A lot of ladies here have not even tried to contact family and friends and I have to say I understand. The judgementalism I received from mine is painful, but I forgive them and am grateful we have communication. There is such a negative connotation for people in jail and prison but I have met some incredible people and have learned a lot from them My time serving in the military (4 years with honorable discharge) has thankfully prepared me for all of this in some ways but not all of the judgementalism.
My family and friends are slowly coming around though, and I have great respect and admiration for those that have been with me through all of this. I have also been trying to contact ladies I’ve met in Washington County Jail as there is a lot of denial of the abuse that happened there. I say this because I have experienced it myself sometimes but leaving someone locked in a shower stall naked for hours is abuse. Also a lot of the girls there were dealing with drug withdrawal symptoms, which can be quite painful, especially with opioids. It can also be dangerous for someone to go through cold turkey and I talked to several ladies that were forced to do this. Another symptom of withdrawal from opioids is diarrhea and one lady told me they left her locked in a legal visit booth for about an hour and she soiled her clothes, then had to sit in it. Everyone in that jail had to deal with some form of of abuse like this while I was there and it would help us all to heal from it to be able to talk about it without fear of retribution from them recording all of our conversations. I should not have allowed the medical staff to give me a pap smear as it was very painful and made me bleed. I hope they didn’t damage anything inside of me.
Since I’ve been incarcerated, I’ve lost my grandmother, my brother, and I just found out that my mother has terminal leukemia. This gives me new motivation to help other ladies to stay in touch with their families. It is so important here.
There was a lady in Washington County Jail that had cancer and they were treating her. I remember her going around in a wheelchair there. From what I understand, Washington County Jail is one of the biggest money-makers in the area and many ladies heard them brag about how much money they make there. Shouldn’t their financial records be audited to find out why they are not spending enough money on medical care for people there?
I’ve also been told they have a 98% conviction rate but according to the other ladies I’ve talked to, most of those convictions are either false or unfair. We’ve walked though intake and seen someone obviously very high on some kind of drug, and a deputy said that sometimes they take videos of that kind of thing and show the kids to deter them from doing drugs, but that’s highly disrespectful to the person’s human rights. One lady said she waited 16 hours in intake to be booked into the jail.
I’ve been told the reason the commissary prices are so inflated there is because there is a supply company that has a monopoly on the market because they give the Washington County police department a large “donation”. Why are these things not being investigated? We were paying almost double the price in there for commissary and most people in jail can’t afford that. They get away with it because the ladies need to contact family and friends or to buy extra food. (food would be withheld as punishment there)
In my eyes, the scales are tipped way in favor of the jails and the system needs to be exposed for what it really is: modern day slavery and human trafficking. As long as the ones exploiting the ladies are making a profit, the abuse will continue… from the judges and public defenders to to the incompetent medical staff and deputies. One lady said she was placed in the very same choke hold as George Floyd when she was arrested. Why are body cams not being used here. There needs to be an accountability enforced within the system so the abuse can stop. It’s sure not going to take policing to enforce that. It has to start with everyday people like you and me, and like the young lady that recorded George Floyd’s death. Our lives depend on it and the lives of our sons and daughters as well.