Mr. Robert G. M
#230-### - MCAC
401 East Madison Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Dear Mr. M:
Your letter of December 23rd reached me today. Please note that I have a new address.
The TB issue has been brought to me many times before and I have done a lot of research in medical books hoping to get people answers.
Even if Mr. Sandstrom the Hearing Officer doesn't know it himself, the reason you went on "lockup" (disciplinary seg) was not to punish you. It was to isolate you from others until and unless you came up negative for TB. I wrote this to another inmate a couple of years ago:
No, you cannot be forced to take the test against your wishes, but if you choose to refuse the test, the Division has no choice but to isolate you from other people due to the extreme danger which might be present and I'll tell you why:
There is now a form of the disease that is resistant to just about all the drugs known to be effective against tuberculosis. It spreads rapidly. This form of tuberculosis got loose in the New York prison system and killed a number of people, including some staff members. Treating the new form is especially complicated and they have to experiment with different levels of different drugs. The person has to be in isolation with his own ventilation system. If DOC did nothing addressing this TB issue, it is conceivable that hundreds, if not thousands of inmate and staff will die. I've already been over this with certain Supermax people. I've been told that maybe after 6-8 weeks, if you don't show any sign of being "PPD positive" by the end of that time, they say they will put you back in general population.
You have told me that the x-ray test should be done instead. What I've been able to find out about that is the PPD is an "early warning" and will come up positive long before a spot or shadow shows up on x-ray. By the time the x-ray comes up positive it is possible to infect dozens or even hundreds of other people.
I also wanted you to know that there are no dead germs involved. I've also been over this question before:
To get to your initial question about the PPD test, another name for PPD (which stands for "purified protein derivative") is "tuberculin". Tuberculin is defined:
... a sterile ["germ free"] liquid containing the growth products of,
or specific substances extracted from, the tubercle bacillus ...
PPD in particular is:
... a sterile, soluble, partially purified product of the growth of the
tubercle bacillus in a special liquid medium free from protein.
Another thing I told the inmate at the time was:
I later was on the phone with an attorney from the U.S. Department of Justice
around the end of August. She specifically told me that isolating an inmate who
refused to take the test was legal and not considered a violation of Civil
Rights laws.
That would pretty much rule out a civil action suit.
You are also saying that you are losing good time and prevented from being transferred to lower security. I will try to look into that for you. But meanwhile, I am advising you to get over your "phobia" about needles and "dead germs". I've had the test myself and there are a lot more things I could worry about.
Please know that you are not the only person who has written to me about this recently. I will be bringing this up to Headquarters attention. In the meantime, you will be saving yourself a lot of grief and aggravation if you only go along with them on this one little point.
Please write back to let me know how everything worked out.
Sincerely,
Nancy Moran
nm