What is Freedom? What does freedom define for you?

By Megan Keller, Lancaster Bail Fund and Put PeopleFirst! PA 

A view of the Lancaster Country Prison, where incarcerated people have been denied necessary and life-saving medical treatment. The Lancaster Country Prison healthcare system is run by PrimeCare, a private for-profit medical company.

Freedom

By definition, freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is:

  • absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government.
  • the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
  • the state of being physically unrestricted and able to move easily.

Civil liberties

Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the terms differs between countries, civil liberties may include the freedom of conscience, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to security and liberty, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the right to equal treatment under the law and due process, the right to a fair trial, and the right to life. Other civil liberties include the right to own property, the right to defend oneself, and the right to bodily integrity. Within the distinctions between civil liberties and other types of liberty, distinctions exist between positive liberty/positive rights and negative liberty/negative rights.


The Civil Rights movement made great strides in increasing civil rights, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr realized that civil rights are legal rights, and we need to move on to having human rights. These include the rights to housing, healthcare, quality education, a living wage, clean environment and the pursuit of happiness.  Dr. King commented that it doesn’t do much good to win the right to eat at a lunch counter if you can’t afford a hamburger.  Without our human rights to education and good jobs, poverty will continue.

While equal treatment under the law is a civil right, something written into the Constitution, fair and humane treatment are human rights.  Sometimes right in front of our eyes the harshest and most cruel punishments are happening, including neglect of our healthcare needs, but people fail to pay attention or recognize them. 

Many years ago, our Lancaster County Commissioners decided to outsource the care received within our local prison system to a for profit medical resource company called PrimeCare. PrimeCare outsources doctors, nurses and licensed practical nurses within our correctional facility. They are the go-to person(s) for anything healthcare related while incarcerated; therefore, it’s of the utmost importance that these individuals are skilled and humane care givers.  Individuals are considered the most vulnerable while incarcerated, as their medical needs are regulated by others, providers that they should be able to trust and rely on to uphold their basic human rights.  Sadly, with PrimeCare being the primary care provider within our local prison system,  these simple human rights seem to be simply ignored.   

Once incarcerated, an individual is subject to the time, will, and effort of PrimeCare staff.  PrimeCare’s goal should be to protect one’s health while in their care.  For example, for a person on life-altering medications for physical or mental ailments, suddenly stopping or altering these medications can have severe side effects including death. Without care or concern for these incarcerated individuals, PrimeCare staff take their time to access potentially lifesaving information.  

It should be the goal of the prison system to keep prisoners safe as well as healthy under their custody and control,  yet so many inmates are left traumatized by an unjust and inhumane system. The criminal justice system continues to devalue our incarcerated individuals’ most important human rights. The right to healthcare, humane treatment and the right to prosperity and happiness.  

Could you imagine someone having a heart condition where medication was needed everyday, or several times a day, and then, BAM!, the individual becomes incarcerated,  and the staff doesn’t evaluate or assess the severity of the individualized situation. Imagine a day, two days, sometimes three days, to get basic human necessities, such as medications to keep you alive and prospering efficiently while still in “Adult Time Out.” To have people die while awaiting sentencing is not only inhumane, it flaunts the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.   

Sadly, at the recent Lancaster County Prison Board Meeting, when asked about an inmate who died, Mr. Choma, and the lack of medically necessary potentially life saving medications, County Commissioner Josh Parsons wanted to point fingers instead of taking responsibility, verbally attacking members of the public who were sincerely concerned for our inmates’ safety. 

They attack because it’s not something they want to hear or take care of. They are planning to use thousands, possibly millions, of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds to build a new jail. This will incarcerate more people and cost thousands of dollars in revenue – only to subject these inmates to inhumane health care conditions. It will also bring in revenue from cash bail that reaches almost $100,000.00 per person in the city. Judge David Ashworth and Warden Cheryl Steburger will preach during election time that they want people of all races/origins/ethnicities to succeed. Killing an innocent person due to inadequate healthcare isn’t promoting success. And depriving the public of basic knowledge, like true reasons for death, instead of blaming it on suicide, to me, isn’t a definition of county officials wanting people in their local community to succeed. To me it seems to be a representation of the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer. 

We need to stop turning our heads. It’s time to listen up and pay close attention. Members of our community shouldn’t feel attacked simply for stating facts, and answers from our Commissioners shouldn’t justify inhame treatment by a person having a criminal record. County Commissioner Josh Parsons and Judge Ashworth repeatedly states Mr. Choma was a habitual offender, or “career criminal;” the truth was he had a retail theft from 2013, a Criminal Trespassing from later that decade, along with failure to provide proof of valid vehicle inspection and registration. That’s a huge disconnect or lie from the picture the Commissioners are trying to paint. This is not justice. The commissioners going after our bail fund isn’t justice, and the audacity to say that Lancaster Bail Fund had anything to do in Mr. Choma’s death is simply ludicrous.  If anything, Lancaster Bail Fund and Michelle Batt, along with her team, kept Mr. Choma from dying alone  in a cage like an animal. At least he was able to depart this earth with his dignity. 

Please click here and take a moment to review Lancaster County Prisons’ most recent Data Report.

In the first week of February, the local Lancaster County volunteer-run bail fund posted a $5,000 cash bail for a 66-year-old man with severe health issues.  He was placed in jail because he allegedly stole $28 dollars worth of product from Sheetz. Prior to his incarceration he was hospitalized at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital (LGH) for a number of weeks,  during which time warrants were issued for his failure to appear for his court date for a retail theft case and three traffic citations. When he was discharged from LGH, the kind advocates at Penn Medicine paid for a hotel room for him until February 10th, as John was unhoused and the hospital needed a location to send their nurse to visit John for outpatient care. 

Unbeknownst to him and many of us, officers have predatory ways of finding out information about people, and found him while searching the Hotel Active Guest List at the hotel where he was residing. So without hesitation or humanity, our criminal justice system sucked our dear neighbor up and spit him out at the front steps of Lancaster County Prison, still in his hospital scrubs. For most, a few days incarcerated wouldn’t mean you are going to die or get sick. But to some, it most definitely is a life or death matter.

We bailed John out on Wednesday February 2nd, 2022. 5 days later, We sadly found out that he had passed away in his sleep. We can’t help but think- what if John would’ve been offered medically necessary prescriptions while incarcerated? What if he had been supplied with the necessary resources for the prosperity of his life- actually addressing his human rights to healthcare and housing!?

What if this had been your family member?  What if it had been the Judge’s or one of the Commissioner’s or Warden’s family Members? Would their answers and reactions have been the same?

A real question to think about is: how was $28 comparable to $5000 cash bail? 

My first thought, being in a non profit surety bail fund, is: how can anyone let this happen? John told us he had 23 surgeries in the past five years, and many medical diagnoses. He told us he was on over twenty different medications. And John appeared for his bail hearing in the hospital scrubs he was discharged in. 

Yet Magistrate Judge Clark Bearinger DID NOT believe this poor man’s story!  John had been admitted to Lancaster General for two weeks prior to this incident. Instead of showing humanity–recognizing John’s serious medical problems and lack of housing—the judge threw John in a cage. 

Now, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU PA), shows that judges assigning cash bail in violation of the rules is not an issue confined to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. It’s a statewide crisis.  

In partnership with a team of incredible data scientists, ACLU PA examined statewide bail practices based on data from 2016 and 2017. Broken Rules: How Pennsylvania Courts Use Cash Bail to Incarcerate People Before Trial, their new research report, finds that across the commonwealth, in counties red and blue, urban and rural, there is an ongoing crisis that keeps far too many Pennsylvanians wrongfully incarcerated. 

In all 67 counties, magisterial district judges (also known as MDJs or magistrates) routinely set unaffordable cash bail for people awaiting their day in court. This practice means that, at any moment, tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians are locked up in county jails simply because they could not afford to pay bail. 

This isn’t just unethical. It’s also in violation of the state Constitution. 

In principle and by law, bail is a mechanism for pretrial release. But, in practice, magistrates use cash bail to jail people before trial. According to the data reviewed by ACLU PA, magistrates routinely set bail in amounts too high for people to afford. Across the state, more than half of those assigned cash bail were unable to pay and were incarcerated as a result. 

ACLU PA also found that cash bail was the most common type of bail set in Pennsylvania. Magistrates have other options, like setting non-monetary bail or release on recognizance. Options that have been shown to work just as effectively, and often more so, than cash bail. But time and again, magistrates choose to set cash bail- driving up rates of pretrial incarceration. And pretrial detention can quickly devastate a person’s life.  

After just a few days in jail, a person can lose their job, access to necessary medical care, custody of their children, and even their homes. Studies have also found that pretrial detention leads to a higher likelihood of conviction and lengthier sentences.

In 1 week Judge Bearinger set extremely unreasonable bails on two separate individuals that led to their death sentence.   

Paul, another man who was admitted into LCP,  passed away nearly a week later after being at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital, along with John. Thankfully for John, he didn’t  die in a cage like an animal. He died in a hotel room where he at least had his dignity. 

POVERTY and HEALTHCARE DO MATTER! Because healthcare in the United States is not public and is out of reach for millions, including: low-wage workers (even some with insurance, who can’t afford deductibles or copays), the unemployed, and  the homeless. These folks face systemic disparities in health and even the right to live, often right from the start of their lives.

The time to do something about it is NOW!  We have to stand up against all lines of division and UNITE to work together for this MOVEMENT. To be the voice for the voiceless and to not remain silent.

Our goal as a society needs to be to offer our most vulnerable citizens a social safety net, decent housing, free medical care, anduu assurance that no person ever suffers as John and so many voiceless others have. The resources are available but they do not reach the hands that need them most. 

May John’s death not be in VAIN, but be in AWARENESS of the struggles faced by the poor day after day without ANYONE ever realizing. Just because something hasn’t ever happened to you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It means that one way or another you were blessed with a privilege that 9 times out of 10 you never realized was there to begin with. 

With a heavy heart, my sincere condolences to this man’s family, loved ones and friends. May his memory live on forever!

References 

Fall/Winter Newsletter: The Keystone is here!

We’re excited to announce the release of the newest edition of The Keystone, our member-created magazine produced with love and editing by the Media & Communications team! In this edition you’ll find updates on our campaign for a Public Healthcare Advocate for PA, reports from our basebuilding efforts and Projects of Survival across the state, highlights from the 2021 PPF-PA membership assembly, and much more. As always, you’ll also find insightful testimonies from members about how our lives have been impacted by healthcare profiteering, and how our experiences of organizing, leadership development and solidarity in PPF-PA are building us up in our struggle for healthcare as a human right.

Click here to read The Keystone as an online magazine.

Click here to download a pdf version of The Keystone.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this edition of The Keystone! This project is created with contributions from members across the state, and the PPF-PA Media & Communications team is always interested in supporting you to share your story. Want to write a member reflection for the next Keystone? Have an idea for art, creative writing, or an article? We’re here to help and would love to include your work in the next edition. Please get in touch with us! Email Fran at frangil66@gmail.com.

We Demand a Just and Moral Budget & a Third Reconstruction!

On Monday, June 7th, the PA Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival (PAPPC:NCMR) joined states around the country and Washington DC to put our US Representatives on notice. Drawing on the transformational history of the First Reconstruction following the Civil War and the Second Reconstruction of the civil rights struggles of the 20th century, today we need a Third Reconstruction to revive our moral and political commitments to democracy and the founding principles of the country.

With this resolution, we (1) acknowledge the deep harms we have suffered from systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the false narrative of white supremacist nationalist extremism and (2) commit to heal and transform the nation by addressing these interlocking injustices, beginning with those most impacted, with moral and just laws and policies.

Several Put People First! PA members wrote Letters to the Editor leading up to these actions. Read these letters here:

Tammy Rojas, Lancaster

*Submitted and accepted to the Lancaster Newspaper

I’m a co-root coordinator with Put People First! PA and an organizer with the National Union of the Homeless. I was outraged to hear that 78 acres of beautiful farmland are slated to be redeveloped as the site of the new and much larger Lancaster County prison.
It’s sad to me, because we are destroying a beautiful piece of land to continue what I view as causing harm and violence to our people. I do not believe that the majority of those in the county prison need to be there to begin with. A bigger prison, in my view, allows more harm to be done to more people.

I was an inmate at Lancaster County Prison for two weeks because I didn’t have $150. While there, I was denied my mental health medications. According to the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, in Pennsylvania over $500 million of our tax dollars go to lock up over 13,000 people who could be immediately released with no risk to public safety.

This is why I’ll be taking action with that campaign at 1:30 p.m. June 7 in Harrisburg on the front steps of the state Capitol building. We will demand a moral state budget and deliver the proposed “Third Reconstruction” congressional resolution (poorpeoplescampaign.org). Join us!

(Article published in the Lancaster Newspaper here.)

Matt Rosing, Lancaster

*Submitted to the Lancaster Newspaper

Re: Lancaster County Prison Board approves of plan to buy Lancaster Township farm for new prison site (May 20, 2021). My name is Matthew Rosing, I’m part of Put People First! PA Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee and a leader in the National Union of the Homeless. I have many concerns about the building of the new prison here in Lancaster County. As an ex-inmate of LCP I’ve seen first hand the horrible conditions of the prison. I also am very aware of the minor things 90% of the inmate population are actually in there for, such as technical probation violations, or simple possession.

It’s time to release minor offenders and stop jailing those who can’t afford bail, which criminalizes poverty. Realize the harm that these prisons cause people and use the money for healthcare, housing and treatment. It is cheaper and more productive to give these preventative measures to these human beings, than it is to put them in a box. Demolish the old prison, don’t build a new one.

The PA Poor People’s Campaign is demanding Harrisburg “redirect appropriations from the Department of Corrections and Board of Probation and Parole to housing, healthcare, food, and other essential needs.” Lancaster County must do the same. That’s why I am taking action on June 7 at 1:30pm outside the state capitol in Harrisburg with the PA Poor People’s Campaign to demand that state lawmakers center over 5 million poor and low-wage Pennsylvanians in the state budget.

Lizzie Anderson and Eleanor Anderson, Pittsburgh

*Submitted to the Post-Gazette

Dear Editor,
In a June 3rd Editorial, the Post-Gazette claimed state officials should require Pennsylvanians on unemployment to prove they are actively looking for work. We are tired of these old shaming tactics targeting the poor. Pennsylvanians are doing our part. Our state and federal elected officials need to do better.

We need just and moral budgets at all levels of government and support from PA congressional representatives for the national Poor People’s Campaign resolution, Third Reconstruction: Fully addressing poverty and low wages from the bottom up.

Even before COVID, over 5 million poor and dispossessed working class people in Pennsylvania were living at 200% of the federal poverty line or below. For an average Pennsylvania family of three, that means living on $43,920 or less each year. Enrollment in Medicaid has increased by almost 300,000 people, or almost 10% since February 2020. And, the richest Pennsylvanians and companies in our state pay little to no taxes, while the lowest 20% of income earners pay more than double their share of state and local taxes compared with the top 1%. This hurts all of us.

We are members of Put People First! PA, a member organization of PA Poor People’s Campaign, a National Call for Moral Revival. This is why we are taking action on Monday June 7th from 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm at Rep. Mike Doyle’s office, 2637 E Carson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15203. Pennsylvanians deserve better!

New Release: The Keystone – Spring / Summer 2021

We are ecstatic to release the Spring / Summer 2021 edition of The Keystone, Put People First! PA’s member created, biannual newsletter.

Read it here in virtual magazine form.

Download the KEYSTONE PDF here.

The Keystone is a labor of love produced by Put People First! PA’s Media and Communications Team. Here’s the team “Letter from the Editors” for this edition of the Keystone:

To our Readers:
Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) is a mass, base-building, human rights organization, dedicated to building each other up as leaders to unite the poor and dispossessed in Pennsylvania. We’re organizing across the state to change the systems that deny us our basic needs through our Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign, our 10 local Healthcare Rights Committees, numerous Statewide Teams and members in 19 counties.


You are reading The Keystone, our biannual newsletter, produced by the Media and Communications Team. The Keystone is a gathering of writing and art produced by our members, who are the best people to tell our stories—our struggles with healthcare, our experiences organizing, and how our collectivity in PPF-PA has shaped us. We call the practice of writing our own narratives the Battle of the Story, a term we borrow from the Center for Story-based Strategy. If we don’t tell our own story about the solutions we need, the mainstream media will tell that story for us in a distorted way.

One of our Statewide Teams is the Media and Communications Team, which works to share our work and our narratives with the public, and to bring our members closer together through our shared stories. We do this work through publishing The Keystone, through our biweekly E-News, our social media presence and our work with the press.

This is the Spring/Summer 2021 edition of the Keystone! You’ll hear from leaders on what feeds their organizing work, the importance of building our membership base (base-building), and the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced our commitment to the struggle for healthcare as a human right. You’ll find updates on our campaign for a Public Healthcare Advocate in Pennsylvania, a public office that would fight for the healthcare rights of all Pennsylvanians at the State level, and our struggle to restore a comprehensive dental benefit to Medicaid. You’ll read about how we combat ruling class ideas with our Projects of Survival, which meet our material needs while developing leaders. Not to mention artwork from leaders, reflections on our internal political education, and articles from our sibling organizations.These are our stories—your stories.

All the content in this edition of The Keystone comes out of the context of this moment: an economic crisis amidst a global pandemic. The past year and a half has reinforced what we know all too well to be true: we already knew that this oppressive system did not value the health or economic safety of poor people. We already knew that no oppressor has ever oppressed everyone in society equally: People of Color, Black and Indigenous people are disproportionately forced into poverty under an economic system that was designed to exploit all of us, but keeps us in check by pitting us against each other. We already knew the connection between poverty and health disparities all too well through our lived experiences. This year of COVID-19 has made these truths much more visible, and exposed more cracks in our broken system. So how does PPF-PA combat this oppressive system? We organize! We unite across lines of division under a common demand for our human rights.

We want to dedicate this edition of the Keystone to all of those we’ve lost this year. We dedicate this to those that ignite our struggle, inspire us continuously, and forever live in our hearts.

Thank you so much for being here.
The Media and Communications Team

Want to look at past Keystone editions? Here on the website is our archive.

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