Late last week, a 44-year-old inmate at the Buckingham Correctional Center called our newsroom to report his situation. He said guards were spreading lies so other prisoners would attack him. To escape, he had swallowed a Sharpie pen.
Michael Jerman says he’s done this before – five times – forcing prisons to take him to the hospital where he could share his concerns with the Department of Corrections.
“While you’re in the hospital, they can’t let you die. That’s when they report to DOC in Richmond, and they usually come and see you,” he explains.
This time, however, he said he had not been taken to the doctor and was worried.
“I’m in pain in my stomach and in my chest.”
We reached out to the Department of Corrections to see if Jerman had been hospitalized. We received no response, nor did the state allow us to speak with prisoners at the maximum-security prison Red Onion. Officials confirmed that five inmates there had burned themselves so severely that they required hospitalization.
Taj Mahon-Haft, with the non-profit Humanization Project, says they’re protesting a number of problems.
“Excessive lockdowns, excessive isolation, excessive violence coming from staff.”
On November 3, RadioIQ requested interviews with five prisoners at Red Onion. State policy is to ensure inmates have reasonable access to the media, but so far, we have not been able to speak with those prisoners.
“A lot of people there have lost all their visitation and phone privileges,” Mahon-Haft notes.
And he says many have been placed in solitary confinement, including Rashid Johnson, a prisoner who had been transferred out after a long hunger strike, only to be sent back after completing treatment for cancer.
