Written by an incarcerated woman who knew the three people commemorated here
The commemoration of three women is needed because of their recent deaths while in state custody. None of the women were sentenced to death as punishment nor to natural life behind bars. Each was given excessive sentences to serve which contributed to their early deaths. The substandard level of health care and living conditions at the Indiana Women’s Prison, combined with IDOC objectives and state policies devaluing human incarcerated lives has necessitated this commemoration. I love my friends and fellow women in this struggle and appreciate recalling and remembering them; I despise the system which contributed to their failing health and disempowered their autonomy, leaving them to die in prison.
A right to life is what we as human beings believe we are entitled to, yet this is taken away in incarceration. Legally, incarceration does not require provisions for those in its throes to pursue a right to life. Instead, the legal conundrum only requires a mirage reflected to civilized society, which eases the conscience justifying the punishment levied upon those deemed criminal. However, that logic is flawed because no matter how long the sentences are, nor how many people are imprisoned, the causes of crime (and therefore crime itself) will not be alleviated until addressed. Incarceration is what is done because of the lack of imagination and responsibility to each other. The system of criminal punishment is not accomplishing its purported objectives and demands to be rethought. It is inhumane.
Furthermore, the dying deserve dignity and the dead deserve respect. Incarceration neglects and intentionally avoids health care needs by refusing preventative care, refusing treatment options given non-incarcerated people, and excessive delay in care. The stigma of incarcerated people as lazy, unworking, poor, undeserving of life, and without health coverage contributes to a complete breakdown of pain management, communication to incarcerated patients concerning treatment or prescription options, drug interactions, or end-of-life procedures. Incarcerated lives mean so little that upon the knowledge of a terminal medical condition, or when health care is needed which is not available to incarcerated people, Indiana’s sentencing courts are not empowered through law to provide people release. They unilaterally deny all requests by unrepresented or poor people inside prison who petition courts under pauper status for compassionate release. For a violent criminal early release is virtually impossible under any circumstance, and only those with money or lawyers may find consideration.
My three deceased comrades were all identified as high-risk at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, despite the calls by prison advocates for the early releases or furloughs of medically high-risk incarcerated people, the Governor and IDOC Commissioner refused to extend consideration. At the beginning of 2020, each refuted their abilities in law to release people. Almost two years into a pandemic which affects the prison system at much higher rates than singular living situations, the two male rulers released three male incarcerated people asserting medical reasons. All three of the women I am seeking to commemorate, Ronica, Dellia, and Cynthia, contracted covid-19 in the past two years; even multiple times. The numbers of coronavirus cases, coronavirus deaths and contributory affects on the health of the incarcerated in Indiana is egregiously underreported by IDOC and intentionally falsified. No female has been released through IDOC medical clemency procedures throughout the pandemic or past decades.
Official reports recording incarcerated deaths made by the coroner or state police cannot be considered dependable due to the association of these agencies with IDOC, its private for-profit health care provider in addition with the lack of an incarcerated person’s witnessing advocate. The incarcerated person’s failing condition is not witnessed or recorded by a family member, friend, advocate, or outside ally. People in prisons die alone and in unmanaged and excessive pain. Other incarcerated people are not even questioned in incidents of a woman’s death. Once an incarcerated person has passed away it is only community ties and resources which provide funerals and memorial services. These actions are oftentimes taken by a community of past incarcerated people or prison volunteers. Obituaries do not report those who die in state custody. In death, the life of an incarcerated person is unwitnessed, un-honored and disregarded; the stigma of incarceration extending even to the expiration of life. I intend to transform this reality.
A Commemoration of Cynthia Powell
Ms. Cynthia Powell’s most usual disposition was a cheerful one. Anytime I would see her in the hallways of the prison, she would be smiling. Even after having spent many years behind prison walls, the time did not get the better of her. She was often volunteering to do extra work. I usually would see her filling up her unit’s ice cooler walking the entire prison block to get the ice. I would see her in the mornings dropping off old mop heads for exchange. She seemed to have a good balance between personal time and staying busy.
On special occasions, like a holiday meal in chow hall or a visit, Cynthia would prepare herself wearing her signature red lipstick and a stylish doo. It was obvious Cynthia retained her youthful beauty even as she grew older. Cynthia was a survivor of the prison’s punitive special needs unit and negligent mental health care system. She was down-to-earth and approachable, remaining open to those around her still in the struggles of the unit of mental health issues. She appeared to become more and more optimistic as her outdate approached. Although I was not close to Cynthia, her struggles made her a woman of wisdom, and it was obvious in her demeanor. May she find peace and release as she transitions from life to death.
A Commemoration of Dellia Castile
Ms. Dellia Castile was known by most as “GG.” A no-nonsense tell-it-how-it-is motherly-type of woman, GG was short in stature, but large in love. She adopted other incarcerated women taking on roles of pseudo-family, assisting with emotional and spiritual matters. GG had an extreme love for her son, of whom she referenced frequently. GG’s entire demeanor revealed how extremely important family was to her. Although GG’s kidneys began to fail her, she welcomed dialysis because she would see her son at the prisons’ dialysis center.
I met GG in 2013 at Rockville Correctional Facility. GG had recently enrolled in the P.L.U.S. unit, a unit I lived on due to my work assignment. GG’s criminal appeal had been handed down from the Indiana Court of Appeals and decided against her. Three times, the prison’s law library had attempted to prepare a Petition to Transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court on behalf of GG. Unfortunately, IDOC refused to train adequate law clerks and did not provide alternative legal assistance (a policy continuing today). Due to the lack of training and experience, each attempt to file a transfer was rejected by the Supreme Court for technical reasons. Her need of help in asserting the inequity she experience
d by the criminal system was more than enough to motivate me. I took GG’s paperwork, her “for publication” appeal decision and the denial checksheets returned to her for the denial of her filings, in order to prepare a petition. At the time, I had caught the attention of a few corrupt correctional officers who shook me down to confiscate GG’s paperwork. They scared GG telling her she was not allowed to ask me for help and if she did it would be misconduct. I was simultaneously written up for misconduct, transferred housing units, and transferred institutions. GG never filed a Petition to Transfer nor received any further review of her criminal case.
Later in her prison sentence, GG’s kidneys began to fail her. She transferred to the Indiana Women’s Prison for medical reasons, where I was located. GG was often restricted to the prison’s infirmary where I was allowed to sit with her as an infirmary companion. GG’s health deteriorated while at the Women’s Prison. Before the pandemic began, GG and I began discussing legal options for her. Due to her worsening health it seemed a compassionate release would be necessary to ensure her freedom to receive life saving health care or before her death. GG wanted to petition her sentencing court and I suggested medical clemency as an option if that didn’t work.
The pandemic hit IWP in March 2020. I was unable to see GG until almost Christmas. GG’s condition worsened considerably and she became infected with the coronavirus multiple times. By the time I had confirmation from her to pursue preparing paperwork to petition IDOC for medical clemency I had no access to her. I requested approval from IWP administrators. I was transferred facilities with[in] 45 days of seeking permission to help GG prepare a medical clemency petition. The day before I left, while at the infirmary, GG lightly walked out to where I was and sat down beside me. She was smiling and the happiest I had seen her in a long time. GG was filled with a supernatural grace that day, hugged me, and eased my concerns. Unselfishly, GG came to me that day to comfort me.
The more I reflect on GG’s imprisonment–the totality of the carceral system’s affects on her– I see racialized and gendered criminalization. GG was treated harsher in her legal battle because of her pauper status with the court. Her bail hearings, trial, lack of appeal, representation, and subsequent treatment inside prison were all impacted by disparate application of discretion, undeniably influenced by racial and gender stigmatization. The lack of relief afforded to her in her failing health was solely because she was poor, black, female, and incarcerated. The underlying criminal convictions for neglect inherently and disproportionally criminalized her role as mother, grandmother, and caretaker. GG’s excessive sentence for crimes she did not commit were unevenly issued to her because of racialized and gendered tropes which infect the criminal system with unfairness and discrimination. GG’s personhood was devalued in this system and reflects a norm.
GG never felt sorry for herself and did not view herself as a victim. To the contrary, GG was a fighter for her autonomy and for justice. She was loving to those in pain around her. May your spirit inspire me GG, and may you rest in eternal freedom, love, and peace. May her son and family know how much she was in love with them.
A Commemoration of Ronica Starks AKA Roe-Roe
I met Roe-Roe around 2005 inside the Indiana Women’s Prison. Her first words to me revealed her acceptance of alternative lifestyle choices, other races and women more generally. As time moved on, I began to see her mindset as in direct opposition to the prison apparatus, a quality I valued and looked up to. Roe-Roe was fearless living how she wanted to and for the most part, doing what she wanted to do. I gained Roe-Roe’s more focused attention at Rockville Correctional Facility around 2009 when she asked me to review some of her legal paperwork. From that point forward Roe-Roe and I often had conversations concerning her legal intentions for relief.
When I first met Roe-Roe, and for years after, she was an able-bodied, gender non-conforming woman. Roe-Roe was amazing to me in her fierce womanhood, all the while one of the coolest cats in the prison. Roe-Roe was not confined by stigma or prejudice, and brilliantly understood other people’s motivations. She was unapologetically herself, and a woman I came to love and respect.
Roe-Roe’s health began to deteriorate within the first decade of her imprisonment. Having entered prison with a plethora of health issues, she was continuously given numerous medications, and most often overmedicated. Her kidneys eventually began to fail her. She was transferred to the Indiana Women’s Prison to begin dialysis. Throughout her imprisonment multiple people would have given Roe-Roe a donor kidney. Furthermore, she lost family members during her incarceration including her beloved mother and sister; both had kidneys available for transplant. Yet, due to Roe-Roes’ commitment to IDOC, transplanting a kidney was not feasible because the private for-profit health care system for incarcerated people would not cover costs. Adding more insult to her pursuit of life, she was not placed on the donor registry list. This action against her incarcerated status irreversibly denied her even post-release life saving measures.
Roe-Roe’s last decade in prison resulted in severe pain and discomfort due to health complications, undiagnosed health issues, and delayed or insufficient treatments. While always strong through numerous surgeries, recoveries, physical limitations, infections, and amputations, her suffering was severe. The criminal carceral system only imputed callousness and heartlessness in her treatment, care and lack of consideration. Nonetheless, people inside prison loved Roe-Roe and it was those closest to her who gave her the medical aid she required most days. Roe-Roe’s personality elicited love and care from others around her. She never lost her identity even as she transitioned in and out of debilitating disabilities.
The Indiana Women’s Prison’s punitive and repressive administration and policies hyper-surveilled Roe-Roe. Roe-Roe’s behaviors were over-exaggerated as misconduct by prison investigators who had little to attend to. Multiple times she was placed in punitive segregation and isolation even with her failing health which needed therapy, proper nutrition, electronic monitoring or assistance and human assistance for daily activity. Roe-Roe’s placement in seg and on behavioral units undeniably progressed her worsening health. Her last amputation recommendation was cemented when prison officials left her in cold isolation with extremely restricted access to physical movement, no therapy, lack of nutrition, lack of caloric intake requirements, and severe restriction on needed health care.
Regardless of the prison authorities’ oppression upon my friend, she continued to exhibit her larger-than-life personality. She had love from and held love for most people including some c/o’s and every female prison people. Perhaps her biggest legacy, Roe-Roe loved the children. She became involved in many children’s lives of those she loved. Roe-Roe would find ways to see the children when they visited their mothers in prison. She called them, wrote them and kept incarcerated crafters in business buying artwork and crocheted items fo
r the children. Roe-Roe also took care of her own, sending care packages to new arrivals, making sure people didn’t go hungry, and extending conversation to even the most misunderstood person.
The system refused to extend Roe-Roe compassionate release. Her prosecutor placed the responsibility for a possible early release on IDOC in a 2018 letter. The IDOC would not even allow Ronica Starks to prepare and file a petition for medical clemency. Instead, its racist policies refused to allow Roe-Roe’s requests to be formally submitted, denying her at the first level of review, the Health Services Administrator for IDOC’s health care contractor. Roe-Roe was treated and regarded as super-human by officials who denied her compassion. Due to her pauper status Roe-Roe lost her life committed to IDOC mere months before her release date.
May my big homie look down on all of those who love and miss her and smile. May she enjoy those she lost in life and kick it with the ancestors. May those hurting in her loss find comfort and celebrate Roe-Roe’s life as she would have us to do. Rest in peace friend.