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UNSAFE WATER CRISIS IN THE PRISON
DOC REFUSING TO COMPLY WITH COURT ORDER TO
SUPPLY MUMIA WITH HEPATITIS C MEDICATION
From Flint, Michigan, and Standing Rock, North Dakota to prisons all across the country, people are rising up to demand the right to clean water.
At SCI Mahanoy, the Pennsylvania prison which incarcerates Mumia Abu-Jamal, the water is unsafe for inmates to bathe and shower with, or to drink. It is “dirty, brackish, turbid, even black water” — that is how Mumia Abu-Jamal describes the dramatic situation in a grievance he filed last week.
The grievance details six demands, including the immediate provision of an alternative source of “clean, fresh, safe, and untainted water” for bathing and drinking and “testing of the water piped into the infirmary tub and showers.”
Please help amplify the voices of all prisoners.
TAKE ACTION!! CALL, FAX, AND WRITE:
- THERESA DEL BALSO
Superintendent SCI Mahanoy
CALL 570-773-2158 x8102
FAX 570-783-2008
301 MOREA ROAD
FRACKVILLE, PA 17932
- JOHN WETZEL
PA Department of Corrections
CALL 717-728-4109
FAX 717-728-4178
EMAIL ra-contactdoc@poc.gov
1920 TECHNOLOGY PARKWAY
MECHANICSBURG, PA 17050
- TOM WOLF
PA Governor
CALL 717-787-2500
EMAIL governor@pa.gov
508 MAIN CAPITOL BUILDING
HARRISBURG PA 17120
SAMPLE SCRIPT
Hi, I am a concerned citizen from ______________.
I am calling to demand that the SCI Mahanoy
prison administration:
1. Immediately provide all prisoners clean water
for bathing, showering and drinking.
In addition, I am demanding that they:
2. Comply with Judge Mariani’s court ruling of
January 3, 2017, ordering the Department of
Corrections by January 21 to begin treatment
of Mumia Abu Jamal using one of the available
cures for Hepatitis C.
Give Mumia the cure he needs.
Mumia has a severe skin ailment, a symptom of his untreated Hepatitis C. The water contamination at the prison poses a serious threat to his life through infection. For this reason Mumia has refused the three baths a week that prison doctors prescribed to alleviate his symptoms.
In addition to violating the January 2017 court order of federal judge Mariani mandating Mumia be immediately treated with the Hepatitis C cure, which is the root cause of his skin problem, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is in direct violation of its own woefully inadequate “baths prescription” for the treatment of his skin condition and Hepatits C.
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GRIEVANCE FILED BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
OFFICIAL INMATE GRIEVANCE
TO: FACILITY GRIEVANCE COORDINATOR
Jane Hinman, Asst. to Supt.
FROM: (INMATE NAME & NUMBER)
M. A. Jamal #AM8335
DATE: 1/25/17
A. Provide a brief, clear statement of your grievance. Additional paper may be used, maximum two pages …. State all relief that you are seeking.
Over the last several months, I have repeatedly complained of dirty, brackish, turbid, even black water in the infirmary’s tub. In my discussions with c/o Easterday, I’ve confirmed this situation several times. I’ve received several responses from my prior grievances, which I believe are misleading, incorrect and untrue.
Several weeks ago, c/o Easterday informed me that he was told by someone looking into this issue that the water’s discoloration stems from the water pooling in the pipes (or words to that effect), and if one simply let the water run for 5 minutes, it would clear up.
When I reported for my medically-prescribed bath today (around 8:30 due to waiting some 20-25 minutes in the pill line(!) because of the length of the line), I found the water, upon running, dark, turbid, and quite discolored. I again showed it to c/o Easterday, who repeated what he told me several weeks earlier.
I let the water run; for 5 minutes; for 10 minutes; for 15 minutes; for 20 minutes—and not only didn’t it clear up—it got worse! While the water appeared like tea in the beginning, it looked more like coffee after a 20-minute run. I left the stopper in after the last run, and showed it to the c/o, who replied he ‘understood,’ when I informed him there was no way I could/would get into a tub in that condition.
He made a call (to whom, I don’t know) and he explained (as I was then outside the room), he explained that the water in the shower room also was running dark, discolored, coffee-colored, and dirty, despite the fact that a man in a wheelchair had just showered in this stuff! This was clearly a situation that went beyond ‘a dirty pipe.’ How am I supposed to clean myself in dirty water? I left the water in the tub, and thereby left it ripe for testing by the person contacted by c/o Easterday.
If this was not done (why wouldn’t it be?), I hereby request the following:
B. List actions taken and staff you have contacted, before submitting this grievance.
(As shown in the text, I showed this matter to c/o Easterday, several times this morning.)
1) Immediate testing of the water piped into the tub and shower rooms;
2) A clear determination of what substance (or substances) turned the water such a dark, turbid color;
3) Immediate correction of this situation so that people won’t be further harmed by whatever is in this water.
4) Please explain how, and when this matter will be corrected.
5) Please provide an alternative, which timely provides clean, fresh, safe, untainted water, not just for bathing, but for drinking.
6) Also, I have been informed by people who were in Frackville that the administration provided guys with a gallon of water a day, until the situation was corrected. I respectfully request that such a practice be made here, to protect the health and welfare of the men here who must depend on the institution to provide for their needs.
Respectfully submitted,
M. A. Jamal
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