Joan Lipinski
Appearances
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Yes. So I went to Washington last week and I took a whole packet with me. I put an agenda together. I had a meeting with Senator Cruz's office. I went to his office. I couldn't get a personal visit with him, but I was able to go to a coffee that he had where his staff was there, and I did get to meet him.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So I got to sit down with his staff, and I had my packet of her clemency paperwork and what's happening and just a brief description of why I was there. And I was fighting for her life. I'm fighting for her being now being disabled. I'm fighting for prisoner rights because they don't understand how bad things are in there. We've got no leader right now of the BOP.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
A lot of the wardens have resigned. The leadership is lacking. And the treatment within the facility is just inhumane. So I got to sit down and really have a long talk with his legislative aide. And he was like, I really appreciate you letting me know this. He said, I had no idea.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I think if you take any message away from this at all, they are involved in so many different things that if you have 10 people that go and talk to the same person about the same issues, that's where you start having an impact. And when you start having more people, like 100 people or 1,000 people that are complaining about the same thing, then you start getting people's ears.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Well, then I went from Senator Cruz's office. I went to Rick Scott's office, Senator Rick Scott's office, and dropped the packet off there because I had been in communication with his office. I was not able to get an actual appointment with him. And then I went from there. I went to two other House of Representative offices. And then I went to Senator Greg Stubbe's office.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So initially, when she had her sentencing, it was three years after her first arrest that they actually did the sentencing. And then upon sentencing, they actually remanded her on the spot, which is not what was supposed to happen. She was supposed to self-report. But at the end of the sentencing, his comments were, I would love to have her as my neighbor.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And I got to sit down with him personally for 15 minutes and his legislative aide, who is responsible for this type of thing.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
That was my best conversation. At that point, the clemency was filed, but we had no record that it had been received. So they were going to look into that. They were going to talk to people at the office of pardon, find out what options we might have to move forward, see if we can get her paperwork to anybody specifically.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
They have a pardon czar who was pardoned by President Trump, who's in charge of pardon, but they don't even know if she's in Washington or where she's at. I've tried to reach out to her. I've reached out to her organization that she personally had. I got word of who might be the next head of the Bureau of Prisons.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I have tried to reach out to that person and get a note sent to them and let them know I'm fighting on behalf of my daughter. I'm concerned about, I already know she's disabled. I'm worried about her coming home in a body bag. I appreciate any help. We can get, you know, people think I'm being overdramatic. I'm like, I'm not being overdramatic.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Two weeks ago, there was a female in her prison that was bullied. Michelle's bullied all the time. That was bullied, constantly was asking for help, and she ended up committing suicide. Is that a concern of mine? Yes, that's a concern of mine.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
But she can't say anything because if she acts like that as a problem, she will get thrown into solitary and they will put her in a straight jacket or in a mental ward or whatever they'll do. And then she'll just really go downhill.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So what I'm doing now is I'm following up with the five offices that I actually touched base with while I was there, which includes Senator Scott's office. I actually talked to them earlier. I let them know what happened with Representative Greg Stubbe's office. I reached out to him. I let them know the case number. We have the case number now.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And I gave them updates on what's going on with her and what we want the next step to be. And there's so much discussion right now. Nobody knows. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. You know, they're supposed to be letting people out on home confinement. They're supposed to be letting minimums out. They're supposed to be sending people to halfway houses.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
They're supposed to be getting people's records straightened out. And it's a big mess because people's records are wrong, you know, but I'm fighting for my daughter right now. I want to fight for everybody, but right now I'm fighting for her life because if I lose her, then I'm done.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
This has affected our family greatly. And, you know, I mean, we're fortunate in that we have a family to support her. You know, I listen to her stories, and it's so sad, the people that have no one to fight for them. So I say, well, you tell them, once I take care of you, I fight for everybody. But right now, I'm just trying to save your life.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So my next step is right now, I fly to Texas three times a month to get her out of the facility for a couple hours to get her out of the toxic environment to spend time with me. But it's so hard. I mean, she's still crying. It's a year later. She's still crying. You can't touch them. You can't, you know, console them. All you can do is sit and talk to them and
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I know that she was manipulated into doing this, but I need to make an example of her. to other nurses and janitors that work in a prison that you can't do this. So, and what happened in my daughter's case was she was manipulated by inmates where she was working to bring a package in that she had no idea what was in the package where she would have never taken it in.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Just tell them you're going to make it. Just keep pushing through. You know, but they don't understand her physical issue, and they keep wanting her to work, and she can't. She can't make it through visitations with me because she's in so much pain. And then mentally, the crying is just really difficult, and she tries to hide the crying, but she can't. And for her, it's begging and pleading.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
It's constant begging and pleading. I need to be home. I can't do this anymore. You know, they're going to just let me die in here. I want to be with my family. I miss everybody. I mean, she wasn't allowed to go to any, for those three years, she couldn't go to like any funerals or weddings or anything like that. She was, you know, confined to an area.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So for four years, she hasn't been allowed to do anything. And for a mistake, a mistake that she made, not intentional, no maliciousness for a mistake.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Yeah, I think, like I said, I had gotten involved with another group years ago. And I know one thing that someone told me, and I was reminded when I went to Washington, if you have people that come and tell you what the problem is and they're in front of you, they have to listen to you. And it's usually something they don't know about.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And if they hear from someone else the same thing and hear from someone else the same thing, then you start to get their ear pierced. And I know, you know, the women who were praying at the abortion clinics who got arrested, some of them were in there with Michelle. You know, the 70- and 80-year-old women were in there with her.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So they're getting a voice, and they're getting to speak out on what the injustices is. But the problem Michelle's having is, and even her counselor said to her, you're kind of like a unicorn in here because nobody knows she has autism and doesn't understand why she's quirky.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I think that she says things to bully people, but that's what comes out of her mouth. And she doesn't mean it in a mean or negative way. And she was almost beaten up by her one roommate who was a murderer, who was in there for murder. And Michelle was afraid she was going to be killed.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I'm happy to tell it. I just hope it can help someone. And I hope that all of our voices together will, one, help some judges understand you can't treat everybody the same.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
You know, and I know that a lot of the other parents and people are speaking out that law enforcement has to have a little bit of an understanding of this too, because they don't understand, you know, they think someone's lying to them and they're not lying to them. It's just that they're quirky or they don't understand.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
This one inmate was professing his love for her and totally used her and befriended her and you know, built her up and told him he would take care of her. And she just needed to do this for him.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
All right. Well, thank you so much, Tony. I look forward to the podcast and hopefully it'll make a difference in somebody's lives.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
No, she was at home on probation, pre-trial probation for three years till she got sentenced. We were waiting for a sentencing date.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Yes, and it was almost exactly three years. It was April 2nd of 2021, and it was April 5th of 2024.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So at the sentencing, he was like, you know, it was stated that, you know, people with autism don't do well in prison, you know, and she had just had major back surgery too on top of it and was supposed to let her see her neurosurgeon before she was, you know, taken into prison. But anyway, they didn't let her do that. They took her on the spot.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And so the journey was she ended up going to a local jail. She was there for three months. So she was supposed to get medical help and counseling. But they put her in a county jail for three months with no treatment. And then they moved her to a private facility for eight days. And there was no medications. Food was scarce. And they made her sign paperwork that wasn't even hers.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
But she would have died there if she didn't. And then from there, they finally sent her to Tallahassee. where she was there for one day, but they took her back brace away at that point, and she was not even a little bit healed from her surgery.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And then they put her on a journey on a bus, and then on two planes, and then on another bus, and then she was taken to Oklahoma to a transfer facility and was there for 10 days. And then finally she was put on a bus and was taken to her destination, which was Carswell Federal Medical Center. And it's the only female medical prison that we have. So that was where she was supposed to go.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
But it took four months and five prisons to get there. And it was a very arduous physically and mentally draining journey.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So after she got there, we were going to file for compassionate release because of the horrible treatment. I mean, she almost died a couple times. And mentally, she just was, you know, about out of her mind. So when they filed the compassionate release in the end, which took a couple months to do,
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
The judge, there was over 500 pages sent with a compassionate release of medical records and requests and what had happened in the previous prisons. And she hadn't gotten any medical treatment for her back or her heart or anything. I don't think the judge read any of it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And his comment was that her autism, which was Asperger's, that was her diagnosis was Asperger's, was overstated at sentencing and all prisoners have medical issues.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Well, that was like stabbing me right in the heart. No, the autism is what got her in there. And then no treatment for medical was what was putting her in so much pain. And she's disabled now. She can barely walk. She's in constant pain. She still, it's a year later, and we still haven't seen a neurosurgeon or a back doctor of any kind.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And she had one day of physical therapy 11 months after her surgery. And her neurosurgeon's never seen what he did, if everything turned out the way it was supposed to. But in the meantime, there has been no counseling of any kind. No medical treatment.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So that started my journey of, well, my journey started back in the county jail, taking her medications away, you know, giving someone who just had major back surgery on a one-inch cot with no pillows, no blankets, you know, sleeping pretty much on metal. which was hard.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And then, which still is the case now, or a year later, she's got a thicker mattress and she does have a pillow, but she's had no treatment. So I started being vocal with the health services people, lieutenants in the prison, fighting for just simple things like underwear and socks. For four weeks, she had no underwear and no socks.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And it was, being a female, it was very, very difficult at the time of the month when you really need that. And I begged and pleaded for underwear and socks and four weeks.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I went to the head lieutenant under the warden of the jail. And I also went to the health services administrator who was to make sure she was getting the medications she should be getting. And I was making those phone calls at least once a day, sometimes twice a day. And I was just begging and pleading. I drove to the jail and took socks off. but you're not allowed to give anything.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And I argued because I gave them the list of the medications she was on. I said, the most important thing she needs right now is Tylenol because she just had this surgery. They took her off the hardcore drugs for the pain. And for five days, she had no Tylenol. She had no pain medication of any kind. No treatment, no pain medication, sleeping pretty much on metal, no pillow.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I mean, she was in agony.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Oh, we'll check on her. We'll check on her. And next thing I know, 10 days later, they threw her in solitary. I couldn't find her. I thought she was on her way to federal, you know, because they said she probably wouldn't be there very long. So I'm thinking she's on her way to a federal prison. And I happen to have a video scheduled with her because there's no visitation there.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
But I happen to have a video and I thought, I'm going to stay on this video and see what happens. She came on the video and was still there and told me they threw her in solitary confinement. And she wasn't allowed out. She couldn't make phone calls. She wasn't getting her medications. And I was on the phone a lot then. I'm like, are you trying to kill her?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And they're like, well, we don't know why she was put in there. And I said, well, somebody needs to find out what she's doing in there because they said she's going out of her mind. It's feces infested. It's Cockroach infested. And I said, she can't call me. And he goes, well, there's a phone there. I go, yeah, there's a broken phone that an inmate pulled off the wall because they got mad.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So there's no phone.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So finally, there was no explanation as to why she was put in solitary. And that just about made her crazy. And finally, psychiatry got involved. And finally, after two months, she got some anxiety medicine that helped finally calm her down. So then she started this journey, but with autism, these journeys are very difficult and need change.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And plus she had been changed from unit to unit, to unit, to unit, wasn't allowed outside, never saw daylight, had no exercise for four months. when she started this whole journey, and here she's had back surgery. So when they put her in a car, she could barely get in the car.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And then when they went to put her on a plane, she could hardly get up the steps, shackled and chained, you know, and on heart medicine on top of it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
She is at Federal Medical Center in Carswell. And that's, I mean, that's her destination for now. But when she got to Carswell, they had no medical records on her and didn't know what she was doing there. So once again, so here I am, I'm calling. This is when I really started calling people on senators and people, I'm like, I need help. I was working with Walt with prisonology.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I'm like, what do we do? I had attorneys. I'm like, we got to get in touch with somebody. She needs help. They don't even know what she's doing there. They put her in camp clothes, put her in medical clothes, put her back in camp clothes, put her in medical clothes, all the while hauling mattresses and stuff. She was fit to be tied.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And I thought her first day there, she was not going to make it through the night.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
We're now at a year.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
63 months. Five years and three months.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Don't count. They're nothing. No, because she was at home. They don't count for anything.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So what I'm doing right now is, especially after they denied the compassionate release, which everybody, everybody was thinking she should be able to get that with her medical condition, the way she's been treated, the mental aspect of it, you know, and the judge said... We want her in a medical facility where she gets care. Well, okay, so four months went by. We had no care, no medical facility.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So we thought that would be reason for him to grant the compassionate release plus the autism. And then, like I said, his statement was, well, her autism was overstated and all prisoners have medical issues. No, not all prisoners have major back surgery, heart conditions, and don't get treated for any of it.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
right right and get moved to five prisons in four months that's not a normal journey so anyways the more she's there and she keeps in touch with me and i you know i just find out what's going on and so i'm like i have to do everything i can in my power to try and get her out so the next step is clemency and we just filed clemency paperwork
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
So you go online and you pull the form off online.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And you fill it out. But then I was able to get another attorney to help me with clemency. He goes, we need to add more to the clemency form. It's an 11-page form.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
It's really her statement of what happened, you know, what's happened in her life, what's going on, what is she participating in, what does she want to do in the future? And then I put a statement with it. And then I had an attorney and he, and I believe he's on your podcast, Ed Passon.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
He actually did the clemency form for me and he made it her story. He told her story of going from like high school, you know, through college and keeping it simple. And then what happened, you know, and how she got into this and how this affected her life. I wanted to hand deliver this to Washington was my goal. So that's where that went.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
Well, right before they got filled out, I heard from the one House of Representatives person that I knew. He said, you cannot hand deliver paperwork. It must go through email. Oh, okay. It has to go to that address that's on the paperwork. You cannot bring it here, and we can't hand walk it over. Because that was my intention. I wanted to hand walk it over to the Office of Pardons.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I was really let down about that, but we went ahead and filed it online, and I made copies of it, and I said to myself, I'm still going to Washington.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
I'm going to go, and I'm going to carry my papers. I'm going to put them in front of people, and I'm going to talk about this issue. I'm going to talk about the inhumanity that they face in the prisons right now. It's understaffing, no medications. They're hungry. There's not much food. There's been no commissary. They put people on lockdown. The inhumane treatment is unreal.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Joan Lipinski : Battles for Her Autistic Daughter's Freedom
And Michelle, being a nurse by trade, she has to see people who've lost their legs. They've lost limbs. You know, they're sick. They faint. They have seizures. She can't help them. And she's in a maximum security facility because it's medical. So she's in with white collar crime. She's in with minimum offense, first offenders, and she's also in with murderers.