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Callaway County Jail
Fulton, Missouri
Correctional Medical Services
November 17, 2005 Fulton Sun
With half a month left before inmates at the Callaway County Jail lose their
healthcare provider, county officials believe they have found a new provider,
one that will offer more benefits at a cheaper rate. The Callaway County
Commission decided Wednesday morning to pursue using Advanced Correctional
Healthcare to provide medical services to the county's inmates. After
Correctional Medical Services - which will provide the county's healthcare until
Nov. 30 - notified the county that it was pulling out of the contract at the end
of October, Callaway officials have been hurriedly looking for another provider.
"I was really concerned when the sheriff said (CMS) would no longer be
providing services," said county auditor Rosemary Gannaway. "That was
the scary part." CMS generally provides medical services to institutions
larger than county jails, but because of Callaway's proximity to the Department
of Corrections in Jefferson City - which CMS services - CMS agreed to cover the
Callaway jail, Gannaway said. CMS provided a nurse practitioner to work 18 hours
a week at the jail, as well as an on-call doctor. Because the nurse practitioner
recently accepted another job, Gannaway said CMS decided to end the contract
rather than trying to find another nurse practitioner to fill the position.
Correctional
Medical Services
St. Louis, Missouri
November 7, 2007 Financial Times
Madison Dearborn is preparing a sale of Valitas, a company that provides medical
care to prison populations, three sources told mergermarket. An auction for the
company will probably kick off early next year, and the company is working on
putting together a staple financing package at the moment, according to one of
the sources. UBS has been mandated to run the process, the second source said.
Valitas’ EBITDA is around USD 50m, according to an industry banker. The
company’s main subsidiary, Correctional Medical Services, reached USD 750m in
revenues in 2007, according to its website. The company is likely to draw
interest from private equity buyers only, as there are no natural strategic
buyers for the asset, the banker added. Valitas could draw interest from Maximus,
a listed provider of healthcare services to the US government, a second industry
banker said. Madison Dearborn backed a management buyout of the Missouri-based
company in 1997 from Aramark, the company that provides food service and
uniforms to institutions, according to news reports. Under Aramark the division
was called Spectrum Healthcare, and included a business that provided contract
healthcare services to the US military. That business, however, was sold to Team
Health, another Madison Dearborn portfolio holding, in 2002. Team Health itself
was sold to the Blackstone Group, in 2005. The company is one of the oldest
healthcare investments in Madison Dearborn’s portfolio, the industry banker
said. A company spokesperson declined comment, and a Madison Dearborn official
did not return calls.
November 8, 2001
Gregory Jennings, Jacqueline Reich, Lorenzo Ingram, Sr., Henry Simmons, Calvin
Moore, Billy Roberts and Kathy S. Kearns didn't know each other in life, but
they shared a common bond in death: All died in U.S. prisons, the victims not of
the death penalty, or at the hands of fellow inmates or guards, but in the
allegedly negligent care of a single provider of privatized health services.
Correctional Medical Services (CMS) is a St. Louis, Missouri-based for-profit
corporation that contracts to provide health care services to over 270,000
inmates at more than 330 prison sites in 29 states. A 1998 in-depth
investigative report done by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, its hometown
newspaper, shed light on the downside of prison care privatization. The
Post-Dispatch's investigative team spent five months "visiting prisons and
jails; gathering hundreds of police, court and medical records and other
documents; and interviewing doctors, nurses, inmates, lawyers, scholars, prison
and health experts and families of inmates who died behind bars."
Published in September 1998, "Death, Neglect and the Bottom Line: Push to
Cut Costs Poses Risks," found that while CMS successfully reduced the cost
of health care to several states, there were "more than 20 cases in which
inmates allegedly died as a result of negligence, indifference, understaffing,
inadequate training or overzealous cost-cutting." At the ACLU web
site, the civil liberties organization posts a late-January 2001 letter it sent
to the Connecticut Department of Correction (CDOC) that claims CMS's health care
services -- medical, mental health and dental care -- at the Wallens Ridge State
Prison in Big Stone Gap, Virginia is woefully "inadequate." The
ACLU writes: "The health care provided by Correctional Medical Services,
the contract provider at [Wallens Ridge], was considered so grossly inadequate
that [Virginia Department of Corrections] recently fined CMS nearly one million
dollars. The Virginia State Auditor specifically found that CMS did not provide
a dentist at [Wallens Ridge] for over three months, and never provided an
optometrist. Medical privacy and confidentiality is non-existent at [Wallens
Ridge]; as a matter of policy, prisoners are required to discuss their most
private medical and mental health issues in the presence of security staff and
other prisoners." In 1998, the Minnesota Department of Corrections
contracted with CMS for health care services in its state's prisons.
According to the Twin Cities Independent Media Center, the NAACP called a press
conference in mid-October to publicize a lawsuit "over the death of Gregory
Jennings, who died in Stillwater prison on April 6, 2001 because the medical
staff were indifferent to his complaints of symptoms of diabetes."
Should Calvin Moore, in custody for less than a month at the Kilby Correction
Facility in Alabama, have died from being ignored while he lost fifty pounds and
exhibited severe symptoms of mental illness, dehydration and starvation? Should
Diane Nelson, a 46-year-old mother of three, have died because her request to
receive her heart medicine prescribed by her doctor was refused? And what of
Charles Guffey, who died of a perforated ulcer because nurses at the Tulsa
County Adult Detention Center in Oklahoma refused to pay attention to his
complaints of severe abdominal pain? If these folks were around today they'd
have a lot to say about the human cost of the growing privatization of prison
health care services. Hopefully, privatization will begin to receive the close
scrutiny it deserves. That is the least we can do. The deaths of these men and
women, while tragic, should not have been in vain. (AlterNet.org)
Independence, Missouri
January 13, 2009 NBC Action News
A developer withdrew an application to build a private jail in Independence.
Turkey Ridge Development was seeking permission from the city of Independence to
build a detention center near 23rd and Blue Ridge Boulevard. John Carnes, an
attorney for the developer, says they decided to pull the idea after he led an
informational meeting with the public on Saturday. Many neighbors were opposed
to the jail citing safety concerns and declining property values. Carnes says
they will likely build an apartment complex on the lot.
January 10, 2009
KMBC
Some Independence residents are voicing concerns about a private jail that may
be built near their homes. Scores of people gathered on Saturday to learn more
about the proposal to move the Metropolitan Detention Center to a site north of
23rd Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard. While the $7 million project would bring a
strong tax base to the area, neighbors are worried about safety. Frank Smith, of
the Private Corrections Institute, said he drove 200 miles to voice his
opposition. "People think they're going to get jobs out of this, construction or
guard jobs," he said. "The construction is almost never there. They say they're
going to make all of the purchases locally, but that's almost never true. Then,
they say they're going to hire the guards locally, but people could work at
Wendy's and get the same kind of money." Supporters of the idea counted Smith's
arguments and said the project would bring construction and guard jobs. The
Independence Planning Commission will take up the issue on Tuesday evening at
City Hall.
January 9, 2009 Fox 4 News
Some residents in Independence are upset over a proposed private prison
being built near 23rd Street and Blue Ridge Boulevard. They say that the prison
would affect their safety and property values, but the developer says that
facility will be secure and will bring jobs to the area. FOX 4's Monica Evans
has the report.
Integrity Correctional Centers
Holden, Missouri
June 16, 2009 AP
The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that a private jail in western Missouri
must pay taxes on food, clothes and other products for inmates. ICC Management
Inc. is a for-profit company running a jail in Johnson County that contracts
with local governments. ICC Management claimed it doesn’t need to pay a sales
tax on supplies used by inmates because it essentially resold jail supplies to
local governments. Missouri sales tax is not charged on items to be resold and
later taxed. The state Supreme Court sided against the private jail, concluding
that it must pay sales taxes. That’s because local governments are not subject
to sales taxes and allowing the jail to avoid sales taxes would mean no tax is
levied on the goods.
March 13, 2009 Columbia Missourian
With nearly unanimous support, the state Senate passed a bill Thursday that
would, for the first time, make private jails in Missouri subject to state
oversight. The bill would also require jails to notify local police officials
when an inmate escapes, a reaction to a September incident in which two
prisoners fled a private jail near Kansas City and the sheriff's office was not
informed for hours. Missouri's two private jails, located in Bethany and Holden,
house out-of-state inmates moved because of overcrowding. The Holden facility
was the site of last year's escape. Bill sponsor Sen. David Pearce,
R-Warrensburg, says his legislation would ensure that all jails housing
convicted felons are held accountable for reporting incidents like the one in
Holden. "Right now, with these jails there is no accountability, no regulation,
no oversight," he said. "What this bill tries to do is at least set standards
and not have these sort of rogue prisons that are not part of society." The bill
seeks to hold private jails to the same standards as county jails and state
prisons. It also authorizes the state to fine jails that do not report escapes
in a "timely" manner, which Pearce said was designed to avoid a repeat of last
year's escape. In September, two prisoners from Kansas City, Kan., escaped from
the Holden facility, located in Pearce's district. They escaped at about 5 a.m.,
according to news reports, but the Johnson County sheriff's office was not
notified until 1 p.m. that day, and local residents were not informed until even
later. According to Pearce, it was not a crime for the prisoners to flee,
something he said makes no sense. "It's not a crime to escape from a private
jail," he said. "Once the prison told Johnson County about the escape, the
sheriff's office said there was nothing they could do because no crime was
committed, and Kansas had to re-introduce charges to arrest them. That's crazy
and shouldn't happen again."
February 27, 2009 KSHB TV
The Missouri Catholic Conference is critical of a
proposed private jail bill they believe falls short of protecting citizens. The
Missouri Senate is poised to debate Senate Bill 44 and the Missouri Catholic
Conference is seeking additional protections in the private jail bill. The bill,
sponsored by Sen. David Pearce (R-Warrensburg), proposes to regulate private
jails. The bill was filed in response to an escape of two inmates with violent
records from Integrity Correctional Center, a private jail in Johnson County.
The inmates apparently escaped through an unlocked door and then tunneled under
a fence in the prison recreational area. Integrity officials did not notify the
Johnson County Sheriff’s department until 15 hours after the escape. The MCC
believes several areas should be strengthened in the bill. “While the bill calls
for notifying authorities of any escape, the requirements are incomplete and do
not currently apply as written to all counties and cities,” noted Deacon Larry
Weber, Executive Director of Missouri Catholic Conference. The bill’s provisions
only require reporting of escapes in 3rd and 4th class counties, but not in 2nd
class counties like Johnson County, Missouri where the escape took Missouri
currently has two private jails in operation in the state, yet there are no
state laws regulating the operation of these facilities. SB 44 proposes to
establish guidelines for the operation of private correctional facilities. “The
provisions in SB 44 are a very small step in the right direction, but they go
nowhere near far enough to protect the public from danger and liability,” says
Weber.
October 4, 2008 Herald-Tribune
State Representative David Pearce, R-121 and candidate for the Missouri
State Senate District 31, is proposing legislation that will require private
jails to report certain incidents to local law enforcement. The legislation
would require private jails to notify local law enforcement immediately upon the
escape of prisoners. Also a reasonable effort must be made to notify local
landowners and residents. The legislation is prompted by the recent escape of
two prisoners at the ICC private jail in western Johnson County near Holden. The
Sheriff's office was not notified until 15 hours after the escape. The
legislation has the complete support of Johnson County Sheriff Charles Heiss.
"We welcome legislation that will help protect our citizens. We applaud Rep.
Pearce on this proposed legislation and look forward to working with him to make
this happen," Heiss said. "The Department of Corrections is supportive of
Representative Pearce's proposal, it will ensure that the safety of citizens in
the community is the number one priority," said Larry Crawford, Director of the
Department of Corrections. Also showing support for the proposal was Cass County
Sheriff Dwight Diehl, Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman, Executive Director of
the Missouri Sheriffs Association Mick Covington, President of the Missouri
Deputy Sheriffs Association Dave Boehm, Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Lynn
Stoppy, Holden Police Chief Rick Martin and Holden Mayor Mike Wakeman. The
legislation would also require private jails to notify local law enforcement of
all incidents of assaults, injuries and death. Penalty provisions could include
fines and possible criminal penalties for those individuals who knowingly
violate the law.
September 29, 2008 FOX 4 News
Prompted in part by a series of FOX 4 stories, a Missouri lawmaker is
announcing legislation aimed at private jails that would demand oversight where
none currently exists. The move comes one month after two inmates escaped from a
private jail near Holden, Missouri. Surveillance video showed two inmates
escaping through a back door at the Integrity Correctional Center, but the jail
said it didn't realize the men were gone until the next afternoon. The sheriff
said it was nearly four hours later that he was notified and even later for
surrounding neighbors. "This would be one of the first pieces of legislation I
would file on December 1," Rep. David Pearce said. Now State Rep. Pearce,
surrounded by law enforcement leaders, said he's filing a bill to hold private
jails accountable. Long before the escape, FOX 4 told you about an inmate who
died at ICC, and a guard who was attacked, but whose assault was never reported
to the sheriff by the privately owned jail. "When you're in that profit driven
business and your overhead begins to grow and your profit margin begins to
shrink, you begin to take short cuts and people get hurt," Johnson County,
Missouri Sheriff Charles Heiss said. That's why the sheriff says ICC needs
oversight, something the jail's own director, David Burris, said he embraces. He
wouldn't consent to an on-camera interview but said the jail already does nearly
everything the legislation would mandate. Integrity Correctional Center likes to
advertise itself as a minimum level detention center, but the two man who
escaped last month were both maximum level inmates. "You don't want to house a
maximum level security person right next to a minimum security person so that
will certainly be something we consider," Rep. Pearce said. Rep. Pearce said the
jail could face fines and legal penalties if it doesn't report crimes and jail
escapes in a timely manner. He said the goal isn't to put private jails out of
business, just to regulate them like any other business. As for the two men who
escaped: one was caught in Kansas City, Kansas and the other remains on the
loose. The jail admits that it's still not sure how they escaped.
September 1,
2008 FOX 4 News
A jail break by two inmates at a privately run jail has the sheriff and
neighbors in Johnson County, Missouri furious. It appears the two escapees had a
huge head start before anyone was notified. There is still no sign of the
escapees who were last seen at the Integrity Correctional Center at about 5 a.m.
Sunday in Centerview, about 50 miles southeast of Kansas City. The sheriff
wasn't notified until 1 p.m. and neighbors found out even later. Anthony Eisele
and Rob Mills were both awaiting trial in Wyandotte County, Kansas for serious
felonies. Eisele is accused of aggravated kidnapping, robbery and burglary.
Mills was charged with assaulting a police officer and is a listed sex offender
in Kansas. "I was very upset, upset with the jail for not notifying us,"
neighbor Katherine Clifton said. Clifton can see the jail from her backyard.
Sheriff deputies knocked on her door 6 p.m. Sunday, some 12 hours after the
escape might have happened. "Could have been in my car without me expecting it.
At least if I'd have known there was something going on I could have been
aware," Clifton said. The 200 bed jail doesn't answer to the sheriff or even the
state. It's privately run and claims it's Christian based. FOX 4 Problem Solvers
first reported on the jail two years ago after former guards told us the place
was a disaster waiting to happen: lax security and understaffed, charges the
jail disputed. The sheriff said at the time of the escape one female, unarmed,
was in charge of nearly 50 male inmates at the dorm where the escape began. The
two escapees would have had to crawl under or over two fences to get out. "If
they had time to climb the fence there's not enough guards to watch," Mike
Bolyard said. The sheriff admits he has not had a search crew looking for the
men on Monday. He assumes they left the area. Neighbors wonder if the two men
might have hopped a train because tracks run right next to the jail. "I mean you
just never know where they're at right now. I mean the train slows down and
sometimes it even stops there," Bolyard said. Neighbors said the jail promised
six years ago, when it first opened, to notify them immediately if there was
ever an escape. Instead the jail's director Dave Burris is keeping quiet,
ignoring neighbors and us. "I think it should be shut down," Clifton said.
Neighbors tried to stop this jail from moving in six years ago but Johnson
County, Missouri had no zoning to stop it. The sheriff believes the two escapees
could be heading to Kansas, where they are from. He said they should be
considered extremely dangerous.
October 27, 2006 AP
For those who knew and cared about Angela Lockridge, this much was clear:
she could be difficult. At 42, she was mentally retarded, epileptic and
dependent on medication to treat her borderline personality disorder. But
nothing prepared her family and friends for the way Lockridge died: alone in a
segregated cell in one of Missouri's private jails, which are run without state
oversight or standards. Operators of the Integrity Correctional Centers in rural
Johnson County were told the cause of death was epilepsy, a neurological
condition that causes seizures. But Johnson County Sheriff Charles Heiss, who
led the investigation into Lockridge's death and has found no evidence of
criminal wrongdoing, nevertheless has been angered by the prison's "guarded"
response to his probe and obstacles blocking his way to potential witnesses.
Heiss, an outspoken critic of private jails and prisons, blames those obstacles
on the manner in which private jails are operated and at least in part on the
lack of state standards and oversight. "Am I surprised she died? No," Heiss
said. "Am I upset and concerned about her death? Yes." Bernie Zarda, president
of ICC, defends his "Christian-owned and operated" prison. He says although
there is no state or federal oversight of his facility, oversight of ICC rests
with the cities and counties that send their inmates there. He also questioned
the motives for the investigation. "I am not really sure why there has been an
ongoing investigation," Zarda said. "The sheriff is giving information that
makes us look not so great. We run a very top-notch, first-class facility with
some 20 jurisdictions in Kansas and Missouri, and we have never had a death
before. Sharon Dolovich, a law professor at UCLA who has written extensively
about private prisons, said while there are several concerns about private
prisons just as there are about government-run prisons, a major problem in
private facilities is staffing. The median annual earnings for prison guards in
2004 was $33,750 at state prisons, $33,080 at local jails and $21,490 at private
prisons, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "The one meaningful
difference is the dramatic under-investment in labor (in private prisons),"
Dolovich said. "The way private prisons make their money is by spending less on
their labor; they pay them less, they train them less and they give them fewer
benefits. "There are predictable effects of doing that." She pointed to a study
from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance that compared
inmate assaults in public prisons over a year with that of private facilities
over the same period. The survey found 25.4 incidents for every 1,000 inmates in
public prisons, compared with 35.1 incidents in private facilities. "I would put
what we know about the profit incentives together with what we know about the
failures of monitoring and other forms of oversight," Dolovich said in an
e-mail. "When we do that, it seems to me, we have both an explanation for the
greater levels of violence in private prisons suggested by the older studies,
and reason to continue to expect greater levels of violence in private prisons
going forward." But Paul Doucette, spokesman for the Association of Private
Corrections and Treatment Organizations, says private facilities are a necessary
alternative to overcrowding in the public prisons and have become more popular
with the federal government, largely because of the influx of immigrants and
refugees. "Research would indicate a quality of operations in private prisons
every bit as good or better than the government-run facilities," Doucette said.
"There's no cutting of corners and diminishing of services. Lockridge was
confined to a segregated cell in a male dorm at ICC on Aug. 1 because she had
been making herself throw up. "She was sticking her finger down her throat, and
they asked her to stop and help clean it up and some other things," Zarda said.
She was found dead in the cell the next morning. Neer had never known his sister
to make herself vomit. If Lockridge was throwing up, he said, it was because she
was sick. Neer also wondered if Lockridge had received any of her medications
while incarcerated. The prison did not respond to requests for Lockridge's
medical records. Most inmate death investigations involving county jails last
about a week, Heiss said. This one took him more than a month to wrap up. He
said ICC policies and procedures slowed him down. When he tried to interview
inmates who were witnesses, ICC told him he needed the approval of the county or
city that sent those inmates to ICC. Some jurisdictions complied immediately.
Wyandotte County, Kan., did not respond to his calls. "We should have been able
to get to these inmates in a matter of days," Heiss said. "And some of the
inmates I wouldn't even begin to know where they are now." Heiss found other
problems as well, including prison logs that showed Lockridge had not been
checked on hourly as ordered after she was put in segregation. Zarda called it a
clerical error. "We have an officer who failed to log her checks every time,"
Zarda said. "But she was checked every hour."
Joplin City Jail
Joplin, Missouri
GRW
August 11, 2008 Joplin Globe
Joplin will take over operations of the city jail and a transportation service
instead of contracting the services to outside vendors, the City Council decided
Monday night. The decision was based on a projection that the city could save
more than $800,000 over the next five years by taking over the operations. The
council made the decision at a work session that preceded a “City Hall in the
Park” informal session at the Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center in
Wildcat Park. Budget director Leslie Jones told the council that the Metro Area
Publictransit System contract was bid out last year, and the contracted
operator, Access Transit, recently notified the city that it cannot honor the
contract beyond Oct. 31 because of the increased cost of fuel. The jail contract
with GRW, of Brentwood, Tenn., expires Oct. 31.
May 14, 2007 Joplin Globe
A Joplin city jail inmate is dead after he was found hanging from the
ceiling of the jail about 7:34 a.m. today. According to Lt. Geoff Jones of the
police department, attempts to revive the man were unsuccessful. He was being
held in a two-person cell by himself awaiting court in Joplin and possible
extradition to Greene County. Detectives with the Joplin Police Department are
investigating the death and an autopsy is scheduled for later today. The name of
the vicitm is being withheld pending notification of family members. The Joplin
City Jail is operated by GRW Corporation, a private security company. Jones said
this is the first in-custody death at the Joplin jail since 1997, when GRW took
over day-to-day operations.
Midwest Security Housing
Pattonsburg, Missouri
Midwest Security
May 30, 2007 Des Moines Register
An escaped Missouri convict was captured in Des Moines today, said Neil
Shultz of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Abdul Jackson had been missing since
Friday from the Midwest Security Housing in Pattonsburg, Mo. He was arrested at
3422 S.W. Eighth St. Shultz said he understood Jackson’s mother lives at the
house. Shultz said Jackson, who was considered dangerous by authorities, was
arrested without incident. Jackson is a Polk County inmate who was in Missouri
due to jail crowding, Shultz said. He was being held on possession with intent
to deliver crack cocaine, burglary, traffic and a plethora of other charges.
Shultz said Jackson will now also be charged with escape from custody. Midwest
Security Housing is a privately operated prison in Missouri, used frequently by
Polk County to house inmates. Shultz said the facility is "secure" but
"sometimes, things happen. We’re glad we have him in custody again.” Jackson is
currently being held in the Polk County Jail. "I don't anticipate we'll be
sending him back to Missouri," Shultz said.
Missouri Legislature
March 13, 2009 Columbia Missourian
With nearly unanimous support, the state Senate passed a bill Thursday that
would, for the first time, make private jails in Missouri subject to state
oversight. The bill would also require jails to notify local police officials
when an inmate escapes, a reaction to a September incident in which two
prisoners fled a private jail near Kansas City and the sheriff's office was not
informed for hours. Missouri's two private jails, located in Bethany and Holden,
house out-of-state inmates moved because of overcrowding. The Holden facility
was the site of last year's escape. Bill sponsor Sen. David Pearce,
R-Warrensburg, says his legislation would ensure that all jails housing
convicted felons are held accountable for reporting incidents like the one in
Holden. "Right now, with these jails there is no accountability, no regulation,
no oversight," he said. "What this bill tries to do is at least set standards
and not have these sort of rogue prisons that are not part of society." The bill
seeks to hold private jails to the same standards as county jails and state
prisons. It also authorizes the state to fine jails that do not report escapes
in a "timely" manner, which Pearce said was designed to avoid a repeat of last
year's escape. In September, two prisoners from Kansas City, Kan., escaped from
the Holden facility, located in Pearce's district. They escaped at about 5 a.m.,
according to news reports, but the Johnson County sheriff's office was not
notified until 1 p.m. that day, and local residents were not informed until even
later. According to Pearce, it was not a crime for the prisoners to flee,
something he said makes no sense. "It's not a crime to escape from a private
jail," he said. "Once the prison told Johnson County about the escape, the
sheriff's office said there was nothing they could do because no crime was
committed, and Kansas had to re-introduce charges to arrest them. That's crazy
and shouldn't happen again."
February 27, 2009 KSHB TV
The Missouri Catholic Conference is critical of a
proposed private jail bill they believe falls short of protecting citizens. The
Missouri Senate is poised to debate Senate Bill 44 and the Missouri Catholic
Conference is seeking additional protections in the private jail bill. The bill,
sponsored by Sen. David Pearce (R-Warrensburg), proposes to regulate private
jails. The bill was filed in response to an escape of two inmates with violent
records from Integrity Correctional Center, a private jail in Johnson County.
The inmates apparently escaped through an unlocked door and then tunneled under
a fence in the prison recreational area. Integrity officials did not notify the
Johnson County Sheriff’s department until 15 hours after the escape. The MCC
believes several areas should be strengthened in the bill. “While the bill calls
for notifying authorities of any escape, the requirements are incomplete and do
not currently apply as written to all counties and cities,” noted Deacon Larry
Weber, Executive Director of Missouri Catholic Conference. The bill’s provisions
only require reporting of escapes in 3rd and 4th class counties, but not in 2nd
class counties like Johnson County, Missouri where the escape took Missouri
currently has two private jails in operation in the state, yet there are no
state laws regulating the operation of these facilities. SB 44 proposes to
establish guidelines for the operation of private correctional facilities. “The
provisions in SB 44 are a very small step in the right direction, but they go
nowhere near far enough to protect the public from danger and liability,” says
Weber.
October 4, 2008 Herald-Tribune
State Representative David Pearce, R-121 and candidate for the Missouri
State Senate District 31, is proposing legislation that will require private
jails to report certain incidents to local law enforcement. The legislation
would require private jails to notify local law enforcement immediately upon the
escape of prisoners. Also a reasonable effort must be made to notify local
landowners and residents. The legislation is prompted by the recent escape of
two prisoners at the ICC private jail in western Johnson County near Holden. The
Sheriff's office was not notified until 15 hours after the escape. The
legislation has the complete support of Johnson County Sheriff Charles Heiss.
"We welcome legislation that will help protect our citizens. We applaud Rep.
Pearce on this proposed legislation and look forward to working with him to make
this happen," Heiss said. "The Department of Corrections is supportive of
Representative Pearce's proposal, it will ensure that the safety of citizens in
the community is the number one priority," said Larry Crawford, Director of the
Department of Corrections. Also showing support for the proposal was Cass County
Sheriff Dwight Diehl, Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman, Executive Director of
the Missouri Sheriffs Association Mick Covington, President of the Missouri
Deputy Sheriffs Association Dave Boehm, Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Lynn
Stoppy, Holden Police Chief Rick Martin and Holden Mayor Mike Wakeman. The
legislation would also require private jails to notify local law enforcement of
all incidents of assaults, injuries and death. Penalty provisions could include
fines and possible criminal penalties for those individuals who knowingly
violate the law.
Potosi
Correctional Center
Potosi, Missouri
Correctional Medical Services
January 1, 2006 Daily Journal
A former nurse for Correctional Medical Services has been charged for allegedly
stealing prescriptions from the Potosi Correctional Center. Lisa Peery, 41, of
Farmington, was recently charged with one Class A misdemeanor count of stealing.
If convicted, she could be sentenced to a year in the county jail or fined
$1,000. Peery worked as a nurse for Correctional Medical Services under a
contract with the Missouri Department of Corrections. According to court
records, Peery stole prescription medications and medical supplies from the unit
and took them to her house. The thefts reportedly occurred between January and
June of this year. The medications that were removed include a dosage of
Vistaril, used for the treatment of anxiety and tension, that was prescribed to
an offender at Potosi and a dosage of Cogentin, which is used in the treatment
of Parkinson's Disease, that was prescribed to another offender there.
Ray
County
Ray County, Missouri
Correctional Medical Services
January 13, 2004
A man who escaped from a private jail in Ray
County turned himself in early today after being missing for several hours.
Officers said Frank Randal
Lumley, 42, escaped about 4:20 a.m. from a private jail in Henrietta, Mo. Lumley
attacked a security guard and stole the man's keys, said Ray County Sheriff Sam
Clemens. (The Kansas City Star)
Richard Bolling Federal Building
Kansas City, Missouri
Aramark
November 5, 2009 InfoZine
Matt J. Whitworth, United States Attorney for the Western District of
Missouri, announced that the former food service director at the Richard Bolling
Federal Building in Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty in federal court to
assisting an illegal alien who was using a false Social Security number in order
to work in the cafeteria. Christopher Wenell, 44, waived his right to a grand
jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays this afternoon to a
federal information that charges him with Social Security fraud. Wenell was the
Food Service Director for Aramark Services, Inc., the contractor which operates
the cafeteria in the federal building. Wenell admitted that he recruited Luis
Carreon, an illegal alien from Mexico, to work for Aramark. Between Dec. 9,
2005, and Sept. 25, 2007, Wenell assisted Carreon in using false Social Security
cards by re-employing him, knowing that the Social Security cards were false. In
a separate but related case, Carreon was sentenced to two years of probation
after pleading guilty to Social Security fraud and identity theft. In other
related cases, former Aramark employees Felipe Carreon and Francisco J.
Munoz-Carmona, also illegal aliens from Mexico, and Nilda A. Franco and Fania L.
Garza, both illegal aliens from Guatemala, also pleaded guilty and were
sentenced on similar charges contained in a series of indictments returned on
Nov. 6, 2007.
St Louis
Justice Center
St Louis, Missouri
Correctional Medical Services
December 4, 2008 St Louis Post-Dispatch
The family of a woman who died of an asthma attack while being held at the
St. Louis City Justice Center filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against
the medical company providing care at the jail. LaVonda Kimble, 30, died April
11, 2007 of an acute asthma attack. She was supposed to have been released on
bond posted hours earlier in Bel-Nor, which had a traffic warrant against her.
But her release was delayed by a paperwork mixup. The suit alleges that health
workers with Correctional Medical Services failed to properly evaluate Kimble,
provide adequate care, call for emergency help in a timely manner and use an
electric defibrillator to restore her heart rhythm. Kimble's mother, Annie
Kimble, is asking for more than $25,000 in damages on behalf of her grandson.
Documents in the case include a sizzling complaint by one of the St. Louis Fire
Department paramedics called to the scene , who noted that it took up to eight
minutes to get to the patient after arrival at the jail, and that jail nurses
failed to use a defibrillator . The medic also complained in writing that jail
staff distracted medics, and that firefighters who arrived ahead of the medic
crew said they found someone doing CPR by pressing Kimble's stomach instead of
her chest. A St. Louis Corrections Department report of the incident found no
violation of policies or procedures. Officials at Correctional Medical Services,
a national company based in St. Louis, could not be immediately reached.
June 8, 2007 St Louis Post-Dispatch
As city officials dig into a paramedic's claim that poor jail medical care
contributed to the death of a woman held on a traffic charge, they enter a realm
that has vexed comptrollers and courts alike. How do jails and prisons give
inmates the help to which they're legally entitled on what the taxpayers are
willing to pay? Problems most often stem from tight budgets and poor management,
according to industry experts, who say the care nationally is dramatically
better than in decades past. "We've made huge improvements, but there are still
a lot of places that have problems," said Edward Harrison, president of the
National Commission on Correctional Health Care. "The problems that we encounter
are often tied into management and personnel issues, both directly affected by
budgets." St. Louis typically pays more than $5 million a year to a private
contractor, Correctional Medical Services Inc. An official of the Creve
Coeur-based company insisted Thursday that it provides quality care. City Public
Safety Director Sam Simon, whose oversees the city's corrections and fire
departments, promised this week to reconcile their very different conclusions on
what happened the night of April 10. His boss, Mayor Francis Slay, said on his
website Thursday: "An internal investigation was conducted by the Division of
Corrections. However, I am disturbed by the fact that the report showed the
young woman was given treatment for her asthma but none of the medicine was
found in her bloodstream during the initial autopsy report." That discrepancy
has not been explained. LaVonda Kimble, 30, died April 11 of an acute asthma
attack at the St. Louis Justice Center. She was supposed to have been released
on bond posted hours earlier in Bel-Nor, which had a traffic warrant against
her. But her release was delayed by a paperwork mix-up. Documents gathered by a
lawyer for her family included a sizzling complaint by one of the Fire
Department paramedics, who noted that it took up to eight minutes to get to the
patient after arrival at the jail, and that jail nurses failed to use a
defibrillator to try restart her heart. The medic also complained in writing
that jail staff distracted medics, and that firefighters who arrived ahead of
the medic crew said they found someone doing CPR by pressing Kimble's stomach
instead of her chest. A Corrections Department report of the incident found no
violation of policies or procedures. City officials promised further action
after the conflicting accounts became public. They said the health care contract
was first awarded during Mayor Clarence Harmon's administration, before Slay
took office in 2001. A spokesman for Slay said the mayor's office doesn't know
the identity of the five-member panel that selected CMS, because there are
always a number of panels, made up of different people, charged with handling
myriad city contracts. The mayor's office has asked Simon for the names. Simon
told a reporter late Thursday he doesn't know but was working to find out. One
of the nurses on duty when Kimble died, Leamorn D. Wiegert, was disciplined by
the state just four days before the incident, according to the Missouri
Department of Health and Senior Services. Wiegert is a licensed practical nurse;
her license is on probation and she is included on the state employee
disqualification list, which means the state found that she committed an act of
abuse, neglect, misappropriation or falsification. Discipline is extremely rare
for licensed nurses in Missouri. In the past year, only two-tenths of 1 percent
were issued any type of disciplinary action — from censure to license
revocation. Details of the complaint against her were not available. She could
not be reached for comment Thursday. Ken Fields, a spokesman for Correctional
Medical Services, said Thursday he could not talk about the details of the
Kimble case. But he faulted the paramedic's report, saying it included
contradictions and unsubstantiated hearsay.
June 7, 2007 St Louis Post-Dispatch
A delay in letting paramedics into the city jail and "substandard" emergency
care by staff there may have doomed an inmate who suffered an asthma attack,
according to a blistering report by the fire department. One of the paramedics
who treated LaVonda Kimble early April 11 wrote of commonly encountering delays
and apathy on calls to the St. Louis Justice Center, at 200 South Tucker
Boulevard. And autopsy findings obtained Wednesday showed no trace of the drug
that jail nurses said they repeatedly administered to ease Kimble's breathing.
The reports were obtained with a court order by John Wallach, a lawyer
representing Kimble's family in considering a wrongful death lawsuit. He shared
them Wednesday with the Post-Dispatch. "People don't generally die of an asthma
attack when they go to the hospital," Wallach said. "I fully believe our
evidence will show if she was treated properly, she would have been fine." Sam
Simon, the city director of public safety, pledged to learn more about what
happened, and about the medical care provided under contract for more than $5
million a year by Correctional Medical Services. The Creve Coeur-based private
company has come under heavy criticism in Missouri and elsewhere for years.
Kimble, 30, the single mother of a 12-year-old child, wasn't supposed to be in
jail in the first place. Her boyfriend had posted bond for her about 6:30 p.m.
on April 10 in Bel-Nor, which had a traffic warrant against her. That was about
four hours after her arrest by St. Louis police. But a release order went to the
wrong jail, a mistake that wasn't corrected until she was already dying. Kimble
fell ill about 10:20 p.m. According to jail records, she received three separate
treatments of Albuterol, a medication to ease breathing, before she collapsed at
1:25 a.m. Firefighters from nearby Engine Co. 2 arrived at 1:40 a.m. and began
CPR. Medic 5 was five minutes behind, but spent seven or eight minutes
thereafter waiting to get in, according to a report by fire department paramedic
Chastity Girolami. The delay was "detrimental to the patient's outcome,"
Girolami wrote. She said firefighters told her they had arrived to find nurses
trying to perform CPR by compressing Kimble's stomach instead of her chest.
Girolami noted that when medics asked a nurse if she had used an automatic
defibrillator to try to restore Kimble's heartbeat, "She just looked at us and
asked what we were talking about." The jail care was "substandard at best,"
Girolami wrote in her report. She also wrote that a corrections officer
distracted paramedics with questions about their ID numbers while they struggled
to save Kimble's life; the medics twice asked jailers to back off. "She kept
persisting and finally my partner informed the staff that this patient was in
cardiac arrest and basically dying, and they would have to wait," Girolami
wrote. "The staff was surprised at this. They didn't know the patient was in
cardiac arrest." Kimble was rushed to St. Louis University Hospital, where she
died at 2:44 a.m. "This experience at the Justice Center was by far my worst,"
Girolami wrote. She complained, "Every time I've been to the Justice Center, it
takes 10 to 15 minutes to even get to the patient. There is never anyone to
guide us and never any sense of urgency." Her report was one of a variety of
documents Kimble's family has gathered in preparation of a wrongful-death
lawsuit. The autopsy report shows that corrections officials asked for and got a
special toxicology test for Albuterol, and that none was detected. Wallach said
the medical examiner plans to send samples to an outside laboratory for further
testing. "If, in fact, she was not given Albuterol, then the official records
are false," the lawyer said, "If that's the case, LaVonda's civil rights were
blatantly violated and it led to her death." An internal investigation
concluded, "There was no evidence that the Division of Corrections violated any
policies or procedures." But Simon, the public safety director, said Wednesday
there will be an investigation to reconcile reports from the fire department,
corrections department and medical examiner. "We need to conclude our
investigation and determine what happened," Simon said. "What I know is these
are just allegations at this point." Ken Fields, spokesman for Correctional
Medical Services, said he could not comment on a specific patient. However, he
insisted that the jail's medical staff is trained to properly administer life
support techniques, including CPR and use of automated external defibrillators.
"Our services and equipment are in keeping with the standards of care in the
community," Fields said. "All nurses at CMS are licensed by the appropriate
entity and are qualified to provide the care they are asked to provide."
St
Louis Medium Security Institution
St Louis, Missouri
Correctional Medical Services
June 17, 2009 St Louis Post-Dispatch
The family of a nurse who worked at the St. Louis Medium Security
Institution filed a lawsuit Friday claiming she suffered permanent injury when
she was not given prompt medical attention after collapsing at the jail on Hall
Street in March. The suit accuses the city of St. Louis, Correctional Medical
Services, St. Louis Public Safety Director Charles Bryson and two correctional
officers for failing to provide adequate care. Karen Thomas lost consciousness
from an irregular heart rhythm and suffered brain injury, according to the suit.
Her daughter, Jeniece Henderson, claims a properly working defibrillator could
have prevented the injury.
St Louis MetroLink
St Louis, Missouri
Wackenhut (Group 4)
May 21, 2008 River Front Times
Less than two months into a three-year, $13.1 million contract to provide
armed security at MetroLink stations, Metro and the Wackenhut Corporation
abruptly parted ways. Another security company, the Swedish-based Securitas, has
taken over the contract. Its guards began work at Illinois MetroLink locations
last month and at all Missouri stations this past Monday. "The contract is being
terminated with NO FAULT," states the March 25 letter that was written by
Metro's vice president of procurement, Larry Jackson, and cosigned by
Wackenhut's president of security services. The letter was meant to insure that
neither side would sue the other. Whelan Security, based in St. Louis, handled
Metro's security since the late 1990s, but when its contract expired at the end
of 2007, "we wanted to upgrade the level of experience as well as the percentage
of armed guards," says Metro spokeswoman Dianne Williams. (Twenty percent of
Whelan's guards were armed.) Although crime on the city's light rail system is
low, Williams adds, "most folks have armed security guards when guarding people
and property." Last August, five security companies bid on the contract,
including Whelan and Securitas. Though Wackenhut was not the lowest bidder,
Larry Salci, then Metro's CEO, chose the international company headquartered in
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on the basis of technical merits. Under the terms
of the agreement, Wackenhut promised to have 150 armed guards in place on
MetroLink's 22 platforms by February 1. Winning the Metro contract was a piece
of good luck for Wackenhut, which last year lost one of its largest clients, the
Exelon Corporation, after several of its guards at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power
Station in Pennsylvania were discovered sleeping on the job. In the wake of the
embarrassment, Wackenhut's CEO resigned. But the company faced additional
problems, including an August 2006 audit by Miami-Dade County, which revealed
that Wackenhut over-billed the county's transit authority $1.6 million over a
three-year period. The security firm is also bracing to hear the results of an
audit in Milwaukee for not providing proper security on buses. Metro was aware
of Wackenhut's problems when it entered into the contract, but representatives
from the world's largest security firm allayed Metro's concerns about those
issues, says Williams. Metro has weathered its share of adversity in recent
months, culminating in the loss of a $26 million lawsuit against the original
designers of the Shrewsbury MetroLink line. The public-relations nightmare
caused Larry Salci to resign. He was replaced last December by retired United
Van Lines chief Robert Baer. The Wackenhut contract began to leave the tracks
when the company realized it would be unable to meet the February 1 deadline
they agreed to during December negotiations. Clarence Harmon, director of
Wackenhut's St. Louis office, wrote Metro executives in January, informing the
transit agency that it was going to take longer than they'd expected to get its
guards — many of whom had been imported from other locations — licensed to carry
firearms in Illinois and Missouri. "It takes three weeks to get an arms
license," explains Leo Fincher, operations manager of Florissant's Brinkmann
Security, Wackenhut's local subcontractor. (Because Metro is funded by taxpayer
money, Wackenhut was required, by law, to share 14 percent of its contract with
a small or minority-run business.) The licensing process, Fincher says, requires
classes and marksmanship tests. Wackenhut didn't receive the official go-ahead
from Metro until January 16, which left only two weeks to get the guards in
place. "That made it kind of impossible," argues Fincher. On January 21, Harmon,
a former St. Louis mayor and police chief, wrote to Metro executives: "We have
attempted to act in good faith by purchasing the necessary uniforms, firearms,
ammunition, and beginning the pre-hire process. We have incurred thousands of
dollars in expenses by doing this." Metro grudgingly granted Wackenhut a
monthlong extension after learning the company had only 45 guards ready for duty
on February 1. In all, Wackenhut spent $275,000 to get its guards outfitted and
trained, and another $4,000 in advertising to recruit new employees, according
to Fincher. Brinkmann, a much smaller company, spent between $500 and $700 to
prepare each of its eighteen guards. Neither company, says Fincher, was
reimbursed. "Why would they have been [reimbursed]?" asks Dianne Williams. "They
were contractors and they were responsible for hiring their own employees."
Throughout the month of February, tensions began to build between Metro and
Wackenhut, via a series of increasingly testy letters and e-mails, obtained in a
Sunshine Law request by Riverfront Times. Terry Lyles, Metro's director of
procurement, became exasperated by what he considered Wackenhut's slowness in
hiring sufficiently qualified guards. "Mr. Harmon," he wrote on February 15, "we
have reached the point where we either move forward properly and in accordance
with the contractual requirements, or we sever the relationship." To that end,
Lyles demanded that Harmon submit to Metro, within a week, a list of guards and
the necessary paperwork that proved they were qualified to carry weapons in
Illinois and Missouri. Meanwhile, Metro officials grew dissatisfied with the
guards already on duty. Willie McCuller, Metro's director of security and fare
enforcement, wrote a stern letter to Harmon complaining about the performance of
his guards. "During the past two weeks," McCuller wrote on February 20, "I have
personally observed several Wackenhut officers at the Laclede's Landing and
Grand MetroLink Stations who were not performing as expected. They were not
checking tickets, nor were they engaging the traveling public in any fashion. I
brought this to the attention of Wackenhut's management and was informed this
would be addressed both in person and via the monthly newsletter. To date, I
have seen little or no improvement." Harmon promised he'd supervise the guards
more closely, while Wackenhut's regional vice president, Carl Page, said he
would thoroughly examine the qualifications of his personnel. Metro still was
not satisfied. On February 28, two days before it was to assume control of
MetroLink security, Wackenhut still had not produced the list of guards and the
paperwork to verify their qualification for the job. Terry Lyles informed Page
by letter that Metro believed Wackenhut failed to live up to its end of the
bargain and wished to cancel the contract. Brinkmann's Fincher says Wackenhut
does not deserve complete blame for the contract's derailment. "MetroLink can be
impossible to work with," says Fincher. "I don't know if they would have been
happy with anyone. I'm not privy to upper management, but what filters down is
ridiculous." Brinkmann guards were more than happy to provide examples. "There
was no place for us to park," claims Jared Smith. "We had to pay for our own
parking." "There was a lack of restrooms," says Michael Mendenhall, who
sometimes worked at the Grand MetroLink station, one of the two McCuller
complained was poorly staffed. Mendenhall claims only Metro employees had keys
to the bathrooms on the platforms and that he and other Wackenhut and Brinkmann
guards were forced to leave their stations to use public bathrooms outside, a
clear violation of the Metro-Wackenhut contract. "When I worked at Grand,"
Mendenhall adds, "I had to ride to another station." Metro's Williams denies
that Wackenhut and Brinkmann guards were not issued bathroom keys. "That's not
true," she says. "Some of the keys got lost. As soon as we had them remade, we
handed them out with the radios." Wackenhut spokesman Marc Shapiro declined to
comment for this story, as did Clarence Harmon. Securitas spokesman Luke Hutsell
says his company is willing to hire guards who previously worked for Wackenhut.
"But that's dependent upon whether incumbent officers meet our qualifications."
While Wackenhut considers a criminal justice degree sufficient, Securitas only
accepts guards with five years of experience, a military background or police
academy training. That means now many guards, including Mendenhall, will be out
of a job. Hutsell estimates that Securitas will likely retain 20 of the 150
guards presently on Wackenhut's payroll. Brinkmann will find other positions for
its guards, says Fincher, but few of them will be paid $11.30 per hour as
Wackenhut did. "I could find work for $9 an hour," Mendenhall says, "but my wife
and I are buying a house and we're having a baby. I don't want to step
backwards."
April 26, 2008 St Louis Post-Dispatch
Leaders of the Metro public transportation
agency said Friday that a Florida-based security firm was not able to deliver
enough trained security guards to meet deadlines in a MetroLink security
contract. So Metro and the Wackenhut Corp. agreed to part ways late last month,
transit agency President Robert Baer told reporters after Friday's Board of
Commissioners meeting. Metro had heretofore not shed much light on why the
three-year, $13.1 million contract was terminated after only a few months. "It
was around the availability of personnel," Baer said. "The training of
personnel. The certification. Licensing of personnel. Nothing deliberate. It was
just a matter of logistics and timing. We thought that we had laid out a very
specific, step-by-step game plan. There was some dispute about that." Baer said
there will be no financial penalty for ending the contract early. Wackenhut
spokesman Marc Shapiro said he could provide no further details on what led to
the mutual agreement in late March. Securitas Security Services will finish the
three-year contract — and has already assumed responsibility in St. Clair
County. Securitas, which unsuccessfully sought the contract that ultimately was
awarded to Wackenhut, will honor its original bid price of $11.5 million. Baer
said Wackenhut is cooperating in the transition. Clarence Harmon, the former St.
Louis mayor and police chief, is the St. Louis general manager for Wackenhut.
Meantime, Baer stressed that there have been no lapses in security. "That was
not the issue," he said. "It was an issue of availability of people."
Tarkio
Academy
Tarkio, Missouri
Correctional Services Corporation
August 3, 2004
Tarkio Academy, which provides residential treatment for juvenile offenders ages
13-19 who were court-ordered into the system, will be closing its doors on Sept.
19. The decision was handed down by Maryland-based Youth Services
International (YSI) last Friday. Facility administrator Victor Hogan announced
the decision on Monday, July 19, to the 157 employees at the academy.
"We're all pretty disappointed and bent out of shape about it," Hogan
said. "We basically had to start over again. We were making such great
progress toward this becoming a better facility and meeting our requirements. We
just don't understand why the decision was made to close the academy before we
could accomplish all of our goals." Hogan recalled that when he was
introduced as the academy administrator, he knew there were a number of things
that had to be accomplished to satisfy the corporate office's requirements: the
population of students, number of staff members and improved programming were
among the things that were on their list of items to work on. (Maryville
Daily Forum)
Vadalia
Women's Prison
Vadalia, Missouri
Correctional Medical Services
November 26, 2004 AP
The family of a state prison inmate who complained of blinding headaches in the
days before her death has filed a wrongful death suit against the state and the
prison's health-care provider. Al'Deana Simmons, who was incarcerated for
forgery, died in July 2003 at the women's prison in Vandalia of a ruptured brain
aneurysm. She was 33. Her mother, Virginia Terry, and three minor children
through their father are seeking actual and punitive damages, as well as
compensation for attorney's fees. The defendants include Correctional Medical
Services, the Missouri Department of Corrections and several of their employees.
The suit alleges the defendants "were deliberately indifferent in failing
to provide medical care to the decedent in that they were aware of the serious
pain that decedent was experiencing and the blindness she was experiencing, from
which an inference could be drawn that a substantial harm to decedent
existed."
September 2,
2003
Virginia Terry was thankful when her daughter, a drug addict suffering from
bipolar disorder, got locked up at the women's prison in Vandalia, Mo., for a
forgery conviction. "I thought, at least she'd be safe," Terry
recalls. That changed when Terry's daughter, Al'Deana Simmons of Camdenton,
began complaining, in letters and phone calls home, about the type of health
care she was getting behind bars. She said prison doctors changed her
anti-depression medication. She cried about blinding headaches. And Terry will
never forget what Simmons said in their phone conversation July 1, the day
before she died of an apparent aneurysm. "She said her head was
sizzling and that she was going blind," Terry recalls. "The prison
doctor saw her for 10 minutes and said nothing was wrong." The case
of Simmons, 33, is one of many being explored this summer by investigators with
the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in Washington. Investigators
have been to the prison three times and interviewed 127 inmates about the
medical treatment provided by St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services.
They also have met in St. Louis with inmates' relatives, including Terry. She
provided them with her daughter's letters and medical records. CMS won its
first Missouri contract in 1992 under then Gov. John Ashcroft, who now as U.S.
attorney general heads up the Justice Department. Yet, in a move rarely
seen by the Justice Department, Missouri's prison system has denied the
investigators the access they want. The investigators have wanted to see the
infirmary and talk to prisoners and staff at the prison, about 70 miles
northwest of St. Louis. Prison officials wouldn't allow it, instead telling
federal investigators they could talk to prisoners only in the visitation area
during normal visiting hours. That kind of restriction to a prison setting
is rare, happening only a handful of times in the Justice Department's 23 years
of work using the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. The act
was passed by Congress in 1980. It empowers the attorney general to investigate
the conditions at these institutions and file lawsuits to remedy "a pattern
or practice" of unlawful conditions. A spokesman for the Justice
Department declined to comment. Tim Kniest, spokesman for the Missouri
Department of Corrections, said investigators weren't permitted to "walk
around unescorted" because of safety concerns. Kniest said that, if the
investigators make arrangements with the Missouri attorney general's office,
they can have a tour. The investigators work with the Special Litigation
Section of the Civil Rights Division. That section's job is to protect
constitutional rights of people confined to institutions such as state-run
nursing homes and prisons. $80 million a year Correctional Medical
Services is the nation's largest prison health care provider. It has contracts
to provide medical care for about 228,000 inmates and prisoners in 27 states.
In Missouri, CMS' current five-year contract, renewed in late 2001, covers
medical and mental health care for the 29,500 prisoners in Missouri's 21
prisons. The cost to the state is about $80 million a year. It is based on a
fixed per-day price (now at $7.50) for each housed inmate. That cost pays for
everything from Band-Aids and aspirin to inmates' prescriptions and catastrophic
health care. There are about 1,700 female prisoners in the Vandalia
prison. There are women prisoners in Chillicothe, but the federal investigators
have not visited that prison. CMS has been the subject of controversy in
recent years. A five-month investigation by the Post-Dispatch in 1998 found more
than 20 cases nationwide in which prison and jail inmates died as a result of
alleged negligence, indifference, understaffing, inadequate training or cost
cutting by private health care companies. Many of the cases involved CMS.
(STL Today)
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