Health Horror Stories
"These stories of health abuse are not independently verified by the editors of this website. However, all of the women have agreed to a HIPPA release to any qualified attorney willing to take their case, or to an investigative reporter from the media."
Update 4-28-2020
First – some good news. The two LPN’s named in the previous update are now wearing masks. A repeat of the informal survey at pill call on Tuesday morning returned a 100% compliance report. Did our naming names help? No idea, but we are very happy with the report.
Now on to the not so good news. It’s been reported (but not confirmed) that 1 officer in the Santa Cruz unit has tested positive for COVID-19. In San Pedro unit, in addition to the kitchen worker reported earlier, a guard who worked in the same area has tested positive. There are also rumors that 4 inmates have also tested positive but as of today, the ADCRR Dashboard reports only 1. That’s one inmate tested! Who turned out to be positive.
My question is, in a unit with (now two) members of staff who work in the kitchen who have tested positive, how is it that only 1 inmate in the entire Perryville complex has been tested? And was that inmate on the San Pedro unit? Which leads me to the last item for today.
During the week of 4/20/2020, inmates were told that there would be no transfers between units. Two days later (!) approximately 15 inmates were transferred out of San Pedro to San Carlos. Keep in mind that unless an inmate is showing specific symptoms for COVID-19 testing is not done, so no one knows if the transferred inmates are healthy or not. Only time will tell if this is a disaster in the making.
Update 4-24-2020
Maybe it’s just us, but wouldn’t you expect medical professionals like nurses to be at least as conscientious about personal protection as the average grocery checker? Apparently not.
As recently as yesterday two LPN’s were reportedly seen treating inmates and not wearing masks. It is alleged that Ms. Toni and Ms. Pennington are still not covering up. An informal survey of all the women in line at pill call returned a 100% response – these 2 LPNs do not wear masks (at least not where the inmates can see them.)
Maybe it will take shining some public light on the situation to get it to change. We can’t confirm this report since we can not be there to see it. It would be great if we are wrong, (but we’re probably not.)
Update 4.20.2020
What a difference a day makes…as of this morning, 4/21/2020 , all Keefe personnel are wearing masks.
Today’s news from Perryville.
Cleaning supplies:
Two liquid hand soap dispensers have been installed. Outside. One at each end of the yard. Not sanitizer – soap. A decent first step, however, there is no water available at the dispenser locations. Inmates get a handful of soap and then have to go back to their room/cell/unit to get to the water. Maybe this idea needs just a little more work.
On Saturday, 4/18 every inmate was issued a 5″ x 5″ thin, flimsy cloth. Think diaper for a Barbie Doll. Is it a rag? A mask? A reusable substitute for the ever-elusive toilet paper? No – it’s a cleaning supply! I challenge you to dig around and find the most worn out, whispy, handkerchief you can lay your hands on. Cut it down to 5″ x 5″ and tell us how good a cleaning job you can do with it. To make it a fair test you can’t use cleansers or sanitizers.
In the good news department, there has been a vast improvement with staff wearing masks. This has been reported for all units (except San Pablo – we are hearing no news from San Pablo.)
On the flip side – while guards are wearing their masks other companies whose personnel work inside the prison are not enforcing the same rules. Incredibly, the medical staff can be counted in this group. On Saturday at 11:58 am on San Carlos, two nurses were doing temperature checks on vulnerable inmates. One nurse was wearing her mask. The one actually taking the temperatures (the one in physical contact with inmates) was not. None of the LPN’s in medical are wearing masks.
As for the Keefe personnel (Keefe supplies and staffs the stores), only half are wearing masks and the 1 man who works the store serving 1400 people never wears a mask. (See update at the top pf this post.)
Apparently many inmates, in all units, have been taking down the names of guards who aren’t wearing a mask. This information is being passed to Donna Hamm, who in turn is sending this information to Channel 15 news.
We have received inquiries for more details about the cot delivery.
!. Yes, the tents are going back up.
2. It was National Guard trucks that delivered the 800 cots.
That’s it for today’s update. When we have more, you’ll be the first to hear it.
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I was in prison for 17years and have seen so many people die in front of me It’s traumatic and I have PTSD from it. Medical never helped me for my heart problems, never took tests, just told me I have congested heart failure and didn’t do anything for me. I saw it every day. They never helped us, made us always feel like we were lying and would send us away. Making people work in the kitchen who have scoliosis, heart problems, people who have AIDS and Hep C as well as other STDs. There’s rat poop on our kitchen food, birds all over our trays that we eat off of making us all even sicker, black mold everywhere. We can’t breathe in our cells due to all the mold and crud in our walls, vents, and coolers. They are trying to kill us – they don’t care and the money they get for us does not go to us. There is so much more.
I’ve been sexually attacked by the CO police officers twice. I have my whole life to account for in there and I’m surprised I made it out after 17years. They have medium inmates on max yards getting assaulted and they don’t care. They say it is due to no room. They also send you to max yard as punishment without ever getting tickets. It’s all retaliation. They will ruin your life if you don’t do what they want. They make up lies, yep the sergeants, if you refuse to work because you don’t feel good. I heard a Sergeant say “Oh you’re going to hurt yourself” then cuff her up and put her in isolation when the girl never said it. I’ve seen it all, believe that.
Hi Cynthia! I’m not sure if you’ll see this but I am so sorry for what you went through. Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your story. I would love to ask you questions as I am exploring ideas for my doctoral capstone and am interested in issues in the AZ Women’s Prison. Is there any way we could talk further?
That was my friend 😭 she was cool ag and funny. I feel bad I had to leave San Carlos for Cruz. But fck their medical center, the whole prison is fucked up and corrupted. I’ve been out for 8 months now and I still remember everything like yesterday especially with health care. Like can the prison do an upgrade and fix their shit or will more ppl have to die like my friend here? It’s fucked up because I knew she was having a hard time in the beginning getting her shots. We both came from the same county. She wasn’t even a criminal like person. She was fun, bright and very smart, like she could’ve went to college. She had alot planned for herself…damn I love Jowell thank for the laughs and being a loyal friend. Rest in Paradise
Yeah, she was a very cool person to know. She would hug you when she saw you with a big smile. She was always cool to everyone, no hate or anger in her heart but she probably did towards ADOC health employees
I was incarcerated for 9 years and just released March 2024. In 2019, my stomach swelled up and I looked 9 months pregnant. They told me I had impacted stool and had me drink a laxative. The pain got worse, I couldn’t breath or walk and this went on for 2 months. My family contacted the ACLU and prison and finally in February 2020 I was sent to the hospital and diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian cancer. I was in the hospital for 10 days and started chemo. I went back to the prison and was expecting chemo every 3 weeks. It took over a 3 weeks for me to get scheduled for my next chemo. In May, I had just came back from chemo and was told I was packing up and being sent to San Carlos. I had to load and unload all of my belongings after a day of chemo and was being transferred to a yard with 1300 women. I then had surgery to remove the cancer in July and once released from the hospital was sent to Maria and put in a cell, by myself with no A/C. I had to move everything by myself and carry a chair out to take a shower. I had an incision from belly button to my pubic bone. Finally after 2 weeks, I was sent back to Carlos. I was told later that I had peritoneal cancer and not ovarian, after I had had a complete hysterectomy. I never had a follow up PET scan to make sure the cancer was gone. In March of 2023, I started seeing a new oncologist, Dr. Benjamin and he finally ordered a PET scan and saw that I had cancer again in the same area of my stomach. I had surgery again in May and started six rounds of chemo. Between the medical Dr’s John and Johnson my medical treatment at the prison was horrible. They didn’t give me anything but Tylenol and Excedrin for the pain and I had to fight to get an extra mattress and extra milk for protein shakes. If I didn’t have my family to support me and stand up for me I would have died. I applied for clemency 2 times and because I wasn’t dying in 3 months, I was refused. Something needs to change with the health system and prison.