Freda Cobb is one of the security officers at the Federal Correctional Institution in Marianna, Florida who was forced to retire due to health issues. According to Cobb, she has been suffering from a long list of ailments allegedly associated with her job, which ended in 2004. Medical records show that Cobb has suffered from short-term memory loss, heart problems, digestive problems, muscle pain, acute respiratory symptoms, internal bleeding, kidney and liver problems, and skin lesions. Cobb’s research has led her to conclude that the problems stemmed from a computer recycling programme that operated adjacent to the prison. Amongst Cobb’s medical history, which runs about 200 pages, is documentation that the former officer has also been afflicted with lead poisoning, exposure to cadmium and other heavy metals.
“I never even realized,” said Cobb to the Dothan Eagle. “We never put it together.”
Cobb isn’t the only one. To date, approximately 26 current and former inmates and prison workers are in the process of suing the U.S. Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Prisons and UNICOR - the government-owned company that has operated the recycling business since its inception in 1991. Plaintiffs allege that the company did not provide adequate protection against contaminates. It was common practice for inmates to break apart computers and monitors with hammers to salvage specific components.
When workers and inmates began questioning the lack of protection, supervisors weren’t interested in the argument.
“They told us not to worry about it,” she said. “Nobody wanted to hear us.”
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