[act-ma] Women in House of Correction in Boston resisting! Call in this week!]

[clara]

CALL TO ACTION - FORWARD WIDELY

Women at South Bay are being served bug-infested food, are forced to live
in flooded cells, and daily face unsanitary and dangerous conditions.
Women are refusing meals and demanding that the situation immediately be
put to rights.

Grievances have been filed about food infested with maggots*; rat
droppings have also been found in prisoners' food.  The late rain may have
been an annoyance to some of us, but it was flooding the women's cells in
the tower where they are held.  One woman was given a plastic trash bag to
deal with the leaks, which bag was soon filled with water.  Another woman
took to using her personal property, blankets, towels, sheets, and
clothing to stuff up the leaks, all of which was soaked almost
immediately.  Even the ceiling of the visiting room was severely damaged
by recent rain.  The facility is fewer than 20 years old.  In response to
the complaints, the institutional grievance coordinator declared the food
and flooding situations “resolved,” despite the fact that the leaks have
not been fixed and the food sanitation situation is merely being
“investigated.”

Hidden in plain sight, this Boston facility is right off Mass Ave by
Boston Medical Center.  The repulsive conditions at South Bay are bad
enough in their own right, but consider that the captive population is
much more likely to have compromised immune systems, whether because of
hepatitis C, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, or an array of other conditions.  For
people suffering from chronic medical issues, South Bay's filth is nothing
short of a threat on their lives.

Call Sheriff Andrea J.Cabral this week at 617.635.1000, ext. 2100 and tell
her that she is responsible for the health and wellbeing of those in her
custody.  An effective public relations machine is not enough.  Demand
that meaningful changes are made immediately with input from those women
most suffering from the issues at hand.  The two most important issues to
the women inside right now are 1. the food and 2. the leaky cells.  We
encourage people to leave call back numbers and demand a response from the
administration.  We also encourage you to write bostonabc at riseup.net and
tell how your call went!

A woman wrote, “I just need some help.  No one helps the women here.”
Please prove her wrong!

*When one prisoner complained to a guard about the maggots in her food,
the guard retorted that it was “protein.”