Mumia remains in grave danger

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and HEIDI BOGHOSIAN Political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal nearly died— and remains in grave danger—from a diabetic con­ dition that the Pennsylvania prison system failed to diagnose in his decades behind bars. He is not alone. “The Bureau of Justice reported some 40% of prison­ ers and jail inmates in 2011-2012 reporting chronic medical condition such as asthma, cancer, heart dis­ ease, high blood pressure—and diabetes.”

“Mumia’s condition highlights the systemic neglect and abuse of prisoners in our nation’s vast and ever growing system of mass incarceration.”

What does it mean for hundreds of thousands of prisoners in the United States when the world’s most famous prisoner faces possible death from medical neglect in a Pennsylvania prison? Often called the “Voice of the Voiceless” for his countless publications and broadcasts revealing the injustices of the crimi­ nal justice system, Mumia Abu-Jamal has seen his health slip away in a matter of months.

Thousands of supporters worldwide and frequent visitors could not stop the burning black lesions that covered his entire body or the profound fatigue that, since January, has sucked him into trance-like sleeps, or guards who punished him with denial of calls, visitors, and yard for sleeping through morn­ ing alarms and the morning count. What does it say that on March 30, Mumia Abu-Jamal fell unconscious with uncontrolled—and undiagnosed—diabetes?

Mumia’s condition highlights the systemic neglect and abuse of prisoners in our nation’s vast and ever growing system of mass incarceration. A daily diet high in carbohydrates, salt, and sugar has left an es­ timated 80,000 suffering from diabetes. Compound­ ing the inadequate nutrition is the sub-par medi­ cal care provided by a vast for-profit provider that reaps some $1.5 billion a year in profits from prison health-care contracts. Using an HMO model that puts cost-cutting above all, Corizon Correctional Health­ care has paid millions in legal settlements over inad­ equate or bungled treatment.

Not surprisingly, the Bureau of Justice reported some 40% of prisoners and jail inmates in 20112012 reporting chronic medical condition such as asthma, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure— and diabetes.

For three days, Mumia received treatment at the ICU of a nearby medical clinic. His blood sugar and sodium level counts were catastrophically high at 779 and 168, respectively. The last time Mumia was hospitalized was on Dec. 9, 1981, the night of the killing of Officer Daniel Faulkner, for which Mumia was convicted in a trial fraught with constitutional violations.

That same night Mumia was shot and beaten within an inch of his life by police. When he was finally tak­ en to the hospital in a paddy wagon, he was thrown by police onto the floor of the emergency room en­ trance. After surgery, he woke to a police officer stomping on his urine bag.

Mumia now languishes in the prison infirmary fac­ ing new assaults—the cut-rate, sub-par care and inadequate nutrition that contributed to his earlier health decline and crisis. With a still abnormally high glucose level, hard-crusted skin covering his body, and a dramatic weight lost of over 50 pounds, he is in dire need of the attention of specialists in both en­ docrinology and dermatology, and healthful food.

As Mumia’s health deteriorates, he would want us to draw attention not only to his plight but the plight of all this nation’s prisoners who receive a malnour­ ishing diet and sub-standard health care at the hands Tony Savino / Socialist Action From Prison Radio, April 24