In the following grievance, a prisoner expresses his indignation at being dealt with like a mindless automaton by the Wexford1 medical staff at the Smithfield state prison in Huntingdon in Central Pennsylvania. The prisoner thinks that he should be treated with dignity and like a medical patient, not an object. The guards mentioned in the complaint are fairly typical of the ilk of boorishly self-important staff who fancy themselves to be entitled to act badly. One of them2 is the man who precipitated the prisoner's original heart problems. While the grievance is rather minor, it reflects the contemptuous mind set of the prison medical staff which regards prisoners as little more that gerbils. I'm not the family pet which is hustled off to the veterinarian at the whim of a punctilious owner. I'm a sane, adult human being. I'm ethically and legally entitled to full consultation about my medical treatment and to give "informed consent"3 (as the law says) for whatever is done to/with me. On Wednesday evening, I was ordered to report to the infirmary where I would be compelled to spend the night.4 I was not consulted and I gave no informed consent. Such a practice is inappropriate on its face. I'm a person, not an object; not a cue ball to be witlessly caromed from cushion to pad without consideration. After trudging through ankle-deep puddles5 and enduring torrential rain, I arrived at the infirmary at 7PM where two guards, a Sergeant Loy and Mark Price, imposed themselves and eavesdropped on a confidential medical conversation. Price had the good grace to remain mute, but Loy opined about my treatment alternatives while hovering at my elbow like a menacing predator. Neither has any reason to interject himself into my medical treatment. Against my will and over my objections, a nurse ordered me to spend the night in the infirmary. I take the nurse to be a contract employee of Wexford and to lack authority to order me to do anything, but I obeyed. At 8:30 PM, I waded back through the chilling downpour; really good for an old man's6 health! There was no medical need for me to endure the infirmary stay. The ado was over an ultrasound procedure which I neither need or want. I'd undergone the same procedure two years ago with negative results. Conversely, I can't beg treatment for my real needs, the ache in my lower left abdomen (not liver), reflux and chest pain. I would agree to the ultrasound as a courtesy to the medico who thought it might be useful. I spent a sleepless night. The infirmary was very noisy,7 drafty, dirty8 and vexatious. I got out sicker than I was when I entered; suffering from a cold. About 7:30 in the morning, a nurse9 informed me that, golly-gee! no ultrasound after all! I hereby REFUSE ALL medical procedures in which spending the night(s) in the infirmary is part of the procedure. I hereby request to be fully consulted about ALL medical procedures to be performed on me. I request my legal right to give informed consent before procedures are initiated and that my medical treatment be shown appropriate confidentiality from those who lack a medical need to know. I'm entitled to be treated like a patient, not a subject. Just like any patient, I'm competent to take nothing by mouth before a test. No patient on the street is inconvenienced with hospitalization for such a trivial reason. ["Part B"]10 I exhibited exemplary self-control, admirable tolerance and remarkable forbearance. Footnotes: At the Smithfield prison, the first hurtle is to ease the grievance past the censor. Lisa Hollibaugh, the Facility Grievance Coordinator, (don't you adore the gilded titles?) refused to process the prisoner's complaint. She scolded the prisoner as if he were a truculent toddler to be looked down upon. She pontificated that the grievance was "discourteous" and she disapproved of the prisoner's writing style: all "you need to do is state the facts and eliminate name calling (sic) and 'flowering'" she criticized. Assuming that the scholarly Ms Hollibaugh must have read someone else's complaint, the prisoner appealed to the Superintendent. I appeal from Ms Hollibaugh's refusal to process Grievance SMI-40247-03. While I appreciate her learned literary criticism and her desire to censor me, I disagree with her opinion that I was discourteous and/or that I called anyone names. I concede that I'm not as obsequious as she might prefer and that I express my justified vexation, but nothing in the grievance is fallacious or unjustified. I carefully reread the grievance trying to discern what Ms Hollibaugh would have me censor out to make it meet her sanitized criteria, but what am I to remove? As to "flowering," (I think that term describes a botanical), I've been writing for about 55 years and my style is (regrettably) rather well fixed. It's passed muster with many dozens of editors and thousands of readers. If the grievance is to be censored, perhaps Ms Hollibaugh would do me the service of redacting the offending ideas. Please have the grievance processed. Footnotes: 1 Wexford Health Sources is the profit making corporation apparently from Florida which contracts medical services in some Pennsylvania prisons. One of their many addresses (you'd think it was a shell game) is listed as: Bantry Group Corporation 381 Mansfield Avenue Suite 205 Pittsburgh, PA 15220 412-937-8590 Email wexford@prisons.com The site manager at SCI-Smithfield is a woman named Wendy Wright, who certainly understands that for Wexford, medicine is a moneymaking business. 2 See humor. The guy's probably not much worse that dozens of other guards. 3 In Pennsylvania, the well settled law is that a medical patient must be fully informed and must give informed consent for any procedure performed upon him/her. It's common practice in serious procedures (which ultrasound scans aren't) for the patient to sign a form expressing his informed consent. In prison the only procedure that's important is for the sucker/prisoner to sign a waiver to absolve Wexford when the medical staff screws up. 4 The complainant is one of those curmudgeons who is set in his ways and is disturbed, even upset by needless irregularities in his orderly, business-like life. Sleeping in strange surroundings stresses his health and demeanor. 5 The Smithfield prison is so very badly constructed and engineered that on the long walks between the numerous buildings there are many places where water collects several inches in depth. During winter storms (as was going on at the time of this incident), ice, snow and water make the walks a serious hazard especially for older men. 6 One of the oldest men in the prison, the complainant is a 62 year-old man in weak health who's susceptible to illness and cold. 7 Trying to rest in the infirmary is described as trying to sleep in a factory with locks snapping, doors slamming shut, electrical buzzing and continual chatter from the staff. On top of that a man in one of the cells was making a lot of noise as he slowly died. In the month before the incident, two prisoners had died in the infirmary from AIDS. The infirmary is a circle of six stark, drum-hollow cells, a good place to die. 8 The walls of the infirmary cell were splattered with unknown substances. The toilet was filthy as were the bed table and floor. The bed frame was thick with dust, not so good for an asthmatic. 9 While a few of the prison nurses are openly hostile, rude, officious and arrogant, many are pleasant and tolerant. The sheepish little woman who delivered the no ultrasound message was apologetic and cordial, a contrast to the mere practical nurse who dispenses the dangerous and addictive pharmaceuticals. 10 "Part B" of the official grievance form is the section where the prisoner is supposed to report what he/she did to resolve the problem without having to disturb the big shots who are busy loafing. Here, the prison complainant took the opportunity to turn the tables.