Editor's note: This trip report was written a few weeks ago when Richard was still in his isolated hospital cell. One evening Richard had fallen while taking a shower, hit his head on the floor, managed to drag himself to his cot, scraping his arm badly in the process, No one found him until the next day as the bell to summon nurses was permanently out of order.
He was finally (and happily) moved to a quad where he rejoined the regular prison population. 10 days ago he wrote his daughter, Nancy, a letter to say that the word was that he would be sent back to the hospital as he now needs around the clock care. He feels certain that he will die there. I have not heard from him since then so I will publish his trip report now and hope that I will soon have news for you.
HOSPITAL WITH NO NURSES
An honored and noble profession is nursing. It got its start in the Crimean war, when a lady by the name of Florence Nightingale said "Those wounded men lying on the field of battle are neither friend nor foe. They are "Human Beings. In the name of Humanity we must help them." With those words she created the most honored of all the professions, the "Nursing Profession".
So. why do I mention this? Because I am about to tell you of a place that still has no members of the nursing profession, no nurses. It’s called High Desert Prison Hospital.
Sorry for you members of the State Legislature who every year allocate budget funds to pay for the High Desert Nursing Service. You guy are being "ripped off."
Before you ask your staff to check the payroll records let me assure you your money is being well spent. It pays for "girls" for the prison (guards). They just aren’t nurses. What they do is deliver food trays and pick them back up later. Try not to look sick when one comes by. She is not supposed to see that.
She's not a nurse, you know. She will drop her tray and run away fast.
You legislators can be assured your gift of Nursing
Service funds is appreciated. (by the guys who pay your
salary, the guards) That "prison nursing service" money buys a lot of girls for the guards. It just doesn’t buy any nurses.
No ones ever complained you say?
¥ou wouldn’t know if they did. Prisoners can’t write members of the State Legislature. That’s one of those laws you passed as a favor to your Prison Guard friends.
But back to my original subject, there are no nurses in High Desert Prison.
(You checked while we were talking and found there is a a nursing service and it has girls on its payroll? Good for you. The political world has trained you well. The thing is, all girls are not nurses, and all nurses are not girls either, as you probably already knew.
Sure you have been paying for "girls", they just weren’t nurses.
Needless to say you have received no complaints
from the guards, and of course none from the prisoners who can’t write you.
If glvlng service to your overpaid guards was what you had in mind, then you have succeeded. Those girls know who calls the shots. if a guard wants something they jump fast. It’s just that some of you may really have wanted to help make a better life for some fellow human beings, the prisoners.
You and the taxpayers are the only losers here. Again, your money didn’t get nurses, it just got "girls". Your desire to make life better for the prisoners ended up making it better for his oppressors, the guards.
