Letter from Michigan prisoner

Apr 14, 2003

SPARK received a letter from a prisoner at the Ionia Correction Facility talking about conditions for prisoners there. In part, the inmate described sometimes brutal and racist treatment.

He told the story of a prisoner from another country, who tried to tell the prison officials in broken English that he was in considerable pain. When he got no treatment, no relief from his pain, he began a hunger strike. It took prison authorities 57 days before they took him to a hospital in Jackson, Michigan – where he died.

Another prisoner, kept in maximum segregation for over 14 years, no matter what conduct he displayed, was allowed only two phone calls to his family during that entire time.

We hear a lot from Bush about the inhumanity of Saddam Hussein's prisons.

Take a look at some prisons here – Saddam's jailers would feel right at home!