January!

January volunteer hours: 1.5hrs- letters to prisoners
Cumulative volunteer hours: 1.5hrs

So far school has been going well! My first med pharm test went great and I am hoping to repeat that for this coming test. I have also been spending time studying for the MCAT and in February (only 2  more days??) I will begin reviewing all the meds from the year!
This month I got to go back to writing letters to prisoners. I even came back to a Christmas card from my pen pal! Complete with fun artwork and kind wishes! I also began another pen-pal relationship with a new inmate. He only introduced himself with a couple short sentences, so I am looking forward to learning more about him!

I don't think I've ever shared why this Letters to Prisoners volunteer work is important to me, so here's just a bit about why! Prisons have a long history of prisoner abuse and neglect of human rights, and when we look back at this in history we think surely we've moved forward. However, this is still occurring. I've heard many letters written to others in this group about the inhumane conditions, such as heating/cooling, having books and crayons taken away without reason, working all day on 18,000 acres of crop fields in the hot and humid Louisiana summer and many other instances that make me cringe. Throughout my time with this program, I have undoubtedly heard the worst reports from Angola, officially known as The Louisiana State Penitentiary, that houses a population of 6,000 inmates.
Of course these poor living conditions bring on both physical and mental illnesses (in a population that likely would be of high benefit to have increased mental health resources). Looking further into it, a class action suit that occurred in 2015 looks at theses medical inadequacies. It details 90 pages of unacceptable instances, including denying treatments, unaccountable physicians and "cruel and unusual" punishment. One example of this is a man who had a tumor discovered in his lung. Despite this knowledge, it was not biopsied for 16 months. It was cancer. Many health professionals in the prison believe that the majority of prisoners fake their symptoms, and are allowed to give out punishments if they believe the prisoner to be faking their symptoms.
Mercedes Montagnes says it well: "People are suffering. People are dying."
We have come a long way in making prisons more humane, but we certainly have quite the challenge to overcome regarding unacceptable prison conditions. Prisoners are people too and I enjoy building true pen pal relationships with people that may need more support, everyone needs a friend.
Here is the link to the article if you are interested in hearing more medical situations within the prison.