Month: July 2022

It has been very hot outside! When we all go out for yard, we bring our coconut oil and lay out there in the Sun. There is no water, but it really feels like we are at the beach. Even the dogs get a kiddie pool and play in it.

We have gotten quite good at volleyball and pickleball! Yesterday we accidentally hit the volleyball over the fence. We offered to clime the fence to get it, but the officer said no.

The ACLU has offered to help us get better education programs here. We are currently trying to find out what is available in other prisons. We know it is possible to pass the Bar Exam from here and we have several ladies that are up for the challenge!

We are all teaching each other to be better with our makeup. It is one of the only ways we can express ourselves here and we are grateful. Going out to get our meals is the closest we can come to having a fashion show. But it is also the place where we are most watched by the officers, so we have to be careful. It is guerilla fashion show! Do not get the wrong idea though. We are all very beautiful and some of us could be fashion models.

Susan Monica, who we mentioned before, has a segment on the TV show ‘Snapped”. She says 80 percent of that is false and we believe her, given the amount of false convictions that have come through the Oregon Justice System. Her side of the story can be found at https://www.unforbiddentruthpodcast.com/

We have a big infestation of big ants here in one of the units, that they do not take care of. Also, in 100 degree weather they turn off the air conditioning because it is leaking into the walls.

We had another lady slip and fall in her unit. Her knee swelled up. She had slipped on some water on the floor. Another lady got chemical burns on her hands from cleaning out garbage cans. They are supposed to be keeping us safe here, but they do not.

Another lady at CCCF had a seizure last night and they made her move without letting her rest first. They also told her she had to go to the kitchen and check in. We hope the coordinator who had been verbally and physically abusive to ladies is not there. Also, it has been pretty hot in there and, along with the extra stress, it could be a trigger for her to have another stroke. The abusive coordinator also sits at his desk and looks up different guns and ammo a lot of the time he is there. Even the other coordinators are afraid of him. Two of the other coordinators are afraid to say anything because they are on 6 month probation because they got caught drinking in the parking lot.

Another lady here likes to live in segregation and the officers keep trying to move her to general population. She gets scared when they try to move her, so she lashes out at them so they won’t move her

Another lady here got 39 months for shooting a man in self defense. Another lady got 25 to life when she didn’t even do the shooting she was accused of. There seems to be no consistency with sentencing and sometimes it seem like outright favoritism. Another lady got 9 years for purposely shooting someone. Why does one lady get 25 to life and others get under 10 years. DAs are given extra funding from the State if they produce more convictions. We think this skews the justice system and results in wrongful convictions.

There are ladies at CCCF getting sued for the custody of their kids or for their possessions. They were given 2 days to prepare. We feel they have not been given a fighting chance. It takes longer than 2 days to get the correct paperwork at from the Law Library here.

A lady at Washington County Jail got charged twice for the same crime. We say that is double jeopardy. During another lady’s trial at Washington County Court, they only let one person come to her trial to show support for her. But they let the over a dozen of the “victim’s” family and friends come to the trial. That one person said an office stood at the side of the court room during trial and stared at one member of the jury and then threatened him as he was leaving because the officer said he was not allowed to look at the person on trial.

Another lady at CCCF had her second seizure last night because CCCF took her off her regular seizure medication. They were trying to save money by giving her a generic medication. This facility is not hurting for money, so there is no reason for this.

Washington County have not been honoring prisoner’s right to a speedy trial. They kept one lady in jail for 2 years without bail after she had been arrested for a crime she did not commit. They said this was because of COVID. We think they should not be allowed to do that.

Ladies here are being forced to work in a kitchen that is not up to OSHA Standards. It is extremely hot in there and there is no ventilation. According to OSHA, when the temperature in a work area gets high like this people are supposed to take regular breaks to keep hydrated and prevent heat stroke. This is not being done here. We think one lady who worked yesterday does have heat stroke. Another lady working in the kitchen burned her hand pretty badly and was trying to go to the clinic but they would not let her. When she went anyway they arrested her and brought her to segregation.

Another lady here is being sued for custody of her child when she gets out in a couple of months. The papers say she will have no say in whether the child will be put up for adoption.

A lady at CCCF was having a grand mal seizure . Seven officers showed up but only one medical professional. They did not take her mask off and they were not protecting her head until other ladies were yelling at them. They told everyone to go to their cells.

Another lady’s knee buckled three days ago and she still has not been seen by medical. Her knee is still swollen and painful. Another lady here says she got punished for trying to help when a lady was having a seizure. Those seven officers last night sure did not look like they knew what to do and there was only one medical professional on the scene. We think officers need more medical training instead of trying to punish us all the time.

One lady here says she was sexually assaulted while leaving the kitchen. Several others said the same thing about the same kitchen coordinator.

Another lady who had been here since 2002 has borderline personality disorder and when visitors were banned during COVID she had trouble dealing with it. Mental health professionals were not helping her, and her therapist disappeared for 3 months. She ended up being punished and moved in an intensive unit, but those of us in the regular unit are so happy to have her with us. She has a wealth of knowledge from being here so long and is especially helping the newer people.

At CCCF there are ladies with severe mental illness slipping through the cracks because they choose to spend most of their time in their rooms. If the line is too long for medication or it’s too loud, they can choose to go days without taking anti-psychotic medicine. If another lady happens to be put in a cell with a lady like this, it is even more punishing to her than her actual sentence.

They use pepper spray as punishment here. When they spray ladies, the whole unit can smell it and then they lock us in our cells with pepper spray in the air. Ladies put towels under the door jam, but the pepper spray still comes in.

They practice bad conditioning here. When a lady does something like instigating violence from another lady, she is rewarded. When ladies do something like sharing coffee or juice, they are punished. On lady was celled-in for three days for sharing juice.

We have ladies here who will not come out of their cells for up to a month because they do not want to be instigated before they are released. There are also ladies that have been conditioned by officers to try to instigate another lady to violence because they have been rewarded in the past for that behavior.

We see this in the courts as well. People who testify against others, whether they tell the truth or not, are granted immunity. We have seen a court documentary where a person that actually pulled the trigger in a murder testified that it was someone else who was innocent actually pulled the trigger. The Justice System is rewarding this bad behavior and punishing an innocent person. Who is to say how many innocent people are getting blamed for crimes they did not commit.

One lady at CCCF turned in money sent her for hair design products, but they refused to give them to her after they took her money.

The 20 year old girl who was punched in the legs by the officer was sent to segregation for doing a cartwheel in the yard. She was just doing a 6 month stint here. CCCF over-punishes people. Another lady was sent money by a friend but it was returned because it was a money order. The friend then gave it to her mother to give to her but her mother has not given it to her for 3 months now. The mother has a history of addiction, so we are not sure if the lady here will ever see it. Because of this the lady here is not able to buy needed shoes.

Another lady here had celiac disease and the kitchen coordinators celled her for trying to show them her 400 sheet. A 400 sheet is an official page typed with statistics of her condition. The coordinator then said that celiacs can eat gluten. Another lady in the kitchen did not want to work there and had a panic attach. They sent her to segregation to be punished.

We read in the newspaper that folks in a Federal Prison in Oregon went on a hunger strike because of COVID quarantine conditions. The prison shut off the water supply to their cells. We feel like that’s a premeditated attempted murder. Also, the prisons get extra money from the State to take care of prisoners in quarantine, so we think they are probably keeping us quarantined for as long as possible.