Why are women being abused and dying in the "Skilled Nursing Facility" in Chowchilla Womens' Prison
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by Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin "The Warden is not here, no one is in charge today!", the security guard barked at the protesters who gathered at the gate of the Skilled Nursing Facility of Central California Women Facility in Chowchilla (CCWF) CA. armed with a list of demands as follows: *Stop the lockdown of women in the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) On April 27th, 2002 over seventy-five former prisoners, family members and advocates from around the state gathered at the gates of Central California WomenÌs Facility in the town of Chowchilla to protest the health care crisis and deaths of women prisoners. The town of Chowchilla is part of Merdera County in central California, north of Fresno. Chowchilla current population is 5,930 according to the 1990 US Census and the land is 10.3 sq. mile. The origin of Chowchilla comes from the nearby Chowchilla River named for the Chauciles Indian tribe that once lived on its banks. However the quiet rural desert with its calm river has became home for one of the biggest correctional nursing facility for women in the nation. One of the activists told the crowd that CCWF was built in 1990 and is known to be the place where that state routinely sends seriously ill women inmates because it operates a hospice and skilled nursing facility. If CCWF is known for its skilled nursing expertise, then why over fifty prison activists, family members, grassroots organizations and media carpooled to this facility? The reasons are well known to prison activists, inmateÌs families, California Prison Focus, California Women Prisoners and Families with a Future who with others organized the rally at the gates of CCFW. Karen Shain of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Organization in collaboration with prison activists and family members of inmates helped put the spotlight on the physical and sexual assaults against women at CCWF plus the denial of medical care that have lead to 17 deaths in the last year. Matter-of-fact two years ago the high death rate at Chowchilla reached the attention of Los Angeles Times. According to A December 20th 2000 article in the LA Times, there have been 15 death in the year 2000, 9 in 1999 and 10 in 1998. Almost two years after the state corrections official investigation of repeated deaths at Chowchilla and a federal class-action lawsuit over shoddy health care, the death toll keeps on rising. Ida McCray-Robinson, a formerly incarcerated poet, mother and organizer also Founder of Families with a Future shared with the crowd that17 women died in CCWF last year alone. Ida pumped up the rally as she told how she used to feel hearing protesters outside when she was incarcerated. ÏMake them hear you! We love you, we love you! we shout under IdaÌs commands. Speakers who represented a coalition of organizations, i.e. Critical Resistance, Out of Control, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, California Prison Focus, Queers United to Fight Israeli Terrorism, Prison Moratorium Project, Death Penalty Focus Amnesty International and Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization and community activists As I marched with 50 to 75 other protesters young and my elders, my blood was boiling from the stories that were spoken about the way my disabled and terminally ill sisters are treated inside CCWF. For example one organizer talked about the death of a quadriplegic inmate because nobody responded to her medical emergency but the guards rescued a burning microwave in record time. After an hour or so marching and listening to speakers, a handful of activists decided to take our list of demands to the Warden. As we approached the gate, three security guards, one of them was a women, communicated to us through their body language which read clearly as Total Confusion. After we asked for the second in command because the Warden wasnÌt in, the guards looked at each other and replied that nobody was in charge today! At that moment a common thought breezed into our heads and flew out of our mouths in a chorus, Ïwell if nobody is in charged the women prisoners should come home with us. We realized that we were talking to a wall with human like features so we decided to continue our rally outside the gate. The beloved activist,Yuri Kochiyama rolled her walker up to the mike and gave herstory about the racist, sexist and classiest prison industrial complex that is becoming homes for our diverse society. As cars started to pull off, I received some more history of Chowchilla. Come to find out the town of Chowchilla is mainly comprised of low-income Latinos and the push for CCWF in this area was a political move to one separate families from their love ones and to provide jobs in Chowchilla. As the car turned onto the highway to the Bay area, I saw three more prisons all for women. Our mothers, sisters, mothers and grandmothers are joining forces with spirits of our ancestors, goddess, Mother Earth and Mother Nature to give birth to JUSTICE in the desert. I wonder would our Native American ancestors would agree on how the land and women are being treated? I don't think so! For more information call California Coalition for Women Prisoners at (415) 255-7036 x4 or visit their website; www.womenprissoners.org You can also order their quarterly newsletter, The Fire Inside: Caring Birth at Chowchilla
Men in Black & Blue
She finds sisterhood in prison He takes advantage of his authority Umbilical cord tightens around the world Voices ring out Grandmothers, mothers, By Leroy F. Moore Jr. |