Rally Supports Women Prisoners id DAA32610; Fri, 17 Oct 1997 03:14:40 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 23, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- RALLY SUPPORTS WOMEN PRISONERS AGAINST ABUSE By Brenda Sandburg San Francisco Prisoner-rights activists from the San Francisco Bay area protested at two women's prisons in Chowchilla, Calif., on Oct. 4 to support the prisoners' fight against medical neglect and torture. The protest was organized by the California Coalition for Women Prisoners. The Central California Women's Facility and the Valley State Prison for Women are located across the street from each other in a rural town three hours' drive from San Francisco. Several women at these prisons have died because the guards and the prison system refused to treat them for serious medical conditions including AIDS, cancer, diabetes, asthma and sickle cell anemia. Speakers at the rally related atrocities that have occurred inside the prisons. For example, one woman who was pregnant had very high blood pressure that went untreated throughout her pregnancy. When she complained of pain, she was ignored. Finally, when the pain became agonizing, she was taken to the infirmary and then to the hospital. An exam found that her baby had been dead inside her for at least two weeks. Another woman was strip-searched every time she left her cell. When she refused to be put through this cruel indignity she was left naked in a shower without water for two days. After it became clear that she could not be broken, the guards threw her back in her cell. The next time she was to go out, a squad of eight guards came into her cell, held her down and stripped her. A class-action lawsuit--Schumate vs. Wilson--filed in 1995 on behalf of women with serious illnesses was recently settled. If enforced, the ruling could improve medical care at CCWF and the California Institution for Women in Frontera. But the lawsuit did not include Valley State Prison for Women. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytfem-10.17.97-03:14:53-13462