PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Activists are demanding more to be done after inmates, mostly Black men, endured harmful experiments at Holmesburg prison.
“My family was destroyed,” Adrianne Jones-Alston, the daughter of a Holmesburg inmate experiment subject, said.
Jones-Alston is still angry. She said she still remembers the scars on her father’s back.
“Right behind these walls where my father, Leodus Jones, and countless other inmates were human guinea pigs,” Jones-Alston said.
From the 1950s to the 1970s at Holmesburg Prison, Jones-Alston said her father was among the inmates subjected to unethical experiments – exposing them to harmful chemicals, viruses and other substances.
Earlier this week, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney apologized, saying the men endured “inhumane and horrific abuse.”
Allen Hornblum, who has written two books about the experiments, said more apologies are needed.
“We are now looking at City Council and we’ve been given signs from them that they are favorable,” Hornblum said. “And we think something will happen there as well.”
On Saturday, the Philadelphia Inmate Justice Coalition came together for a vigil.
Experts said these experiments led to a ripple effect of medical mistrust within the Black community.
“So many African Americans were afraid to get the COVID shot because of Tuskegee, because of Holmesburg, so those things have to be addressed,” Hornblum said.
To combat the wariness toward doctors, activists believe healthcare professionals need to step up.
“Bridging the gap between medical personnel and these groups that have been oppressed through our penal system and our medical field,” Priscilla Morris, a prison reform activist, said.
“There’s a lot of healing that has to take place now,” Jones-Alston said.
Healing the wounds and the scars – left emotionally on inmates and their families.
