Hello. This is Kahlil Hammond. Since my arrival at SCI Phoenix, I noticed that, like most PA DOC [Dept of Corrections] facilities, the staff here operate with a high level of disregard for the health and safety of inmate populous, especially those suffering from mental health-related symptoms. This would more accurately explain routine suicide attempts and hospitalizations for instances of serious self-harm amongst the inmates here, especially those in the Restricted Housing Unit. It’s alarming to me that SCI Phoenix is one of the facilities the DOC has designated specifically for those with the most severe issues of mental health concern. Mental health care is also unequally provided by practitioners here. In the last two years, I’ve seen white inmates sent to mental health-based units to address minor mental health symptoms, while Black and Brown inmates like William Taylor nearly killed themselves several times but carelessly are tossed back into the same conditions of solitary confinement.
Mr. Taylor was found in his cell on multiple occasions, bleeding out in a pool of his own blood and barely alive, after cutting himself open. On several of these occasions, he required resuscitation and blood transfusions, but still he received next to no mental health care. Mr. Taylor is clearly mentally ill, and I fear that staff’s carelessness towards him will eventually lead to his death. Sadly, he isn’t the only person here being disregarded while clearly mentally deteriorating. Suffering inmates like Mr. Taylor are in need of outside support to compel superintendent Terra, unit manager Neely, and the psych department to provide them adequate care, as well as to stop circumventing Black and Brown inmates from receiving the same level of mental health care services as white inmates. This is Kahlil Hammond reporting from SCI Phoenix.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
