When our recent hepatitis C case was decided (Jan. 3,2017), we thought that the state, known widely for its repressive penal attitudes and its cold resistance to the principle that prisoners were, after all, human beings entitled to the rights, privileges and protections inherent in human personality, would be deeply impacted.
We were correct, in a sense, for the case, Abu-Jamal v. Wetzel, 2017 WL 34700, did indeed change the legal rules of the game-at least on paper. In practice, however, the fiendish ‘protocol’, first announced in the Dec. 2015 hearings in our case, which stubbornly demands that people who are infected with the hepatitis C virus must be at death’s door before even being considered for possible treatment, remains to this day, to be DOC’s practice and procedure, despite being found unconstitutional – twice!
But beyond Pennsylvania’s archaic frontiers, the case is making ripples in the lives of thousands of other prisoners who are suffering the ravages of Hep C (HCV), like in the state of Missouri, where prisoners Michael Postawko, Christopher Baker and Michael Jamerson filed a class action against the Missouri Dept. of Corrections (MDOC), claiming “inadequate medical care” for their HCV viral infections, and the refusal of MDOC and Corizon, LLC, (MDOC’s health care provider), to treat plaintiffs with the direct-acting anti-viral known to resolve and actually cure HCV in a timely manner (Postawko, et al., v. Missouri DOC, et all. 2017 WL 1968317 (W.D., Missouri; Laughrey, D.J. 5/11/17)
When MDOC officials filed their motions to dismiss the case, the U.S. District Court in Missouri’s Western District, granted their motion in part, but also denied a huge chunk of their motion, finding that the prisoner-plaintiffs had indeed shown a “serious medical need” (HCV), that MDOC defendants showed “deliberate indifference” to their medical needs, and that the plaintiffs had shown a “reasonable probability of success” on the merits of their complaint. To do this, the court used the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedent on medical issues. Estelle, v. Gamble (1976) – and the recent Abu-Jamal decision of January, 2017! Because of that medical precedent, the lives of thousands of men and women in Missouri prisons, just got better, and their lives were extended and perhaps saved.
We have little doubt that the medical and corporate interests denying medical treatment here and there will continue to drag their feet and deny, deny, deny relief, but a dam has burst, and the dike has sprung, and HCV is under serious attack.
The HCV prison wars have begun – and we are winning!
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
https://conta.cc/4ayDxlB](https://www.prisonradio.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)