Chuck Armsbury replied:

True, rare enough, but still the only substantial, critical presence in the
prisoners' movement beyond Christians who come in to pray for all those
'lost' souls. I am senior editor of The Razor Wire newspaper of The
November Coalition, the largest grassroots nonprofit in the US devoted to
humanizing drug war victims and their loved ones. If some of you folks on
this list care to know more about prisoners of the drug war in particular,
go to http://www.november.org.

It would be a great day when leftists by the hundreds are seen flocking to
help the confined. As it is, writer Abdo is correct: not enough left
commentary, not enough understanding and service, plus fear and trembling
to boot.
power to the people,
Chuck Armsbury
Sixties' radical, Marion brother, teacher, plumber, carpenter and editor

Tony Abdo wrote:

> 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 -