From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: NEWS:Solidarity for Prisoners w/AIDS
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 19:17:13 GMT

Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


Growing Solidarity for Prisoners with AIDS

By Brenda Sandburg
San Francisco

One hundred people demonstrated outside the California Medical
Facility in Vacaville Dec. 5 to protest the horrific conditions
for prisoners with AIDS. Chanting, blowing whistles and sirens,
the protesters demanded that the facility stop killing prisoners
with AIDS and provide adequate medical care.

The demonstration, sponsored by ACT UP/San Francisco and ACT
UP/Golden Gate, was one of many protests held around the country
to mark World AIDS Day.

Since California State Senator John Burton issued a report on the
facility Nov. 19, three more men have died at the Vacaville
prison as a result of negligent medical supervision. One inmate,
Robert Berry, who suffered seizures and AIDS dementia, was left
unattended in a bathtub and later found drowned.

These recent deaths bring the total of prisoners who have died
from neglect to approximately eight. Burton has given the
Department of Corrections 90 days to improve conditions,
including such basic things as installing buzzers in cells and
providing inmates with blankets.

NEVER MORE SOLIDARITY SHOWN

Corey Weinstein, MD, co-founder of the Pelican Bay Information
Project, told the demonstration that in the 20 years he has done
prisoner support work, he has "never seen a more dramatic show of
solidarity" than that shared among the prisoners at Vacaville on
hunger and medication strike. Over 150 prisoners began a
medication strike in September to improve conditions at
Vacaville. This was followed by a hunger strike the following
month.

Weinstein said the prisoners suffer under triple jeopardy: the
Department of Corrections, the court system and the legislative
system. "The Department of Corrections has basic policies in
place that prevent anything good from happening for HIV positive
inmates," Weinstein said. HIV inmates are kept segregated from
other prisoners, are denied participation in the family
visitation program that allows prisoners overnight visits with
their families, and may not do certain prison work.

According to ACT-UP, an estimated 15-20 percent of the 105,000
people in prison in California are HIV-positive. Three hundred
people at Vacaville are HIV-positive. As for the court system,
Weinstein said the Vacaville prison has been under court order
for two years to improve conditions at the facility and nothing
has been done. He added that although Sen. Burton's investigation
was significant, he doesn't have confidence that the legislature
will enforce change.

Burton's report provides a grisly documentation of the treatment
of prisoners. It describes the deaths of four prisoners and the
efforts of their friends to get them treatment.

One of the men, Richard Teague, was not given the dialysis
treatment he needed and bloated up to 30 or 40 pounds before
dying. When he collapsed outside his cell it took 40 minutes for
medical assistance to arrive.

Another inmate, Ricardo Rodriguez, pounded on his cell door
crying out for help for half an hour the night of his death. The
report says approximately 23 inmates heard him but his cries went
unanswered. He was found naked on the toilet the next morning.

DOCTORS MISDIAGNOSE

The report cites the complaints of inmates that doctors currently
on the HIV team "often incorrectly diagnose conditions, do not
really conduct a complete examination" or review medical
histories and charts. These problems were confirmed by two
doctors formerly at Vacaville.

Among other conditions noted in the report: the HIV unit is cold
and drafty and inmates are given inadequate clothing and blankets;
"after an inmate showers he must wait out on the cold windy tier
until the correction officer is next scheduled to open cell
doors," and is thus subject to catching colds and pneumonia.

The report indicts the entire prison system and the cruel,
medieval treatment of inmates. Luis Talamantez, a former
political prisoner, told the rally that what is happening at
Vacaville is happening in prisons across the country. "Prisons
are becoming the burial grounds for the helpless and sick," he
declared. "Doctors in prison are not doctors--they have broken
their oath and have become guards."

Burton's report also describes the horrendous treatment of
disabled inmates who are not HIV positive.

Yvonne Edy, the mother of one of the inmates who launched the
hunger strike at Vacaville, said that those on strike were being
punished by the prison officials. "They are adding time to the
prisoners' sentences to ensure that they die in this hell hole,"
Edy said.

Ellen Asharah, ACT UP/San Francisco, noted that women prisoners
with HIV are suffering similar circumstances. She said a lawsuit
was filed three years ago on behalf of 30 women at the California
Institute for Women in Frontera, Calif., charging the HIV unit
with medical neglect and discrimination against those with HIV.
One woman died at the prison and was not discovered for three
days, until guards noticed her food trays had piled up.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
"workers@mcimail.com".)


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