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