Hellish reports from WHV!

A headline in the August 30 edition of the Detroit Free Press shouted: Violence on rise at women’s prison! Veteran Freep writer on prison issues, Paul Egan, led off the article by saying, “Violence and turmoil are on the rise at Michigan’s only prison for women…” 

For background information, some 2,000 women are housed in Women’s Huron Valley, located in Ypsilanti. They were all moved into one facility in the early years of HFP. I have personally been a champion for these incarcerated women from the very beginning. A check of our blog posts over the years will show a continuous battle for improvement. One of the times when I went there to speak with inmates, I was given a standing ovation. It wasn’t because Doug Tjapkes was so great. It was because HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS cares! 

When Heidi Washington assumed the position of Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2015, she assured me in a private session that she had a personal interest in WHV. Personal interest or not, things apparently are not getting better. 

Because the occupants and I have had such a good relationship, whistleblowers have dared to send us scary reports, knowing that we will protect their identity. 

Our team was shaken by the report from one of our clients this week, describing the attack of a 56-year-old disabled inmate who is confined to a wheelchair. Somehow, a bunkie who had a reputation of assaulting her last 5 roommates was assigned to live with her! Other elderly inmates watched in dismay as the victim was taken from her cell and rushed to a hospital by ambulance. She had been beaten, we are told, beyond recognition! 

We have an actual quote from the victim: “I was in my room, and my roommate was singing and dancing. Well, I put in my ear phones, and she went nutz! She clobbered me about 20 times with her hand, and then she went over to my wheelchair, and she took off my foot rest and hit me with it. I had about a 12-hour emergency room trip. My eyes are black, my throat is black, my left side is bruised... I need help! Please can you help me!” 

Claims our informant: “WHV has ‘dropped the ball’ in providing reasonable protection n for the inmates who are elderly/disabled.” 

The reasons/excuses for this crap are legion, but one of the primary issues is staff shortage. Both the MDOC and the union have been complaining about this time and again, but the problem persists. 

And the violence increases.

One of our whistleblowers, who is actually confined to a wheelchair, begs me, in a letter: “Pray for us!” 

Another, in an email message, pleads: “Please help us here. Things just keep getting worse.” 

AI Overview claims that “about 20% of prisoners experience some type of violence while incarcerated.” If that figure is accurate in WHV, more than 400 women are being terrorized. 

Pure Michigan can and must do better! 

It must surely be a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that even a small number of those men and women in the hell of the prison system survive it and hold on to their humanity. Howard Zinn

 

 


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