Below, is a rare US Left commentary about the other death penalty
administered by the American Misjustice System...... that of killing the
poor in US jails by not providing medical sevices, combined with
encouraging physical abuse of prisoners, and constructing disease ridden
prisons.

The situation is even worse here in Texas.

Tony
________________________________
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
CHOWCHILLA, CALIFORNIA:
MEDICAL NEGLECT KILLS WOMEN PRISONERS
By Anne Sadler

Over 150 bereaved family members, friends and prisoner- rights activists
traveled hundreds of miles to this women's maximum-security prison Jan.
27 to express their outrage at the recent rash of unnecessary and
preventable deaths here.

The memorial protest commemorated the lives of these women who died from
lack of medical care. Wearing black and carrying replica tombstones with
the names of the victims who were mothers, sisters, daughters and aunts,
marchers demonstrated in front of the gates of this prison that is
surrounded by hundreds of miles of farmland.

Chowchilla is the biggest women's prison in the United States. Over
3,000 women are incarcerated here.
Also here, an unprecedented 17 healthcare-related deaths have occurred
in one year. Nine of them were in the last two months of 2000 alone.
These traumatic and unexpected deaths may appear on the surface to be
unrelated. But a clear pattern of health-care neglect in the California
prison system is apparent.

Most if not all of these deaths could have been prevented if proper,
timely medical care had been available. Instead, these women--some who
were due to be paroled within a matter of weeks--were given a death
sentence at the hands of the state of California.

Guards with minimal medical training are allowed, within their
adversarial role with prisoners, to decide who lives and who dies under
their "care." Prison-rights activists say that guards decide who gets
medical attention and who gets to see advanced medical professionals.
Even getting a yes decision is no guarantee of adequate medical
attention.

"We have been fighting for medical care at this prison for over seven
years. It's tragic that women are still dying from criminally negligent
health care," said Beth Feinberg of California Prison Focus.

The Jan. 27 protest was organized by a coalition of prison activist
groups including Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California
Prison Focus, Justice Now and the California Coalition for Women
Prisoners.
- END -