CPTnet
August 22, 1998
Lectionary discussion for August 30, 1998: Reaching out to those who cannot
return the favor.

"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the
blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will
be repaid at the resurrection fo the righteous." Luke 14:12-14

[Note: Anne Herman was recently released after serving a six month sentence
in Danbury Federal Correctional Institute for trespassing at the School of the
Americas.]

Of all the forgotten, those in prison are the
hardest to remember. We think of them as needing to
be changed, educated or rescued. Even those of us
who consider ourselves political prisoners sometimes
see ourselves as somehow different. We live in a
society that encourages this attitude. When a
person is sentenced, she ceases to be a person and
becomes property-in my case, property of the federal
government.

The most dramatic example of this is in the
field of health care. Women often experience
difficulty in relating to medical personnel. In
prison this relationship becomes impossible. The
usual response to a woman's complaints of not feeling
well was to accuse her of "faking it". In the
extreme this attitude leads to death from medical
neglect.

Since l996 there have been five such deaths that
I know of at Danbury Federal Prison camp. Helen
Ryan, Jane Pfflum and Gail O'Neal have all died of
cancer that was left untreated. In the case of Helen
Ryan, it was denied she had any disease at all. Jane
Pfflum had a lump on her shoulder, which the prison
refused to biopsy for three months. It was such a
virulent cancer that she died six months later, this
summer. Gail O'Neal had a mamogram while at the
camp. The results were positive, but were not given
to her until four months later when she was in a half
way house. She consequently had to have a double
mastectomy. She too died this summer.

The fourth woman was Karen Peters. She had been treated for a concussion
last year. She had been complaining of
symptoms like dizziness and nausea to the physicians
assistant. In February 1998, she fell at the phones
and died of an aneurysm that night. Last week another
inmate at Danbury Federal Prison Camp died. She was
an insulin dependent diabetic. She was in crisis the
night before and a medic was called. Her complaint
was dismissed as having no medical basis. The next
morning, she did not respond when ordered to stand
for count around 10:30 am. She was pronounced dead
when the medic arrived over twenty minutes later.

One of my closest friends while I was at FPC
Danbury was told about a week before I left that she
needed a liver transplant. A biopsy was recommended
eighteen months ago and she has had a diagnosis of
liver cancer for one entire year. A course of
treatment was recommended a year ago but could not be
implemented without the biopsy. This procedure was
completed three weeks ago, but now it is too late to
treat the cancer. Now she is in grave danger of
losing her life.

It is difficult for most people to empathize with those in prison, and regard
them as people with the same needs themselves. I know it is easier for me to
do so now.
Anne Herman