Help Free Cynthia Scott
Cynthia is a Black woman, mother, loving grandmother, and a college-educated veteran with a computer science degree. She is currently incarcerated in Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (FCCW) in Virginia, about 55 miles northwest of Richmond. Prior to her incarceration, Cynthia’s struggle with addiction led her to take part in a series of survival acts that led to her incarceration. After Cynthia pleaded guilty, she was ultimately sentenced to 91 years (against a recommended sentence of 10-24 years).
Even though the court subsequently suspended part of her sentence, Cynthia was still sentenced to serve over 42 years of her life in prison. Cynthia is now 53-years-old and has been incarcerated for nearly 21 years.
Cynthia lives with multiple chronic medical conditions which over two decades of incarceration have worsened including kidney disease, diabetes, asthma, and chronic inflammation in her lungs, heart, liver, and spleen. Cynthia has personally experienced the substantially inadequate health care and medical abuse at FCCW for nearly two decades including failure to treat her inflammation, which has resulted in permanent scarring of Cynthia's lungs that will forever impair her ability to breathe. The respiratory nature of COVID-19 and her lung inflammation resulting from medical neglect exponentially increases the danger she faces from the pandemic, which from its onset has presented a major danger to the lives of people incarcerated at FCCW due to medical neglect and a lack of safety equipment and procedures. .
In 2014, Cynthia was a chief plaintiff in Scott v. Clarke, a class action lawsuit which cited the dangerous and inadequate medical care at FCCW. Cynthia and her fellow plaintiffs won their case--becoming the first incarcerated people in Virginia to hold the state accountable for their medical neglect. Despite this victory, medical neglect is still commonplace in FCCW. Nonetheless, Cynthia remains a steadfast advocate for health care access for others inside women’s prisons, and her story speaks to the experiences of medical neglect faced by countless incarcerated people–in Virginia and across the country.
Cynthia has maintained strong relationships with her mother and daughters throughout her incarceration. Winning her freedom will mean returning to her loved ones and seeking the life-saving medical care she has been denied during her incarceration.
To learn more about ways to support, read and sign Cynthia’s change.org petition.
If you would like to reach out to Cynthia personally, write a letter of support for her clemency application, or join the IWCSP’s efforts, email contact.iwcsp@gmail.com or fill out this contact form. Supporting Cynthia means taking a stand against both the racist Prison Industrial Complex and the systemic medical neglect and health harms it causes.