question / pregunta:
A woman imprisoned in Alaska was recently diagnosed with with breast cancer. Of course, because she is in prison, she isn't getting timely or efficient medical care from the prison or the medical staff that the prison has contracted with.
Are there groups in Alaska that work with incarcerated women that might be able to help her advocate for timely medical treatment and/or file a suit to force the prison to file medical treatment?
Are there groups that work with incarcerated women with breast cancer?
Are there breast cancer groups that wouldn't shy away from working with a woman who is in prison?
Thanks.
ANSWER: groups & resources for an incarcerated woman with breast
So far I haven't found any Alaska-specific prisoner medical care groups, or national groups supporting prisoners with breast cancer. (I checked prisonet.com, the National Directory of Programs for Women with Criminal Justice Involvement
Below are a few starting resources:
1) The Alaska ACLU will handle cases of prisoner medical neglect.
Alaska Civil Liberties Union
1057 W. Fireweed Lane, Suite 207
Anchorage, AK 99503-1760
Phone: (907) 276-2258 Fax: (907) 258-0288 | Email: akclu@akclu.org
Web: http://www.akclu.org
You can find more about their prison rights work here:
http://www.akclu.org/PrisonRights/prisonrights.htm
2) You may also want to contact Justice Now, an organization that provides legal resources around health and safety for women in prison.
Justice Now
1322 Webster Street, Suite 210
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510-839-7654
Web: http://www.jnow.org
3) Depending on how advanced this woman's cancer is, she may eventually find the National Prison Hospice Association to be helpful.
National Prison Hospice Association
PO Box 4623
Boulder, CO 80306
Web: http://www.npha.org
4) Prisoners can find information about their medical rights in the free
"Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook" created by the National Lawyers Guild and Center for Constitutional Rights
This handbook now includes a Women's Appendix, which addresses legal standards for medical care. It affirms, "Women prisoners have successfully used the courts to improve the medical care they receive. In Todaro v. Ward, 565 F.2d 48 (2d Cir. 1977), for example, a class of women prisoners argued that their prison’s medical system violated constitutional standards." In this case the prison was ordered to improve its medical services.
The handbook lists one additional resource that may be helpful:
Women in Prison Health Packet
Oberlin Action Against Prisons
P.O. Box 285 Oberlin, OH 44074
A health manual free for women prisoners
I will continue looking for cancer-specific resources. I have emailed the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and Justice Now.
akeela
Some help from Twitter @deborahdash (via @piper and @amandabee):
Try Akeela's Community: refers medical/health services. Handles wellness 4 women 800-478-7738.