Letter to Mr Tom Wolf, Governor of Pennsylvania

RE: Urgent medical care of his choice for Mr. Abu Jamal

Women of Colour in the Global Women's Strike, 29 April 2015

Protest in Brixton, London, 23 April 2015.

We are alarmed by about the serious medical condition of Mr Mumia Abu Jamal who is detained at SCI Mahanoy and the lack of medical care of his choice.

We join hundreds of people in the US, UK and around the world asking that you intervene to ensure that Mr Abu Jamal gets treatment from an independent medical specialist of his choosing, and for his wife, Ms Wadiya Jamal and his legal representative, Mr Bret Grote to be able to visit Mr. Abu Jamal but also to get regular updates on his medical condition, what medical care he is being given and who are the doctors treating him.

Despite still being very seriously ill and without a proper diagnosis, Mr Abu Jamal has been sent back to the general prison population.  As you know, and has been established by the wider medical community, diabetes related symptoms can prove fatal if not properly monitored and urgently treated. Any honest medical assessment should know that he is not well enough to be there because he needs 24 hour care and monitoring. We can only assume that it is the prison medical system, with the approval of those in charge of the prison that approved his return to the general population.  It is urgent that a second opinion from doctors outside of the prison establishment and who are chosen by Mr. Jamal or his loved ones see him immediately and give their assessment.

In contrast to Mr. Abu Jamal’s treatment, there are other cases in which prison aauthorities allowed or were compelled to allow inmates to see medial specialists of their choice.  For example, millionaire John DuPont had his medical issues treated by his own physician at his expense while serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison.    Another inmate, Walter Chruby also secured a legal injunction to get Pennsylvania Dept of Correction to provide vital and competent treatment.

It is unconscionable and inhumane that for months Mr Abu Jamal had been suffering from symptoms connected to a serious health crisis, which was ignored by and/or went undiagnosed by the prison infirmary. Denying Mr Abu-Jamal the medical care he urgently needs underlines a long standing pattern of abuse and punishment he’s faced over 30 years, since he was wrongly convicted of killing a police officer.  In that incident, Mr. Jamal himself was beaten and shot.  Human rights organizations including Amnesty International have detailed how his trial was riddled with racism and judicial impropriety.

Mr Abu Jamal was a distinguished journalist before he was imprisoned and he has kept up his work from behind bars.  He is a spokesperson on human rights, a leader and a jail house lawyer, with a strong track record of defending the rights of those facing injustice inside and outside the prison system.  His commentaries are heard on hundreds of radio stations across the US and other parts of the world.  He is an award winning writer, including the book Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners V. the USA.  He is well respected and loved by those who stand for human rights and dignity. 

Please know that thousands of  people in the US, Europe and other parts of the world are being informed about and closely monitoring Mr. Abu Jamal’s treatment not only by the prison authorities but whether you as the Governor having ultimate responsibility will step in and stop what amounts to a slow execution by medical neglect.

This is within the context of the increasing exposure of the devaluation of Black lives by authorities and the growing Black Lives Matter Movement, the latest being the outpouring of grief and outrage in response to the brutal death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore MD (also denied medical treatment), and also the criminal neglect by law enforcement in the serial murders of scores of Black women South Los Angeles documented by the film “Tales of the Grim Sleeper”. The appalling medical mistreatment of Mr Abu-Jamal forcefully exposes that his life, the life of yet another Black person does not seem to matter either.

The failure to provide Mr Abu Jamal with the medical attention and treatment he is asking for and that he is entitled to is a gross violation of his right to life, amounting to torture, and responsibility must rest in your hands.

Please urgently let us know what steps you and those who report to you will urgently take to ensure Mr Abu Jamal gets the urgent medical help he is demanding and needs immediately.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Margaret Prescod, Carolyn Hill for Women of Colour Global Women’s Strike (US)

Sara Callaway, Chrissie Warren, Women of Colour GWS (UK)