Lives of women prisoners

Marysville, Ohio--With great interest I noticed the two segments which WBNS News Team recently aired on improved living conditions for inmates at the Franklin Pre-Release Center (NEPRC) in Columbus. I drooled when I saw the food being served at that facility because what we are fed here at the Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW) bears no resemblance to the taste-tempting delights I witnessed on the newscasts.

The burgeoning population stretches the food budget to the maximum. Whatever cottages are called last to eat usually receive only half portions or often nothing at all. For example, last night they ran out of rib patties so only one hamburger, the same weight as one rib patty, was served to the last two cottages. Inmates have little choice but to fill up on bread (which is usually stale), so many are obese.

The food is so poorly prepared and the supply so meager that a black market exists. I recall many evenings when I went to bed hungry and drank Metamucil to quiet my stomach cramps. Vegetables are often cooked to mush: the broccoli is brown, the lima beans are white, and the cauliflower is gray. Needless to say, the nutritional content is virtually nil.

Living conditions in general also cause a great deal of unrest at ORW. We are seriously overcrowded; approximately 1,800 women populate a prison designed for 750! They are in the process of erecting a new building which we have been advised was designed to hold another 500 women. How, we all wonder, will the cafeteria, the laundry, the law library, the yard, the gym, and the chapel accommodate them all! We are always told that some of the old buildings will be demolished, but the new beds are simply filled while these dilapidated structures remain standing and occupied.

There are 96 beds crammed into the basement dormitory where I live. The bed area has only two small windows, so fresh air is a problem. There is no heat in the showers or the toilet-sink room. A scant 36 inches of space is between each bed even though the American Correctional Association requires a minimum of 25 square feet of unencumbered space per person.

Our bed was designed for children. It is approximately 30 inches wide; I cannot sit up on my bunk because my head hits the springs above, and I am only 5 feet 6 inches tall. There are five sinks, eight showers (three do not work) and eight toilets (two do not have doors) for all of us! You can imagine the problems this scenario creates. Toilet paper and sanitary napkins are always in short supply and stealing is rampant.

Everything we personally own, aside from bedding, must fit into 2.4 cubic feet of space! This places a tremendous hardship on inmates because we are often cold or faint from the summer heat due to lack of adequate clothing.

Another cause of unrest is the inconsistent rules. They change overnight and vary from one officer to the next. Cottage officers are often demigods who run the place with an iron-fist. ninety-five percent of the population at ORW are battered women.

Filing grievances is a waste of time because 1) They frequently are not answered, 2) the institutional inspectors only interview the staff and take their word for everything, and 3) retaliation from the staff is not uncommon.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of why Ohio inmates are upset.

--Woman prisoner

The struggle to be human

Beaumont, Texas--Much of what I know I've learned in prison--to read and write, to think and feel. What I understand about society and life in general I've learned while incarcerated. Most of it is theoretical, since I've had little chance to put my ideas into practice. I grew up incarcerated. From the inside I've learned about human existence outside of myself. Once the world was me; I had no other understanding aside from that.

The first 20 years of my life were lost in delinquency and a drug "limbo." In the past 23 years of my 43 years, I've spent only 7 1/2 outside this steel, concrete and wire jungle.

The walls that inhabit me are a listening post to me. I see and hear those that pass through here, compare what they reveal with what I read and hear from a vast array of media and different types of journalistic and editorial views, and arrive at my facts and determine my philosophical reality.

I am a revolutionist. I believe and fight for change and betterment of myself and for my surroundings, in full consciousness of how it effect others. When I act, I include every person, regardless of race, sex, belief, sexual orientation or financial stature.

I consider myself and many others with me political prisoners, because it was politics that put us here. Laws written by politicians have created an "open season" on anyone not in the mainstream of prefabricated social norms.

--Mario, Latino prisoner


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