[Editor's note: This letter was sent in by a prisoner who wishes to remain anonymous. Also see our earlier article on NH Prison Conditions.]

The following is a recording of the matter of the death of a New Hampshire state inmate incarcerated at the Strafford County House of Correction. This is a typical incident, not an isolated case. The woman in question started complaining to the medical department here of severe abdominal pains in mid-June, 2009. She was told by the nurse that she had gas, and was given over-the-counter medication for it, such as Tums. This went on for some days, with no improvement.

Soon thereafter began to have extreme difficulty breathing, while her abdominal pains seemed to subside somewhat, but never totally went away. She notified medical, with no results. After several complaints she was seen by a doctor, and given an inhaler, and scheduled for breathing treatments'' - nebulizer treatments for which she had to walk to medical, which is quite a ways from her unit, and involves a flight of stairs. Her condition worsened, and her many complaints were received by the medical staff (one nurse in particular named Mike) that she was only looking for attention, it was all in her head, there was nothing wrong with her. She was unable to walk more than a few steps without being in extreme respiratory difficulty. Her condition continued to worsen. After several requests she was finally given a chest x-ray, which she was told was clear. No further treatment was ordered for her, even though the existing treatment was clearly offering her no improvement or relief.

Finally after five weeks of this suffering, she was taken to the medical department and kept there in an "observation" room. According to the woman who shared this cell, no observation took place more than once or twice a day. At one point, she fell and hit her head, as she was so weak. When the nurse came to give her her medication, he told her there was nothing wrong with her, she was only looking for attention, get out of your bed and take your mods. On Wednesday night, July 22, Sue was taken by ambulance to the local hospital, where she passed away early Thursday morning, July 23.

We were told the following day, that she had a terminal disease that did not manifest until those five weeks, and nothing could have been done for her at that point to change the outcome. That may very well be, but certainly she could have been paid attention to, treated with humanity and compassion, as she would have been in any hospital, rather than ridiculed and ignored as she was. Her final days, if not reversible, could have been made far more comfortable for her. She died a slow suffocation, the symptoms exacerbated by her treatment of having to walk a distance to receive breathing treatments when she could walk only a few steps without losing her breath.

One woman here was pregnant, and her baby had died in utero. It took this facility two weeks to remove this dead fetus from her, thus endangering her life.

One man is suffering from a swollen testicle. Medical refused to treat it. They say it is not cancer. How do you know that, he asks. The response is, it just isn't, and we're not going to spend to money to find out.

Many suffer for weeks with severe toothaches and facial swelling, again ignored. Not even an aspirin is allowed without a doctor's order, a doctor who comes rarely.

These are typical instances. In the past six months there have been two deaths here that we are aware of. Medical and dental treatment here are non-existent, the staff here does nothing more than negligent observation. Such treatment would be prosecutable in the outside world as criminal negligence and malpractice, if not wrongful deaths.

Just because one is incarcerated does not relieve society of its responsibility of humane treatment, and is a responsibility of the authorities, state, federal and county. All who participate in this shameful practice have no place in the medical field. We are supposed to be a civilized country, but our treatment and carefree attitude toward those caught in the criminal justice system attests to the opposite. (I use the word "criminal" in the previous sentence as an adjective, not a helping noun.)

There are more innocent people in prisons today than ever before. The justice department/US Attorney's office are determined to get as many as possible into prison, as the money that is made in the prison system in astounding. It is all about the money!