Many
of our fellow-workers are unaware of the circumstances facing a
member of the World Socialist Party of the United States, Joe
Hopkins.
Joe
has been incarcerated in a Florida prison for the past 15 years or
so, serving a life sentence. The sentence bears no relation to the
crime he committed and reflects the cruelty and inhumanity of the
legal system. Stephen Shenfield, the General Secretary of
WSPUS, has set up a website dedicated to freeing Joe. It contains
some useful information about Joe including an account by Joe himself
of his early upbringing and the horrendous experiences he went
through.
Our
latest information is that there has been a decline in his health.
Like many prisoners, he has long had hepatitis and for many years the
condition was deliberately neglected. There was an effective drug but
it was considered too expensive for mere prisoners. A couple of years
ago a judge ordered that prisoners with hepatitis be given this drug
and Joe got a course of treatment that got rid of the virus, but it
was too late because he had already developed advanced fibrosis of
the liver that led to cirrhosis. In the first stage cirrhosis has no
obvious symptoms, but bruises that have now appeared on his arms show
that it has now progressed to the next stage. All sorts of unpleasant
symptoms and complications are now possible. Except in the highly
unlikely event that he receives a liver transplant (he has applied
for one), he is now likely to go rapidly downhill and be dead within
a year or so.
There
are now two different concerns to deal with – to get Joe released
on humanitarian grounds and to enable him to receive urgent medical
treatment. At the moment he is on a liver transplant waiting
list but the cost of a transplant is shocking – about half a
million dollars if you include several months aftercare. On the
face of it, this cost ought to be borne by the prison authorities in
view of their clear negligence but that might not count for much in
this context. The alternative might be to initate some sort of
GoFundMe campaign via the social media.
Anyway,
the point of this post is to urge comrades to make contact with Joe
in the first instance. He could do with some outside contact to
boost his morale in the dire circumstances he finds himself in.
Communication is complicated as it has to be done via an email
service the prison authorities provide and this has to be paid for.
However, it is
possible to route communications via Stephen whose email address
appears on the website below.
We
have to be very careful about not doing anything precipitous and have
to be sensitive to the politics of the situation. the
authorities in Florida would not welcome intervention from outside
the state calling for Joe’s release but if anyone knows of people
based in Florida who could help this would be extremely useful.
At
the moment it is advisable to wait for Joe to tell us how we can help
as the situation develops. But the first thing we can do is to
make contact with Joe himself to let him know we are aware of his
circumstances.
With
that in mind, we urge comrades and sympathizers to write to Joe via
Stephen so we can get the ball rolling
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