Humanity for Prisoners

It's no secret that I grumble about slow contributions and lack of a paycheck. Today I conferred by telephone with a 50 year old African American prisoner who lost all of his family support system in recent years...all died, one by hanging. He had no one to be his advocate. I offered to go with him, and sit at his side for his 9th parole board interview this coming Monday morning. "I pray every day, giving thanks for what you do for all the guys, man, and asking God to watch over you and your family. I love you!" I just got paid! http://humanityforprisoners.blogspot.com/

Some days the bear gets you… Other days, you get the bear! This is bad: Prisoner Mr. S is back in the hospital, this time with a Staph infection! One day they tell him it’s a problem in his intestines, and the next they test him for diabetes. The fact that his blood pressure remains so high, he has swollen legs and feet, he is told he must see a cardiologist (but this doesn’t happen), and he has severe weight loss…all while he is on dialysis…gives me concern. I wonder about the adequacy of Michigan prison health care, and the lives that are likely in jeopardy . This is good: The Michigan Parole and Commutation Board has revised the rules for a mother being released from prison who had been forbidden to see or care for any children under the age of 17. You see, her youngest daughter is 16, has been visiting her regularly in prison, and has been writing letters on a regular basis. Mother and daughter were distraught. Thanks to Michigan advocacy programs, including HFP, the board wi...

In this office, it's all in a day's work! -Confer with an attorney for a prisoner. The inmate became a changed man and agreed to work undercover to assist federal and state investigators with the understanding that he might then get credit for time served, and receive an early release. He did his job efficiently, and suffered mental and physical injury as a result. Arrests were made and abuses were corrected. Now authorities aren't sure they want to live up to their agreement. The man still sits behind bars. -Confer with an attorney re a prisoner's parole regulations. The woman has been granted parole if she has no contact with any children under the age of 17. BUT, her youngest daughter, who has been visiting with her in prison regularly and writing her mom on a regular basis, is only 16! Both mother and daughter are beside themselves. -Confer with an attorney for a prisoner who is hoping to find his adult children. He hasn't seen or heard from them since ...

Michigan prisons and physical handicaps are a poor mix. Mike had a stroke while in prison, and it affected his entire left side. The problem is that he was then transferred to another facility. That wasn't all bad: He has been getting adequate medical treatment and physical therapy. BUT, a caring nurse at the new facility took away his cane...not a good thing for a guy whose left arm and hand cannot move, and whose left leg doesn't let him walk properly. So now he must get up and down stairs without a cane, take a shower without a cane (also no shower chair), go to chow without a cane, and try to use the bathroom without a cane. All Mike asks is that he be placed in a facility where his treatment and therapy can continue, where everything needed will be on one floor, where there might be a shower and a restroom for the handicapped, and where a doctor or a nurse will let him get around with a cane again. HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS P.O. Box 687 Grand Haven, MI 49417

Not sure if it's vacations, the economy, our new address...but contributions have taken a nose-dive following a great month in July! If you have been thinking about sending a gift this month, would you mind doing it still in the first half? And if you were thinking of waiting until next month, would you mind changing your plans just this once? We believe the last quarter is looking a whole lot better! It's the present that's a problem. For now, your quick help would be greatly appreciated by our bookkeeper...and the manager of this office! And his wife! Thank you, in advance. Doug Tjapkes HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS P.O. Box 687 Grand Haven, MI 49417

The Obama administration has announced major steps to improve our nation's shameful network of prisons that house immigrants. The New York Times says the sprawling network of ill-managed jails is rife with reports of abuse, injury and preventable death. And then there is the State of Michigan. Now that prisons are being closed because of budget problems, prisoners are being shoe-horned into existing facilities. But here in the Great Lakes State we have heard no announcements from our administration about plans to improve this shameful network of prisons. Mr. L, who lives in the Straits Correctional Facility up north, has spent time in the law library, to determine just how his living conditions compare to those guaranteed by the constitution's 8th Amendment. He concludes, without surprise, that his rights are being violated. As if anyone in Michigan really cares. He is currently being warehoused, he points out, with 139 other prisoners in a housing unit designed for 80. H...

A shameful story made its way out of the Michigan prison system and into the media three years ago today. Timothy Joe Souders, mentally ill prisoner only 21 years of age, died in 100-degree temperatures, after spending most of the last four days of his life chained naked in a steel bed, lying in his own urine. He was alone in a hot, segregated cell in the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility of Jackson, Michigan. Like some of the mentally ill prisoners of today, he was merely a boy inside a man's body, and had no business being in prison. Police agencies and the judicial system should have known that this lovable kid, when he was on his meds, couldn't survive in a prison system. Yet an officer stunned him with a taser when arresting him for assault. After he was taken to jail, he stabbed himself in the stomach seven times with a knife that the jailers had missed. Then he tried to hang himself with a noose made with his prison clothing. Seems like someone might have co...