Robert Seth Hayes with his granddaughter, Myaisha Hayes, a few years ago

Many of you know or know of Robert Seth Hayes, a former Black Panther Party member who has been incarcerated in New York State for 35 years. Seth has diabetes and hepatitis C and he has received shockingly poor medical care. Recently, his diabetes has been out of control and for the last two months he has had an infection on his toe which has gone untreated. Despite the fact that his blood sugars have been often sky-high, in the eight years that he has been diagnosed with diabetes, he has never seen an endocrinologist or diabetes specialist.

I have just written a letter to Brian Fischer, commissioner of the New York Department of Correctional Services - at Building 2, 1220 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12226 - and other DOCS officials demanding in summary that a) Seth's toe infection get dealt with immediately and b) he is seen and his care supervised by an outside diabetes specialist. If they cannot do it at Wende or in the Buffalo area, he should be transferred to a facility where that can happen.

I have also sent that letter with a cover letter asking for help to a number of New York state legislators who have previously proven helpful or serve on committees where they should. These legislators include, in the Senate, Thomas Duane and Eric Adams of the Committee on Corrections and, in the Assembly, Jeffrion Aubry, chair, Committee on Corrections; Keith L.T. Wright, Committee on Corrections; Richard N. Gottfried, chair, Committee on Health. Contact information can be found on the websites of the Senate and Assembly.

Starting Feb. 26, 2008, please write letters to Brian Fischer to insure that Seth gets the care that he requires. Also, please contact the legislators I mentioned - along with any others that you think could or should be helpful - and request that they take action to insure that Seth gets the care that he needs and requires. If any of you have personal or professional relationships with these legislators, please impress upon them the urgency of this request.

Please pass this request along as widely as possible. If there are other political, community and religious leaders or any others who could be helpful, please reach out to them. I am on my own and my resources are limited, so anything that you can do will be a great help.

If you can, send me a copy of any correspondence so that I can keep it in my records and send it along to Seth. In my experience, individual letters, particularly those from people of influence, rather than form letters or petitions, make the most difference. Thanks so much.

Susan Tipograph can be reached at 350 Broadway, Suite 700, New York, NY 10013.

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