County: Hardee
Total Staff (on 11/01):   331

SO WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT:  Revenge or Rehabilitation?
The Frank Councell Story

October 29, 2005

Kay, 

I thought I’d send you a little information regarding Hardee Correctional in Bowling Green, Florida.

As you know, my husband, who is at Hardee, came down with a Staph Infection over a month ago. The infection is on his left arm and has spread to cover his entire upper arm from the shoulder all the way down to the elbow, with a blister like lump at the elbow. The infection is so bad that his arm is double its normal size. Needless to say he is in a lot of pain.

The first time he went to medical for this infection the warden walked in and my husband tried to talk with him about the pain and the need for better treatment, but the warden turned, looked at him and told him to "shoot me a request", which he did.  He has received no reply because the warden had 'gone away for a few days'.

In the meantime I called the facility and talked to the medical department trying to get information on the treatment they were giving my husband and the other sick men.  All I met up with was a lot of rude people and a story so full of B.S. that it borders on contrived neglect.

At the time I made the call, he had been on an antibiotic for eleven days, nothing was improving, in fact getting worse, and he still had not seen a doctor (because there was no doctor in the prison).  So my question to them was, if he hadn’t seen a doctor then who ordered the medication? To which I never received a reply. 

Even after my husband signed the medical release form for them, which allowed them to talk to me about my husband's condition, they procrastinated with foolish questions they already had the answers to like, "how do we know that you’re his wife?" 

I was tired of arguing with them and getting the run around, so at this point I went directly to Mr. Crosby's office. I passed on all my information to him and asked only one thing - to have my husband sent to Lake Butler so a real doctor could see him. The wall of lies and denial went up in Crosby's office too (I think he was in that damage control meeting he called all the wardens to), so I called the warden again (he wasn't there either) and after a week he finally returned my call.

I stressed the fact that the boil is infected and needs to be removed. I told him again that I would like for my husband to be sent to Lake Butler and be seen by a doctor there. I also told him that I would be talking with my husband that Sunday.

He stated loud enough and clear enough for there to be no mistake:  "I went to medical and talked with your husband and his arm has gone down a lot." In addition he stated that they had brought in an outside doctor to look at my husband and everything was okay.

On Sunday my husband called again and I told him about my talk with the warden. He became very upset because it turns out that the warden's story and my husband's aren’t the same.

First off the warden never spoke to my husband in the medical department as he said, and the doctor that the warden said they brought in from the outside?  Turns out he couldn’t even speak English. let alone practice medicine properly. When my husband told this so-called 'doctor' that the core of the boil needs to be removed for the infection to clear, the so-called doctor told him “ NO REMOVE, boil fine."

The nurse looked at the doctor like he was crazy and walked away because it seems that even the nurses knew the boil had to be removed. The nurse told my husband that the infection had gone into the joints of his elbow.  This type of boil needs special antibiotics, which he is not receiving, and, if the infection continues, it will have to be removed by surgery to stop the infection from spreading. 

After being on the wrong antibiotic for over sixteen days, the infection is getting worse. My husband called last night and told me that they took him off the antibiotics and that the infection has now spread to his eye. The medical department refused to see him without charging him again to be seen for the same condition they didn't fix in the first place.

Last night I called Hardee CI again and spoke with Captain Bell. The Captain assured me that he would look into it. Now I won’t be holding my breath here because all I’ve gotten from the people at this facility is one lie on top of more lies to try and cover up for the lack of medical care given to the inmates there.  It is a dangerous situation.

The problem is, this condition is contagious and spreading among the inmates.  There are many, 30 or 40 at this facility with the same infection and to add trouble on top of trouble, the facility is as filthy as can be. The affected inmates' clothes and bedding are not being washed separately, nor are the sick separated from those who haven't caught it yet.

To add to the developing problem, the doctors that are caring for these inmates are rejects from the real professional world.  When a doctor is not qualified to work in a normal hospital setting the DOC hires them to care for our loved ones.

Treatment is needed for my husband NOW and the other sick inmates need to be treated at this time too.  My husband's illnesses is more advanced than the others and it is urgently necessary to send him to an outside hospital, or at least to RMC and have him treated with an IV of the proper antibiotics and to have the core of the blisters or boils removed in order to rid him of the Staph Infection which has now spread to his eyes. If his eye goes untreated he can lose his sight in that eye. 

If all the men aren't treated, the wash separated, and the whole place cleaned up now,  the people of this state will be paying for a medical emergency that doesn't have to happen.  I don't know if this is MRSA, but it HAS been spreading throughout Florida prisons and someone qualified needs to take charge of this situation.

I have tried to settle this quietly with no results.  Hardee Correctional and the Department of Corrections has left me no other choice but to take all of this to the newspapers, the state and federal health departments, and anywhere else that it needs to go and I will do just that until my husband is treated in the proper manner. This matter does not border on Medical Abuse and Neglect, it IS Medical Abuse and Neglect at it’s worst. It is dangerous to the inmates, to the prison workers and to society. 

All I originally asked for was that my husband be sent to Lake Butler. Must that be made into such a hard request? But what else can we except from this department that warehouses people like they are nothing more than trash. I urge all readers to forward this to any medical agencies that handle public health emergencies before we have an epidemic on our hands.  We can ill afford it after all the money that's been wasted and gone missing from the department lately.

Joanna Ferris
Director of Making the Walls Transparent-Connecticut
Connecticut Chapter President Jeff Dicks Medical Coalition

HIGHWAY ROBBERY AT HARDEE CI

From: Joanna
To: Kay Lee ; Outside the Cells(FL) ; Connecticut Enforcement Unit ; Connecticut Lolits Group ; FLACT Support Group
Sent: Saturday, June 25, 2005
Subject: HARDEE C.I.

My loved one told me about a new CO they have at Hardee. I guess he’s a COL, anyway, he told all the guys that they can no longer wear sneakers in the visiting park that they must wear state issued shoes.

Well here are my thoughts on that and I do plan to e-mail Mr. Crosby too.

If you buy the sneakers at that facility that must mean they are state issued or else the state is selling contraband, which is it? These inmates have the right to wear these sneakers in the visiting park or else the state of Florida should issue them the shoes they classify as state issued.

I just sent my husband money to get these new sneakers because the ones he brought and paid for at Tomoka were classified as contraband at Hardee.

This is out and out BS. And I do plan to start a little war over this. I am NOT made of money and I can’t send any more than I already do. It’s getting to be a little to much for me. So here goes my War for the year!

Joanna Ferris
ct_mtwt@sbcglobal.net
510 Washington Ave
Waterbury, CT  06708
203-755-8337
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Making The Walls Transparent-Connecticut
http://ct-mtwt.50megs.com
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~