Letters from inside

Note: Most newspaper content reprinted here is incomplete and delayed. Want it all? Sooner? You can subscribe to our full print and online editions by calling (559) 674-4207 and get both editions for the price of one!

Author(s): 
Farin Montanez

Female inmates ask supervisor for help in fighting conversion of Chowchilla prison into men’s facility

After being flooded with letters from female inmates housed in the two women’s prisons in Chowchilla, Madera County District 2 Supervisor David Rogers has vowed to be their voice in the community’s fight against the state’s prison officials.

The letters came in response to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s recent decision to repurpose Valley State Prison for Women into a men’s facility — a conversion Rogers said he, his constituents, and the City of Chowchilla are opposed to.

“They have asked me to be their voice on the outside,” Rogers said. “I’m going to do just that. Already my staff has made contacts with state and federal representatives and has reached out to non-profit organizations that fight for incarcerated women’s rights. The things these women claim have happened, the fear they express in these letters — no one should have to live in fear.”

More than 20 VSPW inmates — many serving long-term or life sentences — have sent letters to Rogers and his assistant, Glenna Jarvis, in recent weeks, expressing their worry about overcrowding, being housed with enemies, retaliation, and the loss of about 55 self-help rehabilitation programs...

Comments

RICHARD ARLUS W... (not verified) | 01/25/12

First I should state that I have become a target because I stood up for myself after being assaulted by several officers in another county and then in Madera by the undercover agents in Madera. Internal Affairs is a waist of time due to the complaint going to the code of silence held by their supervisors.
The profile of the Madera Police and Sheriff is that of a Police State and we are under marshall law with no rights. Though the Sheriff seems to have the right to drive drunk but not in Sacramento , thank god.
For some reason I have Gay on an alert in my rap sheet like I am a sex offender.
When I was being checked in and asked for a Doctor I was told "you don't need a doctor, you need sex ...I can smell it" all because of my rap sheet and I was wearing mens calone. I was also told that You don't need a phone call and that no one wants to talk to you". Gays are put in the same place as the spouse abusers as a treat to the men that are incarcerated for beating women. If they are good then you may be picked to be their punk for rape and can hear everything that is said from anywhere in the cell block. I could hear it being decided just before my family finally found me after almost a week due to being denied that phone call. Thank god again for my family being in the law enforcement industry. I knew what they were doing was horribly wrong and still asked for my rights so I would get definitive answers. When they took my morphine with a street value of over 1,000.00 my Doctor fired me because they told him I was running guns and later this would be stated as a mistake but it was recently re-released to the Fresno Bee.
I could have died and they could have cared less.
They transfer woman prisoners with the men only separated by a screen with heavy metal goth music blasted on the radio to agitate the inmates. This poor woman was taunted all the way to court and yet to be convicted was subjected to cruel and very unusual punishment before it was decided if she was guilty.
It should not matter anyway. To chain me up and to a wife beater wanting to rape me in sub freezing weather for over an hour to and from court in a cattle trailer, this is a form of torture. Any longer and I would have gone into a coma. th There are AIDS patients in tents.....Why? So these budget sucking parasites can get overtime. That is all they talk about.
It need to change and I have been dragged through the system for over 2 years now and am not even sure what I am charged with.
What is wrong with this picture? It is not illegal to be Gay in California or in my case celibate. I was supposed to be in protective custody and I was in with wife beaters.
The incident get even more hideous and I wanted to add that this is happening to the Women too. Transporting Men and Woman together with blasting satanic music is wrong. Treating the handicapped like they are subhuman makes me wonder what they do to animals.
RAO