Pill or Punishment: Involuntary Medication at a Michigan's Women's Prison

Rustbelt Abolition Radio

On January 2019, more than two thousand women confined at Michigan’s only women’s prison were put in quarantine. The quarantine comes in the wake of a possible scabies outbreak at the facility -- which has a long history of abuse and multiple cases of medical neglect. While many of the women held captive there displayed no symptoms, and pointed out other health hazards, such as black mold and infested showers, all of those who refused the state’s systemic administration of medical treatment were put in solitary confinement. In this episode, we speak with Sara and Tracy -- two poets that were locked up at Huron Valley during the quarantine. We also speak with Victoria Law, abolitionist writer and activist, and author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women.