Are Inmates Being Treated Unfairly? You Tell Me!

As a person who was once incarcerated at the Hampden County House of Correction and as a citizen concerned for inmates rights, I would like to bring some things to light that I feel the community should be very interested in.

I can honestly say that I feel inmates are being treated unfairly within this facility. Some things I saw and experienced first hand and other things I have learned by staying connected and supportive of other women who are currently doing time within the same facility.

There are some issues that could possibly be looked passed and tolerated but unfortunately there are things that simply cannot or should not be overlooked. I am going to try to touch lightly on all of them.

First let me start with the issues that the inmates deal with before they even get into the jail population.

The correctional officers have a habit of treating them less than human like it is not enough that they have been stripped of everything they own, and are dealing with a lot of personal regrets and unstable emotions.

They take all of there property from them and throw it into a black suit bag which very often if there is anything of value it will not be there upon you release. I know several people that have been released and none of there property was ever returned. For some reason if they have jewelry or clothing of any type of value it mysteriously comes up as lost. Usually the inmates are so glad to be returning to the community and do not ever want to have to see the place again that they just chalk it up as a loss. The jail gets away with it on a regular basis because the inmates are to traumatized by the time they leave that it is easier to put it all behind them than it is to fight back.

Second thing is the issue of medication. Often an inmate is deprived there medications for up to 60 days due to the understaffing in medical and sometimes inmates are deprived certain medications altogether because it is not in the jails budget. This can be very dangerous to a person with psychological and medical issues.

Another medical issue going on in the jail is that very often people become in need of emergency medical assistance and are often denied. It is up to the officer in charge if it is severe enough to call in medical or if they just get put on the list to see the nurse who is only available one hour a day, five days a week. I know of a women who sat in there unit for two days after falling and complaining of pain and swelling in her leg. The officer refused to call medical and when the nurse finally did show up the inmate was taken for emergency surgery. I also know of another incident where an older inmate was suffering from a mild heart attack. The officer would not call medical until finally another inmate spoke out and made threats. When the inmate was finally brought to medical, she was immediately rushed to the hospital. She is lucky to be alive. It is scary to think that you could be an inmate in need of assistance and because the officer on duty may feel that you are not worthy of it than you could suffer from something serious with absolutely no help.