Jackson Advocate Jackson, Mississippi
PERSPECTIVE
FREEDOM OF THE SCOTT SISTERS…TAKES UNITY!
Artaymis Ma’at
JAContributing Writer
Part III of a three-part report:
(Mrs. Evelyn Rasco continues
with her account of her daughters)
“There is something else I would
really like for you to put in the
paper. One of the men said in open
court that he didn’t even have any
money during this robbery. They
looked for evidence in the alleged
robbery. One of the trustees found a
billfold in the ditch with sixty dol-
lars still inside of the billfold. The
way it was written up in court, the
money was took during the robbery.
It was all false statements in the
court proceedings all the way down
the line. It was stated that the vic-
tims believed that Jamie and Gladys
set it up. They believed?
“One of the officers that helped
set the case up was Deputy Marvin
Williams. Williams was one of the
guys that used to give my husband a
lot of trouble. My husband and this
guy used to go to school together
and they never liked each other then,
but in order to get even with my hus-
band, Deputy Williams told him,
‘We will get the closest thing to
you.”’ The guys got a plea bargain.
Jamie and Gladys had to go to trial.”
“I would also like it known that in
2003, an attorney, Edwin Thompson,
one of the most crooked lawyers in
Mississippi, told my husband that he
knew Judge Marcus Gordon well
and would talk to him about reduc-
ing Jamie and Gladys’ time. It was a
ploy to try to get money out of my
husband. My husband paid Thomp-
son a large sum of money in order
for Marcus Gordon to have Jamie
and Gladys time reduced. Marcus
Gordon brought Jamie and Gladys
back from prison. He began thumb-
ing through a rulebook. He then
stated that a rule in there prevented
him from reducing the sentence.
This is something they knew from
the beginning.
“They exploited my husband.
Marcus Gordon pulled some under-
cover stuff that judges don’t usually
do. A lot of people don’t really
know about that. How do you bring
someone back from the prison to so-
call reduce their time? Don’t that
sound stupid or strange? I will add
that they had already served a lot of
years before he brought them back.
So all of a sudden, out of the kind-
ness of his heart, he decides to bring
them back? He did it for the money
he could get out of my husband.
“How much money did Thomp-
son get? How much did Judge Gor-
don get? I don’t know! But I do
know that my husband died a broke
man. And a sad man! After they
tricked him out of his money, it was-
n’t long before my husband died of
a massive heart attack (2003). He
was found in our house, in his chair,
dead. He had not been sick, or any-
thing. But he did have diabetes and
suffered from high blood pressure
and was also on medication. He got
so upset behind it, because he
thought by him paying the requested
money, Jamie and Gladys could get
out soon. It didn’t turn out like that
and it wasn’t planned to turn out
like that.”
Mrs. Rasco changes direction to
express how the children are doing,
their pain, plight and state of mind
and what she witnessed about prison
life with Jamie and Gladys.
“They can’t understand the justice
system and how this could happen,”
she says. “For the record, Jamie was
born July 16, 1972, in Chicago.
Gladys was born March 8, 1975 in
Forest Mississippi. Jamie has three
children and two grandchildren.
Richard (16), Terrance (19) and
Jamicce (22) Scott. Jamicce was in
special education all through
school. Richard was special Educa-
tion all through school. He is in high
school now and he is still is in Spe-
cial Ed.
“Richard wants to go to college.
He is the only one that really has
that attitude. The rest of the children
are upset and depressed about Jamie
and Gladys. This whole family is in
a mental state of depression. We eat,
sleep and breathe, Jamie and
Gladys! All the children think about
is trying to get them out of jail. Each
one of them has some kind of men-
tal handicap and depression. They
don’t really want to do anything.
They just want their mothers out of
jail. They are all emotionally and
extremely upset.
“Gladys’ daughter Olivia (Olivia
Flake, 21) suffers from being emo-
tionally handicapped. Gladys’ other
child, Courtney (Scott) is 15-years-
old. Courtney was born in the
prison. When Gladys went to prison,
she was pregnant with Courtney. I
went to get Courtney when she was
two days old. It was so heartbreak-
ing for Gladys. She was chained and
handcuffed. They handcuffed one of
her arms to the bed while she was in
labor. She was not even allowed to
comfort or rub herself during her
labor with both of her hands. She
was handcuffed the whole time she
was in labor. Only with one arm, she
was allowed to hold the baby. I’m
glad I was there while she was
going through her labor.
“Courtney’s father lives in Jack-
son, Mississippi. He had also been
sentenced under the same judge
(Marcus Gordon) as Gladys and
Jamie. He received a 30 year sen-
tence for drug charges. He has been
out of prison for about a year. He
stays in close contact with Courtney
and tries to help her as much as he
can. The other children’s fathers
have not been in their lives at all.
“Gladys has been on antidepres-
sant medicine for 15 years. It was
mostly due to being sentenced for
something that she did not do and
given a double life sentence. She
was always high-spirited. She loved
sports like ball games and fishing.
She loved a crowd and made friends
easily. I have never known either of
them to have an enemy. She was
picked on and sent to the hole many
times. She began to feel hopeless.
She said to me, ‘I’m here, and there
is nothing that I can do about it.’
The last I heard she was still being
harassed
“I also witnessed the food in the
prison and I was shocked by what I
saw! The prison was filthy, paper
was everywhere! The shower had
mold in it! Paint was peeling of the
walls! The place was just filthy!
Jamie was in bed covered with dirty,
dingy sheets! She had her coat on
the side of her in the bed with her
because she said that she is so
cold—freezing most of the time.
“The food that they brought to
her, I would not have fed to a dog.
The squash had turned another
color. The rice didn’t look right. For
dessert, she was given a cookie. I
have never in my life seen food so
disgusting! Jamie refused to eat it.
She said to me, ‘Mom I can't eat
this!’ Shockingly, instead, she ate a
candy bar that she had under her pil-
July 1-7, 2010
low. That was all the food that Jamie
had for that day. She told me before
she would eat that food that she
would actually starve. She said they
have found roaches in the food. So I
don’t blame Jamie. So yes! The food
there was disgusting. In other
words, I wouldn’t feed it to my best
dog! I’m not making this up. I was
told that there are bugs, flies in the
food. It’s not fit for human con-
sumption or anything else.
“We ask supporters to send
money to Jamie and Gladys because
unfortunately, they have to buy the
more nutritious foods. Truthfully,
the prison is certainly not going to
give it to them. This is to say that
Jamie was not getting the right nu-
trition, her kidneys are not function-
ing and she’s not getting anything
that a patient on dialysis is supposed
to receive.
“Another thing I want to say and
want noted is that medical personnel
came into Jamie’s room and asked
about some pills lying on a tray.
Jamie told her that she didn’t know
what they were. The medical per-
sonnel said, ‘I got to look this up,
cause I don’t know what these pills
are.’ Jamie said, ‘I don’t know ei-
ther, but whatever it is, but I was al-
ready given about four of these
today, so somebody should know
what it is.’ This lady didn’t even
know who laid the pills there and
what they were for.”
“She didn’t know what they were
and had to go look it up! What were
the pills? Huh? So, that’s the kind of
medical attention Jamie is getting.
It’s neglect and don’t know what
they are doing syndrome! If you re-
search it, you will find that there are
so many lawsuits against them it
isn’t funny. Again, I’m telling you
things as they come to my mind.
Lots of times I don’t remember
things, but later on I do. I’m de-
pressed everyday. I stay in the house
all the time. I try to quit smoking,
but can’t. I cry a lot because I can’t
stop picturing them in a prison cell.
A prison cell, for life, for $11.00!
No one killed! No one hurt! They
never took anything from them.
They never pulled a weapon on
them. They didn’t do anything to
them. And for that, they both are
dying in a prison, being harassed,
being threatened. My life as it
stands is being on the computer with
my supporters, fighting to get them
out.
“Chokwe Lumumba, our attorney
of record got back on our case in
January of this year when Jamie’s
kidneys shut down. We’re waiting
on something to be filed with the
courts. Our concern was money. He
told Jamie, ‘Don’t worry about
money.’
“Jamie writes to me all the time
and tells me about her medical con-
dition and what’s going on with her.
Gladys asks a lot about what’s going
on with the kids. She is so worried
about Jamie because they are not al-
lowed to see each other. They had
been together for over 11 years in
the same building. Now, all of sud-
den the prison decided to separate
them. Gladys always writes to tell
me how upset she is about not being
able to see Jamie. She writes that
Jamie is not getting the right medical
attention. She also wrote me about
the times they rushed Jamie to the
hospital and no one would tell her
what was going on—if she was liv-
ing or dead. So Gladys had gone
through a lot of emotional strain
worrying about her sister. She also
5A
offered to donate her sister a kidney.
The prison told her that she could
not donate her sister a kidney.
“I am receiving a lot of emails
from other people who are willing to
donate a kidney for Jamie. People
who have worked at the prison and
gotten to know Jamie have also of-
fered to donate Jamie a kidney. So I
have people in place waiting to do-
nate Jamie a kidney, These people
are willing to donate Jamie a kid-
ney—just out of love. Their children
are willing to donate a kidney to
Jamie. But the prison keeps telling
us that they don’t know if she needs
a kidney transplant. When will it be
determined? When she’s dead?
“Jamie was doing office or secre-
tarial work and tutoring with the
GED. She also helped tutor some of
the parenting classes. She was also
talking to young people about not
going to prison and how to make a
difference and be a positive proac-
tive role model by setting an exam-
ple—She did this until she was sent
to the hole.
“Why Jamie was sent to the hole
is still yet another mystery. Suppos-
edly, she disobeyed a rule. She was
sent to the hole because she was in-
side of the gym? Jamie was coming
back from the clinic. She asked one
of the trustees if she could use the
bathroom. The trustee unlocked the
door and let Jamie inside of the gym
to use the bathroom. When Jamie
came out of the gym, Deputy Win-
kle, whom Jamie had had a lot of ha-
rassment from in the past wrote her
up for being in a restricted area. The
punishment? They put Jamie in the
hole for 21 days! Not only was she
put in the hole, she was put in the
hole for 21 days without any med-
ication, whatsoever.
“Of course, all of her privileges
were taken away from her, including
the tutoring, the parenting classes
and everything. She was busted
down, so far down that it was like
she was just entering the prison. She
was not even allowed to attend
church. They stopped her from
going to church! Jamie went into a
state of depression because she
could not function like she had been
functioning. She was really involved
in working and told me she was
making a difference helping other
inmates. She was shocked, devas-
tated, and traumatized and went
downhill from there.
“Jaime’s health seemed like it spi-
raled down, too. All that she had
gained all those years that she had
been in prison, she lost. All her priv-
ileges had been taken away for
nothing. The trustee that let her in
received no punishment at all. It
hurt her so bad, because Jamie was
singing in the choir at the prison.
After she came out of the hole, she
became sick because she hadn’t had
her medication in 21 days. She was
on diabetes medicine and high
blood pressure. Her kidneys shut
down in January. What caused her
kidneys to shut down initially was
in 1997.
“Jamie was given a kidney biopsy
because she was having trouble then.
They put her on medication. Jamie
never got the results from the kidney
biopsy. They just put her on medica-
tion. Then they switched medication
because they found out they had
been giving her the wrong medica-
tion. The year 1997was just the be-
ginning.
“When she received dialysis, they
started taking her to a trailer to re-
ceive dialysis. That dialysis machine
broke down constantly. One time
they drained half of her blood during
dialysis and the machine broke.
Other times, they put catherers in
her groin area and they fell out. I
hear that this is very rare that that
could happen. Evidently whoever in-
serted that catheter in her groin area
didn’t know what they were doing.
Jamie was told by other medical per-
sonnel that if all of the catheters had
not fell out she could have bled to
death. Thank God, all of it fell out.
They put her blood back in her and
didn’t get a chance to finish. Some-
times Jamie didn’t get dialysis at all!
The prison is insistent on saying
that this isn’t true. But it is true.
“Contacts from the prison have
called to tell me what was going on.
They told me that the catheters were
infected. Jamie has broken out with
warts and sores all over her body.
She believes its some kind of staph
infection. Jamie told me pus and
blood was running out of them.
Henceforth, Jamie has another infec-
tion right now. Plus, on top of all
this, she has a urinary tract infection.
They never did follow up on that.
Jamie was vomiting specks of blood.
My big concern is Jamie is not re-
ceiving adequate medical care and is
suffering and slowly dying—liter-
ally!
“We have been trying to get the
NAACP on this case for years and
years with no response. Many peo-
ple in the state of Mississippi do not
want to be involved with our case
because of the politics, undercover
hiding and pushing the law to the ex-
treme.
“All the emails, letters and what-
not that were sent to the Governor
have not received a response, what-
soever. I attended a board meeting at
the Capitol building in Jackson. I
told them that Jamie was not getting
the proper medical care at the prison
and that she was getting worse. I was
told by Commissioner (Chris) Epps
that they received responses from all
over the world about their case and
that he was looking into it to try to
get them a clemency or a pardon.
But he made it very plain to me that
he doesn’t have the power to let
them out. He stated that only the
Governor, Haley Barbour, could do
that.
“My words of wisdom that keep
me strong are a lot of people may
think that this could not or would not
happen to them. But in the state of
Mississippi and with all the crooked
officials, anything could happen to
anyone’s child at any time. So if you
think that this could not happen to
you in the state of Mississippi, you
are so wrong. I hope that something
comes out of this story and all the
others articles, letters, etc. None the
less, thank you. Thank you for all
the good that has been done and the
good that will come. Justice will
prevail.”
Write the Scott Sisters:
• Gladys Scott
#19142 C Building
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, Mississippi 39288
• Jamie Scott
#19197 CMCM12A B Zone
P.O. Box 88550
Pearl, Mississippi 39288
FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS
NOW
Information Line: 1-888-600-
5311.
Write in care of the Scott Sis-
ters: Evelyn Rosco
P.O. Box 7100, Pensacola,
Florida 32534