My name is Christopher Nelson, and I am a prisoner in Minnesota. I’ve been there for about 25 agonising years.
Most Minnesota prisoners suffer in a variety of ways—mentally, physically, and spiritually—but when a prisoner has medical or mental issues or disabilities, the systematic neglect quickly escalates into abuse.
When we try to seek medical care, reasonable modifications, or adaptive equipment for legitimate disabilities, we are always met with staff who are biassed against prisoners in general, for whatever reason.
If a prisoner requires anything from heartburn medication to adaptive equipment, he or she must go through a very abrasive and abusive medical staff while attempting to explain that we are still human beings with legitimate medical needs.
This neglect and abuse are woven into the fabric of a very flawed system that is hidden from the civilised world with no oversight, so abuse is rampant throughout the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MN DOC).
According to a recent Department of Justice report, they were not following ADA accommodations in the GED education programme, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. I’ve seen and experienced a great deal of abuse and neglect over the last 25 years or so, but I’ve recently been transferred to MCF Moose Lake, a medium-security prison.
I had the mistaken impression that the medical care would be better than the appalling care I had become accustomed to during my 25 years at MCF Stillwater. I was completely misinformed!
I am a prisoner with several legitimate and documented disabilities, including being legally blind and wheelchair-bound. I have a few pieces of ADA adaptive equipment that I have spent years fighting for.
The health administrator at MCF Moose Lake dislikes the fact that I have such items. He even lied about the fire marshal finding a hospital-grade wedge pillow with the highest fire standards to be a fire hazard. Despite reports that something was wrong, staff arrived and confiscated this pillow.
At the same time, I was in a two-man cell that was too small for a wheelchair’s legal square footage. Because I am in a wheelchair and legally blind, I am much more vulnerable, and I was requesting a single cell under the ADA laws.
I don’t say I’m vulnerable lightly, but because of a terrible experience. When people demanded that I give them my medications in Stillwater, I was assaulted so severely that I needed reconstructive surgery. So it’s not for nothing that I made such a request.
I was moved from the two-man cell to the 5-6-man cell that is used as a “punishment cell” for troublemaking kids straight out of segregation because I was “rocking the boat” and requesting too much.
This was a retaliatory move that put me, a vulnerable prisoner, in a much worse and ultimately dangerous situation, which I am currently reporting. As an older man who is legally blind and in a wheelchair, I am expected to ensure my own safety while holding many younger people accountable for not playing with or stealing my adaptive equipment, which was extremely difficult to obtain and required outside pressure to obtain.
I’m still requesting this ADA single cell, as well as a few other very reasonable and much-needed ADA requests. These are only a few of the most recent problems. There are numerous other and far worse issues that I and every other MN prisoner face on a daily basis within the MN DOC. This has to stop!
Unfortunately, I have about 25 years of painful experiences of my own and have witnessed a great deal of suffering in others.
I am willing to supplement any information you require and welcome people who contact me via jpay or mail. Please check to see if I am still at the address below before contacting me at coms.doc.state.mn.us/PublicViewer.
Christopher Nelson’s mailing address is MN. OID. #168732, Minnesota Correctional Facility—Moose Lake, 1000 Lakeshore Drive, Moose Lake, MN 55767
This commentary is made possible by a collaboration with the Twin Cities Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. Visit homeforgoodmn.org for more information.