8/30/96

[8/30/96]

Ed is woken up by prison guards who handcuff, chain and shackle him. He is then handed over to the Northampton County sheriff. The sheriff transfers him from Bucks County Men's Correctional Facility (a minimum security facility) to Lehigh County Correctional Facility (a maximum security facility), supposedly for "protective custody".

This rationale was somewhat of a fallacy; we believe it is fairly common in the prison universe to transfer a prisoner who has appealed administrative decisions.

For those of you unaware of the meaning of "protective custody", in prison, this status is usually reserved for prisoners who need protection from other prisoners, most often child molesters, rapists, and 'snitches'. Prison officials are *supposed* to put these prisoners in even more restrictive conditions for their own protection.

So, Ed is approved for minimum security and is then all of a sudden transferred to a maximum security prison under "protective custody". Furthermore, Ed says that his original sentencing order states that he must serve out his term in Buck's County. Being moved to Lehigh County certainly violates that.

Adding injury to insult, as Ed was talking on the phone at 10:15AM on 8/31, trying to get a second message to his lawyer about the transfer and the "protective custody", he had to go all of a sudden.

The person he was speaking to noted that Ed, who said he'd call right back, didn't until late Saturday evening. Also for the record, when Ed did call back Saturday night, the collect call was from AT&T; (not a prison system).

Why? At 7:41AM 9/1, in a somewhat slurred but very intent voice, Ed told the story...

As he was speaking on the phone Saturday morning, apparently some other inmate who'd been nabbed in a prison drug bust Friday night wanted to use the phone. Ed hung up, but told the guy he needed to make one more call. He dialed the number three times, but it was busy. The guy wasn't too happy about this -- he kicked Ed in the face. Ed used his previously-shattered left arm to try to protect his face. The result? He's lost several teeth, his jaw is shattered, and his arm is also completely shattered.

He had surgery on both his arm and his jaw. He said "I look like Lou Albano". His jaw was so shattered, they had to "slit my throat in two places" to put the metal in to hold it back together as it mends. His mouth will be wired shut for 2-3 months. If you wanted to shut someone up, this would do the trick. There is also a chance of nerve damage which might leave him with permanent droops in his face.

[9/2/96 11AM]

Ed's nurse, Pat, says that he's doing well, a little mush mouthed, but the surgery was fine. She says that the hospital doesn't have special visiting hours for prisoners - he can have visitors as far as she's concerned from 11AM - 8PM daily. She then says he can receive calls in his room .

A gruff voice answers Ed's phone, "Roberts". Roberts asks, "Are you aware that he's a prisoner?" Of course we are, and the hospital staff told us to call. Roberts states that permission to speak to or visit Ed must be granted by the warden of Lehigh County Prison.

The warden, Ed Sweeney, is not in the office (it being Labor Day). The prison lobby officer, CO White, says when asked if Mr. Sweeney is there, "No chance - its a holiday!" He adds that he was with Ed when the kicking incident happened, but that the warden won't be in until 9/3.

So, Ed's finally getting the protective custody they ordered for him. He's being protected from his friends.

[9/2/96 9PM]

An urgent phone call arrives at 2600's offices from a friend: Ed is trying to reach us but the pay phone system he is using won't allow him to connect to several of our numbers. Ed manages to reach Rob Bernstein (the reporter from Internet Underground) who gets through to us.

After trying many of our fax and other phone lines, we finally get to talk to Ed. At 2PM, prison officials had Ed moved from the hospital back to the prison's Infectious Disease Ward. Ed begged and pleaded with his surgeon to allow him to stay in the hospital one more night, to no avail. The surgeon determined that it was not medically necessary for Ed to stay in the hospital, as the prison has medical facilities.

The medical unit at the prison consists mostly of people with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. It took 3.5 hours for them to put sheets on Ed's bunk, and 7 hours for them to give him any pain medication, ice for his swelling, or pillows to raise his arm. When Ed complained about this, stating that he was under medical orders to have ice on his incisions every half hour, the prison nurse replied, "This is not a medical facility, it's a prison. You should be lucky you're getting any attention at all." He is also supposed to have a soft toothbrush to brush the blood and tissue from the surgery out of the wires holding his jaw shut. The nurse offered him a hard toothbrush.

Ed is suffering many injustices and can barely speak for himself at this point. We will be arranging protests over the next several days. If you or anyone you know can help make this case more public, now is the time. Ed has previously asked that we not organize protests, but he has requested that we do so now explicitly. Please email protest@2600.com or phone our voice mail system at (516) 473-2626 for up to the minute details. The office number for 2600 Magazine is (516) 751-2600.

We will update this page as soon as we have any news or further information about what YOU can do to help.

You can always send Ed e-mail at bernies@2600.com.
Snailmail should go to Ed's new mailing address:
Lehigh County Prison
Ed Cummings, Inmate 67770
38 North 4th Street
Allentown, PA 18103

[ 09.04.96 ]

At around 10AM Wednesday, we received a rather upbeat call from Ed. He's still feeling pretty lousy, but he did speak to his lawyer. Ken (lawyer) called Judge Panella in Northampton County and also Dan Pollanski, the District Attorney. They both agreed that there was no valid reason for Ed to have been transferred to Lehigh County maximum facility and that a transfer to a minimum security facility with good medical services should be They also concurred that Ed should not be sent back to Bucks County due to the administrative treatment he received there.

The judge spent a good 30 minutes discussing this with Ken, which is virtually unheard of. They discussed that Panella's sentencing had specifically stated that Ed was to serve all of his sentence at Bucks County, alluding to the fact that the BCCF administrators should never have transferred him. Furthermore, the judge agreed that there was no basis provided for the "protective custody" designation.

On an even more positive note, the judge and the DA were to discuss revisiting Ed's sentence with Ken. They both agreed that they had expected Ed to serve his minimum sentence and be paroled after 6 months. We will hear more about this shortly.

This could result in Ed's immediate release. A note of caution to you optimists out there: several layers of administrative b.s. are in place to assure that prisoners are not easily released (to prevent them from taking advantage of family or political ties, etc.)

So, we were feeling fairly upbeat about the whole situation... At 12:30, Ed phoned from yet another prison phone system (TeleLink). He was transferred back to Northampton County Prison. As most of you will remember, this prison was built in the 1800s and has horrible conditions including roaches and rats.

Ed is now in the infectious disease medical unit there. There is not *supposed* to be any smoking on this unit, but of course inmates do. Ed is allergic to cigarette smoke. When he was last in this facility, he was very ill with 104 fever and coughing up blood. We can imagine how difficult that type of coughing could get with Ed's jaw broken and wired shut.

The medical facility there is run by a private company who cuts costs wherever possible, including neglecting to provide prescribed medications to inmates. Ed was given a pillow, which seems like a bonus compared to the Lehigh facilities. Ed was woken up around 8am Wednesday and moved to a new cell in the infectious disease ward (he had been transferred yesterday as well). He also got to see the Lehigh Prison doctor for the first time since his release from the hospital. The doctor was concerned about continued pain Ed has in his right temple and was to call the hospital to review the xrays for possible fracture there. He was also going to prescribe a stronger painkiller for Ed (currently on Tylenol 3 with Codeine). Ed is fairly sure that he will have to start this process all over again with a doctor at Northampton County, whenever one sees him. The discharge unit at Lehigh County refused to allow Ed to take his legal paperwork with him. His lawyer has phoned the discharge unit, who is now "searching for the folders".

Ed still needs to get a soft toothbrush and a cover for his cast so he can shower -- believe it or not, he hasn't been able to shower since last THURSDAY; when they transferred him on Friday, he was in a holding cell for about 10 hours and hadn't had a chance to shower before 10AM on Saturday. You can just imagine his current condition, after losing a few pints of blood and then having surgery...

We have no assurance that they will allow him to receive the package we're sending today which includes these items. We tried getting a copy of his medical release instructions to send along with the package, but the hospital requires Ed to sign a release form before they'll provide the instructions to anyone but Ed. The prison system, including medical facilities, seem to feel no compulsion to follow the medical orders. Lehigh didn't provide him with liquified food and didn't have a mortar/pestle to grind up his medication and vitamins. Ed doesn't hold much hope that the Northampton County facilities will be any better. He also hasn't had any ice on his incisions since last night (more than 12 hours ago). If his arm swells under the cast, his circulation could be cut off.

We've also just called the Lehigh County DA's office to find out what Ed has to do to file criminal charges against the guy who beat him up (Michael Williams). Apparently, no one from the police department has asked Ed if he wants to file charges. No one took photographs of Ed's condition after the beating. Ed has to ask for a special criminal complaint form from the prison he's in. He'll do this today; he *has* to file the criminal complaint against his assailant before he can file civil complaints against Bucks County and Lehigh County prisons.

If anyone can send him a money order for $10 or $15, that would also help - he could then purchase soap, shampoo, paper, pen and stamps at the comissary. He's now at:
Northampton County Correctional Facility

ATTN: Ed Cummings, M3
666 Walnut Street
Easton, PA 18042

For the record, the Warden at this facility is:

Terrence O'Connel
voice: 610.559.4228
fax:   610.252.4082