She resolved to do something about it out of deep kindness of her heart, even though she had no experience in fighting this type of state sanctioned medical mistreatment of a prisoner. Mrs. Julie Ehlers launched a letter and Internet campaign, creating a Website for me to call attention to my plight and to seek help from other concerned people to force IDOC to provide me with proper medical treatment for this deadly liver disease. See http://www.justice4jimmykinslow.homestead.com/index.html.

Another group heard her plea for assistance, called Surviving The System, picked up my story and also printed it on their Website at: http://www.survivingthesystem.com/kinslow jimmy.htm. Another lovely lady responded. C.J.Codega from group Reaching Beyond The Walls. Along with some others; (LesleY581Aaol.com; Jeff Dicks Medical Coalition). Their aim was to pressure IDOC and let them know they would NOT be allowed to deny medical treatment to me outside of public scrutiny.

Bowing to pressure from these people, IDOC relented and transferred me back to Stateville C.C. on December 13, 2001, where I could be sent for an evaluation by a proper specialist at University of Illinois - Chicago, Liver/ Hematology Clinic.

The IDOC and another prison HMO group, ADDUS Healthcare Inc., had by this time hired a new, more compliant and obedient Medical Director at Stateville C.C.. Dr. Kevin Smith only grudgingly agreed to arrange my outside medical evaluation, delaying three months until March 14, 2002. I was seen by Dr. Wiley, a liver disease specialist. She recommended immediate re treatment with newly approved PEG Interferon/Rebetol (Ribivarin) and further asked that a pretreatment ultrasound and liver biopsy be performed. Also a CT scan of my entire abdominal area, prior to beginning new treatments.

Dr. Kevin Smith delayed seeing me in connection with U.I.C. visit and medical recommendations until April 24, 2002. At this time he denied pre treatment ultrasound, liver biopsy and CT Scan of my abdomen (because of persistent stomach/intestinal infection I was suffering from, untreated to that point). He grudgingly approved recommended re treatment with PEG Interferon/REBETOL. Dr. Smith made it clear he was personally offended by outside pressure I had brought to bear, thanks to my outside help. He said that I would be put on a waiting list to receive medications when they could get them - that I did not deserve special treatment. Special life threatening treatment was in fact what I was about to endure for next year and beyond.

They did not have medications until November. HCV medical treatments with I:IEG Interferon/Rebetol started on November 4, 2002. At start of treatments, my HCV viral load levels were over 7,000,000 I U/ml, and Liver Function (AST/ALT) Levels were abnormal, indicating ongoing destruction of liver cells.

The treatments began really great, with a surprisingly mild level of side effects from chemotherapy (cancer fighting) medication, PEG Interferon. Within eight weeks my liver function levels had stabilized back into normal. My HCV viral load levels had fallen to 53,800 IU/ml. By April 23, 2003, levels had fallen to an amazing 154 IU/ml. I was close to possibly being cured from this terrible and insidious liver/blood disease, having this treacherous virus eliminated from my blood and internal organs.

Then a horrific series of events began to unfold in a malicious and deliberate manner, resulting in obvious sabotage of amazingly successful HCV treatments. This required early termination of treatments before virus was completely eliminated, allowing HCV time to mutate and return in a more virulent, aggressive, destructive form.

This series of events began November 25, 2002, when I requested Nurse Susie Viscum, RN overseeing my weekly injections of PEG Interferon, call Medical Director, Dr. Smith. He was supposed to be personally supervising my treatments so I could report severe side effects and/or drug interactions I was having after taking antihistamine medication Periactin. He had prescribed this for me in response to severe itching I was experiencing as a side effect of HCV medications. (Continued as Part 2.)

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6.Totally separate prison health and medical care from IDOC. If health care professionals do not have complete autonomy, administrators will forever create obstacles for them because their functions are initially in opposition. Administrators are forever under pressure to cut costs, which has led to prison murders now widely practiced for sake of profit and cost cutting. The moral issue is many times greater than cost issue.

7.Reduce prison populations by making punishments fit crimes. This creates immediate cost savings. More than half your prison population never deserved to be locked in a cage and should be released. The correct punishment for theft is restitution, double, or triple restitution. For example: Misdemeanor theft is single restitution. Felony theft is double restitution to victim. Armed robbery is triple restitution.

Those who refuse to restore their victims go to low security work houses that produce more food than required by prison and work house populations. The surplus is sold on retail market to offset corrections expenses. Regardless of global economic conditions, there will always be a market for good food. A thief who learns value of intensive organic agriculture need never steal again. Every crime that creates a victim must compensate victim(s) first and foremost, inside or outside state supervision or custody. This is justice. Compare it to what you are calling justice, where all costs of crime are laid on victims and taxpayers. Small wonder you are focused on costs.

Victimless crimes can be punished by fines and fines alone. This adds low cost state revenue and lots of it. Habitual offenders go to state work facilities where they earn their keep and produce a profit, six days per week. A percentage of all prisoner production is paid to victims, prisoner dependents, prisoner savings and monthly prisoner allowance. When prisoners release, they have a small bankroll and new skills to help them re integrate with society. When crime is seen as best option after release, crime is what you create.

8.For more than thirty years, health care and alternative medical breakthroughs have been suppressed by a professional medical monopoly. Every year, conscientious and compassionate doctors are leaving monopoly to learn and teach principles of health care and preventive medicine. More than a half dozen of them are becoming wealthy by simply passing along what they are learning to newsletter subscribers and book buyers. They are educating public about difference between health care and bad medicine.

The best of these doctors are selling monthly, eight page newsletters in language ordinary people can easily understand. The typical annual subscription price for these newsletters is $40 per year. They are worth many times their cost. Multi year subscriptions are discounted or accompanied by a dozen or more reports on specific medical and health care issues. Years of back issues are also available.

Most of these alternative doctors would probably allow unlimited newsletter reproduction rights for prisons. As prisoner health improves with health care and alternative medicine, more and more inmates will want to know all about personal health care, instead of lawsuits. If prison library also stocked a hundred recent books on subject, some percentage of prison population would know more about health care than typical MD., in less than a year. They would gladly assist state staff in identifying health problems in population and will learn much that can be applied to any citizen health care program upon release.

You could be training health care professionals in your prisons that will not require college degrees to be extremely useful to Illinois society. There is a lot to learn and newsletters, more than books, report all very latest breakthroughs.

Your prison population could create health care plans every state in America could use to improve citizen health and dramatically reduce personal medical expenses. Publish results of this experiment on Internet and create a positive model for global health care.

The health care industry is in its infancy and growing faster than most every other industry, save prison building and government. Your only alternative to reform is to impoverish your citizens until you are economically and psychologically worse off than Alabama. Not much of a goal, do you think?

9.When government becomes all about cost/ benefit ratios, it becomes critical to compare short term versus long term benefits. I know of few states with that much vision, perhaps because our educations do not teach vision but destroy reason and imagination, two major components of vision. I have focused my attention on Illinois because Illinois has been executing a prisoner I know and love, at Stateville and Menard, over more than three years. I have sought Governor's help to stop execution. I have enclosed Jimmy's story of his own execution so you can have a better idea of what goes on in Illinois behind closed doors. I am publishing all I know about Illinois Prison Murders on Internet in hopes of finding legal assistance to end this criminal behavior.

It seemed good to me to point out an opportunity for State of Illinois to become first and most progressive model in world for compassionate government, in a very few years. Thank you for your time, attention and consideration. I will happily correspond with any who might wish to further discuss this crisis.

Very Sincerely Yours,

Ed Howes