4/15/08 letter from Sparky in Santa Rita jail
Posted by on May 12th, 2008[editor's note: Sparky asked me to post this after the 4/17 letter, which is why these seem out of order. -eddie]
April 15th 2008
My hand is killing me after writing 4 letters this morning but I had to write. I had just finished writing Samantha when I heard screams of ‘Man down! Man down!’ In lower D Pod. A prisoner was having a seizure. It took several prisoners and good 15-20 seconds for so much as an acknowledgment from the watchtower. Then a deputy emerged and WALKED to D pod. D pod is on the opposite side of 34 East from the deputy entrance. The deputy walked with no sense of purpose. He walked at a pace which one might cross a minor city street when queued by the walk sign. ANY slower would be termed lackadaisical. By the time he was half way across the housing unit a second deputy with a nurse in the tow entered. They both walked with purpose but still slower than a geriatric speed walker. No one broke into a jog. Not even for a stride. The prisoners kept shouting, holding the man in his top bunk so he wouldn’t fall. Some gave medical advice, “Put something in his mouth!” The best they could remember from T.V. and urban legend. That was as good as it would get until professionals got there moseying to the emergency. The man was having a seizure. It lasted about 5 minutes. The sick part is that the first deputy on the scene walked OUT with the other deputy, two nurses, and the prisoner in the wheelchair at a MUCH FASTER PACE than he walked in. I should have a better, more refined and intelligent response but using the parlance of our times… what the fuck?