Dangerous Conditions at Indiana Womens Prison! Sign on to letter to Gov. Holcomb!

Urgent! Hundreds of women at the Indiana Women's Prison are crying out for help. They are suddenly being locked part of the day and all night in tiny rooms behind closed doors that have to be manually unlocked with no air circulation, no water, and no way out if there's a fire.

Read the commentary below from our correspondent incarcerated at IWP, and please sign on to this letter from concerned Indiana residents to Governor Holcomb to get him to intervene!

05/14/20

Yesterday, a non self contained room had 2 women locked inside for over 5 hours. The locksmith could not get the room opened and had to remove the entire lock. Two nights previous, a woman who has been having seizures had another one. By the time the room was opened she had cracked her skull. These rooms are not self-contained and do not have automatic opening mechanisms. Water leaks from radiators at the end of the hallway. Mold lives on walls in the last rooms. Yet, if a fire breaks out the 23 rooms on the unit will have to depend on a c/o to manually unlock each door. The new major, Major Reese stated today, he "did not care." Apparently, in his 30 years in DOC, all max security facility's are locked in their cells.  This building was built in the early 1900's. The Girl School was condemned by the federal oversight authority. Clearly, if a medical emergency, bodily emergency, fire or fight breaks out in one of these cells, response times will be excessive or prolonged. These cells are unsafe with manual locks creating human rights violations and IWP's Major does not care.

On the same topic of locked doors, but regarding the unit with automatic unlock mechanisms: a woman cut her hand yesterday on a rusty outlet. She was kicking the front door to the unit to get out of it. The staff person working the control unit center did not know how to unlock the door in the control panel. The woman stood screaming with blood squirting from her hand until the Sgt. manually unlocked the door. She was able to receive stitches and was okay, but the emergency response, even on that unit, was prolonged due to locked doors without proper oversight.

05/22/2020 

Bottom line is prison administration loves the restrictions they can enact. For some reason, they appreciate that, yet do not aid in helping the incarcerated cause. My legal mail was delivered 30 days later, opened outside of my presence. The temps in these brick building are often 10 degrees hotter than outside temps. The doors shut deny circulation, ventilation and cooling. This is always a means for them to torture us every season! Now, they act totally justified.

I did get wrote up on a work stoppage. Apparently, in a crisis, free labor is allowed to be forced, so they say. A major conduct report was issued to about 10 of us. Again, just exploited by the administration who picks and chooses who is forced to work and who gets written up. I beat it, since I have never been "trained". The audacity of the scenario is the biggest injury.

I wrote some of the addresses you gave me. Quarantine and social isolation is exactly what the prison wants. They fail to acknowledge that the prison apparatus itself is physically designed to achieve those results, and leaving us to live in the space of the unit without restrictions is the best they can so to protect us. Releasing us or giving more space is the only way to get help. Instead, they cram us and say its to social distance and quarantine, taking away any little space we previously had.

06/04/20

Why is the department of correction mad now? Transfers were brought in today from other counties, so that is okay. Chow hall movements 3 times a day, with 80 to 300 people present is okay. Workers, vulnerable or not, are okay-ed to work around 100+people, staff or incarcerated. Yet, the department is newly implementing the total denial of reasonable protection against death by fire to its wards, denying as needed access to bathrooms and water, and denying as needed access to showers and laundering of clothes. With no written or formal communication given, the major and wardens are using this time to further a punitive restrictive agenda that has no bases in law or safety. The security measures are punitive on its face. Social nondistancing is mandated as needed per facility and individual staff needs. Social distancing is not even afforded during the daily lock-down times because the c/o's are only available for assistance once every two hours(this is the newly stated "rule" for mandatory restroom/water use), and at this time 10 rooms are to use the 3 toilets and sinks before locking back in cells. So, none of these conditions are justifiable! The ACLU does not seem to care. The grievances are all unlogged. How are the incarcerated to be heard? And by whom? Or are all these lives unworthy?

06/05/20

We have written the ACLU, the officials here, and central office. I watched 25 people file grievances yesterday on the humid temps we are being forced to live under. The mothers/babies have air in their day-room, an outside area they can freely access, and their only 'quarantine" is from outside people. They are freely able to access their unit. The cottages have no air, and are being forced to be locked in cells. We all are let out at the same time to use the restroom, and to eat, but we are not allowed the freedom to move on our own to restrooms, day-rooms, or showers. It is hot!

06/09/20

Cell temps are 84 degrees, today, Tuesday 9, at 11 pm. It seems much cooler outside when I put my hand out the small window. Our cells are closed and locked, a reality we have not had to deal with in hotter months at these temps, but only an issue for the rule making/enforcing authority at high temps. Every summer shutting the doors at night became an issue. Now, it is all day and night, locked in, with heat index temps much higher than the 84 temp.

On unit 5 the dryer is broken, so one industrial fan is used as a makeshift clothesline style in the day-room area(that we cant access throughout the day because of coronavirus restrictions.) Another fan broke. A third fan used for the c/o. So, one on each hallway, inaccessible to me as I lay on my bed because the door is shut and locked. The fans are enough noise that the c/o cant hear me bang to use the restroom or tell him my heart cant handle the heat.

The bathrooms are ridiculous. The first toilet the only working one. The 2nd has no door. The 3rd wont accept too much tp. The 4th with no seat, like a urinal.

The fire hazards abound:no suppressant system, cords from the fans in the ways of exits, cell doors, or the shower area. No unlocking system for the cells, each must be manually unlocked by one c/o in case of fire.

Men can be in housing units without t shirts. We receive sexual conduct reports if we sleep without a shirt.

The major is from IYC and between him an warden johnson, this is our new reality. Women have been imprisoned for neglecting children, other adults or animals in thes way we are being treated. Yet, in retaliation for our complaints about the cells being locked, he is forcing it more thoroughly, every shift. The new reason given: we are a maximum security prison. What began as coronavirus restrictions have equated to being punked yet again by overzealous policing.

06/10/20

Case-in-point, classification does not permit women at iwp to be appropriately bunked with others. Whereas, any inference or indication of two women wanting to live with each other results in immediate relocation of one from the other, real issues of safety and security are denied.

A woman's case is causing her harassment. She informed the deputy warden who told her bed moves are not occurring. Yet, 40 bed moves have occurred to or from my unit in the past 2 days.

A mentally ill woman, removed from the "special needs unit" due to her excessive bullying, lives in open population. She was moved from her last unit because 2 people refused their bed when forced to be her bunkie, and staff finally asserted she should be moved. She is now locked in a cell with 2 other women, both having repeatedly asked for help because the woman claims they are cutting her hair and spitting in her cup at night (same behaviors from the previous unit.) Yet, no one is addressing the serious and potentially life threatening situation. The captain last night refused to let one of the roommates refuse her bed, ans zero staff intervention, mental health intervention, or safety of all cellmates is being considered. Staff asserts she has made these threats before.

It is exacerbated by the heat and locking the cell doors. The woman is more upset now because the cellies went to the officers for help, who did nothing..

The only concern of the staff is the upcoming aca audit. If they pass the audit, the board of health and fire department do not do annual checks of the institution. I found this is law today. Aha, that is why audits my the american correctional association are so important. In addition to federal monies, I am almost certain. Yet, even amid clearly failing conditions, these auditors seem to consistently pass iwp's inspections. I wonder why and I wonder how.

The classification application afforded male inmates is not afforded female inmates at all, due to perceived lack of serious security threats. I know the male's application is not perfect or without flaw. All I am saying is that women are not even reviewed when making cell or housing determinations. They put known "snitches" in blocks with people they tell on, and women who have lost their children in serious situations as roommates with women guilty of crimes against children. Level 4 and level 1 women live together.

Regardless if serious or frequently serious crimes or assaults happen among cell mates, feeling threatened or fearful should not be occurring, especially when the "safe persons policy" exists that blatantly says a person should be immediately moved if in jeopardy.

I feel extremely bad for women who don’t know the system, who to talk to, or that their feelings have reasonable outlets! It is so sad to me that people are made to feel wrong for their assertions, all the while the authority misrepresents and relinquishes responsibility for wards' safety and security.

Aerial view of Indiana Women’s Prison