Treating Medical Neglect with Solidarity
Mary Shields photograph by Dana Ullman from the 2011 Another Prison Project. Courtesy of Dana Ullman
In this audio clip, Shields describes the abuse, culminating in the deaths of 22 women in a single month, that led to the formation of the CCWP and her role as an infirmary worker and informant. 2020-05-13
Shumate’s friends and roommates provide a more complete picture of the suffering she endured. In a September 1997 article entitled Long Night at Central California Women's Facility, one of the residents of cell #19 described the long and difficult process Shumate went through to receive medical attention during a potentially deadly sickle cell anemia crisis. The writer argues:
“By choosing to treat Charisse's disease only when it reaches a crisis stage, the prison system is playing a dangerous game with her life. What happens next time, if the guard on duty does not believe her, and refuses to call for medical help? What happens if the staff at the infirmary that night decide to treat her according to routine and put her in that locked room for hours? What happens when her strength gives out and she can no longer speak for herself? She may then pay for their ignorance with her life.”
As this article suggests, Shumate wasn’t alone. The women she met and mentored in Battered Women, an organization where women shared their stories and healed from the trauma of domestic violence, and her fierce personality convinced others to join the struggle. One of them was Mary Shields, who served a long prison sentence for defending herself from her abusive husband. Shields survived over a decade of intimate partner violence from three husbands who endangered the lives of her and her children. While her mother provided her with support to escape the first two relationships, after she passed away Shields felt like she had no place to go, nobody to rely on, and no way to share her silenced trauma. She said, "In those days, it wasn't called battered woman. It wasn't called anything. There was no one. There was no one knows where to go, you know, especially for women of color."
To protect herself and her children from her husband’s violent beatings, Shields shot her husband in self defense. The state criminalized her survival and forced her behind bars for 19 years. Organizations like Survived and Punished, a coalition including the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and other organizations, emphasize how sharing these stories publicly helps people engage with the broader crises of criminalization and gendered violence.
Although collecting evidence of abuses in prison is difficult and risky, Shields, a former nurse who worked as a porter in the prison clinic during her 19-year sentence, provided the growing movement with evidence of the violent neglect women suffered at the hands of medical staff. Shields became a mentor to other incarcerated people, who joined the struggle. On the outside, allies like Karen Shain in organizations like Legal Services for Prisoners with Children provided crucial legal support and solidarity, while The Fire Inside provided connections to advocates and information.
Memorial program for Judy Ricci, known as Doctor Juju by her friends. Ricci passed away after a long struggle with HIV and Hepatitis C, and was known as a HIV peer health educator and hospice volunteer. About 40 friends, many from the peer counseling program, gathered for her memorial at the San Francisco Women's Building on February 4th 2005. Courtesy of Freedom Archives
Shumate’s friends also fought for their lives and adequate care while living with HIV/AIDS, which is the leading cause of death in prisons, and five to ten times more prevalent within their walls than in society of large. 1 . They struggled against discrimination from prison officials who disclosed their condition and forced them to live in segregated housing units and medical neglect. Following in the footsteps of the AIDS Counseling and Education Project at Bedford Hills, Judy Ricci and other incarcerated people worked as HIV peer health educators. Peer educators built solidarity among sick and healthy people alike.
As Edaleene Smith from CCWF wrote in The Fire Inside, she was initially afraid to live amongst Hepatitus C and HIV patients. However she learned from counselors BH and JR "not to mistreat or be scared of women who are ill" and also how to better understand herself. "Just the fact that these two women who are both sick can help others made me a believer. I know that I am not better than anyone who has HIV or Hep C because it's a fight for everyone to stay alive every day."
Judy Ricci taught herself and other women crucial skills for survival, from understanding their labwork to holding prison administrators accountable. 2 Karen Shain and Heidi Strupp described her impact, “Known by many on the prison yard as Dr. Juju, her work as an HIV peer health educator inspired a movement of prisoner activists inside and out. She educated her peers about HIV and HEP C and empowered others to stand up and demand the right to be healthy and well. As a hospice volunteer, she held the hands of dying women and carved out spaces of profound humanity that enabled women to pass with dignity.”