Powledge Unit - Federal

Harris County has killed 6 diabetic prisoners in the last 3 years due to denial of adequate medical care and this must be stopped.

I am recruiting others who are active in civil rights litigation and I am currently working to organize prisoners with hepatitis C who the prison has refused to treat. The Edwards Law Firm in Austin believes this should be of public concern and needs to be litigated as a class action lawsuit against TDCJ/UTMB Correctional Managed Care to get prisoners treated to prevent the further spread of hep. C within the prison system and to the public from improperly treated inmates upon release.

To effectively move toward this goal we are assisting prisoners with hep. C in filing grievances for deliberate indifference to serious medical needs through denial of treatment. After exhausting their administrative remedy (step 1 & 2 grievances) a letter is drafted to “Edwards Law” requesting representation and requesting to become a class member or representative in the proposed litigation.

This litigation could bring about change in the TDCJ/UTMB Correctional Managed Care system (CMC).

We are also organizing prisoners in coordination with Edwards Law to do a class-action lawsuit against TDCJ/UTMB CMC for denial of dentures and partial dentures. An issue raised against Harris County in Baughman v. Garcia, 254F.Supp.3d 848 (S.D.Tex.2017) which resulted in a settlement on the dental portion of the care and the issuance of partial dentures to the plaintiff.

The issue of TDCJ/UTMB CMC was raised in three Houston Chronicle articles which brought forth the need for the class-action lawsuit and the attention of Edwards Law. See: Houston Chronicle “Policy That Bites”, September 26, 2018”; “Prisons to Hire Denture Specialist” October 6, 2018; “Toothless Texas Inmates Denied Dentures in State Prison” September 23, 20187 at www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article

Despite what the articles say TDCJ/UTMB CMC has not changed their policies regarding dentures and Edwards Law agrees it is going to take a class-action lawsuit to achieve this.

I have a First Amendment Rights lawsuit going against Harris County: Baughman v. Harris County, case no. 4i18-CV-960 in the United $nakes District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The case deals with unconstitutional mail-room policies and Freedom of Speech; as well as Due Process under the Fourteenth Amendment where proper notice is required and right to appeal adverse decisions to reject incoming or outgoing correspondence and publications.

Please send me the Texas Campaign Pack, enclosed are 7 stamps. Also, please send me several of the petitions for the piss poor way this unit answers every one of my grievances. This unit that I am on is committing crimes against the elderly, the handicapped, and the mentally impaired on a daily basis, and also crimes against humanity in general. I’ve been on this unit for 8 years and I have seen, with my own eyes, shit that would make you cry, or puke. I know things about some of the rankers that is enough to put my life in serious danger.

We, the offenders in the wheelchair dorms, need help. The Justice Department needs to interview several of us and examine these dorms and see the filth, black mold and scum that we wallow in daily. The roach infestation is so bad that our diapers and other medical supplies are really being contaminated. We don’t have anywhere to store medical devices, supplies, or meds except on the floor in trash bags up under our bunks.

MRSA & MSSA are spreading like wild-fire, and still, nothing is being done. The medical department has a theft ring going on. First they steal my money from my trust fund, for non-chargeable visits, then after I notice it’s gone (after going to the commissary), and they’ve collected interest off it, then they give it back. They wake us up at every count (all night long, by beating on the cubicle walls, just to see if we are still alive.) And, to file a grievance is nothing more than a joke.

Trust me, I’m at my boiling point, and I don’t give a shit about more time. This is my last attempt to find some kind of help. I’ll close for now and try to maintain long enough to hear your response.

Please send me the Texas pack. I shared mine with someone who did not return the entire contents. I have found the information to be most helpful. Just this week I won a Step 1 Grievance using the Texas pack.

The unit grievance officer had erroneously coded a Step 1 Grievance. The previously filed Step 1 had been concerning sleep deprivation only because I am wheelchair mobile, a “wheeler.” Thus, the sleep deprivation is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (28 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.). However, the grievance was coded as “denial of access to health care.” There is a very big difference.

While at the TDCJ Hospital Galveston (HG) Unit the staff denied me access to a bed for all but three hours during a four day period. Instead, I was forced to remain seated in my wheelchair in a holding tank. Just so their records would show that I had been assigned to a bed each night I was taken to a bed late at night and awakened a short time later to go back to the holding tank. Basically, I only obtained three hours of sleep during an approximate ninety-six hour period.

In further error, the unit grievance officer had misrouted my Step 1 to the senior practice manage. Presumably because it had been incorrectly coded. The senior practice manager knew he had no authority over the grieved issue. Yet he responded anyway, saying as much, and thus denying an opportunity for relief at the Step 1. I filed a Step 2 grievance asserting that no relief was available at the Step 1 for the reasons explained herein above.

In the TDCJ, denial of access to the grievance system is a grievable issue. Thus, I submitted a Step 1 Grievance asserting that (1) the unit grievance officer erroneously coded my ADA Step 1; and (2) the senior practice manager should have rerouted my Step 1 back to the unit grievance officer for appropriate handling.

It was only the availability of the TDCJ grievance codes in the Texas pack which allowed me to cite the appropriate code for my ADA complaint and to identify the erroneous code used by the unit grievance officer. As you know, the TDCJ Offender Grievance Operations Manual has been removed form the unit law libraries. I would not have been able to formulate my argument had the Texas pack not been available to me. But once again I am at a disadvantage with an incomplete Texas pack. Thank you for making this valuable resource available.

I am at the Powledge Unit and when it rains our bunks leak water on where we sleep. The medical here is very bad. They do not like to do their job, all they do is stay on the computer texting their friends and family, and not the job that they are supposed to do.

I am writing to you in regards to the hunger strikes occurring as this is being typed by my good friends on the Powledge Unit in Palestine, Texas.

I have heard on the local radio station that a hunger strike is happening on the Allred Unit. The count is at 45 inmates concerning the conditions of confinement, this has been ongoing in Texas because I have personally litigated many claims about unsanitary conditions of confinement.

On another note, the K-2 epidemic is still mounting here on Powledge, but administration refuses to address the problem. The K-2 is coming in thru the industry here, by employees and controlled by the gang members here. This is supposed to be a G.R.A.D. unit. Gang renunciation unit.

But it appears that it is a gang re-organizing unit. They reorganize once they get free of smart gang intelligence officer and get this dumb one here.

This unit is a geriatric unit for old men and infirmed men, but they continue to fill it with young gang members that want to get high or drunk off hooch made with hand sanitizer. A deadly combination that has claimed four inmates. Our society has no more dumb people than we do.

Offenders are forced to endure the smoke despite their breathing problems and sends the offender to the medical with severe problems, in which medical blames it on some other activiating mechanism like the dust or debris.

One inmate died while smoking K-2 and the inmates brought him back to life before the guards could be alerted. He made parole and has not been seen since.

Your analysis has been enlightening and brought us up to date on the epidemic of K-2. Thank you for your service to this major problem in prison and outside. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Your Texas Pack will support my contentions and add fuel to the fire I have started. You participate in the same practice I do and have been doing since 2010. I apply the law in my grievances. I apply PD-22 in correlation to ED-02.01 and apply the facts of official misconduct that lands officials on administrative probation or suspended 30, 60, or 90 days. I applaud your practice. I appreciate your action, and your newsletter gives me hope that I am not alone in fighting this Goliath that has no moral value. Thank you for your presence and participation.

I am on Powledge Unit after fighting my way to here via Bother units where I still have civil actions pending. But this unit enjoys retaliating against you for your protected right to file grievances or complain. Standards for prison operations in this country are made by the American Correctional Association (ACA), and ACA Standard 4-4274 states I have a protected right to complain about my conditions and official misconduct without fear of retaliation, but the guards don’t know that it exists in ATC Rules. See ATC-040. It has been my safety beacon in many grieves.

The state works off the ignorance of inmates – our comrades so to speak. I am requesting that you keep doing what you do and teach the prisoners. Inform them of their rights, privileges, immunities under the Constitution. Where the prisoners of Texas really need help is in statutory law. I am understanding that Administrative Code is where statutory law lies, that governs jails and prisons. Texas prisoners in state facilities are not privy to these laws, so a prisoner cannot successfully litigate a case without an injury. An injury is not a prerequisite to 42 USC 1983.

Well keep up the good work and stand united and strong.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Legal work and campaigns, such as the information contained in the Texas Pack, are one aspect of our struggle toward a society without the abuses that the Texas Pack is focused on: grievance problems, indigent mail restrictions, exorbitant medical copay, and others. We don’t think we can get to that society by focusing on just this angle alone, however. So we push our comrades who are getting good information from the Texas Pack to also recognize the bigger picture and the long-term struggle. MIM(Prisons)’s work is focused on prisons in the United $tates, but we strive for this work to coincide with the struggles of the most oppressed peoples in the world. If you’re ready to take that step from prison reformer to revolutionary, we offer lots of study materials on the topic, and a correspondence study course for $10 or work-trade.