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HIV+ Prisoner Advocates Demand Investigation / Call To Come Demonstrate 10-19-02
Prisoners Rights Advocates Demand Investigation into Recent Deaths of HIV+ Prisoners at Corcoran Prison
Announce Plans to Demonstrate this Saturday, October 19, 2:30 p.m.
Announce Plans to Demonstrate this Saturday, October 19, 2:30 p.m.
California Prison Focus, a statewide human rights organization for prisoners, today demanded that Corcoran Warden A.K. Scribner and California Department of Corrections Director Edward Alameida launch an immediate investigation into three recent deaths of prisoners with HIV/AIDS. CPF, along with other prisoners¹ rights and community organizations, will demonstrate in front of Corcoran prison’s front gate, 4001 King Avenue, this Saturday, October 19, 2:30 p.m. to expose continued human rights abuses at Corcoran prison.
Three deaths in two weeks are extremely alarming and many more prisoners with HIV and hepatitis C are deteriorating daily behind the walls of Corcoran prison, said Judy Greenspan of the HIV/hepatitis C in Prison Committee of CPF. If something doesn¹t change drastically for the better, many more seriously ill prisoners will die, Greenspan noted.
Just two weeks ago, CPF released its long awaited Corcoran Report, documenting nearly two years of staff misconduct, brutality, medical neglect and preventable deaths at old Corcoran. According to Corey Weinstein, Board member and CPF founding member, the Report reveals that very little has changed at this prison. The rash of shootings of prisoners in the Security Housing Unit may have stopped but Corcoran remains notorious for its disorganization, medical neglect and institutionalized violence, Weinstein noted. The Corcoran Report makes specific recommendations to improve conditions at the prison.
We have recently learned that a large group of prisoners at Pelican Bay Prison will begin a hunger strike on October 19 to coincide with our demonstration, said Michelle Foy, a CPF organizer. We have also heard that there will be hunger strikes at other prisons throughout the state, Foy said. October 19 is a national day of protest called by the Prison Reform Unity Project and will be commemorated by demonstrations outside several California state prisons.
Other demands of the Corcoran protest include: overturn the three strikes law, end the death penalty, release all eligible lifers now, healthcare is a right for all prisoners, shut down security housing units and no more prison construction. According to CPF organizers, protesters will travel from all over California to demonstrate at Corcoran prison on Saturday. Family members will join the protest after visiting is over at both old Corcoran and the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility.
Three deaths in two weeks are extremely alarming and many more prisoners with HIV and hepatitis C are deteriorating daily behind the walls of Corcoran prison, said Judy Greenspan of the HIV/hepatitis C in Prison Committee of CPF. If something doesn¹t change drastically for the better, many more seriously ill prisoners will die, Greenspan noted.
Just two weeks ago, CPF released its long awaited Corcoran Report, documenting nearly two years of staff misconduct, brutality, medical neglect and preventable deaths at old Corcoran. According to Corey Weinstein, Board member and CPF founding member, the Report reveals that very little has changed at this prison. The rash of shootings of prisoners in the Security Housing Unit may have stopped but Corcoran remains notorious for its disorganization, medical neglect and institutionalized violence, Weinstein noted. The Corcoran Report makes specific recommendations to improve conditions at the prison.
We have recently learned that a large group of prisoners at Pelican Bay Prison will begin a hunger strike on October 19 to coincide with our demonstration, said Michelle Foy, a CPF organizer. We have also heard that there will be hunger strikes at other prisons throughout the state, Foy said. October 19 is a national day of protest called by the Prison Reform Unity Project and will be commemorated by demonstrations outside several California state prisons.
Other demands of the Corcoran protest include: overturn the three strikes law, end the death penalty, release all eligible lifers now, healthcare is a right for all prisoners, shut down security housing units and no more prison construction. According to CPF organizers, protesters will travel from all over California to demonstrate at Corcoran prison on Saturday. Family members will join the protest after visiting is over at both old Corcoran and the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility.
For more information:
http://www.prisons.org
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There will be carpools from San Francisco and the East Bay!
See link below:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/09/149660.php
See link below:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/09/149660.php
This is a real joke. Tell me it is. Hiv has never been proven to cause aids its the Bin Laden of science. When you ask for proof you don't get it.
If you can't do the Time
I’ve got some scary information for the folk who
believe the green monkey myth.
Aids the new millennium bioweapon.
Please read these links. WHO murdered Africa?
http://www.aidsbiowar.com/page1.htm
http://www.aidsbiowar.com/page2.htm
believe the green monkey myth.
Aids the new millennium bioweapon.
Please read these links. WHO murdered Africa?
http://www.aidsbiowar.com/page1.htm
http://www.aidsbiowar.com/page2.htm
Maybe you should think about it first.
next time.
don't to the crime
if you can't do the time.
next time.
don't to the crime
if you can't do the time.
that's stupid. Kids who made a mistake, say a young man who got caught smoking marijuana - and remember Bush is a known ex-coke addict - do not deserve to die. If they do, then Bush should be immediatly executed this very instant.
Surely you jest.
I hear ya, TerryD.
So-called AIDS activist groups no longer come out and say that HIV *causes* AIDS precisely because they know they can't prove it. Now they constantly run the two terms together (e.g., HIV/AIDS, HIV and AIDS) in the media and their campaign literature to keep the public from disconnecting the two words and start asking questions about the virus itself.
Notice how they've also stopped using the words *AIDS drugs*? It's because of increasing public awareness about the deadly side-effects of so-called anti-retroviral drugs or AZT. Now they cry for AIDS *TREATMENT*, which really means AZT or anti-retroviral drugs.
Unfortunately the PR from these pharmaceutical front groups posing as AIDS activists has been very effective. In spite of the fact that AIDS has NEVER, EVER, EVER been shown to have been caused by an HIV virus, Indymedia, the "left" and the right/mainstream have bought into the total crap being spread around by various AIDS "activist" groups, hook, line and sinker. The real sad part about it is that it didn't take much to win the "Independent" Media Center over. Just march down the street holding signs and banners, yell slogans, do some nonviolent civil disobedience and direct action and you automatically win over the gullible "left".
It's almost like some kind of protection racket. Once your group proves itself worthy of gaining acceptance into the activist club -- by the number of times you've been arrested for civil disobedience and/or ability to use the right PC lingo and/or the number of photos you post of people of color marching down the street -- and establish all the right connections on the left (by sucking up), no one, no matter how credible, no matter how much damning the evidence they have to expose your con job, will be given the time of day.
These so-called leftists will help you knock down dissent by dismissing anyone who questions the legitimacy of your campaign as either "the enemy", a quack, or a conspiracy kook. It's a very devious, underhanded way of saying that no dissent is allowed here.
Now that the anti-war movement is growing these corporate parasites are managing to attached themselves to every protest they can. The only upshot is that I've been noticing a serious lack of attendance at the demos initiated by "AIDS" groups.
I still would like to see someone in Indymedia actually provide the reason(s) why they won't feature the other side of this debate and why they don't look into the background and who's funding these so-called AIDS groups. The studies they site are conducted by the same pharmacutical companies that's are trying to sell these drugs. Conflict of interest, anyone?
Some IMCs have become completely hijacked by so-called AIDS activists:
http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=35357&group=webcast
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=35367&group=webcast
http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature.php3?category=ISSUES&feature_id=AIDS
http://dc.indymedia.org/
If anyone of you at the IMC has any balls, take a moment to go to these sites and start looking into the OTHER side. There are many links to other sites that can be found at the following locations:
http://www.aliveandwell.org/index.php?page=myth
http://www.aliveandwell.org/index.php?page=discredited
http://www.whatisaids.com/#questions
So-called AIDS activist groups no longer come out and say that HIV *causes* AIDS precisely because they know they can't prove it. Now they constantly run the two terms together (e.g., HIV/AIDS, HIV and AIDS) in the media and their campaign literature to keep the public from disconnecting the two words and start asking questions about the virus itself.
Notice how they've also stopped using the words *AIDS drugs*? It's because of increasing public awareness about the deadly side-effects of so-called anti-retroviral drugs or AZT. Now they cry for AIDS *TREATMENT*, which really means AZT or anti-retroviral drugs.
Unfortunately the PR from these pharmaceutical front groups posing as AIDS activists has been very effective. In spite of the fact that AIDS has NEVER, EVER, EVER been shown to have been caused by an HIV virus, Indymedia, the "left" and the right/mainstream have bought into the total crap being spread around by various AIDS "activist" groups, hook, line and sinker. The real sad part about it is that it didn't take much to win the "Independent" Media Center over. Just march down the street holding signs and banners, yell slogans, do some nonviolent civil disobedience and direct action and you automatically win over the gullible "left".
It's almost like some kind of protection racket. Once your group proves itself worthy of gaining acceptance into the activist club -- by the number of times you've been arrested for civil disobedience and/or ability to use the right PC lingo and/or the number of photos you post of people of color marching down the street -- and establish all the right connections on the left (by sucking up), no one, no matter how credible, no matter how much damning the evidence they have to expose your con job, will be given the time of day.
These so-called leftists will help you knock down dissent by dismissing anyone who questions the legitimacy of your campaign as either "the enemy", a quack, or a conspiracy kook. It's a very devious, underhanded way of saying that no dissent is allowed here.
Now that the anti-war movement is growing these corporate parasites are managing to attached themselves to every protest they can. The only upshot is that I've been noticing a serious lack of attendance at the demos initiated by "AIDS" groups.
I still would like to see someone in Indymedia actually provide the reason(s) why they won't feature the other side of this debate and why they don't look into the background and who's funding these so-called AIDS groups. The studies they site are conducted by the same pharmacutical companies that's are trying to sell these drugs. Conflict of interest, anyone?
Some IMCs have become completely hijacked by so-called AIDS activists:
http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=35357&group=webcast
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=35367&group=webcast
http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature.php3?category=ISSUES&feature_id=AIDS
http://dc.indymedia.org/
If anyone of you at the IMC has any balls, take a moment to go to these sites and start looking into the OTHER side. There are many links to other sites that can be found at the following locations:
http://www.aliveandwell.org/index.php?page=myth
http://www.aliveandwell.org/index.php?page=discredited
http://www.whatisaids.com/#questions
This series is quite long, but it's a damn good expose:
Background
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text1.htm
"The First AIDS Case"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text2.htm
"What the Evidence Shows"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text3.htm
"Is HIV Contagious?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text4.htm
"Is Sex Involved?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text5.htm
"What's the Real Story?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text6.htm
"Who Gets AIDS?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text7.htm
"What Causes AIDS?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text8.htm
"What Cures AIDS?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text9.htm
"The Tragedy"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text10.htm
"The Plot Sickens"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text11.htm
"A Letter"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text12.htm
"Questions Remain"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text13.htm
"About the Author"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text14.htm
"Postscript"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text15.htm
Letters
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/letters.htm
Links
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/links.htm
Bibliography (very impressive!)
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/biblio.htm
Now, anyone who reads this information and still demands AIDS drugs ("treatment") for prisoners is no less than complicit in the deaths that will result from the taking of these toxic drugs.
Background
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text1.htm
"The First AIDS Case"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text2.htm
"What the Evidence Shows"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text3.htm
"Is HIV Contagious?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text4.htm
"Is Sex Involved?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text5.htm
"What's the Real Story?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text6.htm
"Who Gets AIDS?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text7.htm
"What Causes AIDS?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text8.htm
"What Cures AIDS?"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text9.htm
"The Tragedy"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text10.htm
"The Plot Sickens"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text11.htm
"A Letter"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text12.htm
"Questions Remain"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text13.htm
"About the Author"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text14.htm
"Postscript"
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/text15.htm
Letters
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/letters.htm
Links
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/links.htm
Bibliography (very impressive!)
http://aliveandwell-eugene.dreamhost.com/aidsgate/biblio.htm
Now, anyone who reads this information and still demands AIDS drugs ("treatment") for prisoners is no less than complicit in the deaths that will result from the taking of these toxic drugs.
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/sv/story/4869821p-5882102c.html
Prison draws protesters
Demonstrators come from throughout the state to voice concerns about conditions at Corcoran.
By Bethany Clough
The Fresno Bee
(Published Sunday, October 20, 2002, 4:55 AM)
About 50 demonstrators with complaints about state prisons hoped they would be heard beyond the barricades, police tape and prison gates they stood behind Saturday at Corcoran State Prison.
Demonstrators had a litany of complaints: Prison guards are too brutal. Prisoners with HIV and hepatitis C don't get enough medical treatment. There aren't enough drug-treatment programs. The death penalty and the "Three Strikes" law should be abolished.
Although the protest was coordinated by the San Francisco-based California Prison Focus, demonstrators came from throughout the state and from a long list of organizations.
The demonstration came on the heels of a report released by California Prison Focus last month, alleging many of the same issues demonstrators protested Saturday.
Prison officials could not be reached to comment Saturday, but Terry Thornton, a California Department of Corrections spokeswoman in Sacramento, called the report's accusations irresponsible and said the prison group has its facts wrong.
"They're all allegations with no substance," she said, adding that prison officials would investigate the complaints.
New accusations surfaced Saturday. Three inmates have died of HIV in the last two weeks, said Judy Greenspan, chairwoman of the group's HIV/Hepatitis C in Prison committee. The group sent a letter requesting an investigation into the deaths, saying the inmates did not get enough pain medication, were not transferred to a prison hospice and were not recommended for "compassionate release."
"How many deaths will it take until they realize something is wrong there?" Greenspan said.
Prison officials were not available to verify the deaths or comment on the group's accusations.
But Janis Fonseca of Los Angeles said her husband is proof that something needs to change at Corcoran. She said her husband has been held in solitary confinement for four years. During a fight inside the prison, he lost an eye, the use of his right hand and can no longer walk, she added.
Neither the frequent solitary confinement nor the fight should have happened in a well-managed prison, she said.
The demonstration was one of several throughout California and the country Saturday. Inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California planned to begin a hunger strike Saturday to protest conditions there.
Many protesters who came from San Francisco said they chose to drive to Corcoran because it needs the most help.
"Corcoran is symbolic of the mismanagement and brutality of the California prison system," said Corey Weinstein, the group's founder.
A small group of law-enforcement officers kept watch over the protesters as they chanted and cheered speakers, but some prison workers inside Corcoran's gates said they weren't even aware there were protesters outside.
That didn't bother Weinstein: "If I didn't feel I had the ability to make a difference, I wouldn't be here today."
Last month, Thornton said the state Department of Corrections has worked with the prison advocacy group in the past and hoped they could do so in the future.
Pictures can be found at http://www.prisons.org
Prison draws protesters
Demonstrators come from throughout the state to voice concerns about conditions at Corcoran.
By Bethany Clough
The Fresno Bee
(Published Sunday, October 20, 2002, 4:55 AM)
About 50 demonstrators with complaints about state prisons hoped they would be heard beyond the barricades, police tape and prison gates they stood behind Saturday at Corcoran State Prison.
Demonstrators had a litany of complaints: Prison guards are too brutal. Prisoners with HIV and hepatitis C don't get enough medical treatment. There aren't enough drug-treatment programs. The death penalty and the "Three Strikes" law should be abolished.
Although the protest was coordinated by the San Francisco-based California Prison Focus, demonstrators came from throughout the state and from a long list of organizations.
The demonstration came on the heels of a report released by California Prison Focus last month, alleging many of the same issues demonstrators protested Saturday.
Prison officials could not be reached to comment Saturday, but Terry Thornton, a California Department of Corrections spokeswoman in Sacramento, called the report's accusations irresponsible and said the prison group has its facts wrong.
"They're all allegations with no substance," she said, adding that prison officials would investigate the complaints.
New accusations surfaced Saturday. Three inmates have died of HIV in the last two weeks, said Judy Greenspan, chairwoman of the group's HIV/Hepatitis C in Prison committee. The group sent a letter requesting an investigation into the deaths, saying the inmates did not get enough pain medication, were not transferred to a prison hospice and were not recommended for "compassionate release."
"How many deaths will it take until they realize something is wrong there?" Greenspan said.
Prison officials were not available to verify the deaths or comment on the group's accusations.
But Janis Fonseca of Los Angeles said her husband is proof that something needs to change at Corcoran. She said her husband has been held in solitary confinement for four years. During a fight inside the prison, he lost an eye, the use of his right hand and can no longer walk, she added.
Neither the frequent solitary confinement nor the fight should have happened in a well-managed prison, she said.
The demonstration was one of several throughout California and the country Saturday. Inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California planned to begin a hunger strike Saturday to protest conditions there.
Many protesters who came from San Francisco said they chose to drive to Corcoran because it needs the most help.
"Corcoran is symbolic of the mismanagement and brutality of the California prison system," said Corey Weinstein, the group's founder.
A small group of law-enforcement officers kept watch over the protesters as they chanted and cheered speakers, but some prison workers inside Corcoran's gates said they weren't even aware there were protesters outside.
That didn't bother Weinstein: "If I didn't feel I had the ability to make a difference, I wouldn't be here today."
Last month, Thornton said the state Department of Corrections has worked with the prison advocacy group in the past and hoped they could do so in the future.
Pictures can be found at http://www.prisons.org
What are they trying to do?; ( by "they" I mean The California Department of Corrections). Their so called CORRECTIONS ( prisons) are nothing more that a CONCENTRATION CAMP WHERE OUR LOVE ONES ARE DYING. Killing our love ones is notorious. Healthcare is a right for all prisonersmedical neglect is uncostitutional, I am really disgusted that we still have poeple that say " I HOPE THEY LEARN THIS TIME" learn what that the world we live in is full of shit and that t we have here it's not doing enough to help them, that society will destroy our children, brothers, sisters, husbands. It's alarming that the richest country in the can't provide health care forall prisoners. They would rather have them kill and rape one another.
One example I have a brother 19 years old, he was subject to a beating by 4 inmates and I was aware of what was happening and I called to make a report because I was afraid that something terrrible had happened to my brother, a deputy asked me to call in a few hours. I called back in an hour, their response was "' he wasn't getting along with his mates,he wa transferred to another unit and he is okay. Five minutes later I get a call from my brother he was severely beaten and he was going to be taken to the hospital. Why do they feel the need to lie? To tell us that they are doing okay, when in fact the are living in terribly unhealthy conditions. IN THE OUR RIGHT FOR FREEDOM IT"S TIME FOR US TO DO SOMETHING, GET UP AND FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO BE FREE.
One example I have a brother 19 years old, he was subject to a beating by 4 inmates and I was aware of what was happening and I called to make a report because I was afraid that something terrrible had happened to my brother, a deputy asked me to call in a few hours. I called back in an hour, their response was "' he wasn't getting along with his mates,he wa transferred to another unit and he is okay. Five minutes later I get a call from my brother he was severely beaten and he was going to be taken to the hospital. Why do they feel the need to lie? To tell us that they are doing okay, when in fact the are living in terribly unhealthy conditions. IN THE OUR RIGHT FOR FREEDOM IT"S TIME FOR US TO DO SOMETHING, GET UP AND FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO BE FREE.
Safe and Effective Interventions
A joint Uganda/U.S. study showed that the antiretroviral drug, nevirapine, reduces transmission of HIV from a mother to her newborn by almost 50 percent. Nevirapine is administered in a single dose to the mother at the onset of labor and in a single dose to the baby in its first three days of life. The entire course cost less than $4, and the drug is now available in many places free or at a reduced cost. Other alternative drug regimens include AZT administered for four weeks prior to delivery and AZT/3TC and nevirapine administered together at the onset of labor and to the newborn for one week.
A joint Uganda/U.S. study showed that the antiretroviral drug, nevirapine, reduces transmission of HIV from a mother to her newborn by almost 50 percent. Nevirapine is administered in a single dose to the mother at the onset of labor and in a single dose to the baby in its first three days of life. The entire course cost less than $4, and the drug is now available in many places free or at a reduced cost. Other alternative drug regimens include AZT administered for four weeks prior to delivery and AZT/3TC and nevirapine administered together at the onset of labor and to the newborn for one week.
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