IDOC Watch, The Other Victims’ Advocacy, Michigan City Social Justice Group, and Black Lives Matter NWI-Gary are organizing another protest at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, on August 25 at 1pm CST.
At the last protest we focused on demanding the restoration of contact visitation and food-sharing during visits, and within a week after our demonstration, those demands were met.
This time, we’ll be focusing on the problems of medical neglect, malnutrition, and infestations of bed bugs and cockroaches at ISP. We have heard from several people already that inmates often have to request medical attention multiple times before receiving it, that mental health care at the facility is very poor, and that even when prisoners do receive medical attention, the care they receive is often insufficient (as in the case of Robert Turben, who’s issue you can read about at this link: https://bit.ly/2Mmjb7r ). Additionally, we have heard from former inmates, volunteers, and people who have loved ones incarcerated at ISP that the diet, provided by Aramark, which is almost entirely soy-based and very high in carbohydrates, is contributing to high rates of diabetes among the people incarcerated there. Further, we have heard that there are major infestations of bed bugs and cockroaches in the facility, which are also damaging to the health of people incarcerated there.
Therefore, the demands of the August 25 protest are 1) Immediate improvements to access to and quality of medical care, 2) Immediate improvements to the nutritional content of the diet served to inmates, and 3) Immediate elimination of the bed bug and cockroach infestations in the facility.
If you have been incarcerated at ISP and have experience with any of these issues, or if you have a loved one incarcerated there who has experienced these issues, please send us your testimony so that we can better expose these issues on the 25th! We plan to read testimonies aloud at the protest. You can send us your testimony by commenting on this post, via email at idocwatch@gmail.com, or on Facebook via message at facebook.com/idocwatch/. Please share your story with us so we can fight these abuses! We will keep your story anonymous if you prefer.