When Speaking Up Comes With a Cost at WHV

Humanity for Prisoners continues to receive correspondence from women incarcerated at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility describing conditions inside Michigan’s only prison for women.

Across separate messages, one concern keeps appearing: women are afraid to speak up.

One HFP client wrote:

“Many of the other women here are scared to speak up, due to the retaliation becoming worse and worse.”

She described being awakened by officers screaming, being denied access to services, concerns about medical care, mold in showers, bugs in food, extreme heat, and women waiting hours to use the bathroom.

She wrote:

“Many of our voices are being silenced due to fear.”

Another woman described her own ongoing struggle to receive medical care. She wrote about painful problems with her feet and legs, being required to stand in long lines despite the pain, changing doctors, medications being discontinued, and repeatedly having to start over.

She also described what has happened when she has tried to raise concerns:

“If I make any suggestions or try to help... I am cussed out or shoved out of the programs.”

Still, she told HFP she is trying to remain hopeful and continue advocating:

“I am so ready to go home but trying to be part of the solution, not the problem, while here.”

These letters describe different experiences, but the message running through them is remarkably similar: women are asking to be heard.

One woman put it plainly:

“Just because we did wrong, does not mean we deserve to be treated this way!”

Their words deserve to be heard.