Thread by @ORprisonreport

Oregon Prison Report: Voices from the Inside

Part I

"Don't tell me, Kate Brown, that you're trying to protect Oregonians from Covid by your decisions. Her decisions' criteria is excluding me from being considered for early release to help protect my life from Covid-19...”

“... If people really want to protest, speak out about life or death issues. This is it, speak out for me, and others who can be early released!"

#ODOCKills #KateBrownKills #FreeThemAll

(Testimony from Critical Resistance PDX's (@CR_PDX) Write Them All Campaign)

Snake River Correctional Institution (SRCI) / November 30th, 2020.

Thank you so very much for caring enough to write to me! And thanks to all individuals with Critical Resistance PDX. I wrote you about my case, Measure 11, but I need some really serious help.

You may have heard that Governor Brown is granting some inmates who are vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus medical commutations. But her criteria is discriminating. Only non-person-to-person crimes are being considered.

On Sept. 30th, 2020, the DOC medical staff categorized me as "medically vulnerable" to the Covid-19 virus. Based upon these conditions: I'm over 50, I'm asthmatic, obese (a BMI over 35%), and have hypertension.

So I wrote Nathaline Frener, the Assistant Director of the DOC, and requested early release due to the fact that I'm vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus. On 11-6-20, she writes back, saying she will not put my request forward to the Governor...

... because the Governor's criteria is no person-to-person crimes!

23 years ago as you know I was an accomplice, get-away driver in 2 robbery attempts. At the 2nd place, my idiot co-defendant shot and killed a man needlessly. I have no prior record, not even a speeding ticket.

For 23 years in prison I have a 100% perfect conduct record, with not as much as 1 mark on my record for breaking the smallest of rules! This proves I'm 100% rehabilitated. I ask Ms. Frener, based upon all of this, would she please make Governor Brown aware of my situation.

She said, "No, the Governor's criteria is no person-to-person crimes!"

Actually, I'm a first-time offender, who has a DOC ACRE score of .01, the lowest possible! (The DOC uses the ACRE scoring system to rank each inmate's risk of re-offending.)

A 0.1 score in the DOC's eyes, means I'm the very lowest risk to ever re-offend! Kate Brown may not know, she's letting out people who committed non-person-to-person crimes only, but who have been in prison multiple times.

These men are just as vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus as I am, actually some are not as vulnerable, because they don't have respiratory issues like I do. Covid-19 is an airborne virus, should people with respiratory issues be considered at a higher risk of death?

You'd think those with asthma, COPD emphysema, would be considered for release first!

In October, an Oregon newspaper ran a front page article, a 3 page article on Covid-19 in Oregon prisons. 20 Oregon inmates have died of Covid-19, who had underlying health issues.

One man in his 50's at Snake River Prison, had a person-to-person crime, did most of his long sentence, was close to getting out, got Covid and died, because of his underlying health conditions. (It's a fact: in prison it is impossible to correctly social distance!)

The reporter asked Kate Brown, would you have considered medically commuting this man's sentence, so he could protect himself better by social distancing correctly on the streets, she said, "If he was identified by DOC medical staff as being medically vulnerable...

... to the Covid-19 virus, and if he was not a safety risk to the public to be let out early, yes I would have considered him!"

But here we are on 11-6-20, the Assistant Director of the DOC is telling me the Governor's Criteria is disqualifying my request...

... from being put forward by her. So, I wrote the parole board. I heard they are part of this process also. It's their job to tell if a person is rehabilitated or not. I write to them with all I asked Nathaline Frener to do for me.

Tell them all I did in the first part of this letter. All I wanted was for someone to talk to the Governor about my situation. My health, my safety, and my life are in jeopardy every day!

Because I cannot correctly social distance myself to protect myself from contracting Covid-19 in here!

So on 11-10-20, 4 days after the DOC's denial to put my request forward to the Governor, I get a letter from Dylan Arthur, the executive director of the parole board.

(I'd find out later that this is a form letter that's been sent out to a lot of inmates.) It says, "Mr. ____, the parole board and DOC have received your request for early release. Due to the volume of requests, the parole board and DOC will be focusing...

... our limited resources on 'those individuals whom the DOC has identified as the most fragile or vulnerable to the Covid-19 virus.' Due to the substantial influx of requests for early release, the board may assess other requests as the board's resources allow." Confusing, huh?

The DOC Assistant Director on 11-6-20 tells me the Governor's criteria automatically disqualifies me. Now on 11-10-20, the parole board director makes it sound like I'm not disqualified but is leaving it up to the incompetent DOC medical to identify those most vulnerable.

I personally know of 3 men being considered now. One in his late 30's, another in his 40's, one in his 50's. All non-person-to-person crimes. Not one of them have respiratory issues. Meanwhile, on the 23rd, a 51 year old guy from OSCI, where I'm at, died of Covid-19...

... because he had underlying health issues. This guy, Nick, was younger than me and not far from getting out. Too late to protect Nick, or the other 19 inmates who died of Covid who had underlying health issues like I do. Kate Brown is on the news daily saying...

... her decisions during this pandemic are to help protect Oregonians. Really? What about protecting us? Doesn't my life matter as much as the non-person-to-person crime inmates?

On Halloween night, I suffered an asthma attack so severe I couldn't breathe and passed out.

Had a seizure, hit my head on the concrete floor of my cell so hard, so many times, that I got a concussion. My cellie ran to tell the officer of the unit that I couldn't breathe. 4 officers and 2 nurses responded to my "man down" emergency.

My cellie ran back to inform them I am asthmatic. But officers, he said, cussed at him and told him to get back and go to the dayroom. So he couldn't inform them. I was told once the nurses showed up that I was seizing. They had no idea what was wrong with me.

They thought perhaps it was a diabetic issue, so they took my blood sugar level by pricking my finger. I was told I seized for 3-5 minutes. Once I stopped and started to come out of it, I heard a nurse say, "How can we help you? Tell us!"

But I couldn't, I couldn't catch my breath enough to speak.

I really felt like I was going to suffocate to death. (I had other attacks in the past, but nothing like this! I couldn't bear it at all! I figure this was the closest feeling of drowning to death...

... I personally feel it was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced, and I've been shot at!) It took 3-4 minutes for me to be able to whisper, I'm asthmatic, to the nurses. Then I heard someone say, "That would have been nice to know!"

(My cellie could have let them know if they allowed him to!) The nurses gave me 3 doses of Albuterol from an inhaler, then oxygen. I'm still having a really hard time breathing. They put me in a wheelchair and rolled me to medical. My head hurt really bad on the left side.

I asked, "Did I hit my head? Am I bleeding? An officer said, "Yes, you hit your head." I said, "It hurts so bad." (Not one person checked me for a concussion.)

The ambulance came, took me to the Salem hospital. (I had no idea it was Halloween.)

Days in here are always meaningless after 23 years. They gave me Actium and other meds to help open my lungs, with 2 more doses of the inhaler. They x-rayed my lungs. I keep complaining of my head hurting bad! The nurse said, "Sleep, we'll see if the doctor...

... wanted to do a CAT scan on my head." He said no. And gave me Tylenol. Once he came in the room, I told him my head hurt, vision was blurry, dizzy, off balance. He felt the left side of my head where it hurt, said "I feel a lump," then jokingly said...

... "No, wait, that's the shape of your head." Not once did anyone look into my eyes to see if I was concussed.

I even told the transport DOC official, "Something's wrong, I've had concussions before, playing football and boxing in highschool," he had also...

... and agreed I had symptoms of a concussion. My breathing was so labored, even after all the meds, they decided to give me a nebulizer treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic! Which helped a lot! I get back to the prison 5 hours later.

Not until the next day was I given an inhaler. 10 days later, I see my prison provider, Dr. Treglassy. I had "kyted" (the prison term for a communication form) many times in the 10 days it took me to see the provider telling them I have a huge lump on my head.

I've got headaches, dizzy, off balance, blurry visions, all signs of a concussion and all the nurses would do is respond back, "You're scheduled to see a provider." Yet 10 days later, after the huge lump on my head went away.

Once I saw Treglassy, he says, "you've got a hematoma on your head, and signs of still a slight concussion, I want you to kyte to see the optometrist about your blurry vision, perhaps he can see something I don't when I look at your eyes."

This was the very first time anyone had looked at my eyes for a concussion. He said, "You must have really been in bad shape, breathing-wise, for the Salem hospital to have given you a nebulizer treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic." I asked why.

He said "Covid-19 is an aerosol, an airborne virus. It's very risky to give nebulizer treatments during Covid because it's airborne." He said OSCI is banned from giving nebulizer treatments during the pandemic. He was very surprised the Salem hospital gave me one.

I'm still having the effects of a concussion, neck hurts, bad headaches, blurry vision, when before I had perfect vision at a distance. Treglassy said this may last up to 2 months or so.

You may ask, why didn't I have an inhaler on me when I had my asthma attack. As I said before, I've been asthmatic all my life. Being a dry-waller by trade on the streets, I was exposed daily to silica dust and asbestos at times.

Back when we didn't know the harm it did to our lungs. So needless to say my lungs are trashed, even without being asthmatic. So in the early 2000's I was at Snake River Prison in Eastern Oregon. In that climate I really struggled with my asthma.

So I get tested, was found to be asthmatic by a provider, and was given an inhaler. In 2006 I get to the west side of the state, and in this climate I grew up in I'm not struggling so much. So I let the inhaler lapse, and try not to be dependent on it and succeed...

... until September 2020 when the Beachy Creek Wildfire hit. The day they evacuated OSCI because of the wildfires, the prison was full of toxic smoke, thicker than any smoky barroom you've ever seen! Then once evacuated to OSP prison, I was kept in OSP's yard...

... breathing in toxic wildfire smoke for 15 hours. The smoke was so thick at noon it was pitch black dark. Finally, 15 hours later, my cellie and I were put in the education area in the prison, in a 15' x 40' room. 60 men were housed in this classroom...

... 2 feet apart on mattresses on the floor. (3 prisons all together were evacuated to OSP.)

During the Covid pandemic, at a facility (OSP) which had Covid, when OSCI had not, all concerns for our safety Covid-wise were ignored. Wildfire took precedence.

I wasn't allowed a shower in 6 days. Still have a rash on my calf I can't get rid of from it. had a really bad one on my groin. The room my cellie and I were put in stank so bad, was so ungodly hot, the inmates kept opening up the windows letting the toxic smoke in!

The chaplain kept coming in telling them to close them, but as soon as she left they reopen them. So basically for days I breathed in toxic smoke, being asthmatic. It really affected my PTSD issues being treated like animals. Having no regard for our safety from Covid.

OSCI had no cases of Covid. They should have kept OSCI inmates separate from the other prisons while at OSP. But they didn't. Every time the nurses came by to hand out medications, I'd tell them I need my inhaler reinstated.

My lungs burn, I'm short of breath, I've been asthmatic all of my life. They told me to be patient, we're in an emergency situation. All 6 days there, I didn't get to shower until the night before we left to come back. Once back at OSCI, the prison was still smoky...

... like a bar room. I kyted to get the inhaler. They said, "Our files don't show you're asthmatic." I wrote back, "You have to check my file from Snake River, it won't be my current file, it's probably in the basement in storage!"

I know this because I built their storage racks for storing the older files in the basement when I worked for the carpenter's shop.

(I found out later, they were too lazy to check, they were going off the computer of listed meds I've been given in the past...

... and the inhaler wasn't on there, wasn't forwarded.)

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