[Ppnews] Georgia Dept of Corrections Withholding Medical Care to Brutalized Inmate
Political Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Mar 22 12:40:31 EDT 2011
Georgia Dept of Corrections Withholding Medical Care to Brutalized
Inmates, Retaliatory Campaign Continues
By Bruce A. Dixon
Created 03/21/2011 - 19:53
Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 19:53
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/georgia-dept-corrections-withholding-medical-care-brutalized-inmates-retaliatory-campaign-co
From the correspondence of their attorney and the testimony of their
families and friends, details are emerging which indicate a still
ongoing campaign of brutal beatings and withheld medical care in the
wake of the December 2010 inmate strike in Georgia prisons. Does the
fact that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has take charge of
inquiries into the beatings confirm the suspicion of some that the
Department of Corrections is not to be trusted with investigating
itself? And is it time, as Rev. Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary
Peoples Society suggests, for a thoroughgoing yearlong series of
public hearings into all aspects of Georgia's troubled prisons?
Is Georgia's Dept of Corrections Withholding Medical Care To Beaten
Prisoners as Part of Retaliatory Campaign After Dec 2010 Inmate Strike?
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon
"...correctional officers singled out Miguel Jackson and Kelvin
Stevenson, handcuffing and savagely beating both inmates after a
search of their cells."
Has the Georgia Department of Corrections, in the wake of the inmate
strike of December 2010 embarked on a campaign of brutal retaliation
against inmates in its custody? Is the department deliberately
withholding medical treatment to prisoners its officers have
viciously assaulted? Is the removal of Smith Prison's former warden,
and apparent demotion to a superintendent of a probation facility
connected with extensive ongoing investigations into prison abuse and
potential corruption? Have the department's own internal affairs
investigators turned a blind eye to ongoing threats and beatings
inflicted upon prisoners with the apparent blessings of their
supervisors, leaving investigations of these allegations exclusively
to the GBI? And is the Department of Corrections preparing to go
before a pliant southeast Georgia grand jury, where prisons are one
of the region's major industries, in the hope of seeking pre-emptive
indictments against prisoners to shield its officers and supervisors
from civil or criminal prosecution?
The questions around Georgia's Department of Corrections are piling
up. Some of the answers, as well as fuel for brand new questions, are
in the stream of correspondence and open records requests filed
by<http://www.goodgeorgialawyer.com/>
<http://www.goodgeorgialawyer.com/>Mario Williams of Williams Oinonen
LLC [7], attorney for several of the brutalized inmates.
From portions of that correspondence we know that on December 31,
the day after a team of citizen observers were admitted to Smith
Prison to interview staff and inmates, correctional officers singled
out Miguel Jackson and Kelvin Stevenson, handcuffing and savagely
beating both inmates after a search of their cells. Smith suffered
multiple indentations to his head, blunt trauma apparently inflicted
with a hammer-like object resulting in weeks of severe untreated
pain. Georgia Diagnostic officials placed Kelevin in max lock down
with a broken jaw that the officials knew needed to be wired, yet,
waited nearly three weeks to do so, and only wired Kelevin's jaw
after repeated letters from Mr. Stevenson's attorney to DOC officials
requesting that immediate action be taken. And it is clear that
Miguel Jackson and Kelvin Stevenson sustained these injuries not
during the search, but only after they had been removed in handcuffs
from their cells.
We know that all the fruitful investigations and arrest warrants for
guards thus far were conducted and sworn out not by the Department of
Corrections' internal affairs officers, but by the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation. And we understand that the former warden at Smith
State prison has been inexplicably transferred and demoted.
We know that Kelvin Stevenson and Miguel Jackson were denied doctor
visits, urgently needed examinations and access to their own medical
records for weeks after the assault despite daily complaint of
hearing and memory problems, as well as problems with vision and
other dangerous symptoms. The correspondence also documents a series
of dire and terroristic threats made on multiple occasions by Jackson
State correctional officers. After his attorney's repeated complaints
to Ricky Myrick of DOC's Internal Investigations Unit, one of the
guards making said threats was finally transferred out of the wing,
but no other action was taken against him. The correctional officer
continues to incite other inmates against Miguel Jackson by spreading
rumors that he is a snitch.
"Founded by ex-offenders in Alabama, The Ordinary Peoples Society has
worked with prisoners, their families and communities for more than
ten years in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana."
"Over the last three months the attorney for the prisoner's families
has had to send a daily stream of letters, faxes, phone calls and
document requests, visits and other inquiries to uncover and address
the denial of medical care to the beaten prisoners, along with the
facts of their cases," declared Rev. Kenneth Glasgow
of<http://www/wearetops.org> <http://www/wearetops.org>TOPS, The
Ordinary Peoples Society [8]. "The Department of Corrections has
dragged its feet at every opportunity during this time. The fact that
GBI has had to take charge of investigating the vicious assaults of
correctional officers and their supervisors upon prisoners is a clear
admission on the part of state government that the Department of
Corrections is unable or unwilling to uphold the laws it's supposed to enforce.
"So later this year<http://www.wearetops.org/>
<http://www.wearetops.org/>TOPS [9] is taking the lead in convening a
series of public hearings throughout the state in which we will
examine the way Georgia's prisons operate, and specifically look into
the wave of beatings, retaliations and cover ups that followed the
inmate strike of December 2010."
TOPS seems eminently qualified to lead such a public inquiry. In the
decade since its founding The Ordinary Peoples Society has stood with
and for prisoners, their families and communities in Florida,
Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, both on the level of individual and
collective self-help, as well as advocacy on the level of public
policy and public education. TOPS is working closely with the
attorney for the families of prisoners Miguel Jackson, Kelvin
Stevenson,<http://blackagendareport.com/content/arrested-georgia-correctional-officer-oversaw-vicious-beating-prisoner-%E2%80%9C-his-capacity%E2%80%9D-super>
<http://blackagendareport.com/content/arrested-georgia-correctional-officer-oversaw-vicious-beating-prisoner-%E2%80%9C-his-capacity%E2%80%9D-super>Terrance
Dean [10], and other recent victims of unlawful violence on the part
of Georgia correctional officers.
"We found out about TOPS from talking to the families of other
prisoners," Delma Jackson, the wife of Miguel Jackson told Black
Agenda Report. "They told us that TOPS would work with us and stand
with us to get the justice we need, both in prison and afterward. If
there's no jobs or education there's not much for those who come out
of prison, no way for them to support families and build new lives."
"Right now our prisons are making visitation and contact with
families unnecessarily difficult and expensive," Rev. Glasgow told
Black Agenda Report. "DOC charges the families excessive amounts for
phone calls out of its prisons. It levies fines from inmate accounts
--- from the money sent by their families --- for a host of offenses,
users fees, fines, what have you, without any published schedule of
fees or fines, and no public transparency whatsoever. And we have
allowed private, for profit companies, which for all we know are big
political contributors, to reap millions a year from some of the
state's poorest citizens --- those with relatives in prisons --- off
money transfers to inmates to and phone calls from prisoners."
When you add this to the lack of educational opportunities in and
after prison, there is ample reason for a year-long series of
observer visits and public hearings on how Georgia operates is
prisons. One in thirteen Gerogia adults is currently locked up or on
paper," concluded Glasgow.
"That's a crime, and the public discussion on how to solve it cannot
be led by the people who gave us, and who profit from this
dysfunctional system. TOPS is committed to convening and facilitating
real public hearings on Georgia's prisons and their impact on our
larger communities. That is a discussion which cannot be held without
the voices of the formerly incarcerated, our families, and our
communities being heard. TOPS and our allies are committed to making
that happen"
Bruce Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report, and based in
Marietta GA where he is a state committee member of the Georgia Green
Party. He can be reached at
bruce.dixon(at)<http://blackagendareport.com/>blackagendareport.com [11].
----------
Source URL:
<http://blackagendareport.com/content/georgia-dept-corrections-withholding-medical-care-brutalized-inmates-retaliatory-campaign-co>http://blackagendareport.com/content/georgia-dept-corrections-withholding-medical-care-brutalized-inmates-retaliatory-campaign-co
Links:
[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/ga-inmate-strike
[2] http://blackagendareport.com/category/life-america/georgia
[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/mass-incarceration
[4] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/prisons-and-jails
[5] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/ordinary-peoples-society
[6]
http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/jackson_stevenson_02.jpg
[7] http://www.goodgeorgialawyer.com/
[8] http://www/wearetops.org
[9] http://www.wearetops.org/
[10]
http://blackagendareport.com/content/arrested-georgia-correctional-officer-oversaw-vicious-beating-prisoner-"-his-capacity"-super
[11] http://blackagendareport.com/
[12]
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