Adminstered by the State of Maryland and LaMonte Flannagan, Commissioner of Division of Pretrial Detention and Services for the State of Maryland, The Baltimore Women's Detention Center (WDC) at 401 E. Eager St. is experiencing an ongoing health crisis. Women at the institution report conditions that place WDC on the list of most dangerous correctional institutions in the country.

Women with HIV/AIDS often go unattended without receiving any type of medical care. Numerous HIV positive women have said that they go weeks and months coping with painful opportunistic infections, even after numerous requests to be seen at WDC's corporate run infimary. Women who have previously been on medications for HIV/AIDS have difficulty being re-prescribed life-saving meds when the come to WDC. They sometimes are asked to start all over again with treatment by taking an initial HIV test and waiting weeks to get results, then another blood test for the CD4 count, waiting several more weeks. All of this information could be easily obtained from the community clinics which were previously treating them without irreversibly interrupting their med regimens. And with so many women not being treated for other communicable illnesses it further puts HIV+ women at risk due to their compromised immune systems. One women explained, "I don't deserve to die from this virus just 'cause I was doing drugs."

Women's inmate health care is also hindered by a triage system which has completely failed them. If a woman has health issues she must fill out a "sick call slip," put it in a box in her dorm and wait...and wait. Women say they don't really know what they actually do with the sick call slips because they often never are called to the infirmary and are told that they are charged $2 for each slip. Some are so desparate for care they submit a sick call slip every day for weeks, beg correctional officers for help or feign a heart attack just to be seen. Two recent deaths, one in WDC and one in Central Booking, brought horrifying tales of women screaming for help in failed attempts to save their dying fellow inmates.

The neglectful conditions of the institution adds insult to injury. Mice, roaches, ring worm, scabies and pink eye are rarely a priority. Now the recent cold weather has brought complaints of no heat on the coldest nights at WDC - women were allegedly told that if the heat was cut on it would be "too hot." Women also expressed concern over pipe leaks creating standing water puddles on the floors and also poor kitchen sanitation.

While it seems that the Division of Pretrial Detention and Services is open to feedback on the conditions at WDC not much has changed. At a monthly community meeting chaired by Baltimore Mental Health Systems which attempts to address women's needs in Baltimore's correctional institutions (WING), social service providers spoke of these conditions existing for "years." Frustrated providers recently discussed the possibility of the WING group writing the Administration requesting action on the physical and mental health care at WDC. WING also is initiating a process to document complaints as they come in, in an effort to further demonstrate the need for change.

In working toward change there is a need for a unified movement in Baltimore which includes current and formerly incarcerated individuals, family and faith based organizations, radicals and activists, traditional social service and health care providers and those who struggling to stop the war on drugs and the expansion of the prison industrial complex.

Please contact this writer for more details about organizing around issues concerning WDC at [removed on request].