Prison Issues, Medical, Groups, etc..

   Please email us at montanainjustice @ gmail.com  any issues your family or friends are having in the prison they are in.

Glendive Regional Prison ( Sept. 2014)   Corrections Officer Briggs stopped Inmate Richards to let him "know" she thought it was funny she is not "famous" for being on this blog Corrections Officer Briggs has been posted on this not as a joke, or to inhance her social standing. She is on this blog for abuse of prisoners.- by stopping, refusing or blocking grown adults from going to the bathroom. This was on a day when these inmates were not allowed to go to the bathroom for almost four hours, while working in a hot kitchen and being told to drink lots of water to stay hydrated.

   Montana has it codified ..Abuse of prisoners can bring criminal charges. Juries have awarded substantial amounts of money for similar situations and also for many of the abuses posted on this blog  -  i.e.  Any of the medical issues

   We are left questioning what is "funny" about all of this  Maybe you want to call Warden Green at  (406-377-7600 ext. 1214 )or  The Dawson County Sheriff at ( 406-377-5291 ) ..If they care to ask the Correctional Officer what was "funny" about this situation, or any of the situations on this page.

               Dawson County Correctional Facility                   Dawson County Sheriff Dept.

   Please keep emails short.  Anything over 150 words may not be published or shortened by staff.  Also, please put "Prison Issues" in the subject line so we can get these to the right people.

26.     Glendive Regional Prison    November, 2014   Inmate Joseph Wilson severely injured his leg. An operation was preformed on his tibia. They had to pin it. He has been put in an extra "BOOKING" room till he has recovered mobility. Booking rooms are normally just temporary rooms that are not long term staying areas. He has been there for over 2 weeks. He is not allowed radio, any electronics at all. He bought a television prior to this medical issue....not allowed there. They forgot to feed him 2 times. (he had to ask when he was allowed to eat...Oops ) Got fed after 8PM those nights. The Dr doing the medical operation had specified that he is to get MANDATORY Medical walks every day. Well they forget that too. He gets sporadical attention. He is in a virtual isolation environment that he has not deserved at all. This is not adequate medical care by any small means.This current situation with Inmate Wilson has gone on past 2 weeks and will last until his leg is better.
  The U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez stated“Solitary confinement is a harsh measure which is contrary to rehabilitation, the aim of the penitentiary system,”  stressed in presenting his first interim report on the practice, calling it global in nature and subject to widespread abuse.
"Indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should also be subject to an absolute prohibition>" he added, citing scientific studies that have established that some lasting mental damage is caused after a few days of social isolation.

25.    Glendive Regional Prison     Oct. 27, 2014  9PM.  Inmate Richards said he was told that the kitchen just washed the cooked potatoes with the dishes. The dishwasher is being operated properly to clean the dishes.....not the food. The soap is loaded with chemicals, and the sanitizing cycle is not just a clean water wash. It has a sanitizer in it and the instructions for both soap and sanitizer say DO NOT INGEST  CONTACT MEDICAL DOCTOR IF INGESTED. The kitchen staff was told to drain the potatoes and put in cooler for tomorrow. Richards would pass word around to NOT EAT POTATOES....  All he can do.

24.    Glendive Regional Prison     Inmate Baldwin has a severe hearing loss and Glendive Nursing staff refuses to put in the paperwork to have Inmate Baldwin checked out and screened for a hearing aid.  When asked he is told he "is on a list"

23.     Glendive Regional Prison     Approximately in Jan   Inmate Fraker  has 3 large lumps that appeared on his hip. Glendive Nurses just told him that it is just muscular and refuses to do any testing. These jumps are very painful some days and cause problems sitting,sleeping and walking. He barely can make it up and down the Stairs. Nursing staff refuses to give him a lower tier restriction so this forces Inmate Fraker to have to walk upstairs to his cell causing more pain.

22.     Glendive Regional Prison     Inmate has re-occurring severe back pain. Glendive Nursing Staff gives him Yoga exercises but refuses to have his back looked over by a doctor or taken to hospital.

21.     Glendive Regional Prison    Inmate Yates was brought into Medical by Correction Officer Keller.  Nurse Chase told Inmate Yates he would have to mail out his prescription transitional lenses that he uses to see with.  Fearing a major writeup Inmate Yates mailed out his glasses.  

20.    Glendive Regional Prison     Approximately in May    Inmate asked for a Hep-C test and was told he would have to pay $40.00 for it. Inmates can request a yearly test for free (unless you reside at Glendive Regional. Why is it free at Deerlodge and not Glendive?

19.    Gendive Regional Prison    It is not uncommon for inmates who work in the kitchen to have to wait anywhere from 20 minutes to over 2 hours to use the bathroom. Kitchen workers are the only ones required to have to be searched before using the restroom. On 9-7-14 at approximately 1:15 PM Corrections Officer Briggs came out to wonder who had the "emergency" restroom break called for. When it was figured out which inmate that is was ..all the other kitchen workers were forced to go back to the kitchen without being able to go to the bathroom. They had not been allowed a bathroom break since being on shift at 10:00 AM.

18.   Glendive Regional Prison.   Inmate has a very difficult time breathing and speaking. The Nursing Staff at Glendive Regional told this Inmate to have relatives mail in his V.A. Dr's prescribed C-Pac machine.  It has been over 2 years since Inmate has had one, and his relatives can not find his. The Prison refuses to buy one -even though the V.A. Dr. said it was medically necessary.

17.  Glendive Regional Prison.    Shortly after an inmate Pod Rep and staff meeting in which staff agreed to the inmate request to remove the constant guard on the block in Unit Pod C ( in direct violation of DOC policy ) inmate Gunderson was savagely assaulted by inmate Fergeson resulting in 3 titanium plates and 18 screws inserted into inmate Gunderson's face and head- the cost to taxpayers was possibly $127,000. As told to the inmate Gunderson by the nursing staff. How and why do inmates have influence with over guards and staffing  protocols on the Unit that has the most violent inmates in it?
     This question is over and above the intense beating in which  inmate Stewart received by inmate Jackson inches away from open knives in our kitchen. Supposedly Kitchen Supervisor Cambell repeatedly requested that inmate Jackson be removed from kitchen for safety reasons- As far as we know...no charges have been brought up in either case.

16.   Glendive Regional Prison   We won't even begin to talk about things like inmate Berri. He was told by the other inmates that they overheard the reason the Sargent took away the hair cutting job is because he is gay and one inmate objected.

15.  Glendive Regional Prison    Newton, a younger inmate had a severely sprained (?) ankle. He was seen by the nurse that day and the nurse commented " I don't know what to do for this". She had him seen by another nurse the following day. He borrowed a boot from another inmate and tightly laced it  up to "brace up his foot" . And then he was not given any pain medication. I suppose that if he ever gets out of the Montana Prison system he will be then able to have an actual medical doctor look at the healed ankle and see if it was broken at that time in prison. No one bothered to at the time of injury....

14.  Glendive Regional Prison    Michael McDonald has a torn hernia for 2 years. It is visible and he has complained about the pain. He was told that "we don't handle that here" and a doctor gave him a truss...when Mr. McDonald asked about the truss and what it was suppose to do the medical doctor just chuckled and said it was a medieval torture devise. He says that the truss hurts more that the pain of just holding it in with his hand and poking his protruding intestines back in. What in the h#** gives here?

13.  Glendive Regional Prison    James Richards, while working in the kitchen accidentally cut about 1/8th of his left thumb off. The medical attention and subsequent events are not even close to adequate. This occurred at the end of July, 2014. His hand was put in anti-bacterial water and when immersed the blood squirted out about an inch or more from the end of his thumb in rhythmic pulses that signify an arterial wound. It was then wrapped with dry gauze. She just told him to raise his arm and walk around for 20 minutes. That was no help. He did remember when he was in grade school boy scouts a first aid trick for reducing arterial flow in bad accidents by putting balled up socks underneath the armpits. That was the only way to get bleeding to slow down the blood  so would stop. That took about 1 1/2 hours to accomplish. It took 5 days for it to  totally quit bleeding. In this time he only saw the nurses twice. Both times they said that they wanted him to clean and dress this in his cell. The only place to do this is right next to the toilet. This is taking in to account on the second day he had to rip the dressing and partially formed scab off in the nurses office. The nurse the day before put gauze on real quick to keep him from bleeding all over the room, forgot to put anything besides the dry gauze on his wound. No antibacterial cream or Vaseline to keep it from sticking. When he voiced his opinion to "Connections" in Bozeman, that place inquired about the incident.Results of that was the nurse was extremely aggravated.  The write up that resulted from the self-justifying rants of Nurse Chase was a Major Right Up that will affect his chances for  parole.

12.   Glendive Regional Prison   Officer Melendez was taught by Correctional Officer Keller, when doing job evaluations never to give good or excellent job evaluations. It could show favoritism, so Officer Melendez just goes down the middle and marks 3's on everything,even if it means lying on the evaluation. The Parole Board takes these evaluations very seriously and are a large part of what is considered in deciding parole. These evaluations say they "miss work, don't clean, don't listen to staff directions." When most inmates do do ALL of their job assignments. How much does this hurt them?? This is done with the apparent approval of the Warden, Assistant Warden and the Staff.

11.  Glendive Regional Prison   The group CP and R3 is not available in Glendive since there is no-one who does just the CP and R3  class. If this is brought up to Mrs Zachman she just sits there and screams at the inmate " yes we do, yes we do, yes we do" There are many inmates that need to do this class, and can't because there is no class. Now they won't be group complete when they appear before the Parole Board. Being 'group complete' is a very, very big issue with the Parole Board.

10.  Glendive Regional Prison     Medical "kites" are not responded to in 24 hours and inmates usually wait extended amounts of time to be seen.  Teeth/mouth problems are about 2 months. One inmate had chunks of tooth falling out. It took 2 days to see the nurse, one month  before antibiotics were given and 2 1/2 months before he saw a dentist. There were exposed roots and the inmate had severe problems eating for 2 months.  Another inmate Richards said the Deerlodge dentist said he needed some sore teeth pulled so he could be fitted for a plate.  Nurse Lavato said "do any of your teeth hurt right now? We do not do "cosmetic dentistry" here"  Since he has no "imminent" issues he will wait until his teeth cause pain.

9. Glendive Regional Prison    Inmate Miller was having problems with his cellmate. He asked Keiser to move to another cell. (This happens all the time.)  Wanting to 'get dirt' on Millers old cellmate, Keiser told Miller to write a "report" on the other cellmate. When Miller refused, Keiser moved Inmate Miller, a low custody inmate, to a higher custody pod.

8.  Glendive Regional Prison   Multiple times per week, the alarm goes off on the inmate laundry machines saying "out of soap". 3 known times guards have told the laundry inmates to keep washing the clothes with no soap. 1 time for sure the inmate, not wanting to lose his job, washed 160 plus inmates white laundry with no soap.

7.  Glendive  Regional Prison    On Wednesdays, the guards are made special meals that are far superior to the meals the inmates receive. The money used to buy these special meals/food comes from the same account that is used to purchase Inmate meals.  Multiple times per week cakes, cookies and brownies magically "disappear" and end up in the Correctional Officers break room.  This causes the meals to be late because of the remaking if desserts. This is presumably done with the apparent approval of Warden Green, Assistant Warden Nodland, Unit manager Zachman and the shift Sgt.

6. Glendive Regional Prison   Inmate Atkinson asked Correctional Officer Metzger for clean rag to wipe the tables after a meal. Metzger told him to just use the dirty ones. "There are chemicals in there that should kill any new germs" said Correctional Officer Metzger. The inmate never got any clean rags.          

5. Glendive Regional Prison    Sgt. Keiser told the inmate laundry person to stop " rewashing" clothes. The inmate said "they still smell dirty and you won't check the soap level Clothes have to be cleaned."  To which Sgt. Keiser said "shut up and do what I say or I will fire you and get someone in this job who will keep their mouth shut!!" This is a large problem here. Guards do not allow inmates clothes to be clean.

4.  Deerlodge, (Unit C)     Unit Manager Foster routinely discussed inmate personal issues with her "helper", another inmate "Big Mamma" He has her complete "confidence" which he uses to pull or sway her. She has even given this inmate papers to be filed about "unit worker 2" job that was to be opened while she was gone on vacation in July/August 2013. So this inmate must know before hand about inmate transfers.  WTF  Nice security risk !               Bozeman

3.  Glendive Regional Prison, .Telephone charges have to be mentioned. The telephone rates are posted by the telephones.Rates that are posted state charges to Inmate accounts are $00.12 per minute.  A breakdown of rates is showing $00.15 or a bit higher.  At Glendive Regional Prison there is a "pod representative" to speak for the Inmates on concerns.  He has been vocal on asking why telephone charges are not reflective of the posted rates.Where is this extra money at, what is it being used for So now he had been informed by Wardens staff  "not to bring this up in meetings again".

2.  Glendive Regional  Prison, Officer Keller, upon finding out a female county inmate had head lice/crabs. searched the internet for home remedies. Found out the mayonnaise worked good for application to hair and used the mayonnaise on her hair. This proved by looking for all female inmates both in and out and asking them about the incident. Possible emails by staff and ISP warrants ...'searching for head lice'.  Officer Keller then took 2 weeks vacation to make sure she did not have head lice. This is presumably being done with the approval of Warden Green,  Associate Warden Noddland, Captain Barthel and Sargent Keiser.

1.  Glendive Regional Prison, Officer Metzger was overheard saying "It sure is nice having inmate Red Dog (high custody inmate) locked down in Unit A (a low custody unit), because we can give him his hour out to shower and lock down the rest of the inmates who are normally out all day, and give ourselves an extra hour break. Our shift is going to keep on doing this even after Red Dog leaves."  Inmate Red Dog has been gone for over two weeks but Sargent Keiser - Metzger is the only shift that is still locking people down. Officer Metzger keeps saying ' this is a new administrative policy.' No "Policy" has been approved, or posted by the DOC or the prison to this effect. Mass punishment on going from having inmate Red Dog (a high custody inmate) housed in a low custody area. This is presumably being done with the approval of Warden Green,  Associate Warden Noddland, Captain Barthel and Sargent Keiser.


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