Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Point of No Return

                                                         

POINT OF NO.RETURN
by Muslim Mansa Lutalo lyapo -aka- Rufus. West, #225213

July 12, 2013        .

There comes a point and time in every person's life where something will happen that will change their life forever. Twelve years ago today I experienced one of these life-changing moments that happened to a young Brother who called himself "Wolverine" but his real name- was Kelvin Jackson    .

By July 12,2001, I had been imprisoned inside the Green Bay Correctional Institution's (GBCI.) punitive segregation unit (the-hole) for about 8 months. Each wing has about 12 prisoner, Approximately 2 weeks before that the staff moved Wolverine to my wing, a few cells down from mine. All of the cells are single-celled. Wolverine was kind of s1ow and anyone could observe that he had some kind of mental issues.     I opened up dialog with Wolverine after seeing him and the staff bumping heads a lot. Ultimately, Wolverine was placed on some type of punitive restriction called "Seg Loaf," which is basically some type of food particles baked into solid brick form. It's very nasty, and most prisoners won't even touch it. Wolverine was no exception, which caused him to go hungry. Seeing what the Brother was going through, I would "fish" (i.e.Wrap up in paper and slide-to his cell) him some of my food so that he would have something to eat. On July 12, 2001at dinner time I had a nice train of food to be fished to Wolverine. I was in one of the wing's first cells, so the- staff would have to pass my cell to get to Wolverine's cell.

After dinner trays were passed out I yelled down on Wolverine and let him know that I would be sending him some food after the staff retrieved our food trays. He didn't respond, which-instinctively caused me to be a little concerned simply because he usually responded to that.. Then again, I thought, maybe he didn't want to respond or maybe he didn't hear me for whatever, reason.                 -

During the: meal tray pickup, I heard the staff-order Wolverine  to do something repeatedly, but he was non-responsive. After the staff had left, I' yelled down on Wolverine a few tines but got no response.

I eventually got staff's attention and asked them to check on him, but they said that he was faking a seizure. I asked how does one know the difference between a real seizure and a fake one. Their response was to simply exclaim, "He's faking!" and then walked away.

Text Box: For about the next 2 hours myself and other prisoners banged on our doors to get the staff's attention to go and check up on Wolverine. 'Their checks', however, were cursory and dismissive. At one point..Wolverine must have stopped moving because during one of those checks I heard the staff outside of his. Door whispering,. "See? He moved!" to prove to themselves that Wolverine. was faking. When I asked them what was going on, they claimed that he was faking because they saw him move. This didn't make any sense to me, so I inquired into how could they make such a determination from outside of his cell. They repudiated my inquiry. My concern then grew to despair and then anger as' continued to bang on my door for Wolverine.   .

Eventually, staff half-suited up with.the stun shield, etc. and ran into Wolverine’s cell the way they would run in on a so-called dangerous prisoner.. At first the only noise coming from his cell was a short physical commotion accompanied by an incessant yelling chorus of "Stop resisting!" .A few moments later all was completely silent.

    All of a sudden the staff who ran into his cell were running out of his cell to-get first aid kits etc. The next thing I know, the staff were closing all of the shutters on our door's windows to block our view of the hal1way.Fortunately, I was able to see down the ha1l towards Wolverine's cell through the side of my door. I heard the staff make comments like, "Is he breathing? Is there a pulse?" Shortly thereafter I saw prison medical staff enter his cell. Awhile later I could see uniforms consistent with non-prison medical staff enter his' cell. They subsequently removed Wolverine's lifeless body from the cell on a stretcher ..

Never in my life had 1 been in a situation-where I was completely helpless in trying to save a person’s life who was only several yards away from me. Wolverine was not in a street shoot out or street fight that ended with his life. He was a young Brother who woke up that day and had no idea that-his-life was going to end that day, let alone end the way that it did. My reaction was to lash out against those who were responsible for Wolverine's death -the death where ayoung man laying the ground dying and the staff refused to help him because they claimed he was faking. Further details were reported by Rob Goloub in-the July 25, 2001 issue of The Journal Times:

 
Epileptic inmate denied life-saying help, mother alleges. Prison guards ignored the tortured seizures of a mentally retarded Racine man for days, until he finally died, according to both his attorney and his mother. A fellow prisoner sent a panicked note to 21-year old Kelvin Jackson's mother. Days before Jackson's death, the letter pleaded for help against the uncaring guards, Brooks [his mother] said. That letter, and four or five other notes, were apparently sent to the outside world by sympathetic prisoners who served with Jackson in Green Bay Correctional Institution. A family lawyer, Willie Nunnery of Madison, has turned the letters over to the FBI; they are initiating an investigation he said. The Journal Times has obtained one of the jailhouse letters, apparently written by a prisoner who was held in a nearby cell. The note was sent to an area pastor. It says Jackson suffered three seizures in the 24 hours before his death, and that guards refused to let him see a nurse or doctor. Guards told Kelvin Jackson, who had brain damage, to "Stop playing games," according to the note.“ they let the 21 year old boy die in his cell like an animal without medical help," the note says. “All I want is for people to know what is happening behind these walls."

Bill Clausius, spokesman for the department of corrections, said the department is conducting an internal investigation. The department is also turning the matter over to its Committee on Inmate/Youth Deaths.The committee was formed in 1999 after a death in a state prison. The group includes medical professionals who are not affiliated with the prison. Brooks says her son had epilepsy with recurring seizures, depression, and mild retardation. He was on medication for his epilepsy and to control his temper. It was his temper. She also said Kelvin Jackson didn't like his seizures. "You've just got to pray about it," his mother told him. "Maybe God will take them away from you." "They killed my child," says his mother. "He should have never been in prison in the first place. The should have put him in treatment. They didn't care about my child. He wasn't their child." It was on July 12 that Jackson entered a two-hour seizure which ended with his death, Brown County Medical Examiner Joe Grantham said. Brown County Sheriff's Capt. Craig Kohlbeck said guards

discovered Jackson was having a seizure at about 4:20 p.m. They didn't call an ambulance until 6:06 p.m. Jackson was held in a segregation unit, where guards were supposed to check on him every 10 minutes, Kohlbeck said. Jackson had a history of faking seizures and refusing to take his medicine, according to prison officials. His mother says he sometimes thought God had healed him, and he would stop taking his medicine. Jackson who grew up in Racine and in public institutions, was sentenced in April 2000 to five years in prison for battery by a prisoner as a habitual offender. [ ... ] But Jackson will never complete his sentence. His mother says, through tears, she knows he'll never come home. She says: "He didn't kill anybody. He didn't rob anybody. They just didn't have to let him die like that."

 

Every year at this time I am reminded of Wolverine's death. In fact, it seems like every time there's a prisoner-related medical issue I think of his death. I'm unable to ignore that experience and return to be that person I was simply because ... there is no return