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 from Inside – 4/14/2020
Here are a few notable items from inside Perryville as of this morning, 4/14/2020.
We mentioned that Perryville was expecting a shipment of 200 cots to be used for COVID-19 quarantine somewhere in the complex. Yesterday, Monday, a convoy of 7 military trucks rolled up to the warehouse and unloaded 800 cots. Those cots are all going to Maria to be used for quarantine. There is some confusion about whether these are for staff or inmates (there aren’t 800 staff at Perryville.) It is also unknown what the prison is planning to do with the current residents at Maria if that unit is to become the isolation unit. Are the tents going up again?
As for the staff at the warehouse – these people have contact with all of the various delivery companies and the materials delivered on a daily basis. Their potential for exposure is significant and yet they have no protective equipment. None, zero, zilch, nada. Then they return to the prison complex where inmates are housed. Can you hear the tick tick tick of the time bomb?
One last outrage for this report. This is a women’s prison with an inmate population of over 4000, most of whom are still menstruating. They’ve been short on sanitary products, pads and tampons, for a week now. Women are being issued 2 pads a day, no matter how heavily they might be bleeding. Some of the post-menopausal women are helping by requesting their 2 pad allowance and then passing the supplies along to women in need.
Updates from Inside
As of Wednesday, 4/8/20 – San Carlos: There is a new sign outside of Medical, “Only 5 people inside at a time.” Sounds good, right? It’s not being enforced at all! On that same day at 6 am there were 17 people in the lab lines. At the 1:30 pm pill call there were 15 people inside.
ADC has stated that there is robust availability of soap, paper towels. hygiene items, and cleaning supplies for the inmates. We reported on the soap situation in an earlier post however, we just learned a new twist on this situation. To get soap an inmate has to go to the yard office to make the request. Before the inmate can get the soap, their room will be torn up looking for soap.
Paper towels. How much cleaning and sanitizing can you do with 2 paper towels (not rolls, sheets?) That is what the inmates are getting, 2 sheets of paper towel per week, handed out on Wednesday.
There are no cleaning supplies, and no one can explain what the promised “hygiene products” might be other than there isn’t anything available that remotely matches that description.
Now we move on to masks. Last week masks were made available for staff to wear on a voluntary basis. Not everyone volunteered. Now masks are mandatory for all essential workers. But apparently it isn’t mandatory to wear them over the nose and mouth. Using a mask as a chin warmer is the new fashion for Perryville staff. Except for some of the nurses. Yesterday, 2 of the nurses were seeing inmates and not wearing any kind of mask.
And last, but not least from this update – getting ready for isolating infected inmates. From a staffer at the Perryville warehouse: “They are expecting on Monday the arrival of 200 cots, to be used to quarantine inmates with the virus. But, we have no idea where to put them.”
For more information, please read this article from the Arizona Republic.
No Social Distancing at Perryville
God bless email capable inmates. Families are more than happy to share their loved ones’ email from the women’s prison. It isn’t a pretty picture. The phrase “packed together like sardines” was most prevalent.
One woman looked at her unit’s medical waiting area which was standing room only and observed coughing inmates right on top of each other. Of course, no sanitizer or masks are being distributed.
On minimum units, the women are stacked like orange cordwood. Maintaining a 6-foot distance is impossible. It’s more like 6-inches.
And then there are the constant lines for medical, property, store, and chow. Women from Carlos (population 1468) said the average wait in a packed line can exceed 2 to 3 hours.
The “cubicle’ in each “aircraft hanger”, called a bay is separated from the next inmate by 25 inches. How is the DOC going to quarantine them when they get the virus?
We will keep you updated as much as possible with stories direct from the women affected by this crisis.
This website and our Facebook page are where families can vent —a message board just for Perryville residents.
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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.