Buried Alive
Charles Cheatham, 86669 P.O. Box 97, McAlester, OK 74501 Being on death
row in oklahoma is like being buried alive. we are subject to death by lack
of medical attention. I've had an ear and throat problem for the four years
I've been here. It abscesses, swells, and I have to burst it with a homemade
gadget. OSP medical policy is: if you are not bleeding to death, you will
wait 2 to 3 weeks before being seen by medical.
We had 2 guys die here with heart attacks last year. We can't contact guards
unless we beat on our doors. Then they answer-sometimes. They are supposed
to count every hour, but they don't. The 12 midnight to 8 A.M. shift sleeps
the whole shift. That's the shift one guy died on. It took them 2 1/2 hours
to get him to OSP medical (150 yards from here). I've been on the list to
have a tonsil extraction for 14 months. I have to burst my own abscess to
this day in order to relieve my pain and drain the infection.
The dust from these concrete cells lingers in the air 24 hours a day. The
so-called air-conditioning blows cold air, but the air is contaminated.
I was blocking the air off one day, so I put my homemade wash cloth over
it. When I removed it, it had greenish, bluish, and blackish soot on it.
Almost made me puke to know we are slowly being poisoned like this. Everyone
here has stomach problems from food, dust, the contamination blown in by
the air-conditioner. There's no exhaust.
We are discriminated against because of our sentence. DOC and staff care
nothing about our welfare. I know we are sentenced to death, but not to
cruel and unusual punishment.