Health has improved but Mumia is not out of the woods yet

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Dec 20, 2015 - 11:59:55 AM

A recent photo of Mumia Abu-Jamal Photos: Courtesy of freemumia.com

Supporters for United States political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal say the moral support and prayers over the course of the year for his health has yielded positive results. Photos of Mr. Abu-Jamal posted online after a recent visit by a supporter to the State Correctional Institution Mahanoy in Frackville, Pennsylvania, showed a marked physical improvement since photos earlier in the year that showed his deteriorated condition. Lawyers, family and advocates accused officials of extreme medical neglect. Some accuse officials of trying to kill Mr. Abu Jamal through neglect.

“He looked so healthy and radiant, so much like he used to, and he sounded so good,” said Suzanne Ross, an organizer with the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition in a Dec. 1 report published on FreeMumia.com after her November 27 visit.

“Mumia and many of us thought for sure, that he was going to die” she wrote. “Didn’t he look like he was about to die? Remember those ghoulish frightening pictures with Mumia sitting in a wheelchair, looking like he could hardly hold up his head?” the statement continued. They were trying to kill him and almost succeeded, she continued.

Ms. Ross credited the “power of our movement, and the thousands who called, wrote, demonstrated, and prayed for Mumia’s life,” for defeating a “monstrous enemy that wanted him dead.” Ms Ross further wrote that Mr. Abu-Jamal expressed when he was at his sickest, he felt that love and energy of the people fighting for him and drew strength from them.

He is not out of danger and is now in a battle to deal with untreated Hepatitis-C, contracted from a blood transfusion in the 1980s, say supporters.

Mumia Abu-Jamal and Suzanne Ross, an organizer with the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition.

U. S. Federal District Court Judge Robert Mariani has ordered a full evidentiary hearing in federal court for December 18, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to address the right for Mr. Abu-Jamal to receive a new direct-acting, anti-viral drug to treat his Hepatitis-C.

Because Mr. Abu-Jamal’s profile is far reaching with worldwide support, the hearing in Scranton will also be an opportunity to lift up the profile of 10,000 other Pennsylvania inmates suffering from the disease, say supporters.

Mr. Abu-Jamal, an activist and journalist was given the death penalty after being convicted in the death of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. He’s widely believed by supporters to be innocent. International outcry, sustained struggle and public pressure pushed the court to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.

This next phase of the struggle is critical even with the improvement of health, activist Pam Africa told The Final Call in a telephone interview. “It’s a battle for life and death,” said Ms. Africa. It’s a national problem, she added.

“The situation is not only here in the state of Pennsylvania, it’s throughout the entire United States,” she said.

Ramona Africa Photo: healingtheearthpress.org

Ms. Africa said the plights of inmates are so desperate, hunger strikes have become a common method to protest injustices within the prisons. “When you see brothers go on hunger strikes, it’s behind the fact they are fighting for their very lives,” she explained.

Ms. Africa equates the medical neglect inmates suffer as “medical terrorism.”

Ms. Ross said the Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections refuses to treat the condition saying Mr. Abu-Jamal is “not sick enough” to receive the medicine despite professional recommendations from Medical consultants and opinions from the American Liver Association that said this new medicine should be administered as soon as the illness is detected. “Mumia’s consulting doctor, Dr. Joseph Harris, has stated unequivocally that Mumia needs this treatment as soon as possible,” she said.

Throughout December, meetings were held calling for the state of Pennsylvania to make the medicine available. Dec. 9 marked the International Day of Solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal recognized in cities around the world. For 30 years people have used the day to organize and bring awareness in the streets, forums, teach-ins and film showings.

The Free Mumia group said a study estimated 29 to 43 percent of all people infected with Hepatitis-C have been in a correctional facility. Called a “silent epidemic,” the disease disproportionately impacts low income communities and people of color. While Blacks are 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 25 percent of all cases. In Black people between 45 and 65 years old, Hepatitis-C related chronic liver disease is a leading cause of death.

According to court records, a class action lawsuit was filed in September 2015 against the Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania over the denial of inmates receiving the Hepatitis-C medication.

The Final Call