I’ve heard that Tutwiler is listed as one of the 10 most dangerous prisons in the country and i find it hard to believe that Montgomery Womens Facility is not on that list. Do people not realise that most of those same officers that helped get Tutwiler on that 10 most dangerous prisons list, have now been transferred here to Montgomery Women’s Facility?

I understand that the equal Justice Department has implemented numerous things to try to make it just a tad bit safer & a little more human (e.g.) Prison Rape Elimination Act, a grievance system for us to be able to report problems we may be having with an officer etc. My question is what good are those things when the person you report to is “friends” with all the officers and assumes the officer is always right, and the inmate is always wrong?

When we report to Lt. Bentford, she just sweeps it under the rug and nothing even goes into the officers file. When officers get promoted to Sergeant after getting into numerous physical altercations with numerous inmates, then something is wrong, especially when we are expected to follow the rules, but no-one  in authority here is made to follow any rules. They do what they want, when they want and we have to accept that because we are just inmates, right?

Wrong! In case society has forgotten, then let me remind you that all of us here are somebody’s daughter, mother, sister, wife and friend. Yes, we have made mistakes that landed us in hell, but we are not any less human because we messed up. I just need to know where the rehabilitation comes from? We have hardly any classes here, no social workers to help with rebuilding relationships with our kids & families, no job training skills – Nothing- And we are expected to get out of here and magically know how to operate in a world that has become so technologically advanced that you can now turn the heat on in your house by using an app on your iPhone.

Then the racism here is so blatant & unbelievable. We have 1 white officer in the whole facility. The black officers stay grouped up with the black inmates, laughing & joking all during their shift and if you try to interrupt their “playtime” because you have a legitimate question or concern, then chances are you will be written up. If a white inmate & a black inmate need to use the restroom during lock-down, then the black inmate will be able to do stand the white inmate will be yelled at, degraded and written up and still not be allowed to use the restroom.

on top of that, when conducting random drug tests, the supervising officers are more worried about your tattoos than anything. They want to know why you got it or are you racist? Come on now, what does my tattoos have to do with me being drug tested? Also, why is it that men in prison have more programs, can parole out in 3 years on a 20 year sentence, but us women have 2 programs and on a 20 year sentence, 9 times out of 10, we will complete that whole 20 years before we get out. Where is the equal justice in that?

Can someone out there, the commissioner, Wendy Williams, Equal Justice Initiative – Anyone?  Help us at Montgomery Womens Facility. Come and talk to us about the horror we face everyday. This place is inhumane and we’ve lost all our rights, but no one should ever lose the right to be human.

Transcribed by admin, from a statement written by an inmate, identity withheld in fear of retaliation.