How to Get Fired at SSCF

On Wednesday, November 6, the Brattleboro Commons published a piece in their Voices section, Prison Educator Fired for Writing a Poem. The poem itself was also published, Elegy to Gary Partridge. If you have not read these pieces, I strongly urge you to do so. They are very moving, and describe an ongoing situation at our Vermont prisons that affects the safety of the residents there, particularly neurodivergent people. Below is the letter to the editor I wrote and which was published the following week.

to the Editor,

The death of Gary Partridge at Southern State Correctional Facility was due to the shameful, and even criminal, culture of neglect by the prison healthcare provider, Wellpath (which is now filing for bankruptcy) and by extension, the Vermont Department of Corrections. It is only one in a series of cases that we have read about in the press in recent years. Besides the deaths, of course, there are the endless stories of neglect and malpractice that incarcerated Vermonters have to endure. In the last legislative session Vermont Just Justice, an advocacy group of which I am a member, testified before the House Corrections and Institutions Committee about the many testimonials we had collected from incarcerated people and their loved ones about illnesses and injuries that were left untreated.

Sadly, the termination of the prison educator, Ben Mitchell, comes to no surprise to those of us who follow developments in our Vermont prison system. A year ago, SSCF’s head nurse, Louise Walker, was fired by Wellpath, DOC’s corporate health care provider. Her offense? Blowing the whistle on the prison’s health services administrator. It seems he received disciplinary action in three states for diverting or wasting opioids, resulting in suspensions or revocation of his nursing license in those states. Ms. Walker reported the evidence she’d found concerning her boss. Three weeks later, Wellpath fired her.

But it is not only employees who are retaliated against. In April 2023, David Mitchell died at SSCF, gasping for air while begging for medical help. The incarcerated men who went to the press with reports of what happened were transferred to another facility.

From what I hear from a former student of Mr. Mitchell, he was an enthusiastic teacher who cared deeply about his work and his students. I have met Louise Walker, and she is an experienced and compassionate professional. Their absence from the prison is a great loss for incarcerated men at SSCF.

— Meg McCarthy

Elegy to Gary Partridge
https://www.commonsnews.org/issue/789/789mitchell_poem

Fired for Writing a Poem
https://www.commonsnews.org/issue/789/789mitchell

Louise Walker firing
https://vtdigger.org/2023/10/30/top-health-care-contractor-at-springfield-prison-has-long-history-of-diverting-opioids/