with certainty is that the behavior of the prison is what is truly criminal when it comes to the medical care of Jamie Scott. The prison is well aware of everything that has been happening and is taking far too many risks with Jamie's life.

=========

PLEASE CONTACT POLITICIANS AND MEDIA

Congressman Bennie Thompson

3607 Medgar Evers Blvd.
Jackson, MS 39213
601-946-9003(ph)
601-982-5337 (fx)
Benniethompson@mail.house.gov

Congressman John Conyers
2426 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
Ph: 202-225-5126
Fax: 202-225-0072

John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

(More listed at http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/2010/01/119-emergency-update.html)

Who cares about diabetes and women in prison?

Here's the latest on Jamie and Gladys - and Mrs. Rasco: I'm so glad she got in to Mississippi and saw not only her daughters but looked Commissioner Epps in the eye, as well. What awesome women - all the folks who are involved in organizing this campaign are amazing.  It actually looks like we're making some headway. These women are led by Good Orderly Direction - I think their driver is Divine - so let's keep following their lead. Everyone from white evangelicals  to the Black Women's Defense League will be shoulder to shoulder at the Governor's mansion one of these days, I suppose... 

Speaking of: if anyone out there is up on the religious right these days, let Pat Robertson know that Governor Barbour - and Jamie - really need a letter from him and his friends about the power one demonstrates in the exercise of mercy. He seemed to have a real spiritual awakening around the execution of Karla Faye Tucker. I think there's an opening in his heart now, where there was once nothing but wall. I hope it's open to women like Jamie Scott, too. 

Me, I'm still out for justice, because I don't know if Mississippi is a state of much mercy. If I had the money I'd drive out there myself and do a report for the Nation or Mother Jones or someone - a good investigative journalist could end up doing a lot of the footwork this family needs, anyway, to make the truth visible. That alone should tell you something: how often are imprisoned people who are really "guilty" having friends and family put their legal documents on the internet, letting anyone in the world, literally, dig even deeper into their lives?

C'mon, Mass Media: why haven't you people picked up on the Scott Sisters, yet? Where is Oprah, anyway? Jamie needs proper care and these women should be free. Progressive Press: you have no excuse. This should be headlining everywhere. Race, Gender, Class – that’s the stuff that determines our access to quality health care and insurance on the outside. Criminal status just puts the nail in the coffin earlier in life. 


Why is there STILL so much disparity in the criminal justice and health care systems?  

It will be a huge disservice to us all if Mass Media ignores the Scotts' story until something even worse happens, and it's too late to save Jamie. You've at least got to see what's happening here - more websites are watching, more coalitions are forming - and there really isn't time to waste, given Jamie's rapid deterioration and the conditions of her confinement.

 There's a hundred ways to cover this. You can do a partner piece on diabetes in prisons that encompasses Native America's experience, too: look at Leonard Peltier's struggles to get proper nutrition and care, and he's regarded internationally as a political prisoner and a hero of indigenous movements. If that's what Leonard gets, what kind of health care access do the invisible Indians get? Keep in mind that I'm asking the DOJ to do a CRIPA investigation, too - and that Barbour may be running for president in 2012. There are all sorts of stories buried in this one...but the most important one right now is Jamie's.

As for the little people doing the real work: if you write to Epps, reaffirm his promise to Mrs. Rascoe and thank him for making sure she could see Jamie and Gladys. He does have the power to move Jamie to the hospital any time he wants; his hands aren’t completely tied, as he’d like us to believe. He just doesn’t want to set a precedent that has every prisoner’s family knocking at his door. 

Now, if this was a "medical release," her freedom, as I understand it, actually would be up to him, not the governor - that was the case with the last guy we blogged on from Mississippi. Dr. Perry had to make a recommendation about the request for medical release, then it ended up on Epps' desk for the final word...Why couldn't Jamie get one of those? I'll find the criteria for that and post it here later. Maybe that’s just the last step before the governor. I’m still pretty illiterate about compassionate releases, commutations, pardons and the like, considering how much I write about them. Every state is different, too.

Note the call to get health care and medical organizations involved. Anyone else contact the Mississippi Kidney Foundation this week? If you're not from Mississippi, call the national chapter or your own. Mississippi’s hasn’t responded to me. I don’t even know if they’re working on this. 

It sounds like Jamie’s renal failure is secondary to her diabetes. Diabetes is such a major health problem in prisons because of the diet served there, and because it's fed to the disproportionately high concentration of people serving long sentences who are most vulnerable to develop diabetes - such as Native Americans and African Americans. For people of all colors, I believe (and those with none), diabetes is also disproportionately among the poor. 

Not surprisingly, diabetes develops in prisoners younger and kills patients faster inside than it does on the outside. I'd think there'd be a few organizations interested in studying why that is, what the racial, gender and class discrepancies are all about, and how co-morbidity and mortality rates for diabetic prisoners can be reduced. Help me find them, folks. 

(That's you I'm talking to, by the way, if you're reading this now. Don't let this be like the famous, brutal murder in the urban apartment complex in which some 35 neighbors heard a woman scream for help for 30 minutes, but no one called 911 or otherwise responded because they all thought someone else would have done so already. You are the ones we're counting on. Do what you can, then let the folks at the Scott Sisters’ blogspot know what you did.)

Those of you with diabetes in your own family, especially, contact the diabetes organizations and tell them you want to know what kind of work they’re doing with/bout prisoners with diabetes, and tell them Jamie’s story. What are they doing in our state? What if Jamie was your daughter or sister or Mom? What will they do to help her? Jamie is precisely the kind of patient who needs the influence of these organizations the most – and the media they would bring.

The American Diabetes Association must have something to say about all this, regardless of what the Kidney Foundation is willing to take on. Here’s the link to Diabetes Advocacy, too. The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors has both a Diabetes Council and a Woman’s Health Council. The contact for both (Denise Cyzman at the DC and Laura Shea at the WHC) should be interested in what the states are doing about treating chronic illnesses – like diabetes - in prison. Ask them what they know about Mississippi – what organizations would be most needed to help the Scotts work through Jamie’s medical issues, as well as explore the overall quality of health care for prisoners there.

May 9-15 is National Women’s Health Week according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, by the way. Start planning to recognize issues in women's health care in prison that week with community health groups. DHHS also has the Minority Women's Health Panel of Experts (there are all sorts of good contacts on that page).

A woman Jamie's age should not be going into renal failure from diabetes unless she wasn't getting adequate help with managing her illness all along. Renal failure and years of dialysis often await people with diabetes - especially those who have had the least ability and resources in their lives to manage their illness. Jamie has had very little power over her daily movements, much less her health care and diet over the past 16 years. 

Wherever you are, though, look first in your own backyard - ask your state and local groups, even your personal physicians, to get involved in issues regarding prisoner health care – then ask them to weigh in on this. They should contact their counterparts in Mississippi and ask them how they’re responding to it – and we should follow up and find out what they’ll be doing for prisoners and families here. They're all connected through national organizations and conferences (contact them, too, at the links above), and I know they've got people who are interested in this very thing. We need to balance them out with radical feminists and patient advocacy groups, too.  

Really, there isn't a single American for whom something might not be at stake in the realm of patient and prisoner rights. What happens next should matter to everyone - diabetes may have its favorites, but it's not limited to people who are poor, black, female, or in prison. I seriously doubt that Arizona's health care resources for prisoners are any more generous than they are in Mississippi - and we have a real knack for wrongful imprisonment - so as I see it, my mom could easily be in Jamie's shoes, too. 

White privilege reduces our chances of being criminalized or imprisoned to begin with, but it doesn’t buy as much in prison: whatever your guilt, income, gender or race, you're just another criminal to the state - a piece of human waste - being warehoused at the cheapest possible rate (at great profit, perhaps, to someone invested in nothing more than our compliance and the cost of our living).

Personally, I believe our prisoners are far from the garbage heap: they're on the front lines, under heavy fire, and what we let happen to them will soon befall the rest of us. We should be thanking many of them for their perseverance, their voice, and their courage. 

So, “ thanks” to all prisoners out there right now who have been fighting for their health care rights – in the process, they have been defending ours, too…that includes Jamie and Gladys.

- Peg.

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

Subject: CHECK IT: 2/20 JAMIE SCOTT UPDATE (Scott Sisters) ~ By Sis Marpessa

Greetings all,

Mrs. Evelyn Rasco has been going non-stop in Mississippi advocating on behalf of her daughters since the 2/17 update, she is absolutely incredible and a force to be reckoned with!

Mrs. Rasco was able to get into see both of her daughters on 2/18. Gladys reports that she is doing OK but is of course greatly concerned about Jamie.  Jamie was able to come to the visiting room and visit with her
mother and son but was very obviously not doing well medically.  She has lost weight and is extremely weak.
The temporary catheter in her neck has been replaced twice but is still malfunctioning with infection in her neck and breast area, which she was able to show her mother evidence of. One of her medications is being denied to her because the state won't pay for it.  Jamie's blood pressure and diabetes are not under control.

As soon as Mrs. Rasco left the prison she attended a meeting of the legislature in the Capitol Bldg. in Jackson dealing with prison budget cuts and other prison-related issues.  She recognized Commissioner Epps from his photo at the prison and walked right up to him and told him all about Jamie's poor condition and shoddy medical treatment.  He stated that he was getting messages from all over the world (thanks to all of you!).  He stated that he was going to do everything that he could to obtain clemency or pardon for the Scott Sisters and that he was giving his word on this, although he had no power to actually make it happen himself.  Dr. Gloria Perry was also there and defended the medical care that Jamie Scott is receiving despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

Mrs. Rasco has done several MS radio shows and even spoke at a high school last night.  She was preparing to return home today but received a call in the middle of last night telling her that she needed to get back to the prison today (2/20) and see about Jamie.  Since today is Jamie's regular visiting day she was able to go right down there to see her. This a.m., however, Jamie was too weak to walk to the visiting room, but Mrs. Rasco was able to go to the infirmary where Jamie is being kept on a hospital bed inside of a cell.

She was horrified at Jamie's living conditions in the infirmary, she could not believe what she saw there.  She stated that there was trash all over the floor.  Jamie's bedding was dirty and her facebowl and toilet were filthy.  Jamie's floor had bags of dirty clothes.  The paint was peeling and the infirmary was nasty.  Jamie told her that the dialysis machine broke down again, this time during her last treatment and that she only received one hour on there.

The nurse said that Jamie needs to be hospitalized RIGHT NOW because of a huge knot of infection that has amassed in her neck. The catheter has drifted and is again non-functional.  The nurse is giving her antibiotics and said she should have been hospitalized yesterday but that the paperwork had not been completed.  She is hoping that Jamie will get sent back to the hospital on Monday.  The food in the tray that was delivered to Jamie while Mrs. Rasco was there was swimming in water and unfit to eat.  Jamie refused it and said she has not been receiving the nutrition that dialysis patients are supposed to have.

One of Mrs. Rasco's legal advisers, Chokwe Lumumba, urged that we strive to get support from a medical foundation or institution that can help to get Jamie moved into a medical facility ASAP in order to save her life. The infections and her horrible living conditions, her lack of consistent dialysis, medications, and nutrition and her serious illnesses have left Jamie barely able to walk.
If you are able to help Jamie purchase her food, or even would like to put money on Gladys' books, please go to http://www.facebook.com/l/94600;www.inmatedeposits.com and register for Access Corrections to help them.

Jamie Scott #19197
CMCF2/A-Bldg.
B Zone, Bed 196
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, MS 39288-8550

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

Please continue to contact the Governor, prison officials, politicians and media, there is a lot of renewed focus on the case of the Scott Sisters and Mrs. Rasco said that information is going out all over Mississippi radio.  Please continue to sign onto the compassionate release petition for Jamie at http://www.facebook.com/l/94600;tinyurl.com/yfrj5g6

we have almost reached our goal of 1,000 signatures!

There are some upcoming events for the Scott Sisters, including a gathering at the Capitol in Jackson, MSThe MWM/Black Women's Defense League rally is being organized by Empress Chi for March 26, 2010.  The  "FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS" Protest Demonstration and Rally will also help to further the building of the "FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS" DIRECT ACTION TASK FORCE that is being coordinated by the BWDL.  To get involved with the FTSS-Task Force or for more information call 267-636-3802 or e-mail: nationalmwm@aol.com or BWDL7@aol.com.

Please subscribe to the mailing list and check the website and Facebook Group for updates.  Mrs. Rasco is still unable to respond to e-mails as she is away from her computer, so please send urgent messages to nattyreb@gmail.com until she returns.

Visit and LINK to: http://www.facebook.com/l/94600;www.freethescottsisters.blogspot.com being organized by Bro. Lumumba for next week.

.
Subscribe to our group:  Send a blank e-mail to scottsistersupdates-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and share information!

Facebook Group: Free The Scott Sisters
Compassionate Release Petition: http://www.facebook.com/l/94600;www.scribd.com/doc/26252282/COMPASSIONATE-RELEASE-FOR-JAMIE-SCOTT

Free the Scott Sisters Petition:  http://www.facebook.com/l/94600;www.ipetitions.com/petition/Free-Jamie-Gladys/index.html

Free the Scott Sisters Flyer: http://www.facebook.com/l/94600;www.scribd.com/doc/22154749/Scott-Sisters-Flyer

Legal Transcripts: http://www.facebook.com/l/94600;www.scribd.com/Scott%20Sisters

Scott Watch: Mississippi – State of Grace?

This in from the Scott Sisters Campaign today:

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

2/8 Addendum -- Mrs. Rasco reports that the building Jamie is in has had no heat or hot water all weekend! Still no word of if/when she will be taken to the hospital.
-------------

2/7 COMPASSIONATE RELEASE FOR JAMIE SCOTT!

Greetings all,

Please continue to call and write to support the Scott Sisters and particularly Jamie Scott during this period of medical emergency. Specifically this week we are asking that a special focus be placed on COMPASSIONATE RELEASE for Jamie Scott through the governor's office. As was reported on 2/5/10 the level of medical care that she is receiving in that prison is ATROCIOUS, she missed a dialysis treatment!, has a possibly infected and malfunctioning temporary catheter, and just prior to that went into shock due to malpractice on the part of the prison medical staff!

Jamie was told that she would be going back to the hospital for surgery to have a permanent shunt installed on Monday or Tuesday, but we don't know that this will occur or if it will even be appropriately used given the circumstances surrounding the failures of the prison to properly care for her to date. The family and legal supporters are pressing to get Jamie released based on her frighteningly declining health ever since her initial imprisonment!

Executive Paralegal with Advocate Associates, Sis. Shakeerah Abdul al-Sabuur, has filed for Compassionate Release for Jamie and we need to request that Gov. Haley Barbour act on that and immediately release JAMIE SCOTT, #19197, from CMCF. He is under a budget crisis, has stated that releasing inmates from the prisons are a possibility, and has released inmates in the past. Jamie Scott must get the medical care that she needs to survive OUTSIDE of those prison walls! The link to the paperwork that was submitted is at http://www.scribd.com/doc/26252282/COMPASSIONATE-RELEASE-FOR-JAMIE-SCOTT.

The other contacts are definitely still very important, particularly mainstream media, but we absolutely must make certain that the governor's office hears and reads from a whole lot of people to bolster the efforts of our legal advisers. PLEASE PASS THE WORD AND HELP TO LIGHT UP THAT OFFICE THIS WEEK!
Thank you so much, everyone!
---------------------
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)

CLICK FOR PRISON/MEDIA/POLITICAL CONTACT LIST

Imprisoned Patients: Appeal to Mississippi Kidney Foundation.

This is the slightly edited version of the letter I sent off to the Mississippi Kidney Foundation today, as well as to some media connections and other possible allies. It's been posted at Mississippi Prison Watch as well.

I've been ill for awhile and may not be following up for a few days, and worry that everyone will just think someone else is acting on this - in which case no one will - so everyone needs to, and report what you've done to the Scott Sisters' campaign. Please use this post and email copies of this letter wherever else you can think of that these concerns need to be raised. Just click on the email icon at the bottom. 

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

Margaret Jean Plews

Prison Abolitionist

Arizona Prison Watch

1809 East Willetta St.

Phoenix, AZ 85006

480-580-6807

prisonabolitionist@gmail.com

February 7, 2010

Gail G. Sweat, Executive Director

Lynda Richards, Director of Patient Services

Mississippi Kidney Foundation

3000 Old Canton, Suite 110

Jackson, MS 39216

PO Box 55802

Jackson, MS 39296

Dear Gail and Lynda,

I wasn't sure who best to address this to, but didn't want it getting lost in the void, so I'm sending it to you both if I can find your emails, and via snail mail. This is a fairly complicated story, so if it's new to you, hold on. I’m also passing it on to a few other folks, in hopes they might have some ideas or be able to offer support. I really hope that once we figure out exactly what’s going on with care for kidney patients in the Mississippi Department of Corrections (which is contracting medical services to Wexford) Professor Capron in particular will help facilitate some kind of critical analysis and dialogue about the ethical issues involved in treating kidney patients who are prisoners – this is not an issue unique to Mississippi. That’s just where Mrs. Rasco’s daughter happens to be dying right now.

I don't know if anyone has already contacted you about Jamie Scott or issues with dialysis care for Mississippi state prisoners in general yet. I don't know my way around your state: your politics, charities, media, etc., and have already stepped on a few toes. I'm a prisoner rights activist in Arizona (from Michigan, actually) with a few websites critiquing the prison industrial complex, and I hear from prisoners and families in trouble all the time, including the Scotts, asking for help by amplifying their voices and reaching out to others. The Scott family has been working on getting these women exonerated for awhile, but now there's a crisis with one of the sisters going into renal failure. They really need your help. 

I'm concerned that the difficulty the family is having getting a response on Jamie's care is partly because it's not clear they or Jamie really know what her diagnosis or prognosis is. I think they're all so terribly traumatized, and now desperately afraid that they'll lose Jamie after working so hard for long on her freedom. But they need to be able to articulate what's going on medically in order to know what kind of treatment to ask for, or who to turn to for help.

As is so often the fashion when others control our health care, poor women (especially of color) are the last to know about our medical conditions and treatment options, and we pay the highest price for it. I'm worried that Jamie's criminalized, marginalized status already places her at considerable risk; not many people value the humanity or gifts of a woman doing double-life in a Mississippi state prison. Add to that her race, poverty, family's limited resources; some would say she's lucky to get dialysis at all.

We need to get someone in there who can both educate Jamie and her family about kidney disease, what appropriate care is (which for all I know she’s actually receiving, depending on her diagnosis and prognosis), and how she can assert her rights as a patient while still a prisoner, as well as someone who can help get the resources needed into the MDOC to provide the rest of these women with appropriate medical care. I'm an antagonist, an outside instigator, an organizer - this family needs you, not me, fighting for them on the local level. I’ve probably already pissed a few people off.

Besides, I’m also fairly ill myself right now, and don’t know that I can see this family through.

This also isn't about crime and punishment or “prisoner rights” so much as it’s about who we decide is deserving and undeserving of resources we’ve decided to ration in this world – resources that could be made more plentiful - and therefore whom is allowed to suffer, and for whom is such suffering “unconstitutional”. I know that’s pretty loaded, but I don’t know how you can possibly avoid addressing that in your business, anyway. It seems like a conversation that the larger community should be having together, with the Scott Sisters and their mom participating. Especially now, with state services for the poor being hit so hard across the country.

If you can somehow manage to lead the community in an outreach to that prison – refusing to take no for an answer when you knock on the door - and help connect the women in there with the same kind of educational, medical and peer support that free women might be able to access, you could make an impact on women’s health care in jails and prisons that I could never equal in all my years of community activism. It will improve their likelihood of survival while in prison, their success transitioning back to the community once released from prison, and their sense of human connection if it turns out that they are going to be dying in prison. At least then, perhaps, their last days will be witnessed, and even if they have no family left to grieve them, someone can speak to their struggle and courage. That matters a great deal to people; most of us take it for granted, though.

You are in a unique position to command the attention and respect of people who will just otherwise ignore this family and let Jamie suffer and die. I'm not suggesting that you charge in with any accusations - just please find out from the Scotts' what's up, try to find out what health care access is really like for women there, and step back and assess the situation with the MDOC and Wexford(chronically ill patients who could be maintained for years are a drag on profits, if allowed to linger.)

 I suspect diabetes is a major issue for many men and women in prison alike. I have a number of links to research and documents about prisoner health care on my websites (prison Abolitionist and Arizona Prison Watch). Whatever you think you can do yourselves, please see who else there might be natural allies for those women fighting for better health care, and speak publicly to the issue of the treatment of prisoners with kidney disease. I don’t know who else will speak for their health care rights; I’m afraid no one even notices them there. Many more may step up if you do, first, however.

You would be able to articulate the consequences of Jamie not receiving proper care, in a way unlike prisoner activists - most of whom don't know what it feels like to be toxic and dying. You could gauge better than I could whether or not withholding certain medical options might constitute cruel and unusual punishment; you don’t have to be an attorney to question that – the Supreme Court says the definition changes as society morally evolves. I hope we’ve all come at least this far by now. If Jamie will authorize the prison/medical services provider to discuss her diagnosis, prognosis, and course of planned treatment with you with her, then you would know whether or not she’s been offered treatment that’s consistent with community standards of care. Most importantly, perhaps, if Jamie and her family are at least well-informed, then perhaps they do not need to be quite so afraid. There is already so much for them to be afraid of.

At the very least these women should be fully informed about their illness, treatment options, and rights – not reminded of how expendable and of little value their lives are. They matter to the people who love them, and to those whose lives they’ve touched in positive ways. We have much to be thankful for, out here, to the good souls in prison for life who help others make it through intact, and not on a track right back there. It may well be that Jamie's crisis is the catalyst that gets so much needed focus on the critically and terminally ill in prison; without her voice, countless others may suffer in invisibility. And her example of survival and resistance is an inspiration to other women living and dying there, too.

There’s more history on this at  Mississippi Prison Watch– the latest post announcing my intent to contact you is in email format below. I received the accompanying note from Jamie Scott's mother, though, and wanted you to see it - to hear the urgency in her voice as she's trying to save her daughter's life. I need to make a personal connection with someone there, to know whether or not you’ll step up on this as an advocate for Jamie and the other women there in terms of their right to access health care. The whole issue of whether or not the state would allow a prisoner to donate a kidney to another prisoner troubles me. Especially while both prisoners still have wrongful conviction cases hanging out there - that seems like taking the chance of executing the innocent.

Please drop us a line and let us know if you can do anything to help on this matter (Call me if you need to if I don’t respond to email; I may not make it back to my computer in the next few days.). You don’t need to comment on their convictions or sentences – no one should be made to suffer needlessly or subjected to substandard medical care when subject to the total custody and control of the state. That's not a medical or legal judgment - it's a moral one. It takes mainstream Americans to say that for anyone to listen, however – not left-wing radicals like me.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Peggy Plews

480-580-6807

cc: Professor Alexander Capron, National Kidney Foundation

     American Association of Kidney Patients

     National Kidney Disease Education program

     Mississippi ACLU

     (and several Mississippi and national media outlets)

 

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)

Prison Abolitionist http://prisonabolitionist.blogspot.com

Arizona Prison Watch http://arizonaprisonwatch.blogspot.com

Free Marcia Powell http://freemarciapowell.blogspot.com