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Linda Tant Miller
MURDERED BY ARKANSAS
JAMES RAYMOND ALBERSON
A MOTHER'S PLEA FOR JUSTICE FOR HER MURDERED SON
BY Barbara Alberson
After seven months of incarceration in the Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC), my son, James Raymond Alberson was dead of a spider bite.
James was a 35-year-old man who was born with a disease called alcoholism. He was a sensitive and loving child who grew into a sad and haunted young man who never recovered from the deaths of his older brother and his father.
Gervase Ray Alberson died of heart disease when he was only 4-1/2 years
old. James was only 3-1/2 years old at that time, but he and his brother
were extremely close and tightly bonded with one another.
To compound James’ issues, he lost his father when he was only nine.
As he grew to adulthood, James began to be fixated on these tragic deaths.
The burden of pain eventually became more than James could handle
psychologically. He developed low self esteem and profound depression,
along with anxiety attacks. He learned to self-medicate the pain with
alcohol.
James was always kind hearted. He loved and respected people throughout
his life. His alcoholism was a very extreme case, in which one drop of
alcohol in his system would cause him to go into a trance-like state and yet
never realize that he was drunk. He was also never able to remember
anything that occurred when he when he sobered up. He was never violent
however, and he never harmed anyone nor destroyed any property while he
was intoxicated.
My nightmare began when he was arrested and charged with a 4th DWI
charge, when in fact, he only had one at the time. The others had been
discharged three years earlier, but somehow remained on his record. We
couldn’t get anyone to listen to us, and we didn’t have the money to hire an
attorney to solve this problem for us.
James had worked a double shift that day and didn’t get home until around
6:30 p.m. Without eating, he took the weed eater, since our lawn mower
had been stolen, and mowed the front and back yards. He finished around
9:30 p.m., then came in, took a shower and ate. It was around 11:00 p.m.
when he left the house to visit his friend Johnny.
James had not had a drop of alcohol for several months at this time, but he
apparently went and bought a case of beer and put it in a cooler of ice in the
back seat of the car before reaching Johnny’s house.
Shortly after James left the house, I got a phone call from the Jacksonville
Police Department, less than a mile from the house, telling me to come get
my car.
James had been arrested for a DWI. This shocked me. When I got to the
jail, he was already gone, so the officer and I counted the beers left in the
cooler. Only two were missing.
Because he was so exhausted, James had fallen asleep waiting for a long
train to pass. The arresting officer testified that she saw the car sitting there and went over and tapped on the drivers side window, then opened the car
door, reached in, turned off the ignition and removed the keys.
This testimony was perjury, because my car had been broken into and
vandalized several months earlier. At the time of James’ arrest, the window
was covered with clear plastic, taped on, and there were no longer any keys
for it nor needed for keys, following the vandalism.
James was made to breathe into the Breathalyzer machine several times,
because every time he tried to breathe into it hard enough he would start
coughing, so it wasn’t registering a reading. He was threatened with being
charged with refusing to take the Breathalyzer test before he finally got it
accomplished to her satisfaction.
It was clear to me that something was wrong with this picture, but the court-
appointed attorney didn’t cross examine the officer, even though she knew
she was lying. After court, when I asked her why, she rudely brushed me
off, saying that she was busy and didn’t have time to talk to me.
On May 6, 2003, James was sentenced to one year in prison. Although he
appealed the sentence, on July 30, 2003, the same day he was supposed to
have a parole hearing, he was sent to Pulaski County Detention Center in
Little Rock, to await transfer to the ADC’s Diagnostic Center. Everyone
sentenced to spend time in the ADC begins their sentence at the Diagnostic
Center, where they undergo physical and psychological evaluations in order
to be classified prior to being assigned to the particular unit in which they will suffer their incarceration.
While James was at Pulaski County Detention Center, he got an ear
infection. Because he didn’t receive adequate medical care for the infection,
he began to lose his hearing. Despite the fact that he submitted one
grievance after another asking that he receive medical care for his ear
infection, as well as his acid reflux condition, his needs went unmet and his
hearing loss continued to worsen.
Eventually, they began to provide James Zantac for his acid reflux, but it
was given to him dropped into the bottom of a small, water-filled paper cup.
As a result, after he drank the water most of the tablet remained stuck to the
bottom of the cup. The frustration of not receiving proper medications,
properly administered caused additional stress which exacerbated his
stomach condition, while his ear infection and hearing loss continued to
grow worse, daily.
He wasn’t sleeping much because of the pain in his ears and constant
heartburn, but was denied medications to relieve the pain so that he could
get some rest.
After the ADC decided he had filed enough grievances, a member of the
Grievance Committee visited James in his cell. That person told him that if
he wrote any more grievances, he would be punished by being put in the
hole. This, of course, scared him, so he stopped writing grievances
regarding his medical neglect.
He had asked to see an attorney, but was denied. He asked for medical
help, but was denied. So from April 15, 2003 until July 31, 2003, James
suffered extreme pain, anxiety, emotional and physical trauma and almost
complete medical neglect.
During the three months he was there, James went to an excellent alcohol
treatment program called Serenity. After his first session, he called me. For
the first time in his life, he admitted to being an alcoholic and that he had no
power over alcohol. He cried and told me how sorry he was for all of the
problem and heartache he had caused me due to his drinking.
He shared with me the awe with which he turned to God and felt the peace
and serenity of God’s Love and Strength.
I was crying along with him, for I now knew that my son was halfway home;
that he had taken the first step toward recovering from the horrible disease
of alcoholism.
Every day and every night that he called me, we talked of his plans for the
life he wanted to begin as soon as he got home. He planned to continue the
Serenity program, go to work and study to become a minister so that he
could go into prisons and share the Serenity program and his love of God
with others like himself.
I was so proud of him...
Even after James was taken to the ADC’S Diagnostic Center on July 30,
2003 he still didn’t get any medical care for his ear infection. He was
classified and sent to the Brickeys’s Unit, near the Tennessee border, where
they house rapists, murderers and other hardened criminals. I knew he
couldn’t make it there.
When I called and asked why he was classified as a violent criminal, I was
told that he wasn’t. He had a nonviolent classification. I asked if there was
a way to get him transferred to a nonviolent place, and they said “no.”
During the time James was at the Brickeys Unit he witnessed rapes, selling
of one inmate to another, beating, stabbing and other terrifying sights. After
three days he signed up for the Boot Camp Program, because he was afraid
for his life.
Once he got to Wrightsville, where the Boot Camp Program is located,
James was told that if he complained about his hearing loss they would kick
him out and send him back to Brickeys.
This scared James so much. He knew he couldn’t go back there, so he did
his best to deal uncomplainingly with the unending pain and continuing
hearing loss in his infected ear.
James was determined to give 200% effort to the program; to do really good
and not make any mistakes. We knew that it was not going to be an easy
place to be nor an easy program to complete, but he felt confident he could
make it there.
The problem was that because of his hearing loss, he often couldn’t hear
instructions.
He had guards always yelling at him; telling him he was faking his hearing
loss and telling him they were going to make him pay. They would make fun
of him in front of the other inmates, and all would laugh at him. The cruel
and unusual punishment took a toll on James’ psychological and physical
well being.
In September 2003, he got a spider bite, but medical care was refused until
it got so bad that the swelling, pus and blood draining from it convinced
other inmates to report it to the Sargent. He had James taken to the
infirmary, where the nurse merely cleaned and put a bandage on it.
In spite of the pain of all his physical ailments, they still made him march
and work in the hot sun every day. At the end of each day of forced hard
labor, his white uniform and socks, as well as his shoes would be soaked
with blood, but the guards would not get him medical attention.
The joints in his knees, ankles and feet would swell and turn red. It got to
the point where he could hardly move. He was suffering such agony
because he was locked up in a system that doesn’t care anything about the
medical nor any other needs of their charges
I began calling every department head in the ADC, in attempts to get
medical care for my son. I even called the governor’s office, because in his
letter’s James described how terrified he was for his life and told me he
knew he would not live to come home.
I couldn’t get anyone to help me help my son. Even the Chaplain there
wouldn’t help.
When I called and talked to John Byus, Medical Administrator for the ADC,
he led me to believe that he was a doctor, although his medical training is as
a Medical Corpsman in the Navy decades ago. He even told me that he
had done amputations on inmates. He told me that he had been there for
27 years and knew his job; that my son was faking and acting sick, but that
there was nothing wrong with him.
I begged him to just go see my son and make his own evaluation before just
brushing him off. He said he didn’t have time.
I’m still in shock at the treatment James and I received at the hands of the
administrators of the Dark and Evil World of the Arkansas Department of
Corrections. It’s hard for me to accept that my taxes pay civil servants to
treat helpless people in such a cold and cruel manner.
Just weeks before my son died, the boot camp had him carrying around a
really heavy log, painted red, to show everyone that he had messed up.
Well yes, he did. He didn’t hear what the guard said because he was deaf
in one ear because the state of Arkansas didn’t give him proper care for the
ear infection that they were well aware of.
At one point I called and talked to a Major Carrington, and he assured me
that he would make sure James got some help. All the empty promises and
outright lies I got from those who cared enough to even lie to me, was ALL I
got.
The ADC is a corrupt prison system with evil people running it who have no
concern for inmates that don’t have money. Not all inmates are treated the
same way, in the ADC. The ones with money get treated with dignity,
whereas the poor ones and those without family are treated like less than
caged animals. This is the hard truth that I’ve learned through dealing with
the evil administrators of the Dark and Evil World of the ADC, and watching
our governor give clemency to killers and other violent criminals, but yet he
wouldn’t help my son, who never caused anyone any personal harm nor
property damage.
Even in his boot camp unit, James was liked and respected by the other
inmates. He was always kind, loving and respectful to all. James was
always a peace maker.
I recall when James was in high school and there were many times when
other parents were calling here for James at all hours of the night, to ask
him to help them find their daughter, or to talk to her. Other teens listened
to James because they loved and respected him.
Throughout his entire life James was never violent nor harsh with others and
yet here in the ADC they treated him as less than an animal. At least
people take their animals to vets when they’re sick, and that’s more than the
ADC did for my son.
September 12, 2003, is when he got the spider bite on his knee. He
submitted medical requests on September 14 and 15 because he was
squeezing pus from the wound and his knee was very sore.
On September 16, he saw Nurse Cassidy who cleaned it, bandaged it and
gave him Biaxen, a very dangerous drug which had alerts for those taking it
that they must drink a lot of fluids, eat nutritious meals, and be closely
supervised. None of the above took place.
It took until September 27 to get medication from the ADC’s Dr. Branch; Rx
#1108223, Chlorpheniramine, 4 mg., Quantity 30 to be taken 2-3 times a
day.
When one complains about coughing up blood and an extreme rash on his
legs, as my son did, immediate medical intervention is needed. This did not
happen for my son until it was too late to save his life. The one and only
reason for that fact is that the people who are in charge of the ADC may well
be the most evil and callous human being on earth.
The ADC murdered my son and destroyed my life. I love my son so very
much, and I totally depended on him for everything in my life, from financial
help to taking me to doctor appointments, grocery shopping and other
necessary errands. Without him my life is so bleak and lonely that it
scarcely seems worth living.
Oh, I loved my son more than I have words to express, and I miss him more and more every day. The ADC took two lives with their medical neglect - mine and my son's.
In James’ ADC medical files we found a lot of evidence of his medical
neglect.
Because of his spider bite, James’ joints began to stiffen, so Kay Howell,
Warden of the Wrightsville Unit and their “medical staff” diagnosed him as
having arthritis, so they began giving James a medication that weakens the
immune system. At that time, James already had the infections from both
his ear and the spider bite which had gone untreated for so long, so the
medication further weakened his already-compromised immune system.
The medication was completely unnecessary, since his autopsy said he
didn’t have any arthritis at all.
All of my crying and begging that he be taken to a hospital did no good at all.
No x-rays were even taken, and the one blood test they took had to have
told them he needed to be in a hospital, but they ignored their own test, too.
The ADC’s “doctor” was so old that he should have retired many years ago.
He apparently took all of his information from the nurses - real losers who
kept saying that there was nothing wrong with James; that he was just
faking and acting sick.
While he was in the prison infirmary from November 12-15, his blood gases
were dropping fast, according to the “nurses’” recordings. This was also an
indication that he needed to be rushed to a hospital, but he was not until
November 15, 2003 while he was in the process of dying.
On the way to the hospital, James cried and begged the medical technician
not to let him die, because he needed to come home and take care of his
mom. He also told the Intake ER nurse at Southwest Hospital, the same
thing.
Dr. John, the REAL doctor who saw James at Southwest Hospital told me
that my son was dying and he could not save him, because he was in such
critical condition. He told me that my son only had a 5% chance of living.
He also told me that the ADC had said that James had only been sick for a
couple of weeks, but he was not fooled by their lies. He said, “This boy did
not get in this critical condition overnight. He has been really sick for a long time.”
He was right, of course. James had been getting sicker and sicker since
September 2003 and nothing was being done for him.
Dr. John brought in a kidney specialist who said James needed dialysis,
and he was going back to St. Vincent’s to get things ready for him.
At this point, John Byus, lying, sadistic monster, former Navy Corpsman who
knows EVERYTHING about medicine (not), who is therefore“Medical
Administrator” for the ADC reared his ugly, murdering head and ordered
James to be sent to Jefferson County Hospital, which is farther away than
St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Because James was so critically ill, and didn’t need to be taken those extra
miles, I begged that James be sent to St. Vincent’s, but was told that John
Byus was the boss.
The doctor didn’t like this at all, but his hands were tied by Byus.
To top this off, the ambulance that transferred him was not equipped to
transfer such emergency cases. They had to stop twice before they reached
Jefferson County Hospital. The first time was to get a tank of oxygen from
somewhere outside of the ambulance, and the second time was to pick up
an Emergency Medical Technician, who parked his car on the side of the
freeway while he rode with James to the hospital.
The ambulance didn’t use the siren, nor drive at a speed expected of an
ambulance which is transporting a critically ill person.
Once we got to Jefferson County Hospital I was told by the doctor there that
my son was going to die, for he couldn’t save him. I asked, “Why? Because
he’s an inmate and we don’t have a lot of money?” The doctor just walked
off, without even responding.
The ADC’s only objective in the “medical care” they provide is to save
money, so they let inmates die cruelly and unnecessarily. They must surely
save a lot of money that way, because a few VERY inexpensive antibiotics,
provided in a timely manner was all it would have taken to save my son. I
would have purchased them myself, if they had let me, but they wouldn’t.
They wouldn’t help my son, and they wouldn’t let me help him.
My son’s death certificate says my son died of bilateral diffuse hemorrhagic
pneumonia. It doesn’t say the REASON he died of it – lack of adequate and
timely MEDICAL CARE!
James’ autopsy showed that he had no liver damage. If he drank as much
as they said he drank, he would have had liver damage from it. He really
worked hard at not drinking, and taking care of his body.
I am so shocked about the way James was treated and let die like an
animal. No one deserves that kind of treatment from people who have them
in custody and who are therefore, supposed to be responsible for their
medical needs and safety. James was a guy with no criminal record at all. He was a man filled with love and respect for everyone he came into contact with, and would have given the shirt off his back to anyone who needed it. He got a death sentence for a DWI, even though he had not even caused any personal or bodily damage to anyone or anything. He was sentenced for what he MIGHT do, not for anything he did. This is not the law.
Judge Bob Batton, the Municipal Judge for Jacksonville was an Honorary
Pall Bearer for James. He liked James very much.
I pray that the current administrators of the ADC will be replaced and the
prison system reformed before other lives are lost and destroyed within the
Dark and Evil World of the Arkansas Department of Correction.
James & his sister Billie Rae
James at age 7
James at age 9
James at age 14
James and his sister, Billie Rae
James when he graduated from Jr. High
James in the 9th grade
James in the 10th grade
James in 12th grade
James' High School Graduation Photo
James at age 21
James at age 27
James at age 33
James, Christmas 1990
James with niece, Cori
James with Niece, Cori
James and niece, Jade
James in 2002
James in 2002
James and his nieces Cori and Jade
James and Billie Rae
TOP INSCRIPTION:
BOTTOM INSCRIPTION:
FACTOR 8: THE ARKANSAS PRISON BLOOD SCANDAL
Kelly Duda and Concrete Films have produced a documentary which details the corruption and greed that led the Arkansas Department of Correction to spread death from Arkansas prisons to the entire world. Hear the story from the mouths of those responsible for the harvesting of infected human blood plasma, and its sale to be made into medicines.
Duda's award-winning film unflinchingly documents the whole story the U.S. government and the state of Arkansas have tried to keep hidden from the world.
Click the photo of Kelly Duda at work to order your own copy of
Click the photo of Kelly Duda at work to visit the
Please help spread the word about this important film,
HAPPIER TIMES
James was 6 and she was 5.
Jr. High School
1986
2002
2002
YOUR SPIRIT WILL SOAR
IN OUR MINDS, HEARTS AND SPIRITS
FOR ETERINTY
FOR I AM NOW RESTING FROM MY EARTHLY LABOR AND PAIN
ALWAYS REMEMBER ME AND LOVE ME AS I DO YOU ALL
I AM ALREADY WITH YOU
LOVE ALWAYS AND FOR ETERNITY
JAMES
"Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal"
Factor 8 Documentary website
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