Ms. Kyleen Thomas

Ms. Thomas is a bright, eloquent individual with a real desire to help make the George W. Hill Correctional Facility (GWHCF) a more dignified, service-focused, rehabilitative county jail. Kyleen’s first experience there occurred in 2015, when she was sentenced to serve “weekends” for a Drug Possession charge. Subsequently, she was placed there approximately 7 or 8 different times related to her struggles with opioid addiction and Probation/Parole violations (supervised in Delaware County by the Media, PA office). All told, Ms. Thomas estimates that she spent approximately a year and a half at GWHCF during her various stays.

Kyleen has many issues with the way George W. Hill Correctional Facility conducts its day-to-day operations, including:

• Food: It is generally poor quality (although better than what she received at RCF in Philadelphia). She also noted that women only receive one food tray per meal, while many male inmates often receive two trays per meal.

• Escorts: She noted that women inmates at GWHCF require escorts to and from appointments and often have to wait 2-5 hours for Correctional Officers to come and escort them back to their cells. She attributes this to the guards not caring that the female inmates are waiting - their time is not considered important.

• Intake Process: Kyleen stayed in an “intake” cell for approximately 48 hours, with up to 20 other female inmates. According to her, many were sleeping on the cell floor which was covered with urine and feces in places.

• Detox Services: Ms. Thomas has a history of Opioid use and told us that detoxing in the Medical Department at GWHCF was worse than being in the “Hole.” Not only did she not receive proper medical care and supervision during her detox, she was locked in her cell 23 hours per day and forced to sleep in a “boat” (an apparatus used to cram three people into a 2 person cell). Kyleen was kept on “B”  Block (where she was locked down 23 hours per day) for 12 days because there was a sergeant at George W. Hill who didn’t like her.

• Dental Care: Kyleen stated that they do not fix fillings. She needed two fillings repaired while at GWHCF, and she had to have them pulled because the Dental Department refused to repair them. Otherwise, she would have been in agony.

• Heat: Kyleen told us that it’s really cold there in the winter and she has been there at times when the heat didn’t work at all. She said that she had to wear socks on her hands and arms for warmth.

• She attributes many of the problems and issues at George W. Hill Correctional Facility to racial animus. She believes that the mostly African and African-American staff members there (according to her, 85-90% of the staff there are Black and only a minority are Caucasian) treat the races differently - showing preferential treatment to Black inmates and disregarding the issues of Caucasian inmates.

Ms. Thomas experienced violence while at GWHCF in 2016 when she was attacked by one of her “cellies.”  Even though she was not the aggressor in this conflict, both she and her “cellie” were sent to the “Hole.” She spent 36 days in solitary confinement during which she told us that she had a “mental breakdown.” Kyleen noted that she thought that Nina in the Medical Department did a good job with what she had to work with, but it still took Kyleen three months to see a Psychiatrist while there. Ms. Thomas also recounted a horrific period during one of her incarcerations at GWHCF when she contracted head lice. Because she only received one treatment rather than the standard multiple treatments, she had this condition for more than two months, during which time she was permitted to move freely among the other members of the General Population.

She told us that GWHCF has a policy of keeping inmates who have fought with each other separated (they are listed as “enemies” in their official files). However, many times while she was in the “Hole,” Corrections Officer Todo would force her to take her 1 hour of “rec time“ with the same inmate who had attacked her. Kyleen said that it was done in the hope that they would fight again. Ms. Thomas was never sexually victimized while at GWHCF, but she stated that while she was in the “Hole,” a sergeant who worked there would open the cell of another female prisoner and pay her to perform sexual acts. She also said that, during several of her stays at George W. Hill Correctional Facility, there was another female inmate there who was “always there” and she was frequently demeaned by the former Superintendent, John Reilly, who once said to her, “Don’t come to jail if you don’t like what goes on here!” Ms. Thomas said, “Every time I’ve been at GWHCF I’ve seen people trying to kill themselves, banging their heads, smearing feces all over their cells and themselves, or cutting themselves with razors.” According to her, at other facilities razors are issued only temporarily and they are closely monitored, while at GWHCF they are sold at the Commissary and are available to any inmate.

While residing at GWHCF, Ms. Thomas was court stipulated to participate in and complete the Prep I program (which she characterized as a “joke”). She attended Church services periodically and she also attended A.A. and N.A. meetings when she could. She has been actively participating in recovery programs since her most recent release and she made it clear that GWHCF makes it very difficult for A.A.’s Intergroup Hospitals and Institutions Committee to bring meetings into the facility. According to her, meetings were only provided once or twice each week. Kyleen also made it clear that services provided to inmates detoxing from opioids are sub-standard. GWHCF doesn’t use any of the more modern and expensive treatments like Suboxone or Vivitrol because, as she puts it, “GEO Group doesn’t want to spend the money.”

Ms. Thomas had visitors while at George W. Hill, and she told us that on several occasions her husband was turned away and refused access to the facility because of “inappropriate clothing.” We asked Ms. Thomas about her main takeaway from George W. Hill Correctional Facility and she said, “I can’t think of anything I can give them credit for doing right, but the atrocities and inhumanities that I experienced at George W. Hill have stayed with me - they don’t just go away.”