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OPINION
Page 4
Thursday, February 11, 1988
The Michigan Daily
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-.
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Prisons deny basic rights
Vol. XCVIII, No. 92
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.
Purseli
'S
THE U.S. HOUSE of Repr
tives rejection of aid to the
last week by a narrow marg:
211) was a victory for advo
peace and social justice, an
nificant defeat for the Rea
ministration and their favor
rorists, the contras. Ann A
Representative in Congres
Pursell, should be asham
voting in favor of the aid pac
Pursell's conduct is especi
excusable in light of the rea
has offered for his vot
Wednesday, the day of the
said that his anger over a fli
lished by the Latin America
darity Committee (LASC)m
of the reason for his "yes
Intolerance of criticism from
group of constituents is a
reason to wage war against<
nation.
The flier in question has1
criticism from other quart
cluding the Ann Arbor
columnist David Bishop.
one, including Bishop, Purs
Pursell' s press secretary,
leged that anything in the f
untrue or inaccurate. It con
what appears to be a x
newspaper article, from a f
newspaper called The Was
Herald Tribune. The headlin
"Congressman Linked to
Torture Ring," and the res
article explains why this is
an appropriate description
contras. Their torture of c
has been widely document
though their drug-running
ceived less attention in the1
also been confirmed by wi
who testified before Senatc
Kerry's (D-Mass) invest
committee.
No one can claim that LA
falsely attributed its stateme
reputable source, in order to
priate that source's credibili
Washington Herald Tribu
never existed. As LAS
pointed out, if not for the c
prevent all but the very ric
owning newspapers in our
, they could publish a daily n
vote inexcusable
resenta- per that would report the facts in
contras this matter.
in (219- Perhaps the critics do not like the
cates of angle of article - that Pursell's ac-
d a sig- tions on behalf of the contras were
gan ad- made to look like a scandal. But this
rite ter- was exactly the point: the use of our
Arbor's tax dollars to fund murder and tor-
s, Carl ture is a scandal, and it ought to be
led for reported.
-kage. Critics of the tactic are caught in a
ially in- logical contradiction. In a society
sons he where it would perfectly legitimate
e. O n for a wealthy individual to buy a
vote, he daily newspaper and have- it print an
ier pub- article about Pursell's connections
an Soli- to the contras, how can it be con-
xas part sidered "misleading" or "deceptive"
" vote, to invent one? The validity of the
a a local flier must be judged on the accuracy
terrible of its contents which have not been
another disputed.
After the vote, Pursell defended
brought his vote for contra aid with the ar-
ers, in- gument that it was necessary "to
News' preserve his Republican Party
But n influence in shaping U.S. policy."
Bell, and (Ann Arbor News 2/6/88) This
has al- seems unbelievably callous - that
her was thousands of Nicaraguans should
isists of die in order to preserve Pursell's
Keroxed influence within his party.
ictitious Fortunately, Pursell's vote was
hington not enough to tip the balance in fa-
ne reads vor of aid to the contras. The politi-
Drug- cal impact of this defeat for Reagan
t of the and the contras will be significant,
indeed in spite of the fact that House
ofnte Democrats are already drawing up
iof the their own disgraceful "humanitarian
ivilians aid" package. The reason is that the
ed. Al- contras are much more in need of
press, i political support and legitimacy than
presss money. That legitimacy was re-
or John soundingly denied when Reagan,
or John who began by asking for $270 mil-
igating lion, and engaged in the most
intensive personal lobbying of
SC has "swing votes," ended up with
,nts to a nothing.
appro- Congressional votes will not cut
ity. The off illegal U.S. government support
ne has of the contras, as was evident in
iC has 1984, when Congress cut off all aid
)sts that and the contras received more
ch from money than they asked for. But
society, they can be politically important,
newspa- and hopefully this one will be.
By Mary Glover
second of a three-part series
After suffering through the Detroit
House of Corrections (DeHoCo) for over a
year, I was transferred to a new women's
facility: Huron Valley in Ypsilanti. The
physical conditions were improved so
much it was like reentering civilization.
But the denial of rights and oppression is
constant. Women are treated as children
and denied the most basic responsibilities.
Violence is rare, with the exception of a
few fist-fights. Vocational and educational
programs were developed as a direct result
of the lawsuit, but institutions are slow
and resistant to change and this has seri-
ously hurt these programs.
Serving a life sentence is like being
locked in a closet the size of a twin bed.
You are forced to be separated from your
family, children (who you may lose per-
manently) and those you love and are sub-
jected to degradation form guards and staff
beyond words. Asking a prisoner whether
or not they ever "get used to" the peniten-
tiary is like asking a victim of th Nazis in
Germany during the war if they ever got
used to the concentration camps. No lifer
ever knows for certain if they will make it
out alive, although we all swear we will.
you have to hold on to "EVEN THIS
TOO SHALL PASS" - or go stark, rav-
ing mad. Life for a woman serving "all
day and night" is an exhausting search for
issues to appeal, for attorneys to represent,
for a way out of the nightmare and a
means to support oneself until that day
arrives. A life sentence is one hell of an
ordeal.
I am often asked what prison life is
"really like." It is maddeningly routine.
Prisoners are awakened at 6:30 a.m.. with
"lights on" and dress by 7:00 a.m.. with
beds made and room straightened. Break-
fast follows, which is generally
unappetizing and cold. Women are sent to
school and on work assignments at 8:30
a.m.. or so, where they remain until 11:30
a.m.. "count." Lunch follows: starchy,
cheap, often unidentifiable literally.
"Details," or classifications to work and
school resume at 1:00 p.m.. and continue
through out the afternoon. Dinner begins
Mary Glover is currently serving three
life sentences in Huron Valley Women's
Correctional facility. She is enrolled in
the college of LSA and received a Hop-
wood award this year for an essay. Along
with another woman she gained the right
to attend college through a civil rights suit
against the State of Michigan.
at 4:15 p.m., and another count follows at
5:00 p.m.. Evening hours are generally
one's own to use the law library, attend
classes, play cards, recreate in the gym in
exercise or team sports, socialize with
friends. "Lock-up time" is at 10:30 p.m..
and is about the only time there is any
quiet as the units have a high noise vol-
ume. Religious services are offered on the
weekends and provide much needed com-
fort and support. I spend my days and
nights working full time: studying, read-
ing, writing, assisting women with their
legal and personal problems. After obtain-
ing certification, I became employed by
our legal office and work as a paralegal for
a non-profit organization of attorneys who
help prisoners with all aspects of con-
finement, including parental rights and
appeal of conviction.
Medical and dental care is primitive, and
critically inferior to "modern medicine."
Correct and proper treatment is rare. There
have been over ten deaths of women here
due to gross negligence by medical staff
and the Deputy Warden recently told the
guards at "roll call" they are not to call the
clinic for assistance for anyone unless they
stop breathing. A woman died a few years
ago and was found on the floor after she
had knocked for hours, within 24 hours of
the time the clinic had run an E.K.G. on
her and pronounced her "fine." Another
woman gave herself heart massage while
suffering a heart attack on the back of the
garbage truck while working in the snow.
She was in her late 50s, had a long history
of chronic heart disease, and had been
through five previous heart attacks. Yet
the institution classified her to one of the
heaviest, dirtiest work details there is. Her
own heart massage kept her alive until she
was finally admitted into the hospital. She
has since undergone triple-bypass surgery
and has been successfully paroled. Such is
the institution's regard for human life.
One March 14, 1987, I watched in horror
as a woman died out on the sidewalk on
the front of my unit while the first and
second shift guards walked by to stare and
kept walking. The prisoner suffered a fatal
asthma attack. The institution was guilty
of criminal negligence, but after an
"investigation" no action was taken
against them. Those of us who requested
an investigation and asked for improved
medical care were dealt with severely by
the staff, who wished to keep our sister's
death quiet.
Personally, what is the hardest to endure
is what I have coined "stifilization." Basic
needs and desires are forced to be "stifled"
because to show them results in being
thrown into maximum security and pun-
ished. The need for sex, for intimacy, for
physical contact with another human be-
ing must be repressed or the consequences
endured if "caught." Everything inside runs
on the institution's time clock and is reg-
ulated, including the most basic things
such as the use fo the bathroom. You are
constantly told what to do, where to do it,
who you can see, what you can wear, what
you will eat, who you can and can't talk
to, even where and how you are required to
sit. We are even told we must be three feet
away form each to her when sitting in the
yard. You name it - they will stifle it.
You learn to become a doctor of improvi-
sation in the "University of Confine-
ment." You have to find a way around-un-
der-over-beyond the system's incapacitat-
ing limits when you are told by the pawns
what to do. Survival takes precedence. The
weak and the ill suffer the most because
they simply cannot cope and become in-
fantile. Male guards create constant prob-
lems, as they are working inside housing
units and in all areas of the prison. They
conduct "pat-down" searches of women's
bodies routinely. there have been cases
where male guards have sexually abused
women and the institution covered up their
criminal misconduct by denying it ever
happened and destroying documentation.
Discipline is the hardest to deal with
because you are subjected to a system
which specializes in "railroading" you
during "monkey court hearings." A hear-
ing officer once called the disciplinary
hearing a monkey court while I was in the
middle of one. Segregation in theory is'
designed to lock up those who pose a.
serious threat to life, property, self, staff,
or other inmates, but in reality it is used
by the administration to keep the general
population submissive and "in line."
Serious punishment is inflicted for petty
"rules violations." Hearing "rights" are a
cruel farce. Fairness is rare. You are guilty;
until proven innocent and staff's word is,
golden. misconduct sanctions have more
to do with how staff feels about you rather
than real misconduct. Employees abuse
the women more with misconduct reports
tan anything else because it so drastically
jeopardizes freedom and results -in loss of
"good time." In the eyes of th Parole
Board write-ups are bad new, and too fre-
quently there is "much ado about nothing"
when it comes to misconduct in
"hearings" here. I spent 7 days in segre-
gation in "the hole" vomiting from food
poisoning when a guard fed me scrambled
eggs laced with lye - knowingly. I was
so weak I crawled on my hands and knees
to the toilet because I could not stand up.
It was January and less than 50 degrees in
the cell they threw me into. I had defended
myself when a woman swung at me and
broke my nose. The guard laughed and told
me: "GRIEVE THAT."
LETTERS
4
Does Fleming deserve ACLU award?
Regressive military spending bankrupts social welfare programs:
Bloated budgets
L ast week, the Congressional
oBudget Office (CBO) reported that
the 1989 federal deficit would be
much higher than previously antici-
pated. Current CBO projections for
1989 are $176 billion - $40 billion
over previous estimates and far
short of the $136 billion mandated
by the Gramm-Rudman deficit re-
duction legislation.
Astronomical budget deficits have
been a regular occurrence under
President Reagan, running as high
as $230 billion in recent years.
While the concept of deficit spend-
ing has officially been part of fed-
eral fiscal policy since the New
Deal, the size of Reagan's deficits
has alarmed many economists. In
less than five years, Reagan spent
more than every president since
George Washington combined.
Congress must share in some of
the blame for runaway budget
deficits because it is responsible for
deficits have been the president's
spending priorities. Since 1981,
federal spending to maintain and
improve the quality of life for
Americans has been slashed. Funds
for health care, nutrition, environ-
mental protection and education
have all been drastically curtailed
while the billions of dollars chan-
neled into the Pentagon have pur-
chased defective weapons systems
and $150 screws.
To mask the magnitude of the
deficit problems, the administration
(and at times, Congress) has
repeatedly resorted to "smoke and
mirrors" including one-time asset
sales and overinflated estimates of
GNP growth. In his book The Tri-
umph of Politics, former budget di-
rector David Stockman confessed
that the administration knew deficits
would soar under the Reagan bud-
gets and sought to conceal this fact
via use of false statistics or simply
To the Daily:
Please address the following
letter to President Robben
Fleming.
First of all I wish to con-
gratulate you on the civil
rights award bestowed upon
you in 1970. It is too bad that
I was only three years old at
the time, otherwise, I might
have congratulated you sooner.
Since my memory dies not go
back that far, perhaps you
could refresh it.
As a senior at t h i s
"progressive" institution, I
would like to request that you
begin to demonstrate the ideals
embodied in your laudatory ci-
tation. For example, the open-
ing paragraph of this citation
claims that you exhibited
complete commitment to the
protection and enlargement of
civil liberties on the University
campus, this commitment be-
ing demonstrated by your
words and deeds. However,
when the issue concerning
adding "sexual orientation" to
the non-discrimination code
(Regental Bylaw Section
14.06) arose at this months
Regent's meeting, you demon-
strated no progressive leader-
ship. In fact, quite the opposite
occurred. You breathed a sigh
of relief when the regents voted
to stand by the Presidential
Policy of Sexual Orientation of
1984 by claiming that you
would have felt uncomfortable
enforcing such a policy with-
out Regental support. This
wishy-washiness does not
demonstrate to me such a
commitment to civil rights.
Mr. Fleming, you cannot
rest on your laurels. You must
continually reinforce this,
commitment to civil rights,
and not just remind us of some
award you received (and un-
doubtedly earned) almost
twenty years ago.
If I may, President Fleming,
I would like to suggest some
immediate steps you can take,
thereby proving your desire for
a freer and more educated uni-
versity community.
1) Take a more public stance
in support of LaGROC's and
other organizations' (UCAR,
LSA Student Government,
MSA) demand that sexual ori-
entation be added to Regental
Bylaw Section 14.06 and to the
Affirmative Action logo by
lobbying for regental support,
2) Present your support to
the curriculum committee for
the addition of a mandatory
class on diversity including
discussion of the harmful ef-
fects of sexism, racism, and
homophobia. LaGroc and other
campus minority groups rec-
ognize that education is the key
to combatting prejudices in
this society. A vague "code"
threatening students with aca-
demic punishment for ideas
discouraging any type of non-
conformity is not productive.
President Fleming, I hope
that you do not take this as an
attack on your award - it is
not. I have faith in the ACLU
and at the time, I am sure it
was appropriate. However,
would you be worthy of that
same award, today?
-Kent A. Foster
February 1
4
Washington Herald-Tribune
Servng hefl Mat n Capial
THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1988
Congressman Linked
to Drug-Torture Ring
By MARION DELGADO
U.S. Representative Carl Pursell (R-
Michigan) hasbeen linked in official docu-
merits to a notorious terrorist band operat-
ing along the Nicaraguan-Honduran bor-
der. This gang of terrorists,frequently re-
ferred to as "Contras," has been involved in
a series of brutal assaults, directed primar-
ily against the civilian population of Nica-
ragua.
There are thousands of well-documented
incidents of rape, murder, and cruel and
bizarre tortures that have been attributed to
the Contras. Congressional investigating
committees have found that they have n-
Rag~ed in the transshipment of cocaine to the~
;.. sa'
'"
it ir _M'} ' f " ''
- t-"
MLK critics cynical
To the Daily:
Too often in our lives we try
some excellent, intellectually
stimulating speakers during
I
a