Introducing Nevada prisoner Marritte Funches

[Jacuma]

Marritte Funches is a very special friend of the Bay View newspaper, which he used for years to educate and encourage fellow prisoners at Ely State Prison in Nevada. One of the most effective organizers I’ve ever known, he once raised an enormous $2,000 donation for the Bay View when we were going through some hard times.

So we owe Marritte (pronounced like “merit”) but, more importantly, we greatly respect this brave comrade and refuse to be silent while the Nevada “prisoncrats” endanger his life through deliberate medical neglect in retaliation against him for educating and organizing his fellow prisoners.

I’d never heard his voice until this week when he was able to get a call through and tell me that his first priority now is to find legal assistance. So please, if you know a lawyer licensed to practice in Nevada who might take his case, contact Mary at the Bay View right away – call (415) 671-0789 or email editor@sfbayview.com. I have a packet of evidence for the attorney.

And can anyone visit Marritte? It’s important for prison officials to know that someone is watching, yet he has no family in Nevada. Calls to the warden and the state prisons director will help too. Here’s Marritte’s current address and the contact info for the warden and director:

Marritte Funches
#37050, High Desert State Prison
P.O. Box 650
Indian Springs NV 89070-0650

Warden Dwight Neven
(702) 879-6789

Director of Prisons Howard Skolnik
P.O. Box 7011
5500 Snyder Ave.
Carson City NV 89701
(775) 887-3216

When Marritte’s first letter to us in over a year (apparently his only letter the prison had allowed out in a long time) came last month, I contacted the ACLU. This excerpt from his letter explains why:

“After numerous letters from numerous convicts at Ely State Prison outlining the numerous deaths and other issues taking place due to the subhuman medical care there to the ACLU’s National Prison Project over several years, finally an investigation was launched and it was discovered that ESP had the worst medical conditions ever witnessed in the entire country! [See “ACLU Lawsuit Charges Grossly Inadequate Medical Care at State Prison in Nevada” and related info.]

“Numerous individuals had killed themselves and elected to accept lethal injection rather than continue to suffer the horrendous medical care at ESP. A group of us were quickly spirited away from ESP and sent here to the High Desert State Prison in Indian Springs, Nevada. We all thought it was to get the long overdue or proper medical care we needed. But really it was just to shut us up and cover up the situation. I’ve been here seven months and have not seen a doctor ...”

He went on to describe the filth, total isolation and return of his mail to his family marked “refused” so they’d think he didn’t want to hear from them.

Having not yet heard back from the ACLU National Prison Project (the point person, I think, is Amy Fettig, afettig@npp-aclu.org or (202) 393-4930), I’m appealing to all of you on this amazing list of miracle workers.

In an update Sept. 9, Marritte wrote: “As for my immediate situation, nothing has changed. I spoke to the doctor here on Aug. 20 and he told me there was no order in for me to receive any medical care. He acknowledged the fact that this facility is neither equipped nor staffed to treat or even diagnose my kidney problem. Mind you the cause of the kidney problem is a long neglected – but diagnosed – urinary blockage. …

“Unless I find a way to force these people to get me the medical care I need, I will continue to suffer this excruciating pain, locked in this cell 24/7, until my kidneys completely fail and they can give a toast to their greed: another troublemaker dead. …

“Right now this prison – HDSP, High Desert State Prison – is trying to send me back to Ely State Prison, knowing it will basically be a death sentence, as it is the administration at Ely that has refused me medical care all along.

“They also do not have a kidney doctor or the equipment to diagnose and treat me. I’ve been told there is only one urologist in the state and he’s in Carson City. So to get the medical care I need, I’ll have to be sent to Nevada State Prison.

“I need someone who can either put pressure on these people through threat of media exposure etc. or who can help me file something with the courts to force the prisons director to finally get me in to see the kidney doctor.”

If you have time, please read this latest letter from Marritte that reveals the kind of person he is and the conditions he must live in:

“My last communication didn’t get too specific on the subhuman conditions here. First off, we have little to no access to the law library. It takes weeks, sometimes months, to receive copy work, case law or a response to your kites (messages to officials), if you get one at all. And we never see a law clerk face to face.

“I’ve been here eight months and I’ve only been able to clean my toilet twice because they refuse to give us any cleaning supplies for our cells.

“We’re not allowed to participate in any school programs. There are kids here who can’t do basic math or even read, just languishing in their cells, all of us locked down 23 hours a day. I have a 16-year-old brother across the unit that I’m trying to keep from going crazy or killing himself. He wants to learn math and spelling, but the school will not even send him a book. So I’ve been doing my best to help the young brotha, along with several others, by organizing a study group – except I’m giving them a lot more than math and spelling, and the prisoncrats don’t like that.

“Now look, I’m in prison, so I don’t expect gourmet cuisine. But I do expect what food we do get to be fully cooked and fit for human consumption. The food is always cold because the COs (corrections officers) are stacking up 20-30 open trays at a time in the open air on a cart with four open shelves. They are stacking them literally on top of each other. So whatever is on the bottom of the tray is in your food, and the food from the bottom trays is stuck to the bottom of the top trays.

“And the carts they’re using to stack these trays on are the same carts they use to transport the trash. Everything is completely filthy. The COs have little respect for the food and for us as human beings. I actually caught one of them using a toilet plunger to fix a clog in one of the food carts where the food is dished up. Fortunately, I was able to get the inmate porter to thoroughly disinfect and scrub it down before the next meal. Still, I do not eat anything that I can’t wash off. …

“The COs are constantly spilling food and dropping trays and leaving the mess to dry up into the concrete. The inmate porter tries to mop but they don’t give him anything but water to mop with. So there are constantly troops of ants and other vermin everywhere – and swarms of nats and flies in the showers. It’s crazy. The showers are so filthy there’s mold growing on the walls.

“The rec yard is a line of eight connecting 18 x 27 chain link cages with barbed wire and razor wire topping them. If we go outside, we’re forced to wear heavy jumpsuits in the triple-digit heat with no water, no shade and no toilet. And then I’m dealing with my own special brand of harassment on top of all this. …

“In closing, I met with Dr. Ted Hanf [I hope I’m reading his name correctly] in the week of Sept. 9. He told me he’s recommended several times that I see a kidney doctor. But the only one for the NDOP [I’m not sure whether Marritte means the Nevada Department of Personnel or NDOC, Nevada Department of Corrections] is in Carson City, and the “committee” (he was evasive on who this is) rejected his recommendation, supposedly because I am too high risk and because my condition isn’t bad enough to warrant emergency care.

“This is how they protect their bottom line: Deny everything, admit nothing, avoid any sort of comprehensive medical care until absolutely necessary. And hopefully the inmate will get out or die before then.

“Another young brother just died at Ely State Prison due to this same bullshit. His name was Eric aka Tank. He was only 22-23 years old.

“Now this Dr. Hanf could get fired for telling me this, but even he advised me to get a lawyer on the medical issue right away – no doubt a momentary break from the usual apathy that infects most of these doctors.

“The warden here at High Desert State Prison, Dwight Neven, has told me he’d take me off HRP [an acronym I don’t know] and let me program, which would allow the doc to send me to the kidney doctor without approval from the “committee.” But Mr. Neven tells me because I’m still classified as an Ely State Prison inmate, and because I’ve had a single petty write-up within the past year, he can’t take me off HRP.

“But it’s all bullshit. Thinking I’d be back in Ely by now, the warden told me five or six months ago he’d let me off HRP and out to the mainline at my next classification hearing. But that’s just when they told me this other bullshit.

“All three wardens, Dwight Neven, Jim Henson and Baca, sat there and lied to my face. See, I’m on HRP for nothing, so there should be no requirement for me to get off. And the rules state that it’s the sole discretion of the head warden to put me on or take me off.

“Classification in general is based on a point system. You need to have 15 points or less to classify for a medium yard. I have less than 15 points, but the caseworker here put me at 15 just to justify my remaining a closed custody inmate, meaning I can only hit a max yard, and this was a medium. But now they don’t even have that excuse, as last month this prison was changed from a medium to a maximum security prison.

“Understand that I normally could care less about these things because I know the rules, just like laws, are written and rewritten according to the whims of their authors. But I’ve explained all this for you to see the depth of the bullshit these pigs are running. And if you’ve read the documents I sent to you, then you know this is not all that I’ve had to deal with.

“But my focus at this point is my health, finding a lawyer who can help me with these issues. I’m not totally destitute. I can at least cover basic expenses for an attorney. And I’d be willing to let the attorney have 100 percent of any monies won as a result of a lawsuit.

“I hate to put any added pressure on you, Mrs. Ratcliff, more than what you’re already dealing with. I know you have a lot of your own problems. But the honest truth is that you are the only hope I have of finding a good, honest attorney. And if I don’t get this medical situation worked out or an attorney on their ass before being sent back to Ely State Prison, it’ll be a wrap, as the warden there, E.K. McDaniel, is the main perpetrator and instigator behind all this.”

For those of you with another couple of minutes to spare, here’s Marritte’s tribute to the Bay View from his Sept. 9 letter. It’s letters expressing thoughts like this – and they come nearly every day – that make us determined to find a way to raise the money to resume printing the Bay View soon, at least as a monthly paper. (It costs $4,000 just to print and distribute each edition of the paper.)

“I send this word with a warrior’s salute to you all on that end. I’ve just read your letter detailing the disappointing news about the temporary shutdown of the Bay View.

“There have been many times when the only thing keeping me from lashing out, unleashing the beast raging in my chest from all of the myopia, the dehumanization, sadism, ignorance and barbarism surrounding me was the Bay View, reminding me that I was not in this struggle alone, that I could endure and that the best and most effective way to remove those in the way of righteousness and justice is to organize and educate our people inside these prison graveyards.

“The Bay View has been an inspiration not only to me but to all of the brothas – and our brown brothas and even some of the white brothas that I was able to pass it on to – everyone looking for something of substance to bring some light to this darkness and understanding for the reasons why – the corrupt courts, prisons, parole boards, government etc. They could read your paper and not only be informed on the truth, they could get a smile, renewed hope, something positive every time.

“I’d often find myself telling the young comrades they need to stop looking for wifey at the club and take a peak at Wanda’s Picks, go to some of the many movies she reviews, the Black Panther Party gallery displays, the Lil Bobby Hutton picnics, poetry festivals etc. and find a good woman. Or I might find myself looking at the back page wondering if I might see my daughter in the crowd at one of the POCC [Prisoners of Conscience Committee] rallies or at a conference listening to Stic.man or Fred Hampton Jr. speak.

“The Bay View means a great deal, not only to me but to a lotta brothas and sistas in these pens. And not only in a spiritual, emotional or inspirational sense, but in a practical sense. The info you provide in contacts for people getting out, people trying to figure out what they can do to fight these subhuman conditions – I’ve seen these things come to good use for a lotta people, including myself.

“And that’s why I say this is only a momentary shutdown. The Bay View means too much to too many people for us to let it die out. This needs to be part of yours and Mr. Ratcliff’s legacy that you’ll be able to pass down and see it continue on. And in spite of my own dire situation, I am prepared to do all I can to help you get the Bay View back up and running. … We must not surrender what little Black owned and controlled media we have.”

I hope that among us we can find a way to give Marritte some help. Thank you for whatever you can do.

Mary Ratcliff, editor
SF Bay View
(415) 671-0789
SF Bayview Newspaper (under reconstruction)