Doctors Warn of Permanent Blindness Without Immediate Treatment

Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is at risk of permanent blindness. His eyesight is deteriorating at an alarming rate and requires immediate medical treatment with a retinal specialist. He also must receive laser surgery for post-cataracts.

As Mumia tells us “Prison is no place for Old Men” and this most recent challenge underscores the vulnerability of medical abuse and elder abuse that so many unprotected incarcerated human beings experience at the hands of the prison system. 

It started 8 months ago. 8 long months of worsening eyesight to the point of him being declared legally blind in a recent doctor’s appointment. The gravity of this situation is more tragic by its preventability and the refusal of the prison medical complex to adequately address his medical concerns. This delay is highly consequential and could be the difference between whether he regains his sight or whether this becomes a permanent and life altering disability. Mumia is suffering from post-cataracts and diabetic retinopathy in both eyes. He also has glaucoma. We must act quickly and decisively to protect our vulnerable comrade.

*** Listen to Mumia’s Message about his eyesight: on Instagram  or Prison Radio website ***

PRESS RELEASE – August 27, 2025

Contact: Sophia Williams 917-806-0521; Joe Piette 610-931-2615 

Urgent press conference: D.O.C. imperils Mumia Abu-Jamal’s eyesight

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s eyesight is deteriorating at an alarming rate and requires immediate treatment or he will lose his sight. A virtual press conference at 6pm on Aug. 29 will focus on his condition and inquire as to why the PA Department of Corrections is delaying his treatment. Speakers will include Dr. Ricardo Alvarez and Dr. Johanna Fernandez. Register for the online press conference at https://tinyurl.com/mumia-eyesight .

An independent ophthalmological expert has confirmed the progression of his eye disease by analyzing Mumia’s most recent eye exams. She reports that he needs surgery and medically necessary treatment “immediately” or faces the possibility of “permanent blindness.” 

Abu-Jamal’s vision has plummeted from 20/30 with glasses (near normal) in 2024 to 20/200 today — legally blind — because the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections failed to adequately monitor his vision and delayed his urgently necessary medical treatment and surgery.

The PA DOC has known since at least March of 2025 that Mumia, the author of 15 books, needed eye surgery. Exams from 2024 – 2025 showed a sharp deterioration, demanding immediate intervention. Despite knowing the urgency, they waited until July to act and then pushed surgery off to an unspecified date in September.

The Black Panther Party veteran suffers from “diabetic retinopathy” stemming from a diabetic coma which he endured after being given an improper and unmonitored dose of steroids for a skin disease in 2015. Mumia asserts that the DOC is “slow-walking [him] to blindness” in 2025 — another egregious case of the prison’s medical neglect, medical harm, and inability to treat Abu-Jamal’s medical needs. Court records already document this pattern: (a) negligence in monitoring lab reports which led to the diabetic coma and (b) deliberate denial and delay of his hepatitis C treatment which left him with cirrhosis.

 Demands

1. Schedule Mumia’s eye surgery and medically necessary treatment immediately under the supervision of his independent ophthalmological expert, and have it performed by the nearest outside provider approved by that expert.

2. Provide Dr. Ricardo Alvarez, Mumia’s chosen physician, and his legal team with timely access to Mumia’s medical records with no delay. These records belong to Mumia, and this standard is consistent with trauma-informed care centering the harms done to him. 

3. Allow the recording of all video conference calls of all PA prisoners to allow their stories to be recorded for history and advocacy.

Or:

4.  Release Mumia now— unconditionally— into the care of his own doctors, family and friends. The DOC has, once again, shown it cannot monitor or provide the timely, corrective care he urgently needs.

A community activist and revolutionary journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal was framed for the 1981 murder of a white Philadelphia cop. Convicted as a result of police, prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in a highly contested trial, Abu-Jamal has been incarcerated under inhumane and illegal imprisonment — including 29 years in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s death row — for 43 years.

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