Eric Henson

Eric Henson 654778 GBCI, born 1986, 38YO

                                  bipolar, being punished for self harming, in deep trouble 

I received a call from Eric's mother, Rebecca,  recently. She was distraught . She had not heard from her son in weeks and they had been talking regularly.  What she knew was that he was in general population and unable to get psychological help, and he self harmed and he now has a razor blade lodged in  his arm. We worked unsuccessful on getting a release of information (HIPPA )form signed so Rebecca could call Eric's Health services Unit (HSU) and get information on ERIC's health. Finally a call from one of our volunteers skilled in talking to the powers, secured the forms and signatures needed and Eric's mom and I were free to call GBCI HSU and get answers. 

In Eric's mother 's first attempt to get real information , she was told "He is okay and they can say no more." 

Below is my first attempt, before hippas were signed.  to reach HSU and the warden. Now that I have the permission to release information signed by Eric I will write more complete letter and call. I situation like this my FFUP letters are CC'd to all concerned so we know all know that we know. Generally calls to GBCI and many of the other prisons have become useless except , again, they let the staff know we are watching and they cleanup what they can . When I call GBCI, most often I am pleasantly asked to callback- this is a busy time- and when I call back, I am automatically put on answering service. I leave a message and do not get called back. With persistence I used to finally get a person and I could tell my tale, persuade and inform and be persuaded and informed but these days we are the enemy and what we are told usually directly contradicts what prisoners tell us. We know documents are changed and deleted and what goes into the charts is at the compete discretion of the health services staff.

GBCI Warden Chris Stevens

GBCI HSU Director

WIDOC Secretary Hoy

RE: Eric Henson 654778, GBCI

July 6, 2024

Hello,

I am writing this letter with limited information because I believe it may be an emergency.

Rebecca Henson, Eric Henson’s mother, called me, in tears, after unsuccessfully trying to get

help for her son in your prison. He had self harmed and has a razor blade stuck in his arm.

Rebecca says it is close to an artery and he is not getting help nor did he get help in stopping

the self harm nor treatment afterward. When I  asked if he had been taken to HSU or the

hospital, she did not know.

At Eric’s next call she will ask him to request and fill out two PHI, or HIPPA forms,

giving the nursing staff permission to talk to us. Eric’s mother has not called the prison before

and I will see that she does that learning as it is always wise to try to understand all sides of a

problem. But this scene with different details happens over and over again. And pushing more

punishment onto prisoners that are already stressed is all I ever see happening. This

precipitates more drug use, more self harm and more general malaise. They need real

treatment and caring and we as a state, as a nation, can do better .Please help ERIC HENSON..

Peg Swan

Founder,Co-director FFUP

Forum for Understanding Prisons, 501c3 non profit

pgswan3@aol.com, 608-536-3993

29631 Wild Rose Drive; Blue River, WI 53518

Rebecca did receive a letter from her son finally. she read it over the phone to me and has sent a picture of the letter. I will post the picture but most of it is unreadable for me.

The gist of it I gleaned from her reading: Eric was put in seg after self harming. He filed complaints. He was given milk of magnesia and had diarrhea from that- was given no cleaning supplies and was force to live with it for days. When he asked again for cleaning supplies he was told to wash his pants n the toilet and at another time to "Go play with yourself" Eric's mental torment is extreme as is his mothers.

Here are the pictures of the letters sent me. We have bought Eric Stamps and I have written him asking him to write me and give me permission to post his letter. I send through the text behind web, whichis expensive but letters like this get through in a few days rather than the usual three weeks.  

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