Among the cases, I have worked on this semester, one stands out as particularly impactful. Charles Jackson is an incarcerated man who is presenting with the symptoms of colon cancer, constantly painful and bloody bowel movements; has a family history of colon cancer, his father died of it in his forties; and has a number of other medical conditions that have collateral risks for colon cancer. This man is being denied medical care at FCI Manchester because the staff claim that the local hospital is too busy with COVID cases.
I can only imagine the amount of stress and anxiety Mr. Jackson must feel. Here he is presenting with these common and well-known symptoms of the disease his father died of, and he is being told just to sit around and wait. There is a supreme court case, Farmer v. Brennan, that determined that refusing medical treatment to incarcerated people amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. This makes total sense to me. If I were in Mr. Jackson’s position, I think I would be so incredibly anxious about my health that it would feel like a form of torture. I remember in Mr. Jackson’s letter to us, he wrote, “I don’t want to die in this place. I have a wife and kids as well as grandkids.” This prison and its staff are allowing this man and his family to suffer unnecessarily. If he does have colon cancer, his prognosis is likely worsening every day he isn’t being treated. This is not justice! By refusing him medical treatment this man is being sentenced to death. I can’t imagine the callousness, the lack of respect for human life and dignity, required to see this man suffer like this and be unwilling to get him help. Honestly, I hate the people who are doing this to him.
I highly doubt that the local hospital is so overrun with COVID cases that they can’t see Mr. Jackson, who is very severely ill. Mr. Jackson is at FCI Manchester, and Manchester, Kentucky currently has an average of only three new COVID cases a day. But even if this were the case, the BOP has a burden of care and should move Mr. Jackson to another prison where he can access care. If they can’t do this, they ought to release him.
Since writing my remedy for Mr. Jackson, I have thought about him and his case often. I really, deeply hope that my remedy (which was as harsh as I could make it) will help him access the medical care he needs and relieve some of his suffering. I hope he feels like those of us at The Remedy Project appreciate how awful what he is experiencing is, and he knows that we are here to help him in any way possible. But I fear my remedy won’t help because FCI Manchester has been impeding our process and retaliating against our clients. Writing this reflection has made me think that I would really like to check in with Mr. Jackson to ask how things are going and find out if there’s anything I can do to help his case. I am going to talk to the administrative remedy coordinator about how I can do that. Even if it’s just something small that he needs, I want to feel like I’m not just sitting around being upset about this injustice. I want to be doing something to help make things better, to make this world even just a tiny bit less unjust
Among the cases, I have worked on this semester, one stands out as particularly impactful. Charles Jackson is an incarcerated man who is presenting with the symptoms of colon cancer, constantly painful and bloody bowel movements; has a family history of colon cancer, his father died of it in his forties; and has a number of other medical conditions that have collateral risks for colon cancer. This man is being denied medical care at FCI Manchester because the staff claim that the local hospital is too busy with COVID cases.
I can only imagine the amount of stress and anxiety Mr. Jackson must feel. Here he is presenting with these common and well-known symptoms of the disease his father died of, and he is being told just to sit around and wait. There is a supreme court case, Farmer v. Brennan, that determined that refusing medical treatment to incarcerated people amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. This makes total sense to me. If I were in Mr. Jackson’s position, I think I would be so incredibly anxious about my health that it would feel like a form of torture. I remember in Mr. Jackson’s letter to us, he wrote, “I don’t want to die in this place. I have a wife and kids as well as grandkids.” This prison and its staff are allowing this man and his family to suffer unnecessarily. If he does have colon cancer, his prognosis is likely worsening every day he isn’t being treated. This is not justice! By refusing him medical treatment this man is being sentenced to death. I can’t imagine the callousness, the lack of respect for human life and dignity, required to see this man suffer like this and be unwilling to get him help. Honestly, I hate the people who are doing this to him.
I highly doubt that the local hospital is so overrun with COVID cases that they can’t see Mr. Jackson, who is very severely ill. Mr. Jackson is at FCI Manchester, and Manchester, Kentucky currently has an average of only three new COVID cases a day. But even if this were the case, the BOP has a burden of care and should move Mr. Jackson to another prison where he can access care. If they can’t do this, they ought to release him.
Since writing my remedy for Mr. Jackson, I have thought about him and his case often. I really, deeply hope that my remedy (which was as harsh as I could make it) will help him access the medical care he needs and relieve some of his suffering. I hope he feels like those of us at The Remedy Project appreciate how awful what he is experiencing is, and he knows that we are here to help him in any way possible. But I fear my remedy won’t help because FCI Manchester has been impeding our process and retaliating against our clients. Writing this reflection has made me think that I would really like to check in with Mr. Jackson to ask how things are going and find out if there’s anything I can do to help his case. I am going to talk to the administrative remedy coordinator about how I can do that. Even if it’s just something small that he needs, I want to feel like I’m not just sitting around being upset about this injustice. I want to be doing something to help make things better, to make this world even just a tiny bit less unjust
