Lonesome Dove Review 

 Sept/October Issue   2007      Jeff Dicks Medical Coalition

 

In This Issue

The Editor's Desk                            1
Prison Disease Spreads To Schools   1    
Death Behind Bars                         2
Hypertension: Safe Exercise           3

 The Editor’s Desk
This is the first issue in a few months so hello everyone.  I thought we were going to quit the coalition but somehow we’re still here, trying to fight for your medical care.  Not sure how much longer we’ll be able to keep on because for one thing, we’re not getting any help from anywhere.  And let’s face it, a few ladies can’t fight the whole US prison system.

People out there don’t seem to care about medical care for prisoners.  The sad fact is, people on the outside are not getting medical care and so it’s easy to see why they feel this way.  And families and friends of those inside don’t want to help with the exception of the very few we have already, and so with that being said, the twenty ladies we have, are fighting a hard fight for all of you inside.

I’m getting too old now to do much and to tell you the truth; I can’t see much sense in it after ten years of trying to build this up and seeing that help is not coming forward from the prisoners side of it.  I’ve fought hard for the past ten years since my own son was killed on TN death row by medical neglect.  I had big dreams back then because I thought that everyone in the system would have one or two family members willing to jump right in and help, plus a few friends who would jump right in and stand up and fight.

Wow.  With those numbers, we’d have the power to stop all those abuses and all inmates would then be treated humanely and given their medicines and what ever else they needed.,  This would happen because everyone knew with the thousands upon thousands of members we’d have, we’d have the POWER that they have.

Now it’s ten years later and I realize this isn’t going to ever happen.  We can save some lives and help some of you, but it’s a drop in the hat.  We don’t get donations from those on the outside to help the twenty of us out here fighting either.

If we could get people to donate just one dollar each, it would add up so that our faithful leaders here would be able to continue to write letters on your behalf.  It cost money to mail all those letters, make those phone calls on your behalf but that hasn’t happened.  We don’t get funding, or grants to help us.  Each leader does it from her own money.  And I can tell you that not one person who is working with the jdc has money to spare.  

Most of our leaders are from the UK as they seem to care more over there about those inside the walls.   I would have given up but these ladies here are working hard so that you can live.  Like I say, I’m just getting too old and too tired to keep doing much but for now, we’re still here.

We have someone else who is the director and is receiving the mail so if you need medical care, then from now on send your letters to her. Gloria Salazar  -  3062 Beacon Field, San Antonio, Tx 78245 
      If you are subscribing to the newsletter, making a donation of money or stamps,  mail that to Shirley Dicks PO box 342, Beechgrove TN 37018

 If you have someone who is willing to join us, they can contact either myself, or our President, Sue Wilkes 10 CWRT llanfabon Energlyn Caerphilly South Wales, Great Britain  CF832TP   CF83

 For Native Americans with medical problems, write to our Native American Director, Momfeather P. O. Box 127  Marion, Kentucky 42064

 Also our website has changed.  The new website is www.jeffdicksmedical.com  The memorial site for Jeff is www.jeffdicks.net

 Prison Disease Spreads       To Schools    By: Chris Holbrook

  The epidemic of the highly infectious strain of prison Staphylococcus has spread from the Pennsylvania state prisons to schools and county jails.  When we published our first article about MRSA (for "Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureaus") , we were only aware of cases in the filthy state prisons - and there were plenty on them! We feared the disease would spread.

Reports now indicate that the dangerous, sometimes fatal infection has indeed spread. The Pittsburgh area is especially hard-hit by this type of Staph. Almost a hundred cases have already been reported. Nobody seems to know how many cases have gone unreported, likely several hundreds.

Prisoners and a few guards at the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania jail in Pittsburgh have been stricken. Even more alarmingly, a number of cases have been reported in area schools. Children have been hospitalized.

MRSA is a highly contagious infection. It generally attacks through the skin leaving large open sores. The disease is immune to most antibiotics and medications. Frequently, it must be dug out surgically. That leaves ugly scars. Even surgery often fails. Once contracted, the disease typically affects the whole body. The heart is sometimes damaged as is the brain. Prison guards seldom have to worry about brain damage.

The infection is spread through direct physical contact with infected persons or with bacteria on filthy surfaces. The Pennsylvania state prison system is afraid to keep things clean. The guards are afraid of having effective cleaning agents in the prisons. The guards treat prisoners so badly that they tremble from the prospect that prisoners may retaliate by throwing cleaning chemicals on them. It doesn't really happen, but the guards are pussies.

It's not unusual for there to be a connection between prisons and public schools. Typically, oppressive practices, punishments, searches and similar violations of personal liberties are tested first in the prisons. If the neo-Nazis get away with the abuses with prisoners (and they generally do), they carry them on into the public schools. Generally they start with the predominantly minority schools. Nobody seem to care what abuses the black and Hispanic kids suffer. From that garden, the abuses are quickly expanded to the general public.

What's being done to prisoners today will shortly be done to persons in the "free" society. The more the conservatives and Republicans hold power, the quicker liberties vanish.

Prisoners and their families are cautioned to keep as clean as possible. Wash your hands after all physical contact with others. Prisoners who are compelled to share tiny cells with others find it almost impossible to avoid contact.

Now school children and their parents must also be cautious of MRSA infections. Just try to keep a kid clean! You have the Pennsylvania Prisons to thank for the epidemic. It's filthy and VERY badly managed. If your kid is unfortunate enough to contract MRSA, you can trace it back to the cowardly prison guards. They're afraid of cleaning chemicals. Perhaps guys like "Mr. e" should simply treat prisoners

 Death Behind Bars

 The United States has about 2.1 million people behind bars - a larger proportion of its population than any other nation in the world. The correctional system's price tag is more than $60 billion - up from just $9 billion two decades ago - and states are understandably eager to shave costs. Some are attempting to do it by cutting back on already dismal prison medical care.

Prison inmates are literally the sickest people in our society. States and municipalities frequently try to dodge the bill for treating them by ordering up bids from private providers and signing up with the cheapest, most bare-bones plan. Paul von Zielbauer of The Times recently opened a window onto this aspect of the problem with a harrowing series of articles about Prison Health Services, the nation's largest private provider of jail and prison medical care, handling about one in every 10 people who live behind bars in this country.

Among the horrific deaths described in the series is that of Brian Tetrault, a 44-year-old man with Parkinson's disease who died after an upstate New York jail's medical director drastically cut his medicine. Officials then falsified records to make it appear that Mr. Tetrault had been released before he died. Another upstate inmate, 35-year-old Victoria Williams Smith, died of a heart attack after being mocked by a prison nurse and denied treatment for days.

 Equally as troubling were accounts of how Prison Health Services failed to keep a close eye on inmates who later committed suicide, and its habit of sometimes employing doctors with criminal records and doctors who lacked state certification.

Shoddy care and the denial of care are unfortunately not unique to private companies, which do not provide the majority of the health care that is supplied to inmates. Many publicly run systems, which provide most of the care for the nation's inmates, are equally bad. The root problem is that the country has tacitly decided to starve the prison system of medical care, even though AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis are rampant behind bars, and roughly one in six inmates suffers from a serious mental illness.

The corrections system is largely cut off from the public health system, in part because of federal rules that deny Medicaid assistance to inmates. The denial of benefits is based on the

 

 

notion that people who break the law don't deserve public help, a theory that has helped spread tuberculosis, AIDS and hepatitis from prisons to the world outside. Privatization of services is no magic cure for this growing threat to public health. The common-sense response would be a coherent, publicly subsidized program of testing, counseling and treatment that would slow the spread of disease, both behind bars and after inmates were released.

 Resources

Gifts Catalog   To send gifts for holidays, send 4 stamps to receive the gifts catalog to James Jones PO Box 342, Beechgrove TN 37018

 Aids In Prison Project, Osborne Association, 809 Westchester Ave., Bronx, NY 10455

 Prisoner Pen Pals Send SASE to James Jones PO Box 342  Beechgrove TN. 37018

 BOOKS, FREE TO PRISONERS
Books for prisoners, c/o Left Bank Bookstore, 92 Pike St. Box A, Seattle, WA 98101 (no religion or legal).

Books through Bars, c/o New Society Publications; 4722 Baltimore Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19143 book program, donations appreciated.

 Women's Prison Book Project, C/O Arise Bookstore, 2441 Lyndale Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55405 free to women prisoners.

DEATH PENALTY

Centurion Ministries, 32 Nassau St. 3rd Floor, princeton, NJ 08542 Helps DR inmates who are actually innocent, if all options failed.

CCADP, 80 Lillington Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M1N-3K7 Canada, Write to see what they have to offer inmates on death row.

Internet Fairgrounds – Sell your arts and crafts on line on the Internet Fairgrounds www.internetfairgrounds.com

Opening up to Prisoners in November –have your own page to sell up to fifteen items on line.  This is new for prisoners starting the day after Thanksgiving.

 Just send photos of your items, along with the price for each and your name and address of where to send the money order.  We’ll post your website craft items for you, and people will deal directly with you. 
The advertising rate for prisoners is $70.00 per year.  We can’t guarantee what will sell or not sell.  All we do is make your page listing what you send us, along with a bit about yourself and how to order.  All you do is send photos of your craft items you wish to be listed along with a money order.  Free world people pay 199.00 per year for this service of storefronts.  Have your family and friends check it out, they may have items they’d like to post.

 On line shopping is up 70% over the past few years as more people decide to shop on line instead of going to the malls and fighting crowds and crime at holiday times, and it’s growing each year.  Mail to Shirley Dicks, PO Box 342, Beechgrove Tn 37018

 A Little Weight Loss to Ease the Pressure

Oct. 1, 2007 -- Got high blood pressure? If you're overweight, modest weight loss might bring your blood pressure down to normal.  Italian researchers reported that news in Tucson at the American Heart Association's 61st Annual Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.

The University of Pavia's Roberto Fogari, MD, and colleagues asked 220 overweight (but not obese) men and women with stage 1 hypertension to lose at least 5% of their body weight in 6 months.  People with stage 1 hypertension have blood pressure that ranges from 140-159 for systolic blood pressure (the first number in a blood pressure reading) and 90-99 for diastolic blood pressure (the second number in a blood pressure reading).

Normal blood pressure is systolic blood pressure of less than 120 and diastolic blood pressure of less than 80.  Fogari's team gave the patients diet advice. Some of the patients also got the weight loss drug Xenical.  By 6 months, 59% of the women and 53% of the men in the study had met the weight loss goal of shedding at least 5% of their body weight.

A little more than half (52%) of those who met the weight loss goal also got their blood pressure down into the normal range, Fogari tells WebMD.  The bottom line: It didn't take a whole lot of weight loss to curb high blood pressure.  Roughly a third of U.S. adults have high blood pressure and many of them don't know it, according to the American Heart Association. Don't know your blood pressure? A simple test can tell you where you stand.  

Hypertension: Safe Exercise Tips

Lowering high blood pressure can be a benefit of regular exercise. A sedentary (inactive) lifestyle is one of the top risk factors for heart disease. Fortunately, it's a risk factor that you can do something about. It can also:

How Do I Get Started?

Always check with your doctor first before starting an exercise program. Your doctor can help you find a program that matches your level of fitness and physical condition. Here are some questions to ask:

What Type of Exercise Is Best?

Exercise can be divided into three basic types:

Strengthening exercises are repeated muscle contractions (tightening) until the muscle becomes tired.

What Are Examples of Aerobic Exercises?

Aerobic exercises include: walking, jogging, jumping rope, bicycling (stationary or outdoor), cross-country skiing, skating, rowing, high or low-impact aerobics, swimming and water aerobics.

How Often Should I Exercise?

In general, to achieve maximum benefits, you should gradually work up to an aerobic session lasting 20 to 30 minutes, at least three to four times a week. Exercising at least every other day will help you keep a regular aerobic exercise schedule.

What Should I Include in My Program?

Every exercise session should include a warm-up, conditioning phase and a cool-down.

Warm-up. This helps your body adjust slowly from rest to exercise. A warm-up reduces the stress on your heart and muscles, slowly increases your breathing, circulation (heart rate) and body temperature. It also helps improve flexibility and reduce muscle soreness. The best warm-up includes stretching, range of motion activities and the beginning of the activity at a low intensity level.

Conditioning. This follows the warm-up. During the conditioning phase, the benefits of exercise are gained and calories are burned. Be sure to monitor the intensity of the activity (check your heart rate). Don't over do it.

Cool-down. This is the last phase of your exercise session. It allows your body to gradually recover from the conditioning phase. Your heart rate and blood pressure will return to near resting values. Cool-down does not mean to sit down! In fact, do not sit, stand still or lie down right after exercise. This may cause you to feel dizzy or lightheaded or have heart palpitations (fluttering in your chest). The best cool-down is to slowly decrease the intensity of your activity. You may also do some of the same stretching activities you did in the warm-up phase. How Can I Avoid Over Doing It?  Gradually increase your activity level, especially if you have not been exercising regularly.  Wait at least one and a half hours after eating a meal before exercising.

Take time to include a five-minute warm-up, including stretching exercises, before any aerobic activity and include a five- to 10-minute cool down after the activity. Stretching can be done while standing or sitting. Exercise at a steady pace. Keep a pace that allows you to still talk during the activity.  Keep an exercise record.

9 Food Tips to Lower Cholesterol

 A low-cholesterol diet is one of the surest ways to improve heart health. In fact, studies show you can slash your bad cholesterol by as much as 10% to 20% by giving your diet a makeover. The secret? Follow a diet rich in healthy fats like vegetable oils and fish. And avoid foods high in saturated fats and trans fats. How do you know which foods keep your cholesterol low? Here are nine tips to help you get started.  

Look over the TLC diet and make a shopping list of your favorite cholesterol-lowering foods.

___Stock your pantry and your refrigerator with the right foods for a low-cholesterol diet. Buy your favorite canned or dry beans, fresh fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and vegetable juice.

 
___For a low-cholesterol diet, toss the butter, trans fat margarines, and polyunsaturated oil. Replace them with canola oil, olive oil, or plant sterol spreads.

___Look for products specifically created for low-cholesterol diets, like Minute Maid HeartWise orange juice and Benecol, Promise, Smart Balance, and Take Control margarines. These foods have been fortified with plant stanols and sterols that help to block the absorption of cholesterol.

___Start your day with oatmeal. Experts agree this is one of the top cholesterol-lowering superfoods. 

___Try a cholesterol-free egg substitute instead of whole eggs.

___For a tasty low-cholesterol dish, switch out the cream sauce on your fettuccine for lightly stir-fried vegetables.

___Instead of using butter to keep your pan moist while cooking, use white wine vinegar. It doesn't change the flavor of foods and doesn't add fat -- a key to low-cholesterol cooking!

___Don't lean on butter, sour cream, and other fatty additives for flavoring. Instead, reach for the spices -- either while cooking or at the table. Liven up your dishes with oregano, basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, coriander, or cumin.

 Humor

Need Medical Care--  Write to your state leader if you see your state listed.  If not, send all mail asking for medical care to  Gloria Salazar  -  3062 Beacon Field, San Antonio, Tx 78245 

 California--   Jean Lynn  1407 Foothill Blvd. #135   La Verne, CA 91750
Illinois   Audrey Kirkpatrick  931 South Lake St Apt 2B Mundelein, Ill  60060
 Mass –Susan Huskins  PO Box 441332   Somerville,Ma. 02144
New York  Robin m. Schoffner  5121 St, rt. 227  
Burdett, ny  14818
Nevada  Jan Wakeman  32 Stangate Crescent  Borehamwood  Hertfordshire    WD6 2PX
England    (2 pages one stamp)
Oregon  Pamela Eller  P.O. B  69    Lorane, OR 97451
Texas    Linda Hull  7830 sun forest  San Antonio, Texas 79239         
Texas  Gloria Salazar  -  3062 Beacon Field, San Antonio, Tx 78245                        

 Hispanic director   Beatriz Mannise- Parque Malvín Alto/block E/ torre 5 / apto. 1210/ Montevideo/ 11400 Uruguay, South America   
Native Americans-  Momfeather   P. O. Box 127     Marion, Kentucky 42064         
For newsletter Subscriptions, Shirley Dicks PO Box 342  Beechgrove TN 37018