West Tennessee State Penitentiary - Federal

I am denied access to proper health treatment and was forced to endure a yeast infection in my ears and on my rectum for almost seven years. When I complained the nurses would take my blood pressure and pretend they could not comprehend my complaint. I was finally able to get neomyc and polymycin, B. Sulfates and hydrocortison solution for my ears and yeast infection cream for my rectum. After several years of them neglecting my complaints as if I was delusional and suffered from a phantom itch.

They totally neglected my medical rights by framing me as mentally ill. I had a stroke that made the whole left side of my body go numb. That went untreated and undiagnosed because I went unseen by the doctors and could not get past the firewall of nurses who would not tell the doctors my complaints.

I want to join the fight for change because of these capitalist pigs that are only fair to people they consider worthy. They do not offer equal treatment to the people. The low people ruled by the big pig of the government. That have sinister desires towards the people they have authority over.

West Tennessee State Penitentiary (WTSP) has a lot of house policy issues. For one, their policies are not always legitimate under Tennessee Department of Correction penological justifications. On Feb 1st 2001 WTSP Warden Henry Steward and AWO Tommy Mills put out a memo to the maximum/segregated prisoners about them violating in-house policies. I am a maximum security/segregated prisoner and therefore I can speak about the mistreatment and un-professionalism of the prison officials and administrators.

Max prisoners endure a lot of foul talk and other things that are unprofessional from the correctional officers who run the units/pods. Neither the Tennessee Commissioner or Governor has been notified nor approved of the memo from February. The memo allows the administrators to take away their personal property, such as TVs, commissary, and other articles we bought over the years of our incarceration. This is in clear violation of the 8th and 14th amendments. The 14th amendment protects prisoners against the deprivation of personal property and liberty without due process of law. When state law and regulations substantively limit the discretion of confinement, the state creates an expectation, and the 8th and 14th amendments protects against the intentional, malicious or sadistic acts by prison officials towards prisoners. At the end it’s all cruel and unusual punishment.

All the maximum/segregated prisoners have filed a petition on this issue and are waiting to hear back from the commissioner. I believe these prison administrators fail to realize that we as prisoners still have rights. I again thank you for the help in the U.S. prison struggle.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We welcome the news that our comrades in Tennessee are coming together to fight repressive policies. We encourage those in other states to take up their example, and be sure to report on your work in ULK so that we can share these reports and learn from each others struggles.