Healthy Eating: Non-Diet Hacks and Tips

By Leo Cardez

From PHN Issue 41, Winter 2020

At Prison Health News, we try to avoid talking about diets, in part to be accepting of all body types, and also because changing eating patterns is more healthy than dieting. I’m going to focus on healthy eating tips you can use in almost any prison. Some might work for you, and others might work for other readers, so don’t feel like you need to try them all.

Water is your friend. Drink a cup of water before you walk to chow, another during your meal, and another after. Doing this can fill you up, help with digestion, and help clean your teeth.
Slow down. Eat mindfully. Focus and enjoy the meal. Chew your food at least five times before swallowing. Try eating vegetables and protein first off your tray.
It may help to keep a food journal and write down everything you eat, as long as this doesn’t increase your stress. The idea is that being more aware of everything you’re eating will help you get more control over what you are eating.
Here’s another tip that may work well for some of us but not for others: Create a daily meal and snack schedule to plan what you will eat. Stick to it.
Find a healthy eating buddy to hold each other accountable and for support and encouragement.
Try to eat the opposite of traditional meal portions throughout the day. Have a large breakfast, reasonable lunch, and smaller dinner.
Prepare your cell-made snacks and meals in advance. For example, if you plan to have a snack or meal later that day, set them aside in the morning.
Some people find it helpful to eat all their meals in an 8-to-10-hour window, not eating the other 14 to 16 hours each day. This is often referred to as intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting, or limiting your eating to certain windows, draws on 20 years of medical research and literature, encompassing a large number of studies, and has been proven to be safe, effective, and highly beneficial. It’s been associated with longer life span, weight loss, maintaining a healthy weight, and may help prevent cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
Create small daily goals, and start the day with personal affirmations. For example, “Today, just today, I won’t eat any bread or processed sugar.” Review this every morning and mix it up.

Continue reading →

Legal Advocates Support Philadelphia Family Seeking Justice for Son Allegedly Killed by Prison Guards

By Evelyne Kane

Online exclusive for Prison Health News

On November 11, 2019, Tyrone Briggs died at the age of 29 while incarcerated at State Correctional Institution Mahanoy, a 1,000-cell, all-male, medium-security correctional facility located in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Shortly after, 13 of Mahanoy’s medical and security staff were suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation into Briggs’ death. In a press release, Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections (DOC) Secretary John Wetzel promised that “whatever the outcome of this case, we are going to be as transparent as possible, and the DOC will take whatever remedial measures deemed to be necessary.” Despite this promise, additional details about the cause of Briggs’ death have been slow to follow. Reports from other individuals incarcerated at Mahanoy, including a prisonradio.org podcast from Mumia Abu-Jamal, have attributed Briggs’ death to the excessive use of oleoresin capsicum (OC), or “pepper spray.” In accounts from witnesses inside Mahanoy, it is believed that guards responded to an altercation between Briggs and another inmate by spraying the two men with OC. They subsequently tackled Briggs to the ground, held him down, and continued to OC-spray him. Briggs was heard to say, “I can’t breathe,” several times during the incident, and it is believed that these were his last words. Continue reading “Legal Advocates Support Philadelphia Family Seeking Justice for Son Allegedly Killed by Prison Guards” →

How to Get Your Medical Records

By Timothy Hinkhouse

From PHN Issue 40, Summer/Fall 2019

Being in prison away from our families and friends takes a toll on us, which can lead to unexpected illnesses. We have to navigate our way through the jail/prison health care processes in order for us to get the treatment we need and in a timely manner, so we can live to see another day.

I had wanted to get a copy of my last blood work from my medical file so I can closely monitor my HIV viral load, CD4s, my liver function, etc. When I wrote to our medical department, this is a direct quote of what was written back: “Release of information contained in an inmate’s health record shall occur only when properly requested upon receipt of a fully completed authorization form signed by the inmate. A complete signed CD-28 should also accompany the request. In compliance with the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 192563, the Oregon Department of Corrections will apply charges to each request for health care records. $1.25 for each page for pages 1 through 10, and then $0.25 for each additional page thereafter.”

Continued reading

What is a Latent HIV Reservoir?

From AIDSinfo.net, a program of the US Department of Health and Human Services

From PHN Issue 40, Summer/Fall 2019

Key Points

A latent HIV reservoir is a group of immune cells in the body that are infected with HIV but are not actively producing new HIV.
Finding ways to target and destroy latent reservoirs is a major challenge facing HIV researchers. Researchers are exploring different strategies for clearing out reservoirs.

What is a latent HIV reservoir?
A latent HIV reservoir is a group of immune cells in the body that are infected with HIV but are not actively producing new HIV. HIV attacks immune system cells in the body and uses the cells’ machinery to make copies of itself. However, some HIV-infected immune cells go into a resting (or latent) state. While in this resting state, the infected cells don’t produce new HIV. HIV can hide out inside these cells for years, forming a latent HIV reservoir. At any time, cells in the latent reservoir can become active again and start making more HIV.

Resource Guides for Currently Incarcerated Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intersex People

By Caleb Christ

From PHN Issue 40, Summer/Fall 2019

The TGI Justice Project (TGIJP) is a group of transgender, gender variant, and intersex people inside and outside prisons, jails, and detention centers. They work to create community and share resources with transgender, gender variant, and intersex (TGI) people navigating incarceration, re-entry, and surviving in communities that are highly policed. TGIJP works with community members and legal experts to end human rights abuses and police violence against TGI people in prisons, jails, detention centers, and beyond.

Understanding and Taking Control of Your High Blood Pressure

By Priyanka Anand and Neil Menon

This is an updated version of an article that appeared in our Winter 2017 Issue.

Most people have heard of high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. Almost half of all adults in the United States have high blood pressure, so this is very common.

What is high blood pressure?

Blood pressure is the pressure of your blood pushing against your blood vessels. When you have your blood pressure taken, the doctor or nurse will give you two numbers: your systolic blood pressure and your diastolic blood pressure. Your systolic blood pressure is your highest blood pressure, when your heart is contracting, and the diastolic is your lowest blood pressure, when your heart is relaxed. For example, if your blood pressure is 120/80 (“one-twenty over eighty”), you have a systolic blood pressure of 120, and a diastolic blood pressure of 80.

Living With Chronic Kidney Disease

By Seth Lamming

From PHN Issue 40, Summer/Fall 2019

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common health problem in the United States.
CKD happens when the kidneys do not work as well as they should. The health
of your kidneys is closely related to the health of your heart and the health of
your blood vessels. When you hear about foods and activities that are healthy
for your heart, they are also good for your kidneys. This article will provide
some basic information about the kidneys, CKD, and some ways you can look
out for your own kidney health.

A Brief Overview of Psychiatric Medications and What They Do

By Lucy Gleysteen

From PHN Issue 40, Summer/Fall 2019

Below is a brief overview of psychiatric medications, what they are typically used to treat, their purpose, and common side effects.

Antipsychotics

The primary purpose of antipsychotics is to treat psychosis. Psychosis can involve the presence of delusions or hallucinations. They can also be used in combination with other drugs to treat other conditions. Continue reading “A Brief Overview of Psychiatric Medications and What They Do” →

Re-Entry Bill of Rights: A Blueprint for Keeping Us Free

By The Philadelphia Re-Entry Think Tank

From PHN Issue 40, Summer/Fall 2019

We the people.
The other side of America.

The 70 million plus with criminal records.

We exist in multitudes. We lead many lives.

We are all ages
We are 16,
57,
35 years old.

We are not criminals.

We are survivors.
Scholars.
Artists.
The leaders you need.

Your Fathers, Mothers, Daughters, Sons, friends and family.

We are human beings. We deserve a chance to prove our worth.

We work, volunteer, mentor and use our knowledge, experience and skills to give back to the community.

Where am I?

You see me in the mall,
We sat next to each other at the movies,
We shared a smile once in a line at the grocery store,
the bank,
the church pew.
But you put an X on my face.
You turned me into a number.

See ME

I want a beautiful future.

I am not a slave to my past
I refuse to be intimidated by your misperceptions.
Understand the value I have to contribute.
Do not be paralyzed by data,
I am real, not numbers.

I will not subject myself to fear or anxiety, but walk boldly. I will prosper.

Let me be free.

Believe in me, and I will be the best parent I never had.
I will mobilize communities. Will be a catalyst for change. Will make history.
Will achieve all of my goals. Will be a role model for the youth!

We’ve done our time.
Let us become who we want to be.

My mom always told me hurt people will hurt others.

But healing for me is harder than you think.

Sometimes I feel like I’m reading a story that isn’t mine.

I need those around me to listen, to lend an ear, to try to understand the root causes of violence and crime.

To help me get support and resources.

Today, I can be a wounded healer.

I want to apologize.

To listen to the people I’ve harmed, to volunteer, to speak out, to teach, to learn, and understand that not everyone is ready to heal.

We are hurt, we have harmed, and we have the power to help others heal.

But it’s not black and white.

Some of us came home to housing. Some of us were homeless. Some spent 7 months trying to get an approved home plan while wasting away in halfway houses.

Some of us struggle finding positive support from family and friends, while others came home to mentors, wives, husbands, and so many open arms.

Even after being out for years we struggle.

I struggle to keep me and my children together.
I struggle to afford more than a room.
I struggle to find a job I’m NOT overqualified for
I struggle to feel human, not looked down upon

I AM

we the people.
I want you to remember that we need to change people’s environment if we
want to change their future.

That we are so much more than our past.

That people need community, not condemnation.

That we need more support to become what we dream of.

That the world is wrong about us. That we’ve already come so far.

That we are learning to forgive ourselves.

And so should you.

That we can make differences in the lives of others. But we need a chance to prove our worth.

That we are powerful!

The Re-Entry Think Tank connects formerly incarcerated people with artists and advocates. Think Tank Fellows spent two years interviewing over 1,200 Philadelphians with criminal records about their lives, dreams, and demands for a more just world. As a group poem and declaration, this has been read in Philadelphia’s city hall, detention centers, museums, legal clinics, and community spaces across the city.

Giving is Living

By Leo Cardez

From PHN Issue 40, Summer/Fall 2019

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” —Albert Einstein

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Could the secret to a better life be as easy as helping others? The published scientific research is compelling: