Random acts of cruelty and general shitty conditions...
...a young man is kept in “medical”, also known as the holding cells, rather than general population, because he is diabetic and his blood sugars are consistently well over 400 (normal being between 70 and 120). The staff accuses him of stealing food...why else would his blood sugars be so high? Well, he’s what you call a brittle diabetic. Stress induces the body into “fight or flight” conditions and tosses sugar into his body to make him ready to fight or flee. Days later, his blood sugars are still at those high levels even though he has been in a filthy padded cell for days...alone with no food except what is delivered to him. He develops open sores on his face and neck which are becoming infected. His cell still has body waste from the previous “tenant”...a psychotic man who liked to smear his feces all over his body. When he asks a guard how much longer he’s to be kept in that cell, we all heard her say, “I don’t know and I don’t care. I wouldn’t mind if you just fell of the face of the earth.” His cries over not being able to see his little girl are met with mocking laughs from guards as they pass by his cell.
A woman lies on the floor in “medical” with chest pains. Other inmates call for help. A hideous old “lady” guard walks in and says, “Looks like she’s done too much meth to me.” I was that woman. I’ve never so much as been accused of anything like that and I’ve never so much as seen meth. Her accusation was based on my extreme weight loss.
In the one holding cell for women, all 7 of us were in an 8 x 12 cell, and a filthy one at that. Bugs are all around, crawling all over us and one woman is, as I write this, being eaten up by ant and spider bites. Why they prefer her, I don’t know but they seemed to, or maybe she just has more severe reactions to the bites. We told the guards and in the two days that I was kept there, not once did they spray the cell for bugs nor did they wash the filthy place. Although many of the women were kept there briefly upon intake, most were sick women who were kept in this pathetic pit because they were too sick to be “populated”. The trash from our meals was removed twice a day, after breakfast and in the evening. The ants seemed to know right where to find the leftovers.
A man who was making too much noise was visited by two guards. He was beaten, we don’t know why...but the blood was squirting everywhere. The man had come in drunk and full of injuries so the guards could easily say that they were there when he got there. God help the inmate who comes into the jail with visible injuries...what’s a few more?
We asked to use the phone that was in the hallway. We were constantly told “No.” even though I needed to call my son to bring my heart medicine and another woman wanted to call her sister to bring her bond money so she could get out. Upon my release, I saw a memo that said that “Inmates in the holding area have the same phone privileges as those in general population.” I pointed that out to a guard who replied, “Yeah, but only when we have the time.” The memo didn’t mention that at all and it wouldn’t have taken much time or effort to just say, “Sure, there’s the phone.” I’m at home with my medicine, but that other woman with no bond is still sitting in that hell hole, unable to call her family to have them bring her money to the jail so she could bond out.
A “doctor” forces people to submit to numerous sticks for blood draws and IV starts...after the inmates would try to refuse the “treatment”. A person who has not been declared mentally incompetent has the right to refuse treatment. This “doctor” didn’t seem to agree with that LAW. He threatens anyone who resists with the following statement, “We have a bunch of big strong guards here who will hold you down if you don’t let us do what we want.” When I was so sick and dehydrated that they couldn’t hit my veins, the doctor said, “If this doesn’t work, we can put the IV in your neck.” Then, he would pass my cell, point at his neck and laugh.”, taunting me and mocking my fear of being stuck.
A woman with an IV complained that she didn’t want it there and she proceeded to take it out of her arm. A disgusted “nurse” restarted the IV with the old tubing that was full of blood. If that blood had clotted, the woman could have suffered a heart attack or stroke. I’ve started many an IV in my time and have never seen anyone leave blood in the line...it’s just not done. The woman was terrified and waited for the blood to cause her death. Although she has not been declared mentally incompetent, she did suffer from bi-polar disorder and she was in a true state of panic.
It was explained to me that Cobb County jail outsourced it’s “medical care” to a private company called PHS (Prison Health Services). PHS is staffed by “nurses” who, because of censures on their license, MUST work for PHS or not at all. I don’t know what these people did to have their licenses censured, but my first guess would be cruelty to humanity.
A 50 year old woman is, as I type this, lying on a single pad in that cell. She has a condition that has her in a wheel chair. To relieve herself, she voids into a Styrofoam cup and dumps it in the toilet which she stays very close to so that she can reach it for this very reason. She is allowed only one pad to lie on and her pain is unbelievable. When a kind guard gives her an extra pad to lie on, she is punished for having “contraband” as soon as one of the sadistic guards comes on duty. There is a guard who begins her day by checking to see if this poor woman has that extra pad. The extra pads are given to pregnant women and people with visible scars from back surgery. Those nasty pads are falling apart and the linings are shredded making me wonder what in the hell could be living in them. They are not cleaned in between use and are used for every inmate who comes into that holding area. When an inmate leaves the holding area with whatever parasitic infection they may have, the mat is returned to a pile to await use by the next person who comes in.
These are a few of the more acute acts of cruelty that I was witness to...I couldn’t begin to list the numerous little acts of nastiness that was perpetrated upon inmates, many of whom have yet to be tried and convicted of any crime. There was an inordinate amount of people locked up for non-payment of fines...I call them the “criminally poor”.
While I was in custody, I read a fascinating book called Raid which was about the raid upon Son Tay, a prisoner of war camp in North Viet Nam. I read about the conditions and treatment that was doled out to these prisoners and that made me know that I didn’t really have it so bad. If these young men could deal with the inhumane treatment that they received at the hands of their captors, surely I could handle my incarceration. I almost felt badly for complaining. But we are in America and I had no idea that any American could be so cruel to their fellow countrymen. I would be curious to see what the Geneva Convention calls for in the way of treatment of prisoners of war. The holding cells at that jail had no windows in them and the perception of time was rather distorted. Allowed nothing more than a Bible and a few toilet articles...the boredom was unbelievable and added to the distorted view of time. There’s a condition called ICU psychosis that was noted when patients in intensive care units that had no windows became psychotic because they had lost all perception of time. All ICU rooms now must contain a window so the circadian rhythm of the human body can be maintained. The holding cells had no windows and the inmates were only allowed to leave these pits for an occasional cold shower and any visits to sick call. Other than those moments, these people never leave these tiny, over populated cells and can walk no further than a few feet, stepping over other inmates who were lying on the floors on small mats.
I’m sure that the jail workers have bad days and appalling experiences at times. But there's no reason to be so hideously cruel to every single inmate who comes in. I’m not sure what it is in a human that makes them find delight in the power that they seem to find by being so nasty to other people. But they certainly do. I was raised to have respect for the people who “serve and protect” us...a LOT of respect. But over the past few weeks, most of that respect has eroded. I am trying to maintain some degree of esteem for them because there most certainly were a few people who treated the inmates with consideration and decency...thereby allowing them to maintain a bit of their own dignity. If I were to write a manual titled “How to create a mean and nasty person out of a generally civilized human being”, I would certainly include many of the actions that I’ve been witness to recently.
I’m trying to hold on to my standards and put this all in perspective so that I can remain objective and respectful of authority. These yahoos did nothing to make that easy for me. The anger and contempt that I have felt at times shows me how easily a person can be pushed to the breaking point. After a bit of this treatment, I see how people jailed for some minor infraction can come out of that sentence jaded, bitter and meaner than ever. This can’t be good for ANY OF US.
A bit of bad luck has the potential to snowball and turn any one of us into career criminals. I was amazed at the large numbers of inmates who were in jail after life shit on them. Many Hurricane Katrina victims are locked up in one of the jails that I was just in. My own health problems, aggravated by the treatment that I received at the hands of my ex husband have certainly snowballed into some insane, unexpected twist on the path of my life.
If you ask me if I’m a criminal, I’d say no.
But it’s hard to deny as I’m sitting on this metal cot.
Got a plastic bracelet on my wrist
with the picture of a woman,
I look at it and ask,
Who the hell is this?
I guess it’s me, that’s my name
and my state issued number.
I see that snowball each time I awake from my slumber.
I could give them some cash and they’d open that door.
But that just isn’t an option for the criminally poor.
Meg
email me at megbkelso@gmail.com
...a young man is kept in “medical”, also known as the holding cells, rather than general population, because he is diabetic and his blood sugars are consistently well over 400 (normal being between 70 and 120). The staff accuses him of stealing food...why else would his blood sugars be so high? Well, he’s what you call a brittle diabetic. Stress induces the body into “fight or flight” conditions and tosses sugar into his body to make him ready to fight or flee. Days later, his blood sugars are still at those high levels even though he has been in a filthy padded cell for days...alone with no food except what is delivered to him. He develops open sores on his face and neck which are becoming infected. His cell still has body waste from the previous “tenant”...a psychotic man who liked to smear his feces all over his body. When he asks a guard how much longer he’s to be kept in that cell, we all heard her say, “I don’t know and I don’t care. I wouldn’t mind if you just fell of the face of the earth.” His cries over not being able to see his little girl are met with mocking laughs from guards as they pass by his cell.
A woman lies on the floor in “medical” with chest pains. Other inmates call for help. A hideous old “lady” guard walks in and says, “Looks like she’s done too much meth to me.” I was that woman. I’ve never so much as been accused of anything like that and I’ve never so much as seen meth. Her accusation was based on my extreme weight loss.
In the one holding cell for women, all 7 of us were in an 8 x 12 cell, and a filthy one at that. Bugs are all around, crawling all over us and one woman is, as I write this, being eaten up by ant and spider bites. Why they prefer her, I don’t know but they seemed to, or maybe she just has more severe reactions to the bites. We told the guards and in the two days that I was kept there, not once did they spray the cell for bugs nor did they wash the filthy place. Although many of the women were kept there briefly upon intake, most were sick women who were kept in this pathetic pit because they were too sick to be “populated”. The trash from our meals was removed twice a day, after breakfast and in the evening. The ants seemed to know right where to find the leftovers.
A man who was making too much noise was visited by two guards. He was beaten, we don’t know why...but the blood was squirting everywhere. The man had come in drunk and full of injuries so the guards could easily say that they were there when he got there. God help the inmate who comes into the jail with visible injuries...what’s a few more?
We asked to use the phone that was in the hallway. We were constantly told “No.” even though I needed to call my son to bring my heart medicine and another woman wanted to call her sister to bring her bond money so she could get out. Upon my release, I saw a memo that said that “Inmates in the holding area have the same phone privileges as those in general population.” I pointed that out to a guard who replied, “Yeah, but only when we have the time.” The memo didn’t mention that at all and it wouldn’t have taken much time or effort to just say, “Sure, there’s the phone.” I’m at home with my medicine, but that other woman with no bond is still sitting in that hell hole, unable to call her family to have them bring her money to the jail so she could bond out.
A “doctor” forces people to submit to numerous sticks for blood draws and IV starts...after the inmates would try to refuse the “treatment”. A person who has not been declared mentally incompetent has the right to refuse treatment. This “doctor” didn’t seem to agree with that LAW. He threatens anyone who resists with the following statement, “We have a bunch of big strong guards here who will hold you down if you don’t let us do what we want.” When I was so sick and dehydrated that they couldn’t hit my veins, the doctor said, “If this doesn’t work, we can put the IV in your neck.” Then, he would pass my cell, point at his neck and laugh.”, taunting me and mocking my fear of being stuck.
A woman with an IV complained that she didn’t want it there and she proceeded to take it out of her arm. A disgusted “nurse” restarted the IV with the old tubing that was full of blood. If that blood had clotted, the woman could have suffered a heart attack or stroke. I’ve started many an IV in my time and have never seen anyone leave blood in the line...it’s just not done. The woman was terrified and waited for the blood to cause her death. Although she has not been declared mentally incompetent, she did suffer from bi-polar disorder and she was in a true state of panic.
It was explained to me that Cobb County jail outsourced it’s “medical care” to a private company called PHS (Prison Health Services). PHS is staffed by “nurses” who, because of censures on their license, MUST work for PHS or not at all. I don’t know what these people did to have their licenses censured, but my first guess would be cruelty to humanity.
A 50 year old woman is, as I type this, lying on a single pad in that cell. She has a condition that has her in a wheel chair. To relieve herself, she voids into a Styrofoam cup and dumps it in the toilet which she stays very close to so that she can reach it for this very reason. She is allowed only one pad to lie on and her pain is unbelievable. When a kind guard gives her an extra pad to lie on, she is punished for having “contraband” as soon as one of the sadistic guards comes on duty. There is a guard who begins her day by checking to see if this poor woman has that extra pad. The extra pads are given to pregnant women and people with visible scars from back surgery. Those nasty pads are falling apart and the linings are shredded making me wonder what in the hell could be living in them. They are not cleaned in between use and are used for every inmate who comes into that holding area. When an inmate leaves the holding area with whatever parasitic infection they may have, the mat is returned to a pile to await use by the next person who comes in.
These are a few of the more acute acts of cruelty that I was witness to...I couldn’t begin to list the numerous little acts of nastiness that was perpetrated upon inmates, many of whom have yet to be tried and convicted of any crime. There was an inordinate amount of people locked up for non-payment of fines...I call them the “criminally poor”.
While I was in custody, I read a fascinating book called Raid which was about the raid upon Son Tay, a prisoner of war camp in North Viet Nam. I read about the conditions and treatment that was doled out to these prisoners and that made me know that I didn’t really have it so bad. If these young men could deal with the inhumane treatment that they received at the hands of their captors, surely I could handle my incarceration. I almost felt badly for complaining. But we are in America and I had no idea that any American could be so cruel to their fellow countrymen. I would be curious to see what the Geneva Convention calls for in the way of treatment of prisoners of war. The holding cells at that jail had no windows in them and the perception of time was rather distorted. Allowed nothing more than a Bible and a few toilet articles...the boredom was unbelievable and added to the distorted view of time. There’s a condition called ICU psychosis that was noted when patients in intensive care units that had no windows became psychotic because they had lost all perception of time. All ICU rooms now must contain a window so the circadian rhythm of the human body can be maintained. The holding cells had no windows and the inmates were only allowed to leave these pits for an occasional cold shower and any visits to sick call. Other than those moments, these people never leave these tiny, over populated cells and can walk no further than a few feet, stepping over other inmates who were lying on the floors on small mats.
I’m sure that the jail workers have bad days and appalling experiences at times. But there's no reason to be so hideously cruel to every single inmate who comes in. I’m not sure what it is in a human that makes them find delight in the power that they seem to find by being so nasty to other people. But they certainly do. I was raised to have respect for the people who “serve and protect” us...a LOT of respect. But over the past few weeks, most of that respect has eroded. I am trying to maintain some degree of esteem for them because there most certainly were a few people who treated the inmates with consideration and decency...thereby allowing them to maintain a bit of their own dignity. If I were to write a manual titled “How to create a mean and nasty person out of a generally civilized human being”, I would certainly include many of the actions that I’ve been witness to recently.
I’m trying to hold on to my standards and put this all in perspective so that I can remain objective and respectful of authority. These yahoos did nothing to make that easy for me. The anger and contempt that I have felt at times shows me how easily a person can be pushed to the breaking point. After a bit of this treatment, I see how people jailed for some minor infraction can come out of that sentence jaded, bitter and meaner than ever. This can’t be good for ANY OF US.
A bit of bad luck has the potential to snowball and turn any one of us into career criminals. I was amazed at the large numbers of inmates who were in jail after life shit on them. Many Hurricane Katrina victims are locked up in one of the jails that I was just in. My own health problems, aggravated by the treatment that I received at the hands of my ex husband have certainly snowballed into some insane, unexpected twist on the path of my life.
If you ask me if I’m a criminal, I’d say no.
But it’s hard to deny as I’m sitting on this metal cot.
Got a plastic bracelet on my wrist
with the picture of a woman,
I look at it and ask,
Who the hell is this?
I guess it’s me, that’s my name
and my state issued number.
I see that snowball each time I awake from my slumber.
I could give them some cash and they’d open that door.
But that just isn’t an option for the criminally poor.
Meg
email me at megbkelso@gmail.com
posted by Meg Kelso | 6:54 AM
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