A black Michigan woman is incarcerated. She's getting sick from toxic mold in her cell, according to the report. I want you to put a before and after picture up. This is the same woman. Crystal [00:00:18] Clark, 41 years of age, she's a 41 year old mother of four, has been incarcerated at Huron Valley Correctional Facility for 15 years, and exposure to mold is making her seriously ill. [00:00:36] Meanwhile, her concerns have been ignored by the state of Michigan. Clark has been incarcerated at the Women's Correctional Facility since 2011 for an armed robbery. She said she just spent [00:00:53] years suffering. from exposure to black mold that has left her struggling to breathe, partially paralyzed and unable to walk without assistance. This is major, this is extreme. And this [00:01:12] is as the Senator said during the last break, cruel and unusual punishment, which is antithetical to the US Constitution. According to medical records, previously obtained. Metro Times obtained [00:01:31] these records testing in 2023, identified aspergillus, a potentially life threatening fungus in Clark's ears and also her lungs. An allergy specialist diagnosed her with mold related growth in her [00:01:53] ears in 2022. This is very real, but Prison officials repeatedly denied her request to return to the specialist or follow up treatment. Clark also suffers from Wolf-Parkerson White Syndrome, a heart condition that complicates her respiratory illness. Now let's zoom out [00:02:12] for a moment. Remember the stories we've reported on right here on Indisputable where the uh prison facility has decided or did decide to take liberties. with not making sure people [00:02:28] have follow-up care? Remember that? What was the reason? Well, because they got to save money. And the contractor in those cases, they were able to pocket the money they did not [00:02:45] spend on quality healthcare. There's Quote, the medical care is ridiculous and disgusting, she said. Quote, they barely even know anything. How do they even get licenses? She says she lacks even basic hygiene supplies, [00:03:08] including soap, and accuses prison officials of downplaying her condition, covering up evidence and portraying her as mentally unstable. Quote. Everything is being covered up. Clark said, [00:03:24] being made to look like I'm crazy and nothing is wrong when y'all know the truth. You will ah express in an excited and aggressive manner when you're telling the truth and nobody believes [00:03:42] you. Being crump, attorney being crump, when him and I lectured at Bull University. He signed his book and he told me what his book was about and the nuances of the book. He talked [00:03:59] about it on Indisputable. And the book is called Worst Than a Lie. And he went into detail about what's worse than a lie and why is worse than a lie. Remember, what's worse than a lie? Telling the truth and having no one believe you. That is worse than a lie. Jay Love, a [00:04:22] criminal justice advocate who has worked closely with Clark, said the situation has now become life threatening. Clark, said, was recently denied a breathing treatment while struggling [00:04:41] to even breathe. Quote, she doesn't have a death sentence. Love previously told Metro Times, but the facility has given her one with this mold. Put her up full mask, both J Love and [00:04:57] activist Tish Duckworth have been fighting to get clemency for Crystal Clark. as well as better medical care for her while being incarcerated. Love says an application is on the governor's desk as Governor Whitmer. We're asking or begging the governor to please look over that to grant [00:05:17] her clemency so she can get the proper health care outside of the facility. Duckworth said there's more to this story. Now, why would an attorney or an activist or advocate have to beg the governor to get a medical provider. Now remember, a prison is many things, including [00:05:41] a healthcare provider. That is the law, that is statutory. There should be no ambiguity about this. It is no different than if me or you go to a hospital, we have a life threatening [00:05:59] condition, But everybody's trying to cover it up and not provide healthcare for us. We would be outraged. Our families would be outraged and heartbroken. Health failing, barely able [00:06:15] to breathe. What's the difference here? Well, she's incarcerated. So in the eyes of people who can't see humanity [00:06:30] beyond their smallness, they will decide that she's not worthy of the same humanity that they would be worthy of. It's insane. It's a ridiculous thought. July 2025, Metro Times [00:06:54] reported that a federal judge found conditions at the prison so severe that they may actually violate the United States Constitution. US District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III wrote that the [00:07:14] facility is quote infested with mold. That eats through brick, it eats through metal, it drips from the ceilings, it falls from air vents. The judge cited allegations that the mold has caused respiratory infections, coughing, wheezing, rashes, dizziness and fatigue. And said the [00:07:35] symptoms were severe enough to meet the legal threshold For what cruel and unusual punishment? However, Michigan Department of Corrections continues to deny that these are the conditions [00:07:52] inside of the prison. Now I wanna talk to those who work there. If you know somebody who's a correctional officer, or work in maintenance, or support staff, make sure you get this segment [00:08:10] to them. I want to talk directly to you. Your superiors don't care about. The Incaustrate. They also don't care about you. [00:08:29] There's a saying, for those who are incarcerated, to those who oversee them, you're serving time with them. Let us say you work an eight hour shift, sometimes 12. Maybe you pull a double. [00:08:44] You're breathing in the same air that they're breathing. Mold does not discriminate based on having an orange jumpsuit or a blue uniform. You're handling the inmates who have mold [00:09:01] growing inside and outside of their body. That air is artificially filtered inside of a prison. Every single one of you are being adversely impacted. So if you're not on the [00:09:18] side of the incarcerated, you're not even on your own side for your health. You may not have the symptoms that individuals who are forced to breathe this in 25 hours a day may have, [00:09:34] but I guarantee you there's something. Put it up full mass. This is the same correctional facility that is under fire for two inmate deaths within mere days of one another. Attorneys for the family of a 28 year old woman who died [00:09:51] inside of Michigan's only prison for women say they are receiving alarming tips from other inmates about the days and hours leading up to her death, which came just weeks before she was scheduled to be released on parole. Timothy Holland, an attorney representing Chiara [00:10:10] Howard's family, said his firm has been told Howard may have been sick for some time and that inmates reported hearing her call out for help for an extended period before her death. [00:10:25] Those individuals are not lying. You know why? Because those individuals are not mere inmates. They are her friends. They are her friends. the second woman who died, Fackler. 57-year-old [00:10:46] died on Sunday while incarcerated at the Women's Correctional Facility. The Michigan Department of Corrections said the department did not provide a cause of death, but said the lifesaving measures were initiated at the prison by staff and continued by EMS upon their arrival to the facility, [00:11:04] but without success. In 2025, six women died at that prison. Four died of chronic conditions and two died of unknown causes. These deaths have prompted. flood law to investigate the [00:11:23] deaths as part of an ongoing civil rights litigation involving women at that facility. The law firm is already representing hundreds of women and a lawsuit alleging officers at the prison use body cameras and to record strip searches, showers, bathroom use, medical appointments, [00:11:45] and other moments. when women had a reasonable expectation of privacy. This is so damn sad. It's sick. It's sick. And what kind of leadership would allow something so corrupt? Do we forget [00:12:06] that all of us came here by way of a woman? Do we forget that? Every single one of us owe our lives. women. This is the only women's facility. in this state. with this kind of extreme corrupt [00:12:30] behavior, allegation with no remedy or recourse other than, well, that's not happening here. A judge said it's happening, so much so that it likely violates the US Constitution for cruel and unusual punishment. You have a woman that has multiple medical diagnoses of her [00:12:49] condition, physical expression of the toxin inside of her body. Nothing is being done. um We highlight these stories because they're human being. They are souls too. And for the [00:13:11] Christian evangelicals who will scroll past this and not give it one. I order of concern because the women are incarcerated. I want to remind you what your Lord and savior said, [00:13:26] not Donald Trump, the other Jesus. He said, what you do to the least of these you have done also unto me. All right, Senator Dalton. And adding to that, Doc, when I was in prison, [00:13:43] did you come see me? That's When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I needed clothing, did you clothe me? I mean, all of that. This is so much to unpack. let me, I am going to start with Governor Whitner. So again, for those who want to be partisans for the sake of being [00:13:59] partisans, I don't roll like that, Doc, and I think our audience knows this. Had this been a Republican administration for some, They would be jumping all over this. But I know that's not the indisputable viewers, because we just call it like we see it. But Governor [00:14:18] Whitmer is a Democrat. I believe this is her second term. And this is a state facility. So she is in charge of the facility. So the buck stops at her. Definitely sick. I wrote [00:14:36] down sick. I wrote down depraved. These people are afraid. Working in the prison system is hard. There's no doubt about it, but this is what I put in the category of a ministry type profession. And no doubt some of them people deserve to be there, don't get me wrong. But [00:14:54] that doesn't mean you have to hold them in places that are not only unhealthy, but that hasten their death. And the judge, many judges do not come out every single day. to say that a facility is violating the Constitution of the United States of America. And yet, nothing [00:15:17] is being done. So this message is to Governor Whitmer, who most likely will attempt to run for president in 2028. I want her to have several seats. Because if she can't manage the prison system in her own state, she is not worthy to be president. of the United States of America. [00:15:37] And because there's a disproportionate amount of people of color in those prisons, black women to be specific, those would be the very people, Dr. These Democrats run and try to get their votes. I know she knows that this is going on. She has people in place who should [00:15:56] be handling this. And if they are not handling this, then they need to move on out the way. And she needs to get people who can't. This is depravity. This is just. And thank God for attorney Ben Crump. This is social economic discrimination. Again, as we laid out in the [00:16:12] other story, poverty is a crime. In this country, poverty is already defaults to crime. Just your existence and being poor is a crime. And you got to fight like hell to try to buck up against a system that was never designed to help you out. And then I'm not sure people [00:16:30] understand this. I served on the Judiciary Committee in the Senate. Most people who go to prison in the United States of America are coming out at some point. They're coming out. So do we want them to come out better? If we can, better than when they went in or worse. I would say [00:16:49] that our tax dollars should be invested in ensuring as much as humanly possible through systemic changes investments that they have a fighting chance to come out better and not worse. I remember a gentleman testifying before the Judiciary Committee when we were looking at reforms in [00:17:07] the criminal justice system, just to save money primarily. Some people for more reasons, others was for the money. And I remember the gentleman saying that he came out worse than what he went in, and that was mentally and that was physically. The same applies here all up in [00:17:24] our face. And those who pay tax dollars in Michigan should be outraged by this. You don't treat. human beings like this. that, Whitmer, I'm gonna keep this on my list. So when she jumps up there to run for president in 2028. Yeah, she got some explaining to do. And if you can't [00:17:45] stand up to a prison warden, I damn sure don't expect you to stand up to an old tycoon. If you can't stand up to a governmental agency and you're the governor and leader of that agency, I have no expectation you will stand up to Big Pharma. And those are the types of [00:18:06] leaders we need to look at measure leadership like that as we move forward. Because if they have a history of not standing up and creating um significant and sensational reform at whatever level of leadership they had prior, we should not expect them to all of a sudden figure out [00:18:25] who they're moving forward. Why should they get promoted? Your point about the people who work in that system, that was dead on. I wrote to my own self be true. Basically you're saying, hey, if you don't care about them, you got to care about you. So that was spot on. The union should be involved in this too. I thought about that. it's unsafe for the worker. [00:18:45] Unsafe work conditions. Are we going to keep our eye on this story?