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<h1><font size=4><b>Georgia Dept of Corrections Withholding Medical Care
to Brutalized Inmates, Retaliatory Campaign
Continues</b></font></h1><font size=3>By <i>Bruce A. Dixon<br>
</i>Created <i>03/21/2011 - 19:53<br>
</i>Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 19:53<br>
</font><font size=1>
<a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/georgia-dept-corrections-withholding-medical-care-brutalized-inmates-retaliatory-campaign-co" eudora="autourl">
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/georgia-dept-corrections-withholding-medical-care-brutalized-inmates-retaliatory-campaign-co<br>
<br>
</a></font><font size=3>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?<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#B80047"><b>Is
Georgia's Dept of Corrections Withholding Medical Care To Beaten
Prisoners as Part of Retaliatory Campaign After Dec 2010 Inmate
Strike?<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#B80047">by BAR
managing editor Bruce A. Dixon<br><br>
</b></font><div align="center">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#800000">“</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#800000"><i>...correctional
officers singled out Miguel Jackson and Kelvin Stevenson, handcuffing and
savagely beating both inmates after a search of their cells.”<br><br>
</i></font></div>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>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?<br>
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</font><a href="http://www.goodgeorgialawyer.com/">
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
</a></font><a href="http://www.goodgeorgialawyer.com/">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#000099"><u>Mario Williams of
Williams Oinonen LLC</a></u></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
[7]</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>, attorney for several of
the brutalized inmates.<br><br>
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
<i>after</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>they had been removed in
handcuffs from their cells.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
</font><div align="center">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3 color="#800000">“</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#800000"><i>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.”<br><br>
</i></font></div>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>“</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>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</font><a href="http://www/wearetops.org">
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>
</a></font><a href="http://www/wearetops.org">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#000099"><u>TOPS, The
Ordinary Peoples
Society</a></u></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
[8]</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>. “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.<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>“</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>So later this
year</font><a href="http://www.wearetops.org/">
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>
</a></font><a href="http://www.wearetops.org/">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#000099"><u>TOPS</a></u>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
[9]</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>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.”<br><br>
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,</font>
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/arrested-georgia-correctional-officer-oversaw-vicious-beating-prisoner-%E2%80%9C-his-capacity%E2%80%9D-super">
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>
</a></font>
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/arrested-georgia-correctional-officer-oversaw-vicious-beating-prisoner-%E2%80%9C-his-capacity%E2%80%9D-super">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#000099"><u>Terrance
Dean</a></u></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
[10]</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>, and other recent
victims of unlawful violence on the part of Georgia correctional
officers.<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>“</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>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.”<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>“</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>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.”<br><br>
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.
<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>“</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>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”<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#800000"><i>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)</font><a href="http://blackagendareport.com/">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#0000FF"><u>
blackagendareport.com</a></u></i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
[11]</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#800000"><i>.<br>
</i></font><hr>
<font size=3><b>Source URL:</b>
<a href="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</a>
<br><br>
<b>Links:<br>
</b>[1]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/ga-inmate-strike" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/ga-inmate-strike<br>
</a>[2]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/category/life-america/georgia" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/category/life-america/georgia<br>
</a>[3]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/mass-incarceration" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/mass-incarceration<br>
</a>[4]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/prisons-and-jails" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/prisons-and-jails<br>
</a>[5]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/ordinary-peoples-society" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/ordinary-peoples-society<br>
</a>[6]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/jackson_stevenson_02.jpg" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/jackson_stevenson_02.jpg<br>
</a>[7]
<a href="http://www.goodgeorgialawyer.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.goodgeorgialawyer.com/<br>
</a>[8]
<a href="http://www/wearetops.org" eudora="autourl">
http://www/wearetops.org<br>
</a>[9]
<a href="http://www.wearetops.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.wearetops.org/<br>
</a>[10]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/arrested-georgia-correctional-officer-oversaw-vicious-beating-prisoner-“-his-capacity”-super" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/content/arrested-georgia-correctional-officer-oversaw-vicious-beating-prisoner-“-his-capacity”-super<br>
</a>[11]
<a href="http://blackagendareport.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://blackagendareport.com/<br>
</a>[12]
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