I heard it first in the prison dining hall while waiting in line for lunch: the warden at the prison across the street finally had enough of Dale Shackelford, the prolific prison litigator and writer behind IdahoPrisonBlog.org.
Shackelford was transferred early February from the Idaho State Correctional Center (ISCC) to the Idaho State Correctional Institution (ISCI) after writing about temperatures inside ISCC reaching disturbing lows.
Despite being 62 years old and diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy, Shackelford was assigned upon his arrival to ISCI a bed downstairs from me, in the general population housing unit situated furthest away from our prison’s pharmacy and cafeteria.
This, Dale said, was a problem. And prison medical staff agreed: making him walk 1/4 mile roundtrip to the cafeteria to pick up his meals was unreasonable. So they arranged for the cafeteria to deliver his meals to our unit. Then, with no small amount of sadistic irony, they refused to deploy similar measures with his daily medications, insisting he take them at the pharmacy, adjacent to the cafeteria.
Parkinson’s UK describes Parkinson’s disease as a progressive, incurable neurological disease that effects motor and non-motor skills. “To avoid serious side effects,” states an info sheet published by the foundation, “Parkinson’s patients need their medications on time, every time — do not skip or postpone doses.” [Emphasis theirs.]
It would have been easy enough to transfer Shackelford to our prison’s medical annex, where residents with debilitating health issues receive their meals and medications on the unit, and where wheelchairs, wheelchair pushers and resident support persons operate on a regular basis.
But as the story so often goes, no one took the initiative.
After noting for several days that Shackelford wasn’t making it to the pharmacy, an unknown chain of prison staff sent a corrections officer to question his reason for refusing to medicate. Shackelford says he made it clear that he desperately wanted to take his medications but was physically incapable of walking the distance to the pharmacy.
With no further action taken, Shackelford suffered a seizure on Feb. 8 that required he be taken to a hospital by ambulance.
He returned to ISCI Feb. 11, at which time he was placed in the medical annex.
As a participant in my prison’s peer-mentor program, twice a week I’m able to volunteer in the medical annex. Which is how I was able to visit with Dale on Valentine’s Day. He showed me his bruises and shared damning details while watching yours truly eat lunch, and when I asked in what ways I could help, he said by sharing his story.
So I took notes and, after our visit, began to write it all up, only to find the next time I saw him that he’d already beaten me to it.
And with that, I’m happy to report that Shackelford appears to be doing much better. His bruises are healing and he’s back to writing, perhaps with more motivation than ever before.
He’s also opening me up to the wealth of experience he’s amassed as an advocate and writer: with 25 years incarcerated, 10 of those on death row, he’s worked hard with limited support to improve conditions and increase transparency in Idaho prisons.
When asked why he doesn’t write more about his medical struggles, he said that he doesn’t think that others are interested in reading about his health.
I strongly disagree, and I hope that you will too.
Dale’s birthday was February 19. Wish him a happy belated birthday and support his work by following idahoprisonblog.org.
Dales’s most recent posts:
THE ANATOMY OF A PRISON DISTURBANCE – A REAL LIFE EXAMPLE
A SIMPLE TASK GONE AWRY – HERE’S THE ‘SYSTEM’ (AND YOUR TAX DOLLARS) AT WORK