Left Voice: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you know about the conditions in Beaumont Federal Prison?
Rachel: My name is Rachel Villalobos, I’m married to my husband of 13+ years. We have two kids which are 9 years old and 11 years old. My husband has been locked up since July of 2014. I spoke with him on Saturday and he told me about the conditions in the prison after Hurricane Harvey. There have also been a lot of emails sent around by the wives of inmates- we share news with each other when we get it.
LV: What happened during Hurricane Harvey in the prison?
During Hurricane Harvey, Beaumont Federal Prison was put on lockdown. There are two people to a tank—it’s a small cell. There is flood water in their cells and they didn’t let them out. They were stuck in their cells for five days- cells that were flooded. They were on lockdown for five days. I spoke to my husband the very first time on September 2nd when he informed me of the conditions. August 27th was the last time I spoke to my husband before that.
During that time, I watched the hurricane on TV. I would call the jail and say “Hey, are you moving them? Hurricane Harvey is hitting” and they would tell me they can’t give me that information. I would ask why they couldn’t tell me and then they would hang up on me. They did that about five times.
On Saturday, they let out the inmates for an hour for the first time. After the guards found out that the inmates were contacting their families and loved ones to tell them about the conditions, they locked them all back up. When I spoke to my husband, he was angry and frustrated. There was still water in his cell. I don’t know some of the details because I didn’t want to frustrate him even more. I haven’t heard from him since.
LV: What happened in the prison after the hurricane?
After Hurricane Harvey, I was told they are very low on food and water. They are getting two sandwiches a day. These are grown men. They need more than two sandwiches.
They are using the restroom in bags so they can save the toilet water. They all have been drinking the toilet water since they have been low on water supply. He said that even though the toilet water has bacteria, at this moment he didn’t care and the other prisoners didn’t care either. They are really thirsty. He said he would drink anything. He told me that if this water didn’t kill him, the conditions were going to kill him. That’s how bad it is.
They have no air conditioning and they barely got the power back on three days ago. These prisoners haven’t even taken showers or had a hot meal since Sunday, August 27th.
I have an email saying that two inmates in medium low have passed away because of this treatment. I found out because an inmate’s wife emailed me that. Her husband who is locked up told her. They need help.
I know at least one of the people who died has been drinking the water. That’s what got me. My husband has been drinking that water. I don’t know the health situation of the rest of the prisoners, but if two people already died, they need to make a change now. This was a couple days ago.
LV: What do you think about the lack of media coverage about the plight of inmates after Hurricane Harvey?
These prisoners are losing hope and think that nobody is going to help them. It’s important that these men get the right treatment. It’s unfair. We see animals evacuated before even thinking about the inmates. This is coming from their mouth. The inmates understand the situation.
These men have no voice in there. All they have is their family to depend on to get this story out so the suffering and mistreatment can stop. They feel forgotten about in there. They are giving up hope. I can tell by the way my husband sounded.
LV: What do you think needs to happen now?
I would like them to be evacuated ASAP to a clean, healthy, safe environment. They need to be given a hot meal, a lot of water, and medication (my husband is a diabetic, also has high cholesterol, and high blood pressure). My husband has gotten his medication, but he said they were low. Who knows how much longer they will have it?
I would also like the inmates to get treatment because they have all been drinking that bad, bacteria infested water. I wouldn’t want anybody to ever go through what these inmates are going through. Some of the guards there are covering up their corrupted prison and that is not right. In the high security prison, the guards were on stand-off mode. I got an email from the wife of one of the inmates telling me that. The guards are patrolling with huge guns.
I know that there is more going on in those prisons. Inmates like my husband don’t want to tell us because they don’t want us to worry, but I have the feeling there is more going on in there. They need help now.
ITS TIME TO STOP
City girls buy vibrators. Stone age girls make yabba-dabba do.
(via yeah-yeah-beebiss-1)
Jharna Joshi, a 22-year-old college student from Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat, helped rescue 111 child labourers from one of the biggest ceramic factories in Morbi, Gujarat.
She followed {several} buses {of children} and discovered that it led to a factory unit of Sonaki, a company that manufactures ceramic utensils.
Unsure of the ages of the children working in the factory, she decided to apply for a job at the factory to find out the ages of the labourers and the kind of conditions they were working under.
Working in the pasting and design department, Jharna soon found out that most of the labourers were below 18 years of age. She also noticed that they worked very long hours and were often deprived of food and water. They also weren’t allowed breaks to rest during their shifts.
Horrified, Jharna sent a report to the Department of Child Welfare within two weeks of working at the factory. The report, which contained details of the atrocities and inhuman conditions of the factory, lead to a raid where 111 children were rescued.
Officials from various departments, including the departments of social defence, police, labour, and employment, organized the raid. The Deputy Labour Commissioner of the area called the biggest ever rescue operation of child workers in Saurashtra. A hundred of these were underage girls.
The owner of the company as well as other factory officials were livid. After receiving several threats after the factory raid, she was attacked by two men, according to a report in The Quint.
Despite her injuries, Jharna remains undeterred. She said that she knows of more factories in the area that employ underage labourers, and has vowed to continue fighting against child labour practices.
Most of them were girls. 100/111. Don’t overlook that.
This is a super important point.
Modern slavery, worker abuses, and underage labor is still depressingly common, in a lot more countries than we realize (including the US and Europe). But specifically in the manufacturing supply chain, these workers are far, far more likely to be women and underaged girls.
(via persephones-flowers)
the year is now 1 A.C.P.
npr:
Philadelphia police say approximately 100 headstones have been damaged at a Jewish cemetery in the northeastern part of the city. The vandalism occurred less than a week after a similar episode in a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis, where more than 150 graves were targeted.
Local police arrived at Mt. Carmel Cemetery Sunday morning after getting a call from a man reporting that the headstones of three of his relatives had been knocked over. A wider search then revealed dozens more headstones had been toppled, in a crime that investigators believe took place Saturday night.
WHYY’s Bobby Allyn spoke with Shawn Zevit, a Philadelphia rabbi who described the vandalism as “a hateful act, an attempt to create fear and to tarnish the memory of those who have died and attack their dignity.”
Headstones Vandalized At Jewish Cemetery In Philadelphia
Photo: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images
(via coolhandofagirl)
“Kesha is losing her career for publically accusing her rapist and people wonder why more victims of rape don’t speak up”
(via shiningjustfory0u)
This is a statue to commemorate a brave little dog by the name of Leo, who died while saving a little 10-year-old girl who was being attacked by a much larger dog. Leo witnessed the little girl being pinned to the ground by the dog who began biting her. Leo immediately ran to the rescue and began biting the bigger dog on the leg who turned on Leo and let the girl go free. Sadly, Leo was killed.
The statue is located in a park in Serbia so he can watch over all of the children playing. There is a quote underneath that reads “To all small heroes with big hearts,” which is a true testament to the courageous nature of little Leo.
“A young girl walks a short distance to visit her relatives in Haiti. But she doesn’t get far before men start harassing her, asking her to come with them. Their intentions are not even thinly disguised, and this girl is just one of their many targets.
“They do this with all of us young girls,” she says. “I have a few friends that have gone to bed with them. Some of them are asked to give them a lesbian show, and they are paid for that.”
But what may be surprising is exactly who these men are. The unnamed girl’s quote is from a 2008 report by the U.K.-based nonprofit organization Save the Children on sexualized violence toward children in conflict zones. The men she mentions are from an international peacekeeping force more than 10,000-strong that has been in her country since 2004: the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Perhaps not surprising is that Haiti is not the only place where such propositions and sexual assaults are taking place. The misconduct of peacekeeping forces in conflict zones has dogged the UN since the inception of the peacekeeping program more than 50 years ago.”
Women and girls are not safe anywhere under patriarchy. Time to fight back:http://www.womensliberationfront.org/Men’s idea of a peaceful world still includes rape.
Not first time UN peacekeepers involved with this.
(via guerrillagirrl)
The Last Tasmanian Tiger
Filmed in 1933 this last thylacine died in 1936.
(via the-noravirus)
