Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

A woman who was working on the farm crew died while on the job. I heard a few different "versions" of what happened. The first one I heard was from someone who was not out there. She said that the woman kept complaining that she did not feel well, but her boss kept telling her to keep going, that he didn't care, that she had to finish the row. I heard from two people (who also were not there) that her boss also told her that if she collapsed not to do it in the rows, to make sure she collapsed between them.

I also heard from an inmate who does work the farms that her boss did not do anything wrong, that he told her to go rest. She went and sat under a tree. He had another inmate check on her, which is when she was found lying on her side unconscious. Her boss then proceeded to do mouth to mouth and was frantically trying to revive her. They called an ambulance, but she was already dead.

She was supposed to leave in October. It was her first day working the fields. From everything I've heard and the discussions surrounding what happened, most seem to blame our medical staff because people who lived in the woman's unit say that she had a medical condition that she did complain about and that she did alert medical about, but they did not honor that. (Medical has to clear any worker in order for them to be able to work on any crew. So basically that means that medical wrongly gave her clearance and, if they say she's okay to work, she has no choice but to go out and work unless she wants a write-up, loss of good time, etc.)