Incarceration in the United States is Shameful.

The fact, which is shameful, is that the U.S. incarcerates more of its population than any other country. Now, does that mean the U.S. folks are more criminally inclined than other countries folks?

What exactly does it mean? I don’t have any answers. But, not only do we incarcerate more folks per capita than any other country, but we are crude in the way we do it. Our country treats its incarcerated folks in a cruel and dehumanizing way. Could there be a connection to these two facts?

NYS Court of Appeals Chief Justice, Sol Wachtler, discovered the dirty truth when he was incarcerated. He then became a champion of Prison Reform. And, he more than likely, was treated with some minimal deference.

But, I find it horrifying that we should have to be incarcerated to discover that we need to reform our prisons.

Look at Mark Fiore’s take on our situation in a cartoon.

For an example of how our treatment of the incarcerated is not, in anyway, cartoonish read the reporting that Ralph over at Newsfare has been following. Not only is it about our shame in the way we run our prisons and jails, it is a shame that our country has come to this.

Read it and weep:

Five Weeks in an American Prison

America is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, right? And if you do not agree, you are a traitor, right?

I have been following the case of Carol Fisher, who was imprisoned last month for putting up anti-Bush posters in Cleveland, great state of Ohio. Now Carol has been released from prison after having her case accepted for appeal. On July 4th, not knowing she would soon be out of jail, Carol wrote the following:

Hi,

You asked for some particulars about the conditions here at Cuyahoga County Jail. The most troubling situation is with medical needs. Last night a woman had a grand mal seizure just because she was not given her prescribed medication. When she came in several weeks ago, she had her prescribed medicine — and a prior written order from the court requiring strict attention to taking her medication as a safety precaution to herself and others. Yet she was denied the meds for several weeks and then when she got them they still left out some, which led to the seizure, in the common room, collapsing on the concrete floor. This is typical. We watched as another woman declined into madness over the course of several days when she couldn't get her medication for bi-polar disorder. She was unable to sleep, and after 36 hours began to hallucinate and had no concept of where she was. After 3 days of this torture, allowing her to bang on the doors all night calling for attention, they carted her off to the psych ward — totally unnecessary suffering.

Medications are doled out three times a day. But most people say they are not getting what the need, or only partial treatment, and frequently not what they have been prescribed. If you have a health issue, you write your complaint and it is sent to the clinic. Unless it is an emergency, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to be seen. (I was called down sooner because my situation was brought to the warden's attention. But still there were no results for a comparatively simple request). No one has a good thing to say about the clinic or the doctors. One 20 year old woman complained of a sore throat and earaches, and the doctor's comment to her was, "oh, maybe it's because you are swallowing too much come?" This is the attitude you are met with, sick or well.

The last time (the third attempt) I tried to request my herbs and vitamins, I was told that there was "no pharmacological proof that these would be of benefit. It's all just touchy-feely stuff." I was told that a separate visit to the gyn doctor would be necessary for the yeast infection. That infection gave over to a possible bladder infection. I’m guessing that it will be a 2 or 3 week wait for another clinic visit.

There are charges for all medication and treatment. These fees are paid thru commissary. So if you have a medical emergency, like the woman who had the seizure, you can't purchase anything else thru commissary because first the $ go to pay medical fees (even if the emergency was caused by their malpractice).

The clinic is filthy. The health department should go inspect the 7th floor medical clinic. They have 2 holding cells where inmates wait to be seen. You night spend 45 minutes to an hour with other sick inmates in this area about 6'x12'. Bugs are flying in your face. The toilet/sink area in the holding cell stinks of urine and looks like it is never cleaned or disinfected — you might leave the clinic sicker than when you arrived.

Other big issues are the air and water. It’s typical for people to develop respiratory problems and skin problems a day or two after arriving. Bladder infections are also common. You get only 2 cups of coffee, 1/2 pt. milk and 1 cup of koolaid each day. The tap water tastes and smells like sewage — people avoid drinking it and get dehydrated.

Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for two years starting in 1895, and later wrote in his Ballad of Reading Gaol that the water in the prison was slimy. Wilde had terrible diarrhea for weeks after arriving at the prison. Obviously, in our great America, we have come a long way since 1895!

People are always hungry. The meals are what you expect for jail — mostly starch, small portions of processed meat and rotten iceberg lettuce. The fresh fruit is coveted.

Oddly, Wilde also mentioned that in Reading, everyone was always hungry. Of course he was at hard labor, which amounted to systematic torment every day and night. So rations there were intentionally kept short.

I am told that the jail is paid a certain amount of dollars per inmate — in the thousands — but can't verify that. They act like there is no money for anything. We are supposed to be issued t-shirts, socks, underwear but often as with me, there are no t-shirts, socks or even underwear available. Now they want you to buy it thru commissary, if what you wore in doesn't fit regulation. We went two weeks sharing 3 rolls of toilet paper between 30 women. The blankets are full of holes and the sheets are as thin as gauze. The towels are the size of dishtowels. There is no kleenex or paper napkins for meals.

There's no regard for due process or "right to a speedy trial,” or "right to contact your attorney." Those who are appointed public defenders often don't know their attorney's name or have any way of contacting them. If you don't have someone on the outside pulling for you, forget it. The only hope is thru the social worker who comes once a week. The majority of women in here are sitting and waiting for an unknown date for arraignment, for a hearing, for sentencing, or to be assigned a bed at an outside treatment center. People wait weeks and sometimes months even to be charged. When those with public defenders finally go to court they wait all day in holding cells with 2 to 8 others, often you get sent back upstairs with no results — hearing is rescheduled. Obviously you have no control over any of this.

When I told the women that WCW was interested in hearing about conditions inside, these are the main things they emphasized: They were encouraged to know that somebody is listening. Later that day I noticed that 2 women had been motivated to write complaints to the warden and got everyone to sign them — about the bad water and cold showers and lack of toilet paper.

Was Carol actuallly, unbeknownst to her, imprisoned in Mexico, or Albania, or Liberia? No, strangely enough, she was right here in the U.S.A., the greatest country in the world! The water just smelled and tasted like sewage because Carol is such a bad person. A traitor, as I mentioned.

She opposed our Unitary Executive! Think about that. And why? Simply because soldiers and civilians are dying every day, and a country is being destroyed, by Mr. Unitary Executive's stupid, obscenely expensive, completely immoral war for oil and military bases.

I am ashamed on so many levels. If we treat our citizen’s in this manner, what does that say for how we will treat those at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib?

Go ahead, you tell me the distinction!