From Dragonfly: Wheelchair Games

Carswell is filled with people who need assistance with getting around. If you looked at my unit, you would see nearly a walker or wheelchair for just about every first floor room (and some of the upper floor rooms too!). People need them for different reasons - advanced arthritis, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, inability for standing long periods, missing limbs (yes, there are many, many people here with one or both legs amputated), cancer, well, you get the idea. People here have REAL health issues and the devices help make their lives a little easier. Most of the women utilizing these walking/moving aids, control them themselves. There are no electric wheelchairs that I've seen, rather they are all manual. So, for those that can't control the manual chairs themselves, they have INA's (nursing aids) who push them around the facility. The INA's are inmates as well, but they wear a maroon smock over their uniform to indicate their job. Not only do they do the wheel chair pushing, but INA's help with sponge baths, bathroom visits, etc. It's a very important job, for the people with enough patience, as so many women are aging. In some ways, this facility is also a prison nursing home.

Back to the wheelchairs, though. Most of the wheelchairs are self operated. The vast majority of women move themselves by walking their chairs, while seated in the chair. Imagine a chair low enough to the ground so that their feet can walk it. I barely ever see a woman using the wheels to guide themselves. Ironically, some of the women in wheelchairs seem to have the ability to RUN their chairs when they need to. They stand behind their chairs and run with them empty, in order to get themselves better placement in the pill line. Yes, the pill line can be a 2-3 hour wait, but "really" running your wheelchair?!?! I could understand a walker, maybe, but if you can run, while pushing your chair, are you really "needing" that chair? Okay, I would probably need one of the walkers with a "seat" on it if I had to be at pill line, but I promise you, I would NOT be running with the walker. In fact, I cannot run at all. There are many, many women here who NEED their wheelchairs, but I must say that the first time you see someone running with their wheelchair, you would laugh as well. When you see all the women moving around in their chair by "walking" them, you would laugh. This is one weird place.

The wheelchair "games" don't stop there, though. Even those being pushed by INA's can be a sight. Sometimes the INA is pushing the chair so fast, that people literally have to jump out of the way in the hall, or they will be run over. I know a woman who needed back surgery after being hit by a woman in a wheelchair. Another woman I know has three broken bones in her foot because an INA rolled a chair, with a rather large woman in it, right over her foot. Three broken bones!!!! She is now looking at surgery, rather than going to a halfway house or getting out of here before she maxes out later this year.

On the positive side, Carswell does cater to those in a wheelchair in some ways. Last weekend, women got to enjoy wheelchair bowling in the rec. There are wheelchair aerobics as well.

Interestingly, there are no accessible doors here, though. There are no blue buttons that magically open doors (probably because the doors have to be locked so often during closed move or something like that). It is sad watching women try to maneuver their chairs through heavy doors that they also need to hold open for themselves. I am very aware of the issues, as I spent more than 6 months last year on crutches and longer on a cane. Over the years, I have spent some time (not a lot thank God) using a wheel chair. It's really hard in inaccessible places. The funny thing is that it's federal law that every public accommodation has to be accessible under the ADA, but in a federal facility...

They are considering those in chairs in this supposed upcoming move, however. My understanding is that one of the reasons they are moving all the medical people from 1South to 1North is because the first floor bathrooms in 1South are about to be worked on and everyone would have to walk upstairs during that time. I guess the 1North bathrooms are just about redone. So, it's a good thing that everyone will have accessibility to bathrooms and showers. I can't imagine trying to figure out living here while also being in a wheelchair. When I think of all the things I am grateful for, being able to walk on my own is definitely one of those things. I may have a limp, but I am walking.

Honestly, I don't hear people in wheelchairs, here, complain much about the predicament. We all have to come to acceptance at some time, and being here in lines all the time, makes having a walking/moving aid just that much more valuable. Even South has a walker (with a seat) now. She does not need to use it much. On commissary days, and days where she needs to be in long lines, you will see her pushing it around the compound. Sometimes, we all need a little help. Let's just keep out of the way of the wheelchair games!