A lady from D unit, which is where many ladies with mental illness and PTSD issues are housed in CCCF, saw two different ladies pepper sprayed. One was on April 1st and the other was on April 3rd. She could feel the pepper spray burning her eyes while she was in her cell. Another lady that works as an orderly had to clean it up. She said she’s learned not to breath while she cleans it. We don’t think pepper spray is a good way to handle mental illness or PTSD issues in the first place, but it also affects many others besides the intended victims. Also, a lot of the ladies here are on medications, and when the dosage is adjusted or a new medication is taken, ladies can have drastic mood altering effects and even get sick from this. It interferes with their ability to be accountable for their actions along with mental illness.
The officers and staff here have no such excuse for this abuse and we want them to start being accountable for all of the injustices we experience here. One lady was celled-in twelve times in two months because she can’t hear.
In the kitchen at CCCF, we are not allowed to bring anything out of the kitchen. This leaves us with a dilemma if we need to bring in antacid or aspirin or anything like that because we will have to get searched upon leaving. If anything is found, we are punished.
There is one lady at the Lynn County Jail that woke up in a pool of her own blood with nothing but a hospital gown on. They had cut her clothes off while she was unconscious and had cracked her left eye socket in a display of excessive force and violence.