In my Missouri prison, we suffer from a lack of basic health care. I know of many people who were ill last fall. In some of the housing wings, coughing, diarrhea and vomiting occurred too often.
At South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, it’s difficult to request and access health services. Nurses who are supposed to come to the housing units to make sick calls don’t always show up. And sometimes when a nurse has come, I haven’t been informed they are at our prison; or when I see them, they don’t bring basic equipment like a blood pressure cuff or thermometer.
On the occasions I have been able to see a doctor, the doctor only wants to talk about the specific matter I requested the consult for. They do not take any of my vitals. It feels like they are only interested in corrective health care, not preventive.
Missouri contracts its prison health care to Centurion Health, which is owned by private investors. A recent report from the Springfield News-Leader cited poor health care as one of the biggest problems in state prisons.
In the report, Lori Curry, of the advocacy group Missouri Prison Reform, said she heard from prison staff and incarcerated people about how dire the situation is. At my prison, 19 people died in 2024 — the second-highest death count at an adult Missouri prison last year.
As Curry told the News-Leader: “We have heard overwhelmingly from people that live in the prisons and the people that are supposed to be able to take care of them that they’re not able to do that. The people are not receiving treatment for basic things all the way up to severe things.”
In the administrative segregation unit, where I’ve been held in solitary confinement, it is even more difficult to receive services.
I have been prescribed meds for high blood pressure, and I’m supposed to have my blood pressure taken twice a week; but for one stretch I did not have it checked for over eight months. I have been on the same drug regimen since May 2023.
I’m also on estrogen and a couple different inhalers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, as well as hormone replacement medications. Every night, the staff brings me the wrong dosage of one of my meds and they won’t double-check the prescription.
I am currently waiting for a refill on blood pressure meds, medical shoes to provide relief for neuropathy, and other treatments. Every morning I remind the nurse about the refills I need, and she tells me to visit the medical ward, which is impossible because we need a permission slip to go there.
I have had my attorney call the prison as well as family members, friends and outside agencies, but to no avail.
I am sitting in my cell crying. Shortages in medical staff and medications compounded by a lack of compassion are killing us slowly.
