Corita Burnett is a Remedy Project client who has suffered needlessly in prison due to medical neglect and inhumane living conditions. Since January of 2021, Corita has made countless requests––to her unit staff, the prison medical staff, and even the prison warden––that have either been ignored or worse, mocked and belittled. All of Corita’s efforts over the past 10 months, which have included filing multiple administrative remedies that have been rejected, have been in pursuit of her simple request: she wants a better mattress. Due to her health conditions and her old, worn-out mattress that sits on a metal frame, she suffers immensely every night. Rather than provide Corita with a new mattress or offer some other way to ease her pain, the prison officials who oversee her treatment and the remedy process have repeatedly ignored, dismissed, or ridiculed Corita for nearly a year now.
On January 11, 2021, Corita Burnett sent her first message to FCI Waseca Health Services requesting a new mattress due to her serious medical needs: she has severe hip and back pain, cysts on both of her kidneys, and fibromyalgia. Her current mattress is completely worn out; due to her conditions, she is essentially laying on a metal bunk every night, with metal digging into her ailing body and causing her severe pain.
Three months later, on April 15, 2021, Burnett sent a new email to Health Services, asking for medical attention due to her steadily deteriorating health (pain, swelling, numbness) exacerbated by her worn-out, 8-year-old mattress. Health Services Administrator Wiczorek replied on the same day, stating: “I have replied to you before and have discussed this with your providers and your unit team. We do not provide mattresses for medical reasons. If there is an issue with your mattress, unit team can provide you with a new one at their discretion. This is not something medical or your providers are involved in.” Another three months later, on July 29, 2021, upon asking Unit Team member Mr. Linnes for a new mattress, Ms. Burnett was told that he “did not have enough mattresses to give out to everybody.”
Over a month later, Corita corresponded with the Remedy Project, signaling that her pain had not subsided and that she was being denied medical care that she had requested. She wrote to us on September 2 that staff have yet to see her legs and hips. Since 3 weeks before her message, the burning pain Corita experienced in both legs has caused her to wake up crying, unable to move her legs. “It burns so badly, [it] feels like [a] million needles poking me,” she states, “ I'm ready to put my mattress on the floor and sleep. If it wasn't from the mice we have I would.”
Having a half-decent place to sleep is perhaps one of the most basic requests that an incarcerated person could make, but still, due to arbitrary cruelty or utter incompetence, the prison administrators in charge of Corita’s treatment can’t or won’t meet this request. Why these prison workers stand by and refuse to act while bearing witness to Corita’s nightly suffering is one question to consider. But perhaps a better one is: What systems are in place that allow or encourage this inhumane treatment? Why do we keep them in place and who is benefitting from them? Corita’s example makes it clear––to me, at least––that denying her a mattress is not an aberration or oversight of the carceral system and its bureaucratic process of “remedy.” It is the intended result. Corita’s suffering is the intended result.
Only deconstructing the complex, powerful systems that reify incarceration will alter the result. Until then, however, the Remedy Project will use every tool at our disposal to fight for Corita and her inalienable right to a sound night’s sleep. For more details on taking action against the abusive prison system, please visit the Remedy Project action page at https://action.theremedyproj.org/.
Corita Burnett is a Remedy Project client who has suffered needlessly in prison due to medical neglect and inhumane living conditions. Since January of 2021, Corita has made countless requests––to her unit staff, the prison medical staff, and even the prison warden––that have either been ignored or worse, mocked and belittled. All of Corita’s efforts over the past 10 months, which have included filing multiple administrative remedies that have been rejected, have been in pursuit of her simple request: she wants a better mattress. Due to her health conditions and her old, worn-out mattress that sits on a metal frame, she suffers immensely every night. Rather than provide Corita with a new mattress or offer some other way to ease her pain, the prison officials who oversee her treatment and the remedy process have repeatedly ignored, dismissed, or ridiculed Corita for nearly a year now.
On January 11, 2021, Corita Burnett sent her first message to FCI Waseca Health Services requesting a new mattress due to her serious medical needs: she has severe hip and back pain, cysts on both of her kidneys, and fibromyalgia. Her current mattress is completely worn out; due to her conditions, she is essentially laying on a metal bunk every night, with metal digging into her ailing body and causing her severe pain.
Three months later, on April 15, 2021, Burnett sent a new email to Health Services, asking for medical attention due to her steadily deteriorating health (pain, swelling, numbness) exacerbated by her worn-out, 8-year-old mattress. Health Services Administrator Wiczorek replied on the same day, stating: “I have replied to you before and have discussed this with your providers and your unit team. We do not provide mattresses for medical reasons. If there is an issue with your mattress, unit team can provide you with a new one at their discretion. This is not something medical or your providers are involved in.” Another three months later, on July 29, 2021, upon asking Unit Team member Mr. Linnes for a new mattress, Ms. Burnett was told that he “did not have enough mattresses to give out to everybody.”
Over a month later, Corita corresponded with the Remedy Project, signaling that her pain had not subsided and that she was being denied medical care that she had requested. She wrote to us on September 2 that staff have yet to see her legs and hips. Since 3 weeks before her message, the burning pain Corita experienced in both legs has caused her to wake up crying, unable to move her legs. “It burns so badly, [it] feels like [a] million needles poking me,” she states, “ I'm ready to put my mattress on the floor and sleep. If it wasn't from the mice we have I would.”
Having a half-decent place to sleep is perhaps one of the most basic requests that an incarcerated person could make, but still, due to arbitrary cruelty or utter incompetence, the prison administrators in charge of Corita’s treatment can’t or won’t meet this request. Why these prison workers stand by and refuse to act while bearing witness to Corita’s nightly suffering is one question to consider. But perhaps a better one is: What systems are in place that allow or encourage this inhumane treatment? Why do we keep them in place and who is benefitting from them? Corita’s example makes it clear––to me, at least––that denying her a mattress is not an aberration or oversight of the carceral system and its bureaucratic process of “remedy.” It is the intended result. Corita’s suffering is the intended result.
Only deconstructing the complex, powerful systems that reify incarceration will alter the result. Until then, however, the Remedy Project will use every tool at our disposal to fight for Corita and her inalienable right to a sound night’s sleep. For more details on taking action against the abusive prison system, please visit the Remedy Project action page at https://action.theremedyproj.org/.
