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Adams County
jail
Brighton, Colorado
Nov 25, 2018 denver.cbslocal.com
Nearly $4M Settlement Reached In Adams County Jail Death
BRIGHTON, Colo. (CBS4) – A medical provider to jails and prisons has
agreed to pay $3.7 million to the family of a man who died while in custody
at the Adams County Jail in 2015. Adams County itself has agreed to pay
$200,000 to the family of Tyler Tabor, bringing the total settlement amount
to $3.9 million. The settlement agreement in the federal lawsuit was only
made public this week, according to documents reviewed by CBS4. Reached by phone
Tuesday morning, David Lane, the attorney for the Tabor family, said he
could not comment pursuant to terms of the settlement agreement. Tabor was
booked into the Adams County Jail on two misdemeanor warrants on May 14,
2015. He told medical personnel he was addicted to opiates. The lawsuit
said his withdrawal symptoms began immediately and that his life could have
been saved if authorities had administered an IV. A deputy later found the
25-year-old man lying the floor of his cell after Tabor had vomited. He was
pronounced dead May 17. The lawsuit claimed Tabor’s death was preventable
and claimed employees of medical provider Corizon Health were deliberately
indifferent and stood by while Tabor’s condition worsened. According to
newly unsealed court documents, Corizon and the Tabor family reached an
agreement to settle the case in June, with the medical provider paying $3.7
million and Adams County chipping in another $200,000. The agreement
contains a “non-disparagement and confidentiality” clause calling for the
Tabor family and their attorneys to not disparage Corizon in any public
statements or on social media. Additionally, the families’ attorneys agreed
not to hold a press conference or “media blitz in any form” although the
agreement says that has been their past practice. The written agreements
say that attorneys fees
and costs in the case amount to $1,645,021.63. Court documents say Corizon
has so far paid $1 million but says it has a “cash flow” problem and will
need to pay the balance in installments by next February. Attorneys for the
Tabor family wrote that they are “fearful that Corizon may be on the verge
of bankruptcy given their inability to pay.” Tabor was married and had a
6-year-old son.
Alabama Department of Corrections
Mar
19, 2016 montgomeryadvertiser.com
Alabama: Partial agreement on fed lawsuit over health care
A partial agreement has been reached in a federal lawsuit filed on
behalf of 25,000 Alabama inmates who attorneys say have been denied medical
treatment. In 2014Chillicothe Correctional Center, the Southern Poverty Law
Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program filed the 140-page
complaint against the Alabama Department of Corrections, then-ADOC
Commissioner Kim Thomas (current Commissioner Jefferson Dunn has since
inherited the suit) and Ruth Naglich, ADOC
associate commissioner of health services. Forty-two prisoners were named
as plaintiffs in the suit, though the suit is still awaiting class action
certification. MHM Correctional Services, Inc. and Corizon Health, Inc,
which were contracted by ADOC, are also movants in the suit. The complaint
contains a laundry list of allegations rooted in ADOC’s “routine and systematic
failure” to provide adequate medical care, which the complaint says has led
to the death and severe injury of multiple inmates. A significant portion
of the suit was aimed at ADOC’s noncompliance with the Americans with
Disabilities Act. It states that prisoners with disabilities are often
housed in facilities that do not accommodate them, and illustrates this by
citing an instance when an inmate in a wheelchair had to maneuver deeper
into Kilby Correctional Facility during a 2014 fire to access a ramp.
Defendants have denied most of the allegations, stating in a court filing
that the plaintiffs’ complaint, “reveals inflammatory, self-serving
statements that inaccurately characterize inmates’ medical and mental
health conditions, ... and demonstrate a basic misunderstanding of
technical medical or mental health terminology.” The portion of the suit
that addresses solely disabled inmates is that part that’s initially been
settled. Mapped out in the settlement is an outline for reform with
treatment of disabled inmates - including improved housing, more thorough
screening and the implementation of a tracking system. Full copies of the
settlement agreement will be made available to inmates in all ADOC prison
libraries, a court document states. “This agreement is an important
commitment by the Alabama Department of Corrections to address the
discrimination and hardship these prisoners have faced for far too long,”
said Maria Morris, SPLC senior supervising attorney in a press release.
“Prisoners with disabilities must have an opportunity to serve the sentence
they have received – not the sentence they must endure because the state
fails to respect their legal rights.” The agreement is awaiting approval by
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, who will hear oral arguments today for
motions filed regarding this suit. Three of those motions were filed by the
plaintiffs. They ask Thompson to compel the defendants and movants to
provide “ improperly withheld documents” from
Corizon, documents relating to Corizon’s mortality review and documents
about prisoners who were sent to the E.R. or hospital. The remaining
elements of the lawsuit, which claim ADOC’s “indifference to the serious
medical needs of prisoners in their custody” and “failure to provide mental
health care” to inmates, are expected to go to trial Oct. 17.
Jan
28, 2015 al.com
Alabama gave a series of failing marks to the medical provider now at the
center of the lawsuit over inmate care. The Alabama Department of
Corrections has not released those failed internal audits to the public.
Instead, an executive for Corizon, which provides inmate health care to
Alabama's 25,100 inmates, talked about the audits at length in a May 2013
deposition obtained by AL.com.
Larry
Linton, Corizon's vice-president for operations, acknowledged the failed
audits, but cast doubt on their conclusions. He called them "contract
compliance" documents that do not focus on patient outcomes. "It
really looks bad to a layperson who doesn't understand all this," Linton
said. "And it would seem odd to me that a company would come in here
and never pass an audit and yet still be here. How is that possible? And I
say it's possible because, in reality, the overall care that's provided is
pretty good." The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit
against Alabama in June, alleging that prisoner health care is inadequate
and unconstitutional. It is set to go to trial in 2016. As part of the
lawsuit, the ADOC agreed earlier this month to stop giving inmates in
mental health unit access to razor blades, as they had in the past.
Corizon, which signed a three-year $224 million contract with the state in
2012 after submitting the only bid for the work, agreed to pay the legal
costs for the suit. Twenty-nine health care audits have been performed at
different prisons in the past four years. Timely and consistent access to
services; continuity of care; infection control; documentation; and other
criteria are measured in the audits. To pass an audit, Corizon must meet 85
percent of standards outlined in the contract. The ADOC declined to release
the audits last month citing pending litigation after AL.com requested them
in September. Legally, there may be no justification to withhold the
records, according to Alabama Press Association general counsel Dennis
Bailey. While state open meetings law does provide an exemption for pending
litigation, state open records law does not. Since then, the ADOC has not
responded to multiple requests from AL.com to cite a legal exemption that
allows them to withhold the reports. An ADOC spokesman said on Thursday
that their legal counsel may have an answer as early as next week. "A
public record does not become protected because of litigation," Bailey
wrote in an e-mail. "If these audits were done before litigation they
are not transformed into secret documents after litigation is filed."
Released in other states, audits have shown mismanagement and insufficient
health on the part of Corizon. In Florida, audits of Corizon's medical care
led the state's department of corrections secretary, Michael Crews, to
assail the firm in a letter to Corizon chief executive officer Woodrow A.
Myers, Jr. The firm had put together a "corrective action plan"
to fix the problems outlined in the audit. "All too often, we are
finding that these corrective action plans are not being carried out and
that the level of care continues to fall below the contractually required
standard," Crews wrote. According to the Associated Press, an audit
last year in Minnesota found that inadequate communication between prison
staff and Corizon doctors during overnight hours "may have been a
contributing factor to inmate deaths." Maria Morris, Southern Poverty
Law Center managing attorney, said her agency has asked for the audits as
well. The ADOC has yet to turn them over. "I would not think there is
any reason for it," Morris said. Morris deposed Linton as part of a
separate federal lawsuit filed by inmate Larry Shepherd against Corizon and
its predecessor firms in April 2012. Shepherd claimed that the medical care
provided to him was cruel and unusual punishment. The case was dismissed is
August 2013. In the deposition, Linton insisted that the care provided by
the company was adequate. He says the prison system takes into account
"health outcomes," rather than just the audit results. "On
the other hand, I fully understand the Department of Corrections'
position," Linton said. "They don't tell us how to practice
medicine, just like we don't tell our doctors how to practice medicine. "They
believe that if we do all of these things, that it leads to a better
product for us, and they are right about that. But we believe looking at
outcomes gives us a better handle on it." A Corizon spokeswoman issued
a statement on Thursday that the ADOC audits "focus on administrative
matters that are not designed to assess the quality of inmate care."
"To assess the quality of care, Corizon Health continually monitors
medical outcomes for its patients, based on objective standards used by the
health care industry at large," the statement said. "We are proud
of the results we have achieved. The statement also said they take the
ADOC's compliance reviews seriously and that Corizon is "proud to have
met the established criteria during the current audit cycle." Asked
for a copy of the most current audit, the Corizon declined, saying that it
is up to the ADOC to release. Here are some other highlights from the
deposition: Linton also mentioned how the use of chain gangs at Limestone
prison in the 1990s sabotaged an ADOC attempt to get the National
Commission on Correctional Health Care to accredit the facility.
Subsequently, the agency told the ADOC commissioner that they
"wouldn't be back." "And I think old memories die hard
sometimes," Linton said. Linton said that Alabama's prison system,
with its aging facilities, could not pass an American Correctional
Association accreditation. "They are just too old, and you can't make
the corrections that need to be made without great expense," Linton
said. One of Corizon's predecessor companies rednegotiated
its contract with the ADOC in 2008 or 2009 for two more years. As part of
the deal, Corizon received less money, Linton said. "... My belief is
the quality of care was improving enough to where our costs were going
down, and that was rebated essentially, through the renegotiation, back to
the client," Linton said. In turn, the questioning attorney responded,
"so ADOC said we'll pay you less because you're providing better
care?" "It's more likely that Corizon said, 'we're willing to
negotiate the price down because the care we're providing is good enough
that our costs are reduced, if you'll give us those two years,'"
Linton said.
Aug
17, 2014 al.com
Powerful firm lobbies for Alabama prison health contractor, then defends
company in court Initially hired to politick for inmate health care
provider Corizon, the powerful Alabama firm is now defending the quality of
the company's medical care in federal court. AL.com is examining the ties
between the state's $224 million prison health care contract with Corizon
and it supporters in light of a lawsuit filed against the state. The
Southern Poverty Law Center filed the suit in federal court two months ago
that claimed the medical care provided to the state's 25,000 inmates was
unconstitutional. Corizon and MHM Health Services, the prison system's
mental healthcare provider, tapped the law firm Maynard, Cooper & Gale
to fight the case at no cost to the state. Maynard Cooper & Gale
employees Linda Maynor and Clay Ryan lobbied for Corizon in 2012, and 2013
and 2014, respectively, Alabama Ethics Commissions reports show. Both
lobbyists are veterans of Alabama politics. Ryan served as special counsel
to Gov. Robert Bentley three years ago, a volunteer position. Maynor, a
volunteer on Bentley's campaign finance committee, earned the designation
of "super ranger" after raising more than $300,000 for President
George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, her Maynard Cooper & Gale
profile states. In 2003, she was named Alabama Republican of the Year and
she served as the Alabama Republican Party's finance chair. When Maynor
worked as a lobbyist for Corizon in 2012, the firm won a 34-month $224
million contract to provide health care for the state's 25,000 inmates. It
was the only firm to submit a bid for the work. Corizon and MHM Health
Services, the state's inmate mental health care provider, hired Maynard
Cooper & Gale to defend the state against a lawsuit the Southern
Poverty Lawsuit filed against it in June that claimed the medical care
provided to inmates was unconstitutional. A report the SPLC released in the
wake of the lawsuit described gruesome prison stories about amputated feet
and toes, gangrenous testicles treated only with ice, scabies outbreaks,
and staph outbreaks. The Alabama Department of Corrections, ADOC
Commissioner Kim Thomas, and the prison system's top health care official
Ruth Naglich, a former executive at two of
Corizon's predecessor companies, are all named as defendants in the SPLC
lawsuit. AL.com previously reported that two firms that employed Naglich's husband were hired by Corizon to X-ray
Alabama inmates since 2007. State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, vowed to
question prison officials in the upcoming weeks about the quality of
Corizon's healthcare and the X-ray work. The Lobbyists In addition
to serving as Bentley's special counsel, Ryan served as Bentley's
transition coordinator, where he oversaw cabinet hiring and inauguration
planning, his Maynard Cooper & Gale website profile states. He was also
counsel for the governor's emergency relief fund, which was established by
Bentley to aid those harmed by the 2011 tornados, Maynard Cooper &
Gale's website shows. Jennifer Ardis, Bentley's spokeswoman, said Ryan
de-registered as a lobbyist when he volunteered as Bentley's special counsel.
Maynor has been active in politics since 1986 and has managed political
campaigns and fundraised for Republicans at the state and federal levels.
Former Gov. Bob Riley selected her to serve on his Education Spending
Commission and Riley also appointed her to serve on the Alabama Certificate
of Needs Board. Maynor also works with members of the United States Senate
and the U.S. House of Representatives. Bentley's campaign spokeswoman,
Rebekah Mason, said Maynor helps raise money for Bentley "like hundreds
of other volunteers who believe in the Governor's successful record of job
creation." Messages for Corizon, Ryan and Maynor were not returned.
December
1, 2009 Huntsville Times
State prison officials today released a 795-page report showing Farron Barksdale, who killed two police officers, died
from hypothermia after being heavily medicated with anti-psychotic drugs.
Barksdale, 32, of Athens, sentenced to life without parole after pleading
guilty to capital murder in the shooting deaths of two Athens police officers,
died Aug. 20, 2007, after he was found unconscious in his prison cell.
After he was rushed to a Montgomery hospital, it was discovered he had
several large, fresh-looking, bruises around his waist, arms, legs, elbows
and knees. But Sarah Geraghty, senior attorney for the Southern Center for
Human Rights in Atlanta, said questions still remain about how Barksdale
received such extensive bruising. The report said Barksdale was given
several different drugs that could cause bruising. And they noted the
special seat belts used to transport Barksdale from the Limestone County
Jail to the Kilby Correctional Facility could also have been responsible
for some of the bruises. When a private ambulance company was summoned to
take Barkdale to the hospital after he collapsed,
according to the report, paramedic Angela Anderson said she "found
patient lying on treatment table by himself with distressed respirations,
unresponsive; no medical personnel in room; saw bruises on his body on
abdominal and pelvic area; noted they were unusual for size and location .
. . "Patient had no oxygen therapy being (administered and) there was
no medical personnel in the room (with) the patient the entire time while
on scene only DOC personnel. Patient had several bruises throughout body
major-sized bruises noted anterior on lower abdomen/pelvic area measuring
in comparison to a salad plate covering most of the area from hip joint
area to umbilicus. "Color of bruises indicate newly sustained. Patient
also had bruising to both forearms posterior area in same color as ones
noted to abdomen/pelvic area." In addition, Heath Bruner, an EMT, was
quoted in the report as noting "massive" bruising on both sides
of pelvis. He also noted there were no nurses present in the room with
Barksdale at Kilby. Barksdale's mother, Mary, earlier this year won
$750,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit against former Kilby Warden Arnold
Holt, Dr. Joseph McGinn of MHM Correctional Services in Vienna, Va., and
Dr. Arnold Holt of Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn. Ken Williams,
general counsel for the Corrections Department, said Tuesday that McGinn
was responsible for prescribing the drugs to Barksdale and leaving him in
an unairconditioned cell rather than transferring him to an air-conditioned
mental health unit.
September
24, 2009 Huntsville Times
The mother of an inmate who died a few days after entering a state prison
was awarded $750,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit against prison officials
and a mental health provider. The money was awarded to Mary Barksdale, the
mother of Farron Barksdale, 32, of Athens who
died Aug. 20, 2007, after he was found unconscious in his Kilby Prison
cell. "We reached what we believed to be a fair settlement in light of
what we knew of the troubling circumstances surrounding Mr. Barksdale's
demise while in state custody," Sarah Geraghty, senior attorney for
the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, said Wednesday.
"Some facts surrounding the death, however, remain a mystery to this
day due to the department's policy against releasing records on deaths in
custody." Jake Watson, a Huntsville attorney who also represented Mary
Barksdale, said Wednesday, "In light of all the circumstances, I think
that was the best settlement." The state Department of Corrections was
not a defendant in the case. According to the settlement agreement filed in
U.S. District Court in Montgomery, former Kilby Warden Arnold Holt was
ordered to pay $300,000 to the settlement, Dr. Joseph McGinn of MHM
Correctional Services in Vienna, Va., was to contribute $370,000, and Dr.
Arnold Holt of Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn., was to pay
$80,000. MHM provides mental health services for the Department of
Corrections. The suit alleged that Barksdale, who suffered from
schizophrenia, died because of "the deliberate indifference, medical
neglect and negligence" of the prison staff.
September
23, 2009 Huntsville Times
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of an inmate who died just 12
days after entering prison has been settled with the state Department of
Corrections, her lawyers said Tuesday. Though the terms were not disclosed,
the settlement was also confirmed by state prison Commissioner Richard
Allen. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Montgomery on behalf of
Mary Barksdale, the mother of Farron Barksdale,
32, of Athens, who died Aug. 20, 2007, after he was found unconscious in
his Kilby Prison cell. Barksdale, who pleaded guilty to capital murder in
the shooting death of two Athens police officers, had been transferred to the
prison just three days earlier to begin serving a sentence of life without
parole. Mary Barksdale, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, was
represented by Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for the Atlanta-based Southern
Center for Human Rights, and Huntsville attorney Jake Watson. Geraghty and
Watson confirmed that Mary Barksdale was awarded a cash settlement, but
they would not disclose the amount. The defendants in the suit were former
Kilby Warden Arnold Hold, Drs. Michael Robbins and Joseph McGinn, two
unnamed correctional officers, an unnamed medical worker and Vienna, Va.,
based MHM Correctional Services. MHM provides mental health services for
the Department of Corrections. The suit alleged that Barksdale, who
suffered from schizophrenia, died because of "the deliberate
indifference, medical neglect and negligence" of the prison staff.
"Mr. Barksdale was medicated with an unusually large dose of
psychotropic medications that made his body unable to withstand high
temperatures, confined to an isolation cell with a medically dangerous
degree of heat and left there without adequate monitoring," the
complaint said. "He fell into a coma and died." The complaint
said Barksdale was not placed in Kilby's mental health unit, which is air-conditioned.
On the day he was found unresponsive in his cell, the temperature in
Montgomery was 106 degrees. Kilby is located just east of Montgomery. On
that day, the complaint said, correctional officers found Barksdale in a
coma, "snoring and moaning," with a temperature of 103.1 degrees.
He was taken to the hospital but never regained consciousness after eight
days. An autopsy said he died of pneumonia and complications from
hypothermia and a blood-clotting problem, and that bruises on his upper
body and hip did not contribute to his death. A state prison inmate later
wrote in an Oct. 24, 2008, letter to Montgomery County Circuit Judge Eugene
Reese that Barksdale was severely beaten by four prison guards. Allen asked
the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Corrections'
Department of Investigations and Intelligence to reopen the investigation
into Barksdale's death, but the results of that probe have never been
released. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Department of
Corrections must comply with the state's Open Records law and make records
available on crimes committed within prisons. The Southern Center for Human
Rights had sued over that issue. Despite the high court's 5-0 ruling, Allen
said Friday state attorneys may ask for a rehearing.
September
6, 2007 Huntsville Times
The state corrections commissioner was questioned by legislators
Wednesday over a $233.73 million contract for health care for Alabama's
nearly 26,000 inmates. Commissioner Richard Allen is seeking approval of a
three-year contract with St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services Inc.
CMS would take over a contract now held by Prison Health Services Inc., of
Brentwood, Tenn. Sen. Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville, a retired physician,
endorsed the CMS contract, which would have two potential one-year
renewals. "I have a keen interest in (prisons), particularly the
health care," Griffith told the committee. "We're rapidly moving
into the baby boomers going through the prison system just like we're going
through it outside the prison system." Griffith said health care for
convicts is a "major, major cost factor" for the state, but he
added that "we're capping it with this contract and I think it's well
thought out." The committee has the power to delay the contract for 45
days but cannot stop it from being enacted. Some members of the Joint
Legislative Contract Review Committee questioned Allen about members of his
staff who formerly worked for the two private companies and were involved
in the selection process for CMS. A third company that submitted a
proposal, Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources, was represented by an
attorney who said he will ask for an explanation of the grading process
when the committee meets again today. Allen acknowledged that Wexford's bid
was about $6 million lower than CMS. "We evaluated the contracts very
carefully," said Allen. "All the bidders were told that price
would be 40 percent of the score and other things - innovations, cost
savings, those types of things - would be scored 60 percent." Allen
said Wexford scored third. Rep. Blaine Galliher,
R-Gadsden, said he was concerned that Department of Corrections employees
who formerly worked for CMS and PHS were on the team that graded proposals
submitted by the three companies. But Allen defended the process, calling
prison health care "a very narrow specialty." "If you look
at the resumes of these (DOC) people, they have worked for several
companies, not just this company (CMS)," he said. "Nobody in our
department has worked for this company in the last six or seven years.
They've also worked for PHS. They've also worked for about a dozen other
companies. They go back and forth between the companies and state
service."
August
17, 2007 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc. said Thursday that its Prison Health Services
subsidiary would lose its contract with the Alabama Department of
Corrections. The contract expires on Oct. 31. PHS provides medical services
to inmates. Brentwood-based America Service Group said it would update its
fourth-quarter earnings estimate later. It had projected revenues from a
renewed contract of $12.3 million in the three months ending Dec. 31.
April
16, 2007 The Press-Register
Some members of a legislative oversight committee contend that Gov. Bob
Riley's administration broke the law on three no-bid contracts by failing
to submit them to the panel months ago. "If you have got a law, all
departments in the Riley administration have to follow the law," said
state Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, a committee member. "The same
law applied to Don Siegelman that applies to the Riley
administration." During Riley's 2002 campaign for a first term, the
Republican blasted then-Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat, for his
administration's handling of no-bid contracts. Ken Wallis, legal advisor to
Riley, said recently that the administration is "absolutely"
following state law regarding all contracts, including the three questioned
by some lawmakers. One of the three was an emergency contract -- for prison
health services -- that was used for four months before the administration
submitted the permanent deal to the committee. Panel members said they
learned about the other two contracts through reporters. The prison
contract totaled more than $56 million, while each of the others was for $60,000
or less.
February
23, 2006 Montgomery Advertiser
The fact that incoming prison commissioner Richard Allen, who takes over
next week, has no previous experience in corrections has been widely noted.
Given Allen's demonstrated abilities throughout a distinguished career,
there is no reason Alabamians should be concerned about that. In fact, the
fresh perspective he will bring to the Department of Corrections is likely
to be an asset. Allen surely will be attuned to apparent conflicts of
interest such as the one involving a prison health care monitor. In that
case, the Birmingham News reported this week, a nurse hired by the
department to monitor health care delivered under a contract with an
outside provider came directly from that provider. One day he was working
for the provider, and the next day he was being paid to monitor the work of
that provider. That was a dubious arrangement in itself, but the situation
was made even more questionable when the nurse resigned his monitor's job
with DOC after working only a few weeks to return to his former employer.
He has since rescinded the resignation and remains with DOC. This is an
unacceptable situation that cannot engender any confidence in the proper
delivery of health care to inmates or the proper oversight of health care
delivery by the prison system. In order to have any credibility, a monitor
cannot have such ties to the operator being monitored. Allen will have a
stack of problems on his desk when he walks in for his first day as
commissioner on Wednesday, foremost among them the chronic overcrowding of
the prison system. As he wrestles with that daunting challenge, however, he
also must take a newcomer's clear-eyed look at issues such as too-close
connections between the department and outside contractors.
February
18, 2006 Birmingham News
A nurse hired by the state prison system last month to monitor its
medical contract had until then worked for the company he was hired to keep
tabs on. After a few weeks on the job, nurse Brandon Kinard resigned from
the state to return to Prison Health Services, then rescinded his
resignation Friday. Despite earlier plans to go back to the company, Kinard
will remain a regional clinical manager with the Department of Corrections
assigned to make sure PHS does an adequate job, prisons spokesman Brian
Corbett said. The state pays Kinard a $59,000 annual salary. He is one of
several regional managers who oversee quality control, protocols and
contract compliance, specifically DOC's $143 million contract with PHS, a
Tennessee-based company that has come under scrutiny in several states on
allegations of placing economic interests above patient care. Kinard's boss
at DOC, Associate Commissioner Ruth Naglich,
ultimately is in charge of making sure the company lives up to its contract.
She also has ties to PHS, where she was vice president for sales and
marketing before taking the state job. Kinard's employment falls within a
gray area of state ethics law, officials say. Attorneys who represent
prisoners treated by PHS say it's a conflict of interest even though it may
be legal. "I don't know if it violates any state laws. But effective
monitoring of a private company by the state Department of Corrections
needs to be done by people who are independent of the medical company and independent
of the DOC, and this is ..... something that would
seem to prevent effective monitoring," said Joshua Lipman, an attorney
with the Southern Center for Human Rights. Previous state monitoring
efforts have resulted in DOC's withholding payments to PHS because the
company failed to fulfill minimal contract staffing levels. The state
withheld $1.2 million last year when monitors found the provider did not
have enough doctors, nurses, administrators and support staff in the
prisons, and later withheld $580,000 as a performance penalty. Kinard first
worked for PHS at Hamilton Aged and Infirm. He worked both as a director of
nursing and in an administrative position, making decisions about patient
health care. He'd been with the company since November 2003, when PHS
received the Alabama contract. He also had worked in prison medicine with
companies that previously contracted with the state. Kinard began his job
at DOC the first week in January. In early February, he submitted his
resignation, effective Feb. 24, to return to PHS. A day after The News
contacted PHS about the situation, Kinard rescinded his resignation,
staying with the DOC job. Alabama ethics law prevents state employees from
immediately accepting jobs at companies they audited, investigated or
regulated for the state, said Hugh Evans, general counsel at the Alabama
Ethics Commission. There has not been a ruling on whether that includes
returning to jobs they came from. "Under the ethics law, if you are
involved in auditing, investigating or regulating a private entity, that
would include monitoring or awarding a contract to a private entity, you
can't go to work for them for two years," Evans said. However, he
said, "The issue is somewhat muddied, if that person is returning to
the status quo. It could be a cause for concern."
July 16, 2005 AP
A court-appointed monitor warns that erratic treatment of HIV-positive
inmates in an Alabama prison could develop into treatment-resistant
AIDS. A new report by Dr. Joseph Bick issued that warning. It came a
year after the state Department of Corrections agreed to improve medical
treatment for the HIV-positive prisoners. Bick documented four types
of "sub-optimal" HIV treatment at Limestone Correctional
Facility, where more than 200 HIV-positive inmates are housed.
A California expert in prison medicine, Bick was appointed by U.S.
Magistrate Judge John Ott to visit Limestone four times a year and evaluate
whether the state and its medical contractor provided dozens of
improvements required in a lawsuit settlement. Although state
officials promised in the settlement last year to hire an HIV specialist
for the men, there has not been one during much of the year, leading to
erratic treatment. Tennessee-based Prison Health Services, the
private company that oversees care in Alabama prisons, says many of the
problems Bick found were related to that position's being vacant.
"It's difficult to recruit a highly qualified HIV specialist,
especially to a rural area," the company said in a statement
Friday. Two specialists PHS previously hired left the job within
weeks or months. Bick warned that the mistakes in previous care could
have irreversibly harmed patients. During his week-long visit in late
May, Bick found: substitute doctors who mixed drugs that were not supposed
to be used together; patients with rising viral loads who had not been seen
for treatment changes or whose failing regimens were changed only one drug
at a time; and doctors who made treatment changes without telling the
patient. Bick's reports have noted some improvements but he has
continued to focus on the inability of keeping doctors and of keeping
critical positions filled. "Due to the fragile nature of this
medical program, I recommend that every effort be made to retain physicians
once they are hired," Bick wrote in the new report. Besides the
HIV population, Limestone houses 1,800 other prisoners and has one
physician and one nurse practitioner to provide their care as well as care
for 135 work-release prisoners in Decatur. Bick called this "by all
measures ... inadequate" and recommended three full-time
physicians. PHS has hired several doctors over the last year,
including HIV specialists, who have not stayed long. The company also said
that negative press coverage has frustrated its efforts to hire a
specialist.
June 3, 2005 Decatur Daily
With its magnifying glass focused on inmate health expenses, a
legislative committee came up with as many questions as answers Thursday
for the spiraling medical costs for state prisoners. High hospital costs
for ill inmates, concerns about the company that provides on-site medical
services at state prisons and a prison population that is close to double
capacity all complicate the challenge for the Department of Corrections.
The committee questioned, but approved, two contracts for medically related
inmate care. In a $60,000
part-time contract, Cullman internist Dr. George Lyrene
will review all deaths at state prisons and give court testimony related to
the deaths for $1,100 to $1,250 per day. In a second contract,
the state will pay Rebecca Jones, a registered nurse from Wetumpka, up to
$40,000 for inmate-specific diabetes education and meal monitoring at state
prisons. Committee members also questioned the performance and expenses of
Prison Health Services, the Tennessee company that currently has the
contract to provide medical care for inmates. "The provider has major,
major problems, and there are deep concerns among members of the committee
about them," Morrison said after the meeting. Morrison said
Corrections Commissioner Donal Campbell and Naglich are working to solve the problems. Morrison
said some of the health costs are the result of actions before the time the
Tennessee company took over inmate care in Alabama. "We are still in
lawsuits related to the previous provider," Morrison said. "With
some things, we can only go as fast as the courts allow."
May 26, 2005 AP
Seeking to save money, the Department of Corrections has signed a contract
to send inmates with chronic illnesses to a South
Carolina hospital specializing in treating
prisoners. Alabama prison system
officials announced Thursday the inmates would be sent to Columbia
Care Center , rather than to
regular community hospitals in the state. The hospital in Columbia
, S.C. , currently has space to treat up
to 50 Alabama inmates
who need long-term care, such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or kidney
dialysis, but the number to be sent initially has not been determined.
There is no set cost for the contract - DOC pays Just Care as the
hospital's services are needed. Department officials said the prisons are
not equipped to treat inmates who need certain specialized treatments for
highly advanced cancers, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Those
limitations force the DOC's health care provider, Prison Health Services,
to refer the inmates to outside hospitals for repeated treatments, said DOC
spokesman Brian Corbett. In fiscal year 2004, the prison system had to pay
$9.4 million for treatments that fell outside PHS's responsibility, officials
said. The DOC has refused to pay $1.2 million to PHS, saying the company
has not provided enough doctors and nurses at the prisons. That issue is
under mediation, but is unrelated to the decision to team up with Just
Care, Corbett said.
April 17, 2005 Birmingham
News
By the time Teresa Morris died, her legs were so badly swollen that the
prison shackles dug into them. A 53-year-old diabetic serving time for
domestic violence at Tutwiler Prison for Women, Morris spent the hours
before her March 6 death shackled in a hospital bed in Montgomery. Prison
officials say she died of natural causes. Morris's family believes the
prison medical staff, employees of private contractor Prison Health
Services, provided inadequate care for her diabetes. They say she was taken
off her insulin shots, for reasons the family does not understand. Her
death is the latest in a series of red flags suggesting that Prison Health
Services is not providing sufficient quality medical care to many Alabama
prisoners, according to interviews with prisoners' attorneys, former PHS
employees and reports from independent physicians who monitor care at some
of Alabama's prisons. "I can't say whether or not she was given
insulin," said Ben Purser, the company's vice president for ethics and
chief compliance officer. "It was an expected death; that is about the
best thing I can say to you." Morris's death certificate says she died from diabetes,
cirrhosis of the liver and Hepatitis C. But she was not being treated for
the last two, Freeman said. Last November, Dr. Michael Puisis, court monitor for the Tutwiler medical
settlement, visited the prison and reviewed treatment records for several
prisoners. Of Morris's care, he wrote: "She was seen every three
months, but not by a doctor. ... Liver function tests were abnormal but not
investigated. An incomplete physical examination was done." Even after
the legal settlements mandating better care at Tutwiler and Limestone,
there have been severe shortages of doctors and nurses at the prisons. Nearly
a year later, critical reports by court monitors continue to come out of
both places. "These records reflect thousands of doses of medications
ordered by physicians that have either not been given, or have been given
without being documented," Dr. Joseph Bick, monitor in the Limestone
case, wrote after visiting the HIV Unit in February. "Interviews with
patients, chart reviews and feedback from physicians support the concern
that patients are not consistently given the medications that have been
ordered for them for serious life-threatening conditions." What was
even more disturbing, the doctor wrote, was that Prison Health Services
provided documents showing that nurses had recently been trained on this
issue. It was Bick's third
visit to the prison. Each was followed by a report showing the state was
out of compliance with several key medical provisions of the 2004
settlement. A constant failing at Limestone is doctor and nurse shortages.
The prison, with 2,200 people, has become a revolving door for physicians.
One physician left in late 2004. Another, Dr. Valda Chijide,
an infectious disease specialist, was placed on administrative leave after
writing her superiors about constrictions placed on her that made it
impossible to do her job. She resigned in February. Prison Health Services
then brought in a doctor from a temporary agency, but by early April she,
too, decided not to return, PHS' Purser said. During vacancies, Dr. Will Mosier, Prison
Health Services' Montgomery-based medical director, fills in at Limestone
and other prisons when needed. There are provisions in the company's
contract for the state to deduct payment to the company if its staff
numbers are down, and the Corrections Department monitors staffing levels
on a regular basis, Corbett said. How much money the state is owed for
empty positions is under debate, he said.
Some of the sickest men in Alabama prisons live in drafty
cells in a building with broken windows. They must stand in line in the
middle of the night for their pills. And several have died prematurely
because of gaps in medical care, according to a report released Thursday as
part of a lawsuit against the prison system. Dr. Stephen Tabet, an infectious disease specialist from Seattle,
first documented the harsh conditions at Limestone prison's HIV unit last
year. When he returned for a follow-up visit, he found few improvements.
His August 2003 report documented conditions leading to 39 deaths since
1999. Thursday's follow-up looks at five new deaths in five months. One patient
dropped a third of his weight in five months, to 110 pounds, before dying
in February. A doctor prescribed a high protein supplement for 35-year-old
Gerald Lewis, but the kitchen wouldn't provide it. Another man arrived at
Limestone with active tuberculosis, but his medical records from another
prison did not follow. Alfred Thomas, 42, was placed with all the other HIV
patients, potentially exposing them to the disease. No one at Limestone
knew about his TB until an autopsy following his October death. (Birmingham
News, March 12, 2004)
Albany County Jail, Albany, New York
Apr 23, 2016
timesunion.com
Albany County
makes $1.1M deal to end jail death lawsuit
The husband of a
French citizen who died after Albany County jail medical staff denied her
proper doses of medications to treat her chronic heart failure has settled
a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and the private firm that ran
the jail medical unit. A settlement notice filed in federal court does not
reveal the amount of the settlement with the estate of Irene Bamenga or otherwise detail the terms. But a person
familiar with the agreement told the Times Union that the portion
associated with Albany County's role in the case is about $1.1 million.
Danielle Garten, a New York City attorney who represented the county,
declined to comment. Mary Rozak, a spokeswoman
for the county, said no taxpayer money would be used to pay the settlement.
Michael Lurie, the Boston attorney who represented Bamenga's
husband, Yodi Zikianda,
also declined to comment citing confidentiality agreements. Bamenga, 29, died in the Colonie
jail July 27, 2011, after having been detained by U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to await deportation for an expired visa. Bamenga, who had been living outside Boston with her
husband on an expired visa, was taken into custody July 15 while trying to
cross into Canada on the Peace Bridge in Buffalo so she could fly home to
Paris from Toronto that evening, the lawsuit alleged. Bamenga
was refused entry to Canada because she lacked a current visa stamp and
then detained while trying to re-enter the U.S. side of the bridge, Lurie
said. Eventually, she was transferred to the Albany County jail on July 21.
Court filings in the case revealed she never saw a doctor between then and
when she was found unconscious in her dormitory area just after midnight on
July 27. Court filings also revealed Bamenga had
pleaded with medical staff in writing less than 48 hours before her death
because she was missing doses of the six medicines that she took to treat
her cardiomyopathy and chronic congestive heart failure, and was
experiencing dizziness, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. At the
time, the jail's medical unit was run by the private company Correctional
Medical Services, now known as Corizon Inc. The firm's lone doctor at the
jail, who was on vacation for much of Bamenga's
incarceration, testified in a deposition that the staff was
"overwhelmed." Corizon was also a named defendant in the suit;
its attorney could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A separate
settlement was struck last month with Allegany County, where Bamenga was held between July 15 and July 21 and where
she was also allegedly denied medication. The terms of that settlement also
have not been disclosed. "It was an absolutely avoidable
outcome," Lurie said. If the case had gone to trial in May, he said,
several experts were "prepared to testify that if she had received the
care that she was seeking and that she knew she needed, she would not have
died." Bamenga's death, Lurie said, should
prompt municipal officials to question the wisdom of hiring for-profit
companies that receive fixed rates to provide medical care to people like
jail inmates who have no other choice "because the incentives are to
withhold care." The State Commission of Correction ruled that Bamenga died of natural causes, but an investigation
commissioned by ICE identified the missed medications and incorrect doses
as "significant factors that contributed to the decompensation of her
congestive heart failure" and her death was preventable. ICE was not
named in the lawsuit, but Lurie said the case also documented that the
agency's leadership had urged field staff to use discretion about detaining
people before deportation — especially those, like Bamenga,
with serious medical conditions and without criminal records. "They
didn't have to take her into custody," Lurie said. "At least on
two scores, they had a reason to just let her go." A Bronx woman who delivered a live baby in a jail toilet in
2001 after her premature labor allegedly was ignored for days has filed a
federal civil rights claim blaming Albany County officials and a former
jail nurse for her son's death. Ajadyan Venny was at least 5 months pregnant when she was
jailed on a drug charge on Aug. 30, 2001, according to the suit filed in
U.S. District Court Thursday. The 30-page lawsuit alleges the
following chain of events: The 22-year-old was given a cursory exam
and pregnancy test and then left on her own as pain in her abdomen and back
spiked over the next 10 days. A female jail nurse who is employed by
Prison Health Services, Inc., told Venny
repeatedly that the pain was a normal result of being pregnant in jail,
which is a stressful environment. Venny was
supposed to see an obstetrics consultant on Sept. 4, 2001, but her
appointment was canceled. Five days later, on Sept. 9, her screams woke the
dorm at 5 a.m. At 6:30 a.m., correction officers told Venny she couldn't get help until the 7 a.m. shift
change. By then, she could no longer walk on her own. The nurse told guards
she couldn't leave her post. A concerned correction officer finally
radioed his sergeant, who ordered the nurse to see to Venny,
who now was sitting on the toilet in her cell and bleeding profusely. But
the nurse was ineffective, court papers said: "At approximately 7:15
a.m. nurse Hunt responded to the dorm, bringing with her only a blood
pressure cuff to attend the plaintiff, who was in the end stage of
labor." The nurse attempted to console Venny
rather than render medical assistance. She told officers at 7:18 a.m. that Venny had miscarried in-utero and ordered an ambulance.
It was only after a Colonie EMS workers asked if
there was a baby that a guard went back to check the toilet "and found
a sac containing a child who had been unattended for a substantial period
of time." Correction officers freed the baby and cut his
umbilical cord. After two days in Albany Medical Center Hospital's
neonatal unit, the struggling newborn, Scott Mayo Jr., died at 3 a.m. on
Sept. 11. "This was a full-grown, viable baby," attorney
Kevin Luibrand said. "It was not a fetus.
She was probably much further along than she thought." State
correction officials later faulted Prison Health Services Inc. for their
handling of the situation. The county did not renew its contract with
the company in Feb. 2002, saying it would go with a less expensive
provider. Officials at the jail declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Richard Wright, president and CEO of Prison Health Services, also declined
to comment. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company recently was dismissed
from an eight-year contract with the Schenectady County Jail after the
death of an inmate. (Times Union, September 4, 2004)
Allegheny County
Jail, Pittsburg Pennsylvania
Jul 8, 2017
post-gazette.com
Documentary calls for improving or closing Allegheny County Jail
A county that can’t or won’t care for inmates in its jail should work
toward closing its lockup entirely, argues a documentary set to be screened
by an advocacy group Tuesday. The Allegheny County Jail Health Justice
Project will present “No Bars to Healthcare,” a film by James Tedrow, on Tuesday at the Homewood Branch of the
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, starting at 5 p.m. The screening of the
half-hour film will be followed by a panel discussion about the health care
at the jail, and whether the facility can ultimately be closed. The film
focuses largely on Corizon Health, a Tennessee company that ran the jail’s
infirmary from September 2013 through August 2015. It features the case of
Frank Smart, a 39-year-old man who died in the jail in January 2015. In the
film his mother, Tomi Harris, 60, of Verona, says he did not get his
seizure medication, echoing accusations in a lawsuit filed by Mr. Smart's
daughter. "My son goes in the building -- there was no fire, no flood
-- and didn't come out,” Ms. Harris says, in one of the film’s poignant
moments. "My son begged for his medication for over six hours,” but
didn’t get it, she says, adding that “no one need die of a seizure."
“Corizon was bad. That was a mistake from day one,” Allegheny County Common
Pleas Judge David Cashman said in an interview Friday. He now chairs the
county’s Jail Oversight Board. He was not on the board when Corizon was
hired. “That was an entity that was fueled and energized by money, and they
didn’t care,” the judge said. He said the current health care arrangement,
in which the county teams with Allegheny Health Network, is doing better.
Corizon did not respond to a request for comment. County Executive Rich
Fitzgerald hired Corizon, then opted not to retain the company beyond its
initial two-year stint. His office declined comment Friday. The documentary
acknowledges improvement since Corizon left the jail in 2015, but suggests
that problems remain. The film’s closing moments note that the jail saw two
deaths in April, including one suicide. There has since been another
suicide, in June. The ultimate solution, the documentary contends, is “the
elimination of the modern prison system" and replacement with "a
more humane and effective system that addresses poverty, police brutality,
and mental health."
May 6, 2017 post-gazette.com
Mother of inmate
who died at Allegheny County Jail sues county, Corizon, officials
The mother of an
inmate who died at the Allegheny County Jail two years ago has sued the
county, the jail’s former health care provider and numerous jail and
medical officers. Andrea Crawford of Homewood, mother of Monty Crawford
Jr., 23, said in a federal complaint that the jail and Corizon Health
ignored her son’s psychiatric conditions and did not give him his required
medications for a month before he died. He was found dead in his cell on
May 21, 2015. His death was one of several at the jail that prompted the
county to terminate its contract with Corizon, according to the suit.
Shelley Leininger, 50, holds a picture of herself and son Timothy at her
home in Ross Township on Friday. Shelley's son, Timothy Leininger, 27, was
pronounced dead Thursday at UPMC Mercy Hospital after being jailed at
Allegheny County Jail. Mr. Crawford was arrested in December 2013 after a
teenage girl said he forced her into sex acts over five years. He was
charged with rape of a child and other offenses and was awaiting trial when
he died. Ms. Crawford said her son repeatedly told officials and medical
personnel that he needed his medications and that he heard voices telling
him to kill himself. The suit says the staff was “willfully indifferent” to
his medical needs in not giving him his anti-psychotic medicines. The
wrongful-death suit is asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive
damages. Ms. Crawford’s Philadelphia lawyer, Wayne Ely, could not
immediately be reached.
Dec 24, 2016 post-gazette.com
Daughter of Pittsburgh man who died after jail stay sues county, Corizon
in federal court
The daughter of a schizophrenic and severely ill Pittsburgh man who
died in 2014 after 10 days at the Allegheny County Jail has sued the
lockup, its top officials and Corizon Health, which runs the jail’s
infirmary, alleging federal civil rights violations. Cynthia Jewett Whitlow
of Birmingham, Ala. on Friday filed the 10-count suit in U.S. District
Court, nearly two years after the death of her father, Clarence Jewett. The
suit claims deprivation of civil rights, wrongful death, professional
negligence and corporate negligence. It asks for compensatory and punitive
damages. Named individually are jail Warden Orlando Harper and Deputy
Warden Latoya Warren. Amie Downs, the county’s spokeswoman, today declined
comment, saying the county does not discuss lawsuits. Martha Harbin, a
spokeswoman for Tennessee-based Corizon, said today, “Due to the litigation
cited and patient privacy laws, we are unable to provide you with a
statement offering our perspective on the merits of this case.” Pittsburgh
police had arrested Mr. Jewett, 62, for screaming profanity on the street
outside his house in the West End. He was taken to jail Dec. 16, 2014 and
died Dec. 26 at UPMC Mercy. He was transported to the hospital after being
found face down in his cell in his own vomit, according to the suit. But
Mr. Jewett should have been seen by doctors for both physical and mental
health problems long before that, both of which were apparent when he
arrived at the jail, claim Ms. Whitlow and her attorney, Steven M. Barth,
of Pittsburgh. “He wasn’t eating, he wasn’t communicating. It looks like
they just put him in a room and said, ‘We’ll look at him.’ That’s it,” Mr.
Barth said today. An autopsy showed that Mr. Jewett died from acute
peritonitis due to esophageal perforation which, in turn, resulted from
severe erosive esophagitis. The county medical examiner’s office ruled that
his death was from natural causes. The suit claims that Mr. Jewett might
not have been seen by any medical personnel at the jail until two days
after his arrival, based on records Mr. Barth obtained. And when Mr. Jewett
was seen, no physical was performed and “no history was acquired,” the suit
claims. Records and the suit say that Mr. Jewett was seen by various
medical staff, including a nurse practitioner, a mental health specialist,
a psychiatrist and a physician assistant. He was given medication and
observed. But all that was not enough, Mr. Barth said. Mr. Jewett did not
eat. He sang, cursed and yelled. He became unresponsive. “He was in a full
mental breakdown,” Mr. Barth said. “This was pretty extreme — a person
coming in in this state.” All that behavior, according to Mr. Barth,
clearly indicated psychiatric and physical problems and should have
prompted the jail staff to send him to a facility where he could be
properly evaluated and treated. The defendants “did not have a policy to
deal with mentally incompetent inmates and only advocated the policy of putting
them out of sight,” according to the suit. For several days, the suit said,
Mr. Jewett was under close observation. But that ended for some reason on
Dec. 22 even though Mr. Jewett “still was not communicating and/or eating
or drinking,” the suit said. The suit claims that the jail and Corizon
should have had a wealth of information about Mr. Jewett, including prior
medical conditions and details about being hospitalized during a prior
incarceration in the lockup in 2013. Ms. Whitlow’s suit called Mr. Jewett’s
death “preventable.” It claims that the defendants had policies to not
perform a timely review of an inmate’s medical history during intake and
screening. As well, the suit claims, there was a contract between the
defendants “which promote the policy and procedure to not send inmates out
to outside medical providers...”
Oct 15, 2016 post-gazette.com
Lawsuit alleges jail staff failed to provide tube feedings to inmate
A man whose esophagus was severed from his stomach in a shooting three
years ago is suing the medical staff at the Allegheny County Jail and
Corizon Health after he said they failed to provide his required five daily
tube feedings, resulting in his being hospitalized twice for malnourishment
and related health problems, including a heart attack. Christopher Wallace,
30, of Lincoln-Lemington, was arrested Feb. 12,
2015, on charges that he robbed two banks two days earlier. Bret Grote, the
attorney representing Wallace in his lawsuit, said his client’s Medicaid
had been discontinued, and he could no longer get the tubes he needed to
receive nutrition. Wallace robbed the banks, Mr. Grote said, to get money
to buy the feeding tubes. At the time of Wallace’s arrest, he was taken to
UPMC Mercy, where hospital records showed that the 6-foot 4-inch man
weighed 77 pounds, the lawsuit said. The complaint, filed in U.S. District
Court, also names as defendants jail Warden Orlando Harper, county
Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Dr. Abimbola Talabi,
who was interim medical director at the jail. The lawsuit says Wallace was
released from UPMC Mercy on Feb. 16, 2015, with instructions to jail
medical staff to provide five tube feedings each day. Mr. Grote contends
the nurses and physicians “acted with deliberate indifference” to Wallace’s
medical needs and failed to feed him properly, providing him with less than
half of the required feedings per day, and on some days, the complaint
said, not feeding him at all. “Mr. Wallace complained to these nurses about
his need for tube feedings. His complaints were ignored and no measures
were taken to ensure that he was provided with his medically prescribed
tube feedings,” the complaint said. On March 2, 2015, Wallace lost
consciousness in the jail infirmary and was rushed back to UPMC Mercy,
diagnosed with emphysema, severe malnutrition, hypoglycemia and
hypothermia, among other conditions, the lawsuit said. “UPMC medical
records indicate that Mr. Wallace was suffering from ‘severe
protein-calorie malnutrition [consistent with] starvation,’” Mr. Grote
wrote. “His condition was further described as ‘emaciated.’” A week later,
Wallace was returned to the jail, and, the lawsuit alleges, he was fed even
less. “On some days he was not provided any tube feedings, and on others he
received less than half of what he was prescribed,” according to the
complaint. “There are no records that Mr. Wallace was provided any tube
feedings during this period.” A week later, he was again rushed back to
Mercy, having a heart attack in the ambulance on the way there, Mr. Grote
said. He was kept at Mercy for 19 days and released back to the jail on
April 3. According to the complaint, from that date until his release from
custody on May 30, 2015, he received all of his feedings. “In addition to
the deliberate indifference of medical staff, the severe and nearly-fatal
injuries plaintiff suffered were the result of systemic deficiencies in the
provision of medical care at ACJ during this time that were caused by
policies and practices that ACJ, Corizon, and Allegheny County officials
knew were resulting in constitutional violations,” Mr. Grote said. Mr.
Fitzgerald, in 2015, refused to renew the county’s contract with
Tennessee-based Corizon after repeated problems were reported — including
the death of seven inmates in 2014. Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner issued an audit in 2014, reporting that
Corizon failed to maintain required staffing levels, failed to keep
complete and accurate medical records and was failing to provide
appropriate care to inmates. Because of that audit, Mr. Grote alleges,
county officials knew of the potential danger inmates at the jail faced.
“County Executive Fitzgerald ... had been repeatedly contacted about health
care issues at ACJ by other government officials in the months leading up
to Mr. Wallace’s incarceration. He took no action to remedy the situation,”
the lawsuit said. “Warden Harper received reports from staff and inmates
constantly about health care inadequacies. He took no action to remedy the
situation either.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Fitzgerald said she could not
comment on pending litigation. A spokeswoman for Corizon also would not
comment, citing the lawsuit and patient privacy laws. The lawsuit includes
claims for medical malpractice and for due process violations under the
14th Amendment, including deliberate indifference to serious medical needs.
Wallace is scheduled to plead guilty to the bank robbery charges Nov. 14.
Jul
12, 2015 houstonchronicle.com
Family suing jail, health care provider after inmate's death
PITTSBURGH
(AP) — The family of an inmate who died in a Pittsburgh jail earlier this
year is suing the jail and its health care provider. Tiara Smart, one of
the children of 39-year-old Frank Smart Jr., of Pittsburgh, filed the
wrongful death lawsuit Friday against Allegheny County Jail and Corizon
Health Inc. over Smart's death. The complaint alleges that Smart's requests
for medication were ignored and that he was handcuffed and shackled while
having a seizure. He was taken to UPMC Mercy, where he died shortly after
midnight on Jan. 5. George Kontos, Tiara Smart's
attorney, said the jail failed its duty to provide for Smart's safety. The
county medical examiner ruled this week that Smart died from his seizure
disorder, but that being restrained was a "significant condition"
in his death. The manner of death remains undetermined. A Corizon spokesman
said the Tennessee-based firm hasn't seen the complaint, but stands by its
statement Thursday that Smart's medicines were ordered within 10 minutes of
his arrival at a medical intake center and administered properly. Kontos, however, said that Smart's death from the
seizure disorder "certainly belies their contention that he was
appropriately medicated at the appropriate time." Smart's death and
others in the past 18 months prompted the county to not renew Corizon's
contract past its Aug. 31 expiration date. Allegheny Health Network, a
Pittsburgh-based hospital chain owned by health insurer Highmark Inc., will
take over Sept. 1. A county spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Jun 7, 2015 post-gazette.com
Allegheny
County controller plans new audit of contract with jail health care
provider
As
Allegheny County moves closer to the end of its contract with Corizon Health,
the controller’s office will perform a second audit of the county’s
contract with the embattled jail health care provider. Controller Chelsa Wagner made the announcement at the jail
oversight board meeting Thursday, nearly two weeks after county officials
announced they will not renew the contract with the Tennessee-based firm
that expires at the end of August. The agreement included three one-year
options that could have moved it into 2018. “I think we need to memorialize
exactly where we are as Corizon is leaving,” said the board’s chairman,
Common Pleas Judge Joseph Williams III, who requested the audit. Fieldwork
for the audit, set to begin Wednesday, will follow the same process as one
last year that found continuing problems with the medical care at the jail.
An entrance conference with Corizon is scheduled for June 17. Corizon
oversaw an inmate mortality rate here that was double national norms for
jails last year. Four inmates have died this year. County Executive Rich
Fitzgerald announced May 22 that the county will bring the jail infirmary
operation in-house, but he has yet to name what Judge Williams’ called
Thursday the “medical giants and universities” set to be involved. In May,
the judge said Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh,
UPMC and Allegheny Health Network “have agreed that they’ll partner in
different ways to help us get on track as to where we ought to be with
respect to health care” at the jail. Judge Williams told reporters after
the meeting that he wasn’t sure how much the new system would cost but was
certain it would include more doctors and more psychiatrists and some
current staff. The county paid Corizon $11.5 million for its first year
running the infirmary. Also during the meeting, Bret Grote, legal director
for the Abolitionist Law Center and other advocates from the Allegheny
County Jail Health Justice Project, called for the resignation or firing of
jail Warden Orlando Harper. Austin Davis, executive assistant to Mr.
Fitzgerald, said the warden has the “full support of our administration.”
County Councilman John DeFazio said a public hearing on jail health issues
is forthcoming.
May
25, 2015 post-gazette.com
Pennsylvania: Two more dead, Corizon is out
In
the wake of the deaths of two Allegheny County Jail inmates in one day this
week, county Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced Friday that he will not
renew the contract with jail infirmary manager Corizon Health, allowing it
to expire at the end of August. The contract included three one-year options
that could have taken it into 2018. The county instead will bring the jail
infirmary operation in-house, working with as-yet-unnamed medical
professionals, he said. “We have been working with … some of these folks in
the community in our ‘eds and meds’ environment to put together an
organizational structure that would allow this to happen,” Mr. Fitzgerald
said. “In light of what happened just this week, we think it was important
to make this announcement publicly.” The latest two deaths bring to four
the number of county inmates who have died this year. In 2014, a total of
seven died. The decision not to renew the Corizon contract, building for
months, came one day after the two deaths, one at a local hospital and the
other at the lockup. Neither Timothy James Leininger, 27, nor Monty
Crawford Jr., 23, had adult criminal records. Both were awaiting trial and
had documented mental health issues. Autopsies were pending the results of
lab tests. Mr. Leininger was arrested Jan. 9 by University of Pittsburgh
police and charged with terroristic threats. On the date of his arrest,
David Yankura, a psychiatrist at Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, asked Pitt police Officer Mallory Skrbin “what would happen if an individual was charged
with terroristic threats,” she wrote in a criminal complaint. Dr. Yankura and a colleague told the officer that Mr.
Leininger was brought to Western Psych that day for an evaluation and
became “agitated,” the complaint says. The worker reported that Mr.
Leininger told him he wouldn’t go to a shelter. “I'm gonna stab Becky, and
I’m gonna smash you,” Mr. Leininger said, and “jumped up from the couch,
clenched his fists and arms, stepped towards” the worker, the complaint
continued. Below: Criminal complaint by University of Pittsburgh police
against Timothy Leininger Later Dr. Yankura told
police that Mr. Leininger “needed to be incarcerated,” according to the
complaint. UPMC, which includes Western Psych, declined to talk Friday
about protocols for handling patients who make threats. Of roughly 100 Pitt
police officers, 32 have undergone training in dealing with mental health
crises since 2010, according to the county Department of Human Services.
Pitt Police Chief James K. Loftus wants all of his officers to eventually
get the training, according to a university spokesman. Mr. Leininger was
taken to jail and failed to make bail set at $10,000. “Why didn’t Western
Psych put him in the hospital instead, because he needed help,” said his
mother, Shelley Leininger. “I don’t think he should have been put in jail
for that.” Marc Cherna, director of the Department of Human Services, noted
that the jail has become a “revolving door” for many mentally ill residents
since the 2008 closure of Mayview State Hospital
in South Fayette. Court records show that Mr. Leininger was evaluated by a
psychiatrist a month after the arrest. She cleared him with
recommendations, including that he comply with a treatment plan and live
with his mother. Efforts to get him out of jail and home pending trial
culminated in a hearing Thursday at which bond was reduced to zero. But by
that time, Mr. Leininger was at UPMC Mercy. On Tuesday, detectives told the
family that Mr. Leininger had been rushed to the hospital,
unresponsive and in cardiac arrest after a “medical emergency” at the jail,
his grandmother, Barbara Leininger, said. He died Thursday at 3:47 p.m. Ms.
Leininger said her grandson had behavioral problems for years and had made
threats before. The family links at least some of his mental health issues
to a benign tumor at the base of his brain that caused him nausea and
headaches as a child and, doctors say, can lead to behavioral and learning
problems. Mr. Leininger had surgery to remove the tumor last year and took
steroid pills after, which his mother said he would have had to take the
rest of his life. He lived most of his life with his mother and grandmother
in Ross. “He’d be here for a while, but when he felt insecure, he would go
to the hospital,” Ms. Leininger said, though she wasn’t sure exactly what led
him to Western Psych in January. She said they last saw him in December.
Mr. Leininger leaves behind an 18-month-old son named Karol, who the family
said is in the foster system in New York. Mr. Crawford was arrested in
December 2013, when a 13-year-old girl accused him of repeatedly, over five
years, pushing her into sex acts. He was charged with rape of a child and
nine related charges. In May 2014, the county Behavioral Assessment Unit
deemed him incompetent “and not likely to regain competence,” according to
his court file. An October follow-up report indicated that he “would
benefit from education in the legal process.” By March, the unit found that
he regained competency following a “lengthy stay” at an inpatient facility.
His trial was set for July 13. Andrea Crawford, 46, of Homewood, said that
when she last spoke with her son on Sunday, he did not report anything out
of the ordinary. He died Thursday at 8:20 p.m. The other two inmate deaths
this year were 49-year-old Timothy Melvin Haskell, of West View, in April,
and Frank Smart, 39, of the Hill District, in January. Warden Orlando
Harper said the jail has drafted a policy for “compassionate release” under
which staff would ask judges for permission to release certain very ill
inmates. Tennessee-based Corizon took over the infirmary Sept. 1, 2013, and
last year saw seven inmate deaths — a mortality rate double
the national norms for jails. Corizon shaved about $1 million from the cost
of health care at the jail, bringing it to $11.5 million a year. The jail
infirmary had been run by a nonprofit entity tied to the county Health
Department. Contributing to the cost savings were the dismissals of most of
the doctors who had served the jail. Inmates complained about long waits
for appointments and medicine. In a statement, Corizon said the decision to
part ways was mutual.
May
9, 2015 post-gazette.com
As
an advocacy group called for replacement of Corizon Health as medical
provider at Allegheny County Jail, the Tennessee-based company announced
Thursday that it has hired a permanent medical director. The firm, which
was hired at the jail in September 2013, has been under fire for months
over the level of care provided at the jail, where the death rate for
inmates is about two times the national average for jails. On Thursday, a
group known as the jail’s Health Justice Project called for replacement of
the for-profit company at a rally and in a letter to members of Allegheny
County Council. “Enough is enough. We’ve been seeing this for years,” said
Julia Johnson of the advocacy group, citing jail deaths as far back as 2010
that she called “appalling.” In particular, the group focused on the Jan. 5
death of Frank Smart, who — according to his mother, Tomi Harris — died at
UPMC Mercy after he failed to receive seizure medication at the jail. Amie
Downs, spokeswoman for county Executive Rich Fitzgerald, said the county
hadn’t received the letter and would have no comment. The group also
carried its concerns to the monthly meeting of the county’s Jail Oversight Board.
There, Judge Joseph Williams, president of the board, said the county is
working to deal with inmates who come to the jail with health issues, a
complex “matrix” that begins with other societal ills like drug addiction
and unemployment. “We don’t have the capacity to deal with this the way we
should,” he said, telling protesters they were “shallow” if they thought
the jail could solve the problems itself. Judge Williams said the county
has been working on a plan to supplement the work of Corizon with help from
area health facilities, but he said that plan isn’t ready yet. After the
meeting, he said the county is moving “as fast as we can” to address the
situation. Warden Orlando Harper told the board the county recently took
one step in that direction, hiring Nora Gillespie to monitor Corizon’s
compliance with its contract. Meanwhile, Corizon told the board it has
hired a new, permanent medical director. Since December, Abimbola Talabi has served as interim director. She told the
board that a new medical director, Donald Stechschulte,
will start on a part-time basis this month and begin full-time duties in
August. In a statement, Corizon said it treated Smart “quickly and
efficiently.” In general, it said, the jail receives inmates with myriad
health problems and “we are committed to doing all we can to restore them
to health.”
April
3, 2015 Post-Gazette.com
A
spokesman for Corizon Health., the Tennessee-based firm that took over the
Allegheny County jail infirmary in 2013, said in a statement, in part: “We
are confident in the care we provide." Up to four local institutions
are exploring a partnership with Allegheny County to help with its
embattled health care system at the county jail. But no one can say exactly
what that could mean for health care there. Common Pleas Judge Joseph K
Williams III, head of the jail oversight board, announced at its monthly
meeting Thursday that Carnegie Mellon University, the University of
Pittsburgh, UPMC and Allegheny Health Network “have agreed that they’ll
partner in different ways to help us get on track as to where we ought to
be with respect to health care” at the jail. He could provide almost no
details about the partnership, though, and the county would say only that
it’s “continuing to have conversations with various stakeholders” about the
matter. Spokeswoman Amie Downs said in a statement, in part, that the hope
is “that we can come to agreement to help facilitate medical services” at
the jail. Allegheny Health Network spokesman Dan Laurent said in an email that
officials there have been discussing a “potential partnership with the
County regarding health services at the jail and that we are working with
County executives to explore how best we can provide assistance.”
Representatives from the other institutions were unable to immediately
provide information without more details. A spokesman for Corizon Health.,
the Tennessee-based firm that took over the infirmary on Sept. 1, 2013,
said in a statement, in part: “We are confident in the care we provide, and
we welcome the opportunity to work with local universities, medical systems
and Allegheny County on a collaborative approach to medical care.” It’s
been nearly three months since county manager William McKain
told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the county is “considering a number
of options, as well as the inclusion and engagement of additional
stakeholders in the conversations about improving the delivery of medical
services” at the jail. Corizon oversaw an inmate mortality rate that was
double national norms for jails last year, and a scathing audit by county
Controller Chelsa Wagner’s office cited
continuing problems with the medical care there.
Mar
28, 2015 triblive.com
Fired psychiatrist at Allegheny County Jail:
Contraband rules unclear A psychiatrist fired from the
Allegheny County Jail says guards put security rules ahead of inmate
welfare. Dr. Charolette Hoffman, the jail's only
full-time psychiatrist, had a week of training and saw patients for a day
when guards caught her bringing in contraband — cigarettes, lighters,
matches and scissors — for a third time. Warden Orlando Harper revoked
Hoffman's security clearance March 4. Hoffman, 68, of Portersville said she
wasn't trained properly on what she could and couldn't bring into the jail.
“There were a lot of rules that you only found out when you screwed up,”
Hoffman said Thursday. “It doesn't have to work that way. Ideally, there
would be some flexibility, especially in an area of such concern. It seems
like the security is a greater concern than the inmates.” Harper said
Hoffman received training about contraband and that he and the deputy
warden spoke to her after her first two violations. The jail's contraband
policy follows a national standard, Harper said. “The Allegheny County Jail
takes very seriously the responsibility to provide health care to inmates,
including psychiatric care. That responsibility also includes ensuring that
the safety and security of the facility is protected and balanced against
the other needs, which is what the contraband policy is intended to do,”
Harper said in a statement. Hoffman said there is a great need for a
psychiatrist at the jail. The few patients she worked with hadn't seen a
psychiatrist in months, she said. Corizon Health, the Tennessee-based
company running health care at the jail, has started a national search to
fill Hoffman's spot. Hoffman said she doesn't want her old job back. She
now works for NHS Human Services in Penn Hills providing in-house
psychiatric care. “It is as wonderful as the jail was terrible,” Hoffman
said.
Jun
8, 2014 post-gazette.com
Nurses
tasked with medicating nearly 700 inmates per shift at the infirmary at the
Allegheny County Jail are not sleeping at night due to
"trepidation" over facing their daily workload, their colleagues
testified Thursday before the county's Jail Oversight Board. Board members
said they want to form a subcommittee to examine staffing concerns and
questions about inmate care arising after Corizon Health Inc. took over
management of the infirmary Sept. 1. Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams
III -- presiding over the meeting in the absence of Judge Donna Jo
McDaniel, board president and Common Pleas judge -- said county officers,
board members and Corizon officials could "put their heads
together" and come up with strategies to present at the board's next
meeting, scheduled for September. He said he believes Judge McDaniel
intends to have these discussions over the summer. "This is the third
time I've been here, and I've heard innuendo that care is being compromised,"
Judge Williams said. "I'm not interested in Corizon's philosophy of
care. I'm interested in dealing with the reduction in staff and smaller
inventory of drugs available." Two nurses at the infirmary, Teresa
Latham and Sister Barbara Finch, said nurses dispensing medication are
responsible for six or seven pods apiece, each of which includes 100
inmates. Because nurses do not pre-pour the medication, they said, rounds
are considerably arduous and time-consuming. Corizon officials presented
board members with a health services report detailing improvements in
intake procedure and pre-screening. Jail medical director Michael Patterson
said doctors are working with the Allegheny County Health Department to
develop more comprehensive screenings for sexually transmitted infections.
Currently the infirmary only screens based on symptoms presented. That
practice may miss a portion of the jail's "high-risk population,"
he said. Dr. Patterson added that a persistent concern is the long waiting
list for referral for psychiatric care at Torrance State Hospital. Close to
20 inmates are currently awaiting mental health treatment at the state
hospital, though that number has recently been as high as 30 or 40, Corizon
officials said. Though Corizon's mental health director recently resigned,
the Tennessee-based firm is looking for a replacement, officials said. They
also reassured board members that a mental health nurse is available at the
jail even off-shift and during weekends. "Recruitment is not the same
as hiring," Marion Damick, the Pittsburgh
representative of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said in frustration.
Board member Claire Walker, former executive director of the Pittsburgh
Child Guidance Foundation, thanked Corizon officials for the report, saying
the level of attention and transparency was "so much better" than
when the for-profit firm first took over last fall. No mention was made at
Thursday's meeting of the suspension of five jail guards following an
incident in which an employee entered the jail with a personal handgun. Ms.
Walker said personnel issues are the province of jail management, not the
oversight board.
Mar
15, 2014 triblive.com/news
Allegheny
County restored the security clearance of a union organizer who worked at
the county jail, allowing her to return to her former position, county
spokeswoman Amie Downs confirmed Tuesday. Sister Barbara Finch lost her
county security clearance at the jail in January, a move she interpreted as
a firing. Finch was a lead organizer among employees of Corizon
Correctional Healthcare, a Tennessee-based medical contractor that serves
the jail. Corizon and the United Steelworkers are expected to begin
contract negotiations soon, according to a joint statement from both
organizations. In a prepared statement, Corizon's interim chief operating
officer, Carla Cesario, said the company had no control over the removal of
Finch's security clearance. “We are moving forward and will remain focused
on our mission of providing quality care,” Cesario said.
Mar
2, 2014 post-gazette.com
Allegheny
County Controller Chelsa Wagner announced today
that she plans to conduct an audit of the contract between the county and
Corizon Health Inc., which was hired last year to run the infirmary at the
Allegheny County Jail. Earlier this month, Ms. Wagner sent a letter to the
CEO of Tennessee-based Corizon, saying she had “grave and serious concerns”
about health care and working conditions at the jail. In a statement from
her office today, she said she remains concerned. “I remain gravely
concerned by the credible reports our office has received regarding
substandard care at the jail,” she said in a statement. “I’ve raised these
concerns publicly, including at the Jail Advisory Board and in writing to
Corizon. Yet, the responses to my questions have likewise been substandard
and certainly not what I would expect from an entity that receives more
than $11 million in taxpayer money annually.” Corizon, which is a national
prison health care provider, signed a contract with the county last summer
that pays $11.5 million for the first year. Its management of health
services at the jail began Sept. 1. The audit will cover the period from
Sept. 1 through today. “We have received the letter indicating the
Controller wants to conduct an audit," said Corizon spokeswoman Susan
Morgenstern. ."It’s important to note that we are working in close
partnership with the county and jail leadership to fulfill our mission. Our
focus remains on supporting our staff who provide quality care to patients
in the jail every day.” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said his
office welcome's the audit. "We welcome audits of any department that
result in recommendations that add value, are measurable and improve our
county operations," county spokeswoman Amie Downs said in a statement.
"This contract just was entered into in September of 2013, so it may
be difficult to measure its compliance with such a short window being
available for review, but we look forward to the results."
Feb
15, 2014 triblive.com
Allegheny
County Controller Chelsa Wagner threatened to
penalize the jail's new health care provider if it does not improve its
performance. Wagner said her office has received complaints that
Tennessee-based Corizon Health Inc. failed to distribute medication and
treat inmates with some mental health problems, according to a letter she
sent to Corizon CEO Woodrow A. Myers. Corizon started offering care Sept.
1, but its “period of transition” has expired, Wagner wrote in the letter
dated Monday. “I regard the current situation as intolerable and
outrageous, and I fully expect necessary changes to be urgently
implemented,” Wagner wrote. A Corizon spokeswoman said the company plans to
respond to Wagner's concerns in writing. “We certainly share her focus on
taking good care of patients at the Allegheny County Jail,” spokeswoman
Susan Morgenstern said. Wagner, who is on the county's Jail Oversight
Board, said the county could impose financial penalties outlined in
Corizon's contract. Wagner's office could withhold payments to Corizon and
audit its work at the jail, she said. Corizon's five-year contract could
cost the county more than $62.55 million. Wagner expected a response soon
and said waiting 60 or 90 days would be “stretching it.” Corizon officials
did not attend the board's Feb. 6 meeting. Allegheny Common Pleas Judge
Donna Jo McDaniel, head of the oversight board, met with Corizon Tuesday.
McDaniel did not return calls. Corizon employees at the jail are to vote
Friday on whether to unionize under a branch of the United Steelworkers.
Wagner said she supports the efforts of workers to unionize. Aaron Aupperlee is a staff writer for Trib
Total Media.
Feb
8, 2014 Pittsburg Post-Gazette
A
nun who worked for five years as a registered nurse at the Allegheny County
Jail infirmary was fired last week for spearheading unionization efforts,
an organizer for the United Steelworkers union said Monday. Sister Barbara
Finch, a Sister of St. Joseph of Baden, had her security clearances revoked
and was dismissed from her job Thursday after she expressed concerns about
staffing, safety issues and patient care during meetings at the jail, said Randa Ruge, the union
organizer. "It became clear that she was one of the leading activists
in the organizing drive," Ms. Ruge said,
referring to ongoing unionization efforts at the jail. Ms. Ruge described Sister Barbara as a "sacrificial
lamb" and said that the union is "concerned that taxpayer dollars
are being used for union-busting." The Steelworkers union on Friday
filed an unfair labor practice charge against Corizon Health Inc., the
Tennessee-based firm that manages county jail health services. The charge,
sent to the National Labor Relation Board, is that Corizon dismissed her in
retaliation for participating in union activities. "This is a clear
case of intimidation and union-busting at its worst," United
Steelworkers International president Leo W. Gerard said in a statement.
"Sister Barbara has been an outspoken advocate of change for these
courageous workers and their patients, and this kind of illegal and unjust
action, unfortunately, is par for the course with Corizon." "It
is our policy not to discuss personnel issues in the news media. I can
confirm that we abide by all labor laws; if there is a question to address
with the NLRB, we will do so," said Susan Morgenstern, a Corizon
spokeswoman. An Allegheny County spokeswoman also declined comment. Union
members, jail employees and other union advocates held a protest Downtown
Monday, bringing attention to Sister Barbara's complaint and making known
their support for the right of workers to unionize. Corizon took over
management of Allegheny County Jail health services in September, after
signing a contract with Allegheny County last summer for $11.4 million a
year. Steelworkers representatives have said that, since Corizon took over,
they've received reports of bad working conditions. In January, the
union filed a labor petition to unionize about 110 members of the Allegheny
County Jail medical staff. The National Labor Relations Board has scheduled
an election Feb. 14.
December
8, 2013 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The
company hired to improve health care and cut costs at the Allegheny County
Jail has struggled with one of its basic functions -- distributing medicine
-- due to difficulties staffing the busy infirmary. Tennessee-based
for-profit firm Corizon Health Inc., hired to replace the nonprofit
Allegheny Correctional Health Services, would not discuss the problems last
week, nor its decision to slash physician staffing at the jail to roughly
one-third of its prior level. Emails between county jail staff and Corizon,
though, document a string of medication distribution problems that one jail
watcher called "terrifying." "I was just informed by the
Captain on shift, the majority of the jail has not received medication AT
ALL," wrote Deputy Warden Monica Long in an email to Corizon and jail
staff on Nov. 17 at 1:03 p.m. "Staffing is at a crisis." The
Post-Gazette obtained the internal emails and other documents through a
request to the county under the right-to-know law. Asked about the emails
on Thursday, following a meeting of the county Jail Oversight Board, Lee
Harrington, Corizon vice president of operations, claimed no knowledge of
any problems. "We're constantly adjusting our services to make sure
that we provide the services as contracted," he said. He declined to
detail the adjustments. Reading the emails, frequent jail visitor Marion Damick, the Pittsburgh representative of the
Pennsylvania Prison Society, called the problems "abnormal. That never
happened under Allegheny [Correctional], never. "That's terrifying,
actually. There is absolutely no reason that they would ever miss
medication," she said, adding that such shortcomings can only increase
costs in the long run. She added that she is "not hearing bad
news" about Corizon from inmates to date. Corizon took over the jail
infirmary Sept. 1, following a lengthy process meant to pick the successor
to Allegheny Correctional. Allegheny Correctional drew a steady stream of
lawsuits stemming from inmate deaths and injuries, including some related
to alleged failures to give inmates the right medicines. The nonprofit,
which ran the infirmary since 2001, also allowed annual costs to creep up
to around $12.5 million a year. Corizon agreed to take on the 2,500-inmate
jail for $11.5 million the first year, with annual increases of 4.25
percent. Corizon said it would do a better job of staffing the infirmary.
In a pre-takeover email dated Aug. 16 explaining why some Allegheny
Correctional employees would soon lose their jobs, another Corizon vice
president of operations, Mary Silva, wrote that "I ... really feel it
is imperative to have adequate staffing on ALL shifts, not just day
shift." After Corizon's Sept. 1 takeover, though, staffing did not
stabilize. That led to disruptions to the daily "medication
passes" to the jail's 35 pods. An Oct. 10 email from Ms. Long to Mr.
Harrington and others asked for a "plan for successful implementation
of medication passes" -- the term for the nursing staff's
several-times-daily distribution to pods of medicines in packets stamped
with the names of the receiving inmates. On Oct. 21, Warden Orlando Harper
wrote to Mr. Harrington and others: "We are continuing to experience
issues pertaining to the following: 1. Staffing, 2. Medication
distribution." An email from Ms. Long complained that on Oct. 18 and
19, medication on Level 3 was passed out "after 11:00 p.m.," and
on Oct. 20, "2 pods did not receive medication at all." She added
that two pregnant inmates were "left in intake 24 hours" because
Corizon nurses "did not know what to do" with them. An inmate on
oxygen who "was supposed to be processed immediately" was left in
the intake area for two shifts, she wrote. On Nov. 16, a jail sergeant
wrote that "Level 7 hasn't received Medication" by almost 2 p.m.
"This is on going [sic] problem." That
day the person charged with solving the problem, longtime jail nursing
director Kim Mike-Wilson, quit with no notice, according to the emails. The
next day, Ms. Long characterized the situation as "a crisis." In
a response email, Corizon assistant health service administrator Michael
Barfield blamed the day's crisis on Ms. Mike-Wilson's departure and a
nurse's mid-shift departure due to illness. The county declined to provide
a list of Corizon staff inside the jail, indicating in a response to a
right-to-know request that such information "is not directly related,
or even relevant to" a contractor's performance of a governmental
function. A Nov. 20 meeting of jail and Corizon officials on medication
passes and other issues failed to iron out the problems. Ms. Long wrote to
Mr. Harrington two days later saying she "Just received another call
that [pod] 5E has not received medications thus far." Reached by phone
Friday, Mr. Harper declined to detail his staff's interactions with
Corizon. "Right now we're doing everything possible to make sure that
our inmates receive the proper medical care," he said. In an email
response to questions Friday, county manager William D. McKain
wrote that Corizon's leadership has been responsive to concerns. He added
that when transitioning from Allegheny Correctional to Corizon, "we
expected that there will be a period of time in which there are problems
and issues to be addressed.." There are often
disruptions when a jail changes its medical provider, said Mark Stern,
former medical director at the Washington Department of Corrections, now an
assistant affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of
Public Health. "It's not acceptable," said Dr. Stern, who worked
briefly around 2000 for a company that merged into 35-year-old Corizon.
"This is not [Corizon's] first rodeo. These problems are predictable
and preventable." Failing to deliver necessary medicines regularly
would be "a serious violation of the constitutional right of
inmates," he said. "There are some medications where a deviation
of a few hours or even a day or so may not make a difference. There are
other medications were the timing is much more critical. "If we're
treating tuberculosis and we don't treat it well in prison, then when they
get out in the community, they're going to spread it." Mr. Barfield
told the Jail Oversight Board Thursday that Corizon had "ramped up the
clinic visits." He said the key was hiring more nurse practitioners.
Jail medical director Michael Patterson highlighted for the board his focus
on detecting and treating diabetes. Dr. Patterson appears to be the lone
remaining full-time physician in the jail under Corizon. The firm's
contract calls for one additional part-time physician, and former jail
medical employees who quit recently said that Eugene Youngue
is filling that role. Both Dr. Patterson and Dr. Youngue
served the jail full time under Allegheny Correctional, along with
physicians Lucille Aiken, Miguel Salomon and part-timer Morris Harper. Dr.
Aiken in September filed a state Human Relations Commission complaint
against the county and Corizon, claiming that she was sent packing before
the firm's takeover as retaliation for her efforts to ensure quality care
for inmates, and because of her gender and status as an immigrant from
Italy. Allegheny Correctional also employed three psychiatrists and one
psychologist. Corizon's contract requires that it provide one full-time
psychiatrist and a part-time psychologist. Mr. Harrington would not provide
a raw number of physicians working in the jail following the board meeting
Thursday, and on Friday failed to respond to an email and hung up when
reached on his cell phone. "We have a full complement of
doctors," he said Thursday. "That's what we are contracted to
provide."
American Service Group,
Brentwood, Tennessee
May 18, 2013 nashvillepost.com
Prison health management company Corizon is going
after a former consultant for testifying against it in a Florida court
case. Brentwood-based Corizon claims in a U.S. District Court of Middle
Tennessee filing that it hired Lindsay Hayes, a Massachusetts-based prison
expert, for consultation work in 2005. Then, unbeknownst to the company, he
allegedly served as an expert witness in a court case against the company
in 2008. Corizon executives also claim that Hayes was serving as an expert
witness against them in a separate case when they brought him back for more
consulting work in 2010. Hayes didn’t tell Corizon about the conflict of
interest, the suit claims. The complaint is seeking to enforce the
confidentiality agreement Hayes signed as part of his consultant work.
Corizon also is requesting an injunction to prevent him from further
testifying at the Florida trial. Hayes couldn't be reached for comment
Thursday.
March
3, 2011 The Street
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ: ASGR), the parent company of PHS
Correctional Healthcare, Inc., and Valitás Health
Services, Inc., the parent company of Correctional Medical Services, Inc.,
announced today the signing of an agreement and plan of merger (the “Merger
Agreement”) under which the two companies would be combined, bringing
together two leading companies in the correctional healthcare field –
America Service Group's PHS Correctional Healthcare and Valitás’
Correctional Medical Services. Upon completion of the transaction, the
combined company will have approximately 11,000 employees and independent
contractors and will serve more than 400 correctional facilities. The
combined company’s annual revenues are expected to total approximately $1.4
billion for 2011.
March
2, 2010 Tennessean
America Service Group reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $236,000
compared with net income of $1.2 million a year earlier The recent
quarter’s net income would have been $4.3 million excluding after-tax costs
related to a shareholder litigation settlement during the quarter.
Healthcare revenues from continuing contracts rose 36.7 percent to $160.8
million. For all of 2010, the Brentwood-based prison health care company
expects net income of $10.1 million, or $1.08 a share, on revenues of $635
to $645 million.
October
29, 2009 AP
Shares of Psychiatric Solutions Inc. plunged nearly 23 percent on
Wednesday, a day after the behavioral hospital operator reported
disappointing results for the third quarter and cut its expectations for
the rest of 2009. The Franklin-based firm's stock dropped $5.47 to close at
$18.67 per share in Nasdaq trading. Psychiatric Solutions said profits
haven't lived up to the company's own goals and revenue per patient per day
hasn't grown as much as expected. Profits at its management-contract
segment did not meet its forecasts either. In a note to clients, Raymond
James analyst John Ransom downgraded the stock to "market
perform" from "strong buy." He said tight state budgets and
uncertainty about future profits probably will pressure Psychiatric
Solutions' stock over the next few months. Psychiatric Solution reported
third-quarter net income attributable to its stockholders of $28.2 million,
or 50 cents per share, on revenue of $455.3 million. Analysts surveyed by
Thomson Reuters had expected profits of 56 cents per share on revenue of
$462.2 million. The company this year expects to earn $2.11 to $2.14 per
share, down from a previous forecast of $2.16 to $2.24 per share. In other
health-care related earnings Wednesday: • Community Health Systems Inc.
reported third-quarter net income of $59.7 million, up 18.5 percent from
$50.4 million a year earlier. Per share results of 65 cents for the recent
quarter beat the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters
by 3 cents. Revenues rose 12 percent to $3.09 billion, better than the
$3.02 billion that analysts had forecast. For all of next year, the
Franklin-based hospital chain expects profits of $2.80 to $3 per share. •
America Service Group in Brentwood lowered its full-year earnings forecast
to 65 cents a share from 88 cents, citing the effects of large inmate
medical claims in Michigan in the third quarter and unrelated litigation
costs. But the prison health-care provider still more than doubled its net
income in the third quarter. Net income rose to $716,000 from $348,000 a
year ago.
July
15, 2009 PR Inside
A lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of America Service Group, Inc.
(NASDAQ:ASGR) stock between September 24, 2003 to March 16, 2006, alleging
America Service violated Federal Securities Laws is pending at the US
District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. On March 31, 2009,
Federal Judge William J. Haynes, Jr. granted in part and denied in part the
defendants’ motion to dismiss. If you purchased America Service Group, Inc.
(NASDAQ:ASGR) before March 2006 and currently still hold your ASGR shares,
you have certain options and you should contact the Shareholders
Foundation, Inc at email: mail(at)shareholdersfoundation.com or call us at:
+1 (858) 779 - 1554. According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges that
that America Service Group and its top executive officers engaged in
accounting fraud and violated the federal securities laws by misleading
investors and failing to disclose between September 24, 2003 to March 16,
2006 that “ (1) America Service was not charging its customers in
accordance with their contracts; (2) America Service failed to properly
credit customers with discounts, rebates, and price concessions; (3) America
Service failed to provide customers with appropriate credits for returned
pharmaceutical products; and (4) America Service inappropriately
established and utilized reserves to help it more closely meet budgeted
results”. The complaint further alleges that after the markets closed, on
March 15, 2006, America Service Group announced that as a result of the
findings of an internal investigation, it would restate earnings for the
years ended December 31, 2001 through December 31, 2004 and for the first
six months of 2005 and issue refunds of $3.6 million, plus interest, to
customers for instances in which it failed to credit them with discounts,
rebates or price savings to which they were entitled. On this news, so the
lawsuit, the price of America Service Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR) fell $5.65,
or almost 29%, to close at $13.95 per share. America Service Group Inc., a
Delaware corporation headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee with a $141
market cap, through its subsidiaries Prison Health Services, Inc. , EMSA Limited
Partnership, and Correctional Health Services, LLC, contracts to provide
and/or administer managed healthcare services to over 120 correctional
facilities throughout the United States. America Service Group reported in
2007 Total Revenue of $464million with a Net Income of $2.81million and in
2008 Total Revenue of $497.74million with a Net Income of $3.83million.
Shares of America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR) traded recently at
$15.84 per share, down from a 52weekhigh of $17.22 per share and almost $30
per share in 2005.
August
17, 2007 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc. said Thursday that its Prison Health Services
subsidiary would lose its contract with the Alabama Department of
Corrections. The contract expires on Oct. 31. PHS provides medical services
to inmates. Brentwood-based America Service Group said it would update its
fourth-quarter earnings estimate later. It had projected revenues from a
renewed contract of $12.3 million in the three months ending Dec. 31.
April
12, 2007 Business Wire
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR) announced today that it has
executed an asset purchase agreement for the sale of certain assets of its
indirect subsidiary, Secure Pharmacy Plus, LLC (SPP), to Maxor National Pharmacy Services Corporation (Maxor). Additionally, as a part of the transaction, Maxor and Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS), the
Company's primary operating subsidiary, have entered into a long-term
pharmacy services agreement pursuant to which Maxor
will become the provider of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to PHS.
The asset purchase agreement is to be effective April 30, 2007, subject to
standard closing conditions. The pharmacy services agreement will commence
May 1, 2007, subject to the closing of the asset purchase agreement. America
Service Group Inc., based in Brentwood, Tennessee, is a leading provider of
correctional healthcare services in the United States. America Service
Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a wide range of healthcare
and pharmacy programs to government agencies for the medical care of
inmates. More information about America Service Group Inc. can be found on
the Company's website at www.asgr.com or www.prisonhealthmedia.com.
December
11, 2006 AP
Prison health care and pharmacy service provider America Service Group
Inc. lowered its 2006 guidance again on Monday, but said it expects
"stronger, more consistent performance from its contract portfolio in
2007." The company now sees adjusted 2006 earnings of $5.3 million, or
50 cents per share, on sales between $640 million and 650 million. In
October, the company forecast adjusted earnings in a range of 58 cents to
61 cents per share, on sales between $650 million to $655 million. In
August, America Service said it saw profit of 72 cents to 75 cents per
share on revenue between $650 million and $660 million for the year. The
company said its lower 2006 outlook is due mainly to the Florida Department
of Corrections' decision to "reject all bids to provide comprehensive
health care services in its Region IV," and to expected cost
increases, including professional liability expenses. Looking toward 2007,
the company sees adjusted earnings of $8.2 million, or 86 cents per share,
on sales in the range of $570 million to $580 million. Shares fell 91 cents,
or 5.8 percent, to $14.69 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed
unchanged at $15.60 on the Nasdaq.
October
24, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
With a stern warning and a promise to levy stiff fines for past
failures, Florida's top prison boss said Monday he would allow a
controversial Tennessee company to continue providing health care to 17,000
South Florida inmates. The Department of Corrections announced that Prison
Health Services is the only one of three competing companies that submitted
a qualifying bid for the nearly $800 million, 10-year health-care-services
contract. However, in a letter to PHS executives, DOC Secretary Jim
McDonough noted the company's abrupt pullout from an original contract it
signed last year. Company officials said they were losing money on their
$645 million bid because they dramatically underestimated the cost of
hospitalizing sick inmates. ''Having been disappointed by you in the past,
I will be doubly vigilant in regard to both your performance and your
attitude providing proper health services to the men and women under my
care,'' McDonough wrote. ''You can expect that the next time, it will be
me, not you, who moves abruptly to exercise the withdrawal option.''
McDonough also warned that the company faces ''significant fines'' for
''shortcomings of services provided by you under the original
contract." McDonough has been under pressure from Democratic
legislators who sit on committees that oversee prison spending. Sen. Dave
Aronberg of Greenacres and Walter ''Skip'' Campbell of Tamarac recently
sent letters to McDonough demanding to know why the department has been
slow to fine PHS for poor performance. In a letter McDonough issued Monday
to the lawmakers, he said he did not want to reveal the amount of fines PHS
faces to prevent companies from changing their bids. ''To have issued such
a letter earlier could have impacted the current (bidding) process,
resulting in adjusted bids that might have raised the bottom line to the
taxpayer,'' McDonough said. Aronberg said Monday that he did not object to
allowing PHS to compete again for the contract. But he didn't expect PHS to
win the latest competition. ''I'm surprised because of the way the last
contract was handled and terminated and because they were not the lowest
bidder. My concern has always been making sure that the state fulfilled its
end of the contract by imposing the fines,'' Aronberg said.
August
23, 2006 Gainesville Sun
One of the state's largest privatization efforts is ending abruptly with
Prison Health Services' decision to end work with the Florida Department of
Corrections nearly eight years before the contract was to expire. PHS, a
Tennessee-based company that handles health care needs for local- and
state-run jails and prisons around the country, announced on Monday that it
would end its contract providing services to nearly 14,000 prisoners in
more than a dozen South Florida prisons. "The contract has
underperformed financially," a news release states, "primarily
due to a higher than anticipated volume of off-site hospitalization
services. The company's decision to terminate the contract was made only
after diligent efforts on the part of both PHS and Florida Department of
Corrections representatives to reach agreement on provisions that would
allow the contract to continue on mutually beneficial terms." PHS will
cease providing services for DOC on Nov. 20. DOC spokesman JoEllyn Rackleff said that
was enough time for the agency to maintain prisoner well-being in the
transition. DOC Secretary James McDonough has previously said he is willing
to end privatization efforts and return oversight of certain programs to
the agency. PHS won the South Florida contract last year, despite protests
from some lawmakers that the bid was too low to provide quality service.
PHS was set to receive more than $790 million over 10 years for the work.
August
21, 2006 Yahoo News
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR - News) announced today that its
primary operating subsidiary, Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS), has
formally delivered written notice to terminate its contract with the
Florida Department of Corrections, effective November 20, 2006. As
previously announced, the contract has underperformed financially,
primarily due to a higher than anticipated volume of off-site hospitalization
services required for this patient population. The Company had been in
discussions with the Florida Department of Corrections as to potential
alternatives that could improve the future financial performance of the
contract. The Company's decision to terminate the contract was made only
after diligent efforts on the part of both PHS and Florida Department of
Corrections representatives to reach agreement on provisions that would
allow the contract to continue on mutually beneficial terms.
August
2, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
America Service Group Inc. saw its earnings for the second quarter
plummet 81 percent compared to results for the same period last year. The
provider of prison health care and pharmacy services showed a profit of
$514,000, or 5 cents per diluted share, in the quarter ended June 30
compared to $2.8 million, or 26 cents per diluted share last year. Though
earnings were down, the second quarter saw the company return to an
operating profit - something that hasn't occurred since the second quarter
last year. Nevertheless, the company's stock dropped nearly 19 percent,
trading at $11.66 at 10:20 a.m. The 52-week range of the stock is $11.32 to
$23.20. Brentwood-based America Service (NASDAQ: ASGR) lowered its guidance
and now expects revenues to fall between $650 million and $660 million and
earnings to range between $7.7 million to 8 million. The company cited an
underperforming Florida Department of Corrections contract as the cause of
the reduction. The company's previous guidance called for revenues between
$660 million and $680 million and earnings between $9.4 million and $10
million. Second-quarter revenues were on the upswing, coming in at $160
million compared to $139 million in the second quarter a year ago. Expenses
increased to $150 million in the quarter compared to $128 million in the
second quarter last year. The company also recorded $1.0 million in charges
associated with an audit committee investigation of its Secure Pharmacy
Plus subsidiary. On March 15, the company said an investigation into
financial improprieties at its Secure Pharmacy Plus unit found that the
company failed to properly credit customers with discounts, rebates and
savings and failed to give customers proper credit for returned
pharmaceuticals. Expenses related to the audit amounted to $4.6 million
through the first half of this year and the company expects it will spend
another $400,000 to $900,000. The company continued its stock repurchase
program approved in July of last year to repurchase and retire 217,000
shares at a value of $3.0 million. The repurchase was suspended during part
of the second quarter when the company received a third-party proposal to
acquire pharmacy services subsidiary Secure Pharmacy Plus. Ultimately, a
deal wasn't reached.
June
22, 2006 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc. says it has received notice that its stock
won't be dropped from the Nasdaq National Market. Last month, after two
directors quit, the Brentwood-based prison health company said it had
received notice that it was no longer in compliance with Nasdaq rules
requiring a majority of independent directors. On June 14, ASG added four
independent directors. On Wednesday, it said Nasdaq had determined the
company is now in compliance with rules governing board membership and
corporate oversight.
June
14, 2006 Tennessean
Brentwood’s America Service Group Inc., the prison health company whose
stock was in danger of being dropped by the Nasdaq National Market, named
four new independent members to its board today. The move should bring the
company back into compliance with Nasdaq’s rules requiring a certain number
of outside directors and allow the stock to continue to be listed, company
officials said this afternoon. Two outside directors bolted from America
Service Group’s board earlier this year after they unsuccessfully tried to
oust CEO Michael Catalano. New board members are: • John C. McCauley,
assistant vice chancellor of risk and insurance management at Vanderbilt
University. • William E. Hale, formerly president and chief executive of
Beech Street Corp., a preferred provider organization. • John W. Gildea,
managing director of Gildea Management Co., and a former board member of
America Service Group from 1986-1999. • William M. Fenimore, managing
partner of BridgeLink LLC, Swiss-based capital
advisors.
May
30, 2006 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc., the beleaguered prison health-care company,
expects to beat a June 14 deadline to fill at least one vacancy on its
board of directors so its stock won't be dropped from the Nasdaq National
Market. Under Nasdaq rules, the departure this month of two board members
who quit after trying to oust CEO Michael Catalano meant the company no
longer complied with a requirement that a majority of its directors be
independent. A third independent director left in December. Only two of its
four remaining directors have no other ties to the company. ASG has until
its next annual meeting, scheduled for June 14, to address the vacancies on
its board. Catalano said the company would fill at least two of the three
vacant seats by that deadline. "We're confident we'll come back into
compliance," he said. But this month's departure of two board members
and Nasdaq's threat to drop or delist the Brentwood-based company's stock as
a result aren't its only problems. It has come under fire in several states
over the quality of medical care it provides to inmates. The Washington
Post in an editorial recently called on officials to keep a closer eye on
the company's Prison Health Services subsidiary after the Associated Press
reported that some inmates in Virginia had said medical care there was so
shoddy that they feared for their lives. Last spring, a report by the Metro
Health Department blamed the death of a diabetic inmate at Metro Jail on myriad
failures by the jail's nurses, who were employed by PHS. Catalano wouldn't
comment on the specific allegations against the company but said
competitors get similar complaints about the quality of care they provide.
May
19, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
America Service Group Inc. announced today it received an expected
notice on May 17 from NASDAQ Listing Qualifications indicating it no longer
complies stock exchange's independent director and audit committee
requirements. The company received the notification due to the resignation
of Michael E. Gallagher and Carol R. Goldberg on May 6 and May 8 from the
company's board of directors. NASDAQ rules requires that a majority of
board members be comprised of independent directors and that the company's
audit committee be comprised of at least three members, each of whom are
independent. Gallagher and Goldberg were members of the company's audit
committee. The addition of one qualified independent director to serve on
the audit committee will allow the company to regain compliance. The
company is actively conducting a search for at least two independent
directors to serve on its board of directors and audit committee, according
to a release announcing the NASDAQ notice. Gallagher is the director of
Edgar Group LLC, a health care consulting firm and was a partner in
Shamrock Investments LLC, a health care advisory firm. Goldberg is
president of AVCAR Group Ltd., a management consulting firm.
Brentwood-based America Service (NASDAQ: ASGR - News) provides prison health
services through its subsidiaries Prison Health Services and Secure
Pharmacy Plus.
May
11, 2006 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc. says two members of its board quit after
saying they'd lost confidence in the company's chief executive officer. Michael
Gallagher, who led the board's audit committee, which recently looked into
mismanagement at the company's prison pharmacy unit, submitted his
resignation on Friday. Carol Goldberg, who led the board's compensation
com- mittee, resigned on Monday. Brentwood-based
ASG, which is being sued by shareholders in federal court over the problems
at its Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary, disclosed the resignations in a
regulatory filing after the markets closed Tuesday. According to the
filing, the company's remaining board members met Tuesday and
"confirmed their view that the company's chief executive officer
should continue to serve in that capacity." CEO Michael Catalano, who
chairs the board, "abstained from consideration of this matter,"
the company said in its filing. On Wednesday, Catalano said in a statement
that the company wouldn't allow itself to become distracted by the
developments. "While the public filings from America Service Group
Inc. speak to the issues of two directors' resignations, I think it is
important to know that our focus remains unchanged," Catalano said.
"The dedicated health-care professionals representing our company are
committed to the mission of providing quality medical care to the patients
we serve in jails and prisons nationwide." Gallagher and Goldberg, who
couldn't be reached yesterday, told a meeting of the board's governance
committee they believed "the company would be better served by
replacing its chief executive." Gallagher apparently resigned soon
after the meeting. Goldberg e-mailed her resignation letter to the company
on Monday. She said simply, "I hereby tender my resignation as a
director of America Service Group Inc., effective today. I wish the company
the best in its future endeavors." In his letter, Gallagher wrote that
because "my fellow independent board members are unwilling to make a
change … I have no other alternative but to hold true to the courage of my
convictions and resign. "It is my business judgment that while there
are many good people in the executive ranks of the company there
nonetheless needs to be a change at the top," Gallagher said.
"Such change is urgently needed in order to maximize the probability
of successfully meeting the company's challenges and to ensure the full
implementation of the recommendations resulting from the recent
investigation (into Secure Pharmacy Plus)," he said. In March, the
company said the audit committee recommended strengthening the company's
internal controls and compliance functions after finding that problems at Secure
Pharmacy Plus caused the company as a whole to post inflated earnings over
a four-and-a-half-year period. ASG, which provides health services at jails
and prisons nationwide, said that problems with the subsidiary had caused
the company as a whole to overstate profits by $2.1 million for 2001
through the second quarter of 2005. It also agreed to refund $3.6 million
to clients who were overcharged for prescription drugs. It found that some
clients weren't properly credited with discounts or rebates on drug
purchases and others weren't properly credited for prescription drugs that
were returned. The resignation of two board members was "just one of
those unfortunate things following a hard year," said Anton Hie, an
analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Nashville. In a research note to
clients, he maintained his "hold" rating on the stock. ASG said
in its quarterly earnings filing on Wednesday that it had 104 health-care
and pharmacy contracts as of April 1, five fewer than it had a year
earlier. It posted a net loss of about $1.1 million in the first quarter,
compared with a profit of $3.9 million in the first quarter of 2005. Still,
shares of the company were up Wednesday, climbing 44 cents, or 3.4 percent,
in moderate trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market to close at $13.42 a share,
well below its 52-week high of $23.81.
May 3,
2006 Nashville Business Journal
Prison health services provider America Service Group Inc.'s troubles
with its Secure Pharmacy Plus business helped push the company into a
first-quarter loss. The company posted a loss of $1.4 million in the
quarter ended March 31 compared to a profit of $3.9 million in the first
quarter a year ago. Revenue from health care services were up nearly 26
percent to $167 million, but expenses to provide those services rose nearly
30 percent. Further denting the first-quarter numbers was a $3.6 million
charge associated with an audit committee investigation into financial
improprieties at Secure Pharmacy Plus. Brentwood-based America Service
(NASDAQ: ASGR) expects to record another $200,000 to $700,000 in expenses
related to the audit this year. That audit found that the company failed to
properly credit customers with discounts, rebates and savings and failed to
give customers proper credit for returned pharmaceuticals. The
investigation also found that SPP inappropriately created reserves over the
past five years to ensure the company's reported earnings matched budgeted
results. The company restated its earnings going back to 2001. Excluding
that charge, income from operations prior to income tax, interest and
discontinued operations, would have been $2.4 million. Income from
operations in the first quarter a year ago amounted to $6.2 million. The
company also saw a $1.6 million increase in selling, general and administrative
expenses, with $1 million of that coming from share-based compensation
expense. The company has affirmed its guidance for 2006 and expects total
revenue to be in the range of $660 million to $680 million. Earnings per
diluted share are expected to be in the range of 90 cents to 96 cents. The
revised 2005 number was 39 cents.
April
11, 2006 Nashville City Paper
A Brentwood prison health company’s announcement that it will restate
earnings because of internal problems in its pharmacy subsidiary has
spawned a shareholders’ lawsuit by a union pension fund. The Plumbers and
Pipefitters Local 51 Pension Fund filed the suit last week in U.S. District
Court in Nashville against America Service Group, which provides health
care services to prisons. The complaint stems from the company’s March 15
disclosure of an internal investigation that uncovered several problems
with its Secure Pharmacy Plus (SPP) subsidiary, which contracts with
governments to distribute medications to inmates. The announcement “shocked
the market,” the suit states. The company’s stock price fell nearly 29
percent, or $5.65 per share, to close at $13.95. The pension fund claims
that America Service Group, through its public statements and filings,
knowingly misled shareholders about the company’s financial health, which
artificially inflated ASG’s common stock. The pension fund’s law firms —
Barrett, Johnston & Parsley of Nashville and Lerach,
Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins of
New York — are seeking class-action status on behalf of shareholders of
common stock between Sept. 24, 2003, and March 16, 2006. The suit asks for
unspecified damages.
April
7, 2006 Tennessean
The law firm of Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP said yesterday
that a potential class-action lawsuit has been filed in federal court here
on behalf of investors who bought stock in America Service Group Inc.
between Sept. 24, 2003, and March 16, 2006. Attorneys said the suit stems
from the Brentwood-based prison health services company's internal
investigation into the business practices of its Secure Pharmacy Plus
subsidiary. Last month, ASG said an investigation into the unit had caused
the company as a whole to overstate profits by $2.1 million for 2001
through the second quarter of 2005. ASG also said it would refund $3.6
million to clients who were overcharged for prescription drugs. It found
that some clients weren't properly credited with discounts or rebates on
drug purchases and others weren't properly credited for prescription drugs
that were returned.
March
29, 2006 Tennessean
Brentwood-based America Service Group Inc. has named Richard Hallworth as chief operating officer. He will also
serve as president and chief executive officer of the company's wholly
owned subsidiary, Prison Health Services Inc. Hallworth
previously held several executive positions with Tufts Health Plan, a
managed care company. He began his career as a certified public accountant,
first with Coopers & Lybrand and then as a partner with Ernst &
Young LLP. He will replace former executive vice president Trey Hartman as
president of Prison Health Services, which provides medical care to jail
and prison inmates. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, America Service Group said Hartman was fired for cause in
December in connection with an internal probe into whether the company’s
Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary had overcharged for drugs and failed to
follow proper accounting procedures. Hartman was a former head of the
pharmacy unit.
March
16, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
Prison health care services company America Service Group Inc. has
released the findings of an internal investigation into financial improprieties
at its Secure Pharmacy Plus subsidiary. The results: restated earnings
going back to 2001, a stock price plunge and a $3.7 million bill for the
investigation. Last October, the company announced that the audit committee
of its board of directors would conduct an investigation of SPP over
pharmaceutical pricing and accounting practices. Independent forensic
accountants conducted the investigation and found that SPP failed to
properly credit customers with discounts, rebates and savings and failed to
give customers proper credit for returned pharmaceuticals. Brentwood-based
America Service (NASDAQ: ASGRE) plans to refund $3.6 million, plus
interest, to customers as a result. Management of SPP also inappropriately
created reserves over the past five years to ensure the company's reported
earnings matched budgeted results. Auditors determined the company's
pre-tax income was $355,000 higher than previously reported. Auditors also
found that SPP charged some of its customers less than it should have to the
tune of $5.9 million. The company will try to collect that money, but is
uncertain of how much success it will have doing so. The news slammed
America Service shares. At 12:40 p.m., they were trading at $13.90, down
more than 29 percent their closing price Wednesday. The 52-week range of
the stock is $12 to $26.10. On Dec. 7, the company fired Grant Bryson,
president and CEO of SPP, in connection with the investigation. Two days
later, it sent packing Trey Hartman, president and chief operating officer of
Prison Health Services Inc., a move also connected with the investigation.
Hartman was with SPP when America Service bought the company in 2000.
Kendall Lynch is now CEO of SPP. In a statement announcing the results of
the investigation, America Service said both the Securities and Exchange
Commission and the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee are
conducting informal inquiries. The company says it will continue to
cooperate with both. As it wrapped up its own investigation, the company had
delayed reporting its third-quarter results. Those financials were released
after the market closed March 15 along with fourth-quarter and full-year
numbers and restated earnings going back to 2001. Fourth-quarter results
show America Service with a loss of $1.2 million compared to restated
earnings of $4.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2004. Revenue for the
quarter ended Dec. 31 came to $149 million compared to $130 million the
year before. The fourth-quarter loss includes $3.3 million in expenses related
to the investigation. During the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the company
also posted a loss of $1.2 million compared to restated earnings of $81,000
last year. Revenue for the quarter came to $140 million compared to $135
million last year. Third-quarter results include $370,000 in expenses
related to the investigation. Other restated earnings: The company's
earnings for the first two quarters of 2005 were $6.7 million instead of
the $7.1 million that was reported. Revenues for the two-quarter period were
$273 million instead of $315 million. In 2004, the company had a profit of
$9.9 million instead of the $9 million that was reported. Revenues for the
year were $517 million instead of $665 million. Earnings in 2003 were $11.3
million instead of the previously reported $11.9 million. Revenues for the
year were $380 million instead of $517 million. In 2002, the company's
profit was $11.3 million instead of $11.9 million. Revenue for the year was
$293 million instead of $410 million. The company's loss in 2001 was $46.5
million rather than the reported $45 million. Revenue for the year was $299
million instead of $397 million.
January
16, 2006 Tennessean
Prison health care services provider America Service Group Inc. will
continue to be listed on NASDAQ. The company had received notice from the
stock exchange in November that it was subject to delisting because it had
failed to make timely financial filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The company delayed its third quarter financial reports pending
the conclusion of an internal investigation by its audit committee of a
subsidiary, Secure Pharmacy Plus. On Jan. 10, the company received a letter
from NASDAQ that it would continue to be listed on the exchange provided it
files its quarterly report for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 by March
15, according to a statement released by the company. The company also must
provide the final report of the internal investigation by Feb. 28. The
investigation was to "determine whether SPP provided pricing of
pharmaceuticals in accordance with" client contracts and whether
accruals and reserves maintained by the company were in line with
accounting principles, according to a Oct. 24 statement by the company.
America Service Group fired Grant Bryson, president and CEO of Secure
Pharmacy, on Dec. 7 in connection with the internal investigation. On Dec.
9, the company also fired Trey Hartman, president and chief operating
officer of Prison Health Services Inc. His termination also was based on
the ongoing internal investigation. Hartman formerly served as the head of
Secure Pharmacy. The trading symbol for the company currently is
"ASGRE." The "E" will be removed from the trading
symbol when the company has fully complied with NASDAQ filing requirements.
December
13, 2005 Tennessean
Brentwood-based America Service Group Inc. said today that it has fired two
people in connection with an ongoing investigation into the billing
practices of its prison pharmacy subsidiary. The company fired Trey
Hartman, its executive vice president, on Dec. 9 and Grant Bryson, head of
Secure Pharmacy Plus, on Dec. 7. Hartman also was president and chief
operating officer of Prison Health Services, which provides medical
services to jail and prison inmates. He previously ran America Service
Group's pharmacy unit. The company said Hartman and Bryson were terminated
for cause. Bryson had been on paid leave. He wasn't an executive officer of
the company. America Service Group also said that Richard M. Mastaler would resign from the company's board of
directors on Dec. 30 to pursue other interests. The company said his
resignation is unrelated to its internal investigation of the pharmacy
unit. The company announced in October that it was looking into whether its
pharmacy operation overcharged for drugs and failed to follow proper
accounting procedures. It said its audit committee had hired outside
counsel who, in turn, had brought in a team of independent auditors to
review the books of Secure Pharmacy Plus. Secure Pharmacy's former controller,
who recently resigned, had identified the issues that are under
investigation, the company said.
November
17, 2005 Tennessean
NASDAQ notified the company on Nov. 11 that its stock may be delisted
because of a delay in filing its third-quarter report. ASG announced late
Monday that it had received the notice. It informed the Securities and
Exchange Commission on Tuesday. The Brentwood-based jail and prison
health-care company said on Nov. 9 that it would be late in filing its
quarterly financial report because of a previously announced internal
investigation into a pharmacy subsidiary. On Tuesday, the company's stock
symbol changed from "ASGR" to "ASGRE." Shares in the
company were at $16.27, down 83 cents, or 4.85%, in early trading today. If
the company is dropped from the stock exchange, its shares would be traded
over the counter. Some institutional investors have policies against owning
shares in companies that aren't traded on one of the major exchanges,
analyst Anton Hie said. If these investors are forced to sell a large
amount of stock, the price would probably fall sharply, said Hie, an
analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Nashville.
October
25, 2005 Tennessean
Shares in America Service Group Inc. plunged 28% yesterday on news that the
company is looking into whether its pharmacy unit overcharged for drugs and
failed to follow proper accounting procedures. The Brentwood-based prison
health-care company said its audit committee had hired outside counsel who,
in turn, had brought in a team of independent auditors to review the books
of Secure Pharmacy Plus. Secure Pharmacy's former controller, who recently
resigned, had identified the issues that are under investigation, the
company said. The unit's president, Grant Bryson, has been placed on paid
leave. America Service Group didn't name the former controller, and there
was no controller listed on the unit's Web site yesterday, but an earlier
version of the site, saved on www.google.com, identified him as Randy
Beaman. Beaman would not comment on issues under investigation. Because of
the probe, America Service Group has withdrawn its earlier financial
guidance and warned that it will delay filing its quarterly earnings
report.
October
24, 2005 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc.'s stock tumbled in early trading today on the
disclosure that its audit committee is investigating the company's pharmacy
subsidiary. The Brentwood-based prison health company said in a news
release this morning that the inquiry is being conducted to determine
whether Secure Pharmacy Plus is providing pricing of prescription drugs in
accordance with the terms of its contracts. America Service Group also is
looking into whether some of the unit's financial accounts were established
and utilized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
By mid-morning, the company's stock was trading at $13.31 a share, down
$4.85, or nearly 27%, from Friday's closing price of $18.16 on the NASDAQ
Stock Market. Jeffries & Company analysts Anton Hie downgraded the
stock to "hold" from "buy" and lowered his target price
to $20 from $22.50. The internal investigation is only the latest setback
for America Service Group. Since its stock closed at $30 a share in
February, the price has dropped on a string of bad news beginning with a
series in The New York Times that month that claimed the company's care was
"flawed and sometimes lethal." It also has lost several large
contracts since the first of the year, including one to treat inmates at
Nashville's Metro Jail. The company's nurses were blamed in the death of a
diabetic inmate there last winter.
October
24, 2005 Yahoo
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR - News) announced today that the
Audit Committee of its Board of Directors is conducting an internal
investigation into certain matters related to its subsidiary, Secure
Pharmacy Plus ("SPP"). The Company said the investigation
primarily is being conducted to determine whether SPP provided pricing of
pharmaceuticals in accordance with applicable client contract terms and
whether some of the accruals and reserves maintained by SPP were
established and utilized in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles. "We take allegations of impropriety very seriously, and we
are conducting a thorough investigative process to determine if the issues
described in this press release, as well as any other issues which may be
identified as a result of the investigation, will impact the Company's
previously reported financial results," said Michael Gallagher, a
member of the Company's Board of Directors and Chairman of its Audit
Committee. "We will report on our findings as soon as the
investigation is complete." Secure Pharmacy Plus provides pharmacy
services to the Company, in facilities where the Company provides
correctional medical services, as well as to third party clients who
provide their own correctional medical services. The Audit Committee's
inquiry into whether SPP charged its clients in accordance with applicable
contract terms includes reviewing whether discounts received from wholesalers,
rebates received from manufacturers or wholesalers, certain temporary price
reductions from alternate vendors and distributions received from a group
purchasing organization of which SPP is a member should have been credited,
under the terms of the contracts, to such clients. The Audit Committee also
is examining whether returns of unused pharmaceuticals were appropriately
credited to clients.
September
25, 2005 Tennessean
America Service Group Inc., whose business is built around providing care for
sick or injured inmates, is having a rough year. Or, it's doing OK. It
depends on your point of view. Since its stock closed at $30 a share in
February, the price has fallen about 45% on a run of bad news — beginning
with a series in The New York Times that month that claimed the company's
care was "flawed and sometimes lethal." Based in Brentwood, the
company has lost at least six contracts since the first of the year,
including one to treat inmates at Nashville's Metro Jail. The company's nurses
were blamed in the death of a diabetic inmate there last winter. Recently,
it warned Wall Street of lower profits. Originally, the company expected to
earn $1.45 to $1.52 a share on the year, but last month, on a Friday night,
it disclosed the loss of yet another contract and lowered its earnings
estimate by 2 cents. Its stock fell an additional 8% the following Monday.
Only about a third of the country's correctional health services are
provided by for-profit companies, said Michael Catalano, America Service Group's
chairman, president and chief executive. But every year, more agencies
privatize their medical services in hopes of reducing costs and improving
the quality of care. It's not clear whether privatization improves the
quality of correctional care; but since the 1970s, a growing number of
public officials have decided that "it's much easier to turn it over
to a health consortium, and they can handle the whole nine yards,"
said Ken Kerle, managing editor of American Jail,
the magazine of the American Jail Association. America Service Group has
21% of the outsourced correctional health market, behind Correctional
Medical Services, which has an estimated 22%, Catalano said. CMS, a
privately held company based in St. Louis, underbid America Service Group
by about 10% in Maryland, about 14% in Idaho and about 21% in Indiana.
Catalano said he doesn't understand why CMS believes it can provide
adequate care for less money. "We're there providing services,"
he said. "We know what it costs." Catalano said, "The most
significant rebids we haven't won this year have been based upon
price." But this month in South Carolina, the Richland County Council
voted unanimously to fire Prison Health Services after the deaths of three
mentally ill inmates. One council member told The State newspaper of
Columbia the treatment of the prisoners was "unacceptable and
inhumane." Richland County officials didn't return calls to The
Tennessean. And locally, the company's contract with Metro Jail will be
allowed to expire Sept. 30. In March, a city government report blamed the
Jan. 19 death of a diabetic inmate on a "failure to adhere to
established practices on the part of individual employees of Prison Health
Services." Claims of poor medical care are common throughout the correctional
health industry. Correct Care Solutions, the Nashville company replacing
Prison Health Servicesat Metro Jail, was
criticized by the family of a Virginia woman who died in July in a Norfolk
jail. Relatives said she complained that her pneumonia wasn't being treated.
Officials said the company wasn't to blame. A month earlier, the American
Civil Liberties Union sued CMS, alleging that inmates of a Mississippi
prison were misdiagnosed and received poor care.
July 3, 2005 The Tennessean
America Service Group couldn't seem to catch a break in the second quarter.
Its stock fell 28.4% in the three months ended June 30, shoved lower by
troubles that unnerved many investors and left the health-services company
lying near the bottom of the Bloomberg Tennessee Index. Of 73
businesses on the list, onlyonefell harder in the
period. "ASGR has had a tough
2005 so far," analyst Anton Hie said, referring to the Brentwood-based
company by its stock symbol. Its stock took a hit in the first
quarter after The New York Times ran several stories questioningthe
quality of care provided by its Prison Health Services subsidiary, which
cares for inmates. But investors really started to worry in the most
recent three months, as the company announced the loss of lucrative
contracts with the Maryland, Idaho and Indiana prison systems. He
said ASGR's greatest challenge, at least in the short term, could be
aggressive bidding by one of its competitors, Correctional Medical
Services. CMS, based in St. Louis, is privately held, meaning it
doesn't have the legal and auditing costs associated with filing quarterly
earnings reports, Hie said. Patrick Swindle, an analyst with Avondale
Partners in Nashville, said CMS also doesn't have to please investors by
posting ever-increasing quarterly earnings. "What a private
company can do," Swindle said, "is take lower margins in the
short term, hoping to improve those margins in time." CMS
underbid ASGR in Maryland and Idaho and is likely to replace the company in
Indiana, as well, Swindle said. One issue that has affected the
company's stock but shouldn't affect its ability to win business in the
future is negative news about the company. In a front-page
story in February, The Times reported that a yearlong investigation into
the company's operations had found numerous examples "of medical care
that has been flawed and sometimes lethal." "The company's
performance around the nation has provoked criticism from judges and
sheriffs, lawsuits from inmates' families and whistle-blowers and
condemnations by federal, state and local authorities," the newspaper
said. Locally, the Metro Health Department concluded recently that
the death of a diabetic inmate at the Metro Jail in January could have been
prevented if nurses working for Prison Health Services had followed
procedures. The report said nurses failed to properly document the
patient's medical problems when he was booked, lost track of his medical
history and ignored repeated requests for help.
Arizona Department of
Corrections
Mar
12, 2021 apnews.com
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona plans to ask a company that previously provided
health care to its prisoners for reimbursement of a $1.1 million contempt
of court fine that the state just paid for failing to comply with a legal
settlement requiring improvements to inmate care. Such a request would mark
the second time the state has tried to pass along the financial burden for
a contempt fine for noncompliance with the 6-year-old settlement to Corizon
Health Inc., the state’s prison health care contractor for five years until
another company took over in mid-2019. The Arizona Department of
Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry confirmed Wednesday it was planning
to seek reimbursement from Corizon, which covered the costs of a $1.4
million contempt fine that the state paid in 2018 for failing to follow
through on its promises in the settlement. A third round of contempt fines
threatened by a judge in the case would cover violations in the last 10
months of 2020 and could reach as high as $17 million. Corizon didn’t
respond to a request for comment about the prospect of being asked to pay
another contempt fine against the state. The $1.1 million fine, which was
handed down two weeks ago and paid by the state on Wednesday, covers
violations in June 2019. When the first fine was imposed in 2018, attorneys
for inmates argued the state shouldn’t be able to pass along the costs to
and blame its vendor for problems for which it is responsible. Corene Kendrick, an attorney representing prisoners in
the case, said the state’s contract with Corizon called for the company to
pick up the costs of legal fees and fines. The state faces a March 26
deadline for saying why it shouldn’t face a third round of fines. A week
ago, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver warned the state against offering
any past excuses for why it hasn’t complied with the settlement, which
emerged out of a class-action lawsuit that challenged the quality of health
care in state-run prisons. To avoid future fines, Silver said the state
must point to conditions that officials didn’t or couldn’t have anticipated
during the previous six years of the settlement.
Aug
24, 2019 phoenixnewtimes.com
Facing $1.2 Million Fine, ADC Blames
Corizon-Centurion Handoff for Its Failures
A
new, $1.2 million fine is hanging over the Arizona Department of
Corrections for its years-long failure to provide inmates with decent
medical care. In court documents filed Friday in the class-action prison
health care case Parsons v. Ryan, which was settled in 2014, Assistant
Arizona Attorney General Michael Gottfried and four private attorneys asked
U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver not to penalize the Department of
Corrections. They claimed that
the transition in June and July from one private for-profit prison health
care provider, Corizon Health Inc., to another, Centurion Managed Care, has
been rocky. That was why ADC has yet to meet some two
dozen court-ordered standards for adequate medical care, they tried
to explain. "As a result of this transition, there were several delays
and interferences with Defendants' ability to monitor compliance with the
[performance measures]," they wrote. Their claims seemed to ignore the
fact that these performance measures, of which there are more than 100,
date back to the settlement of Parsons v. Ryan. "The case was settled
five years ago, and they’re still not compliant," Corene
Kendrick, an attorney with the Prison Law Office who is co-counsel on the
case, told Phoenix New Times. Last year, the state was fined $1.4 million
for failing to meet these standards, which were supposed to force the
department to ensure that people incarcerated in Arizona receive adequate
medical care. ADC has to report to the court its
progress on tasks like monitoring inmates with chronic conditions or
getting inmates to see nurses within a day of requesting care. Despite its
history of missing the mark, the department is blaming its ongoing failure
to comply with 24 of these standards on a host of hiccups related to this
year's handoff: delays in scanning medical documentation, the misplacement
of inventory logs, staffing challenges, and the loss of outside
specialists. "Both Defendants and their healthcare contractors took
all reasonable steps to comply with the Order, but the pending transition
of healthcare presented unexpected and atypical difficulties," the
state's lawyers argued. "As a result, the Court should find that the
Defendants took all reasonable steps to comply with the Order and should
not impose the proposed contempt sanction." The potential sanctions
come at a high price: $50,000 per performance measure. Multiple that by 24
performance measures, and the department could be out $1.2 million as it
struggles to get its act together. Its director, Chuck Ryan, announced his
sudden retirement on August 9, a few days before the governor's office
released a damning report that partially blamed Ryan's leadership for
widespread problems and scandals. Judge Silver has given lawyers with the
American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Office, who represent the
plaintiffs, until September 6 to file a response, and the state until
September 20 to file its reply. Only after that will she decide what kind
of fine, if any, to impose. “It’s totally up to the judge in terms of when
and how much," Kendrick said. The judge could also order a hearing,
she added. In a declaration accompanying Friday's filing, William Carr, the vice president of operations for Corizon,
detailed some of the problems that the company had faced in handing its
responsibilities to Centurion. In order to comply with a performance
measure on emergency medical response bags, for example, a Corizon employee
is required to scan an inventory log to submit to the state. "During
the transition, the inventory logs for June were inadvertently misplaced,"
Carr's declaration said. Corizon also struggled
to find and keep employees because of the pending handover, he added.
Medical specialists outside the prison also cut ties with Corizon because
of the switch in companies, so "there were less available providers
for specialty consults, which affected the compliance scores." On
Friday, the same day that the department begged the judge not fine it, ADC
spokesperson Andrew Wilder told New Times via email that "the
transition of services has been successful." He did not respond to a
follow-up query asking for an explanation as to why he told the public that
the handoff was a success, when lawyers for ADC were simultaneously telling
a judge that the messy transition was to blame for "delays and
interferences." In June 2018, a judge fined the Arizona Department of
Corrections $1.4 million for failing to comply with the court-ordered
standards — $1,000 for 1,445 violations. In his order, the judge wrote,
"The inescapable conclusion is that defendants are missing the mark
after four years of trying to get it right. Their repeated failed attempts,
and too-late efforts, to take their obligation seriously demonstrate a
half-hearted commitment that must be braced."
Sep 25, 2018
kjzz.org
Phoenix EEOC Files Discrimination Lawsuit Against Corizon Health
The Phoenix Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit
in federal court against Arizona’s prison health care contractor, Corizon
Health, alleging discrimination against individuals with disabilities. The
federal agency monitors civil rights violations in the workplace. The
Phoenix District EEOC office filed the lawsuit against Corizon on Sept. 18
in the U. S. District Court of Arizona on behalf of five named plaintiffs
“and other similarly situated qualified aggrieved individuals who were
adversely affected by Corizon’s unlawful actions.” "Employers must
work with qualified individuals with disabilities to find available and
effective reasonable accommodations so that employees can keep their jobs,”
Mary Jo O'Neill, the agency’s regional attorney in Phoenix, said in a
statement. “Employers who ignore the duty to accommodate their employees
with disabilities violate the law — and they lose valuable contributors in
their workplaces." The lawsuit alleges Corizon discriminated against
the five former employees, who were all fired, by “failing to provide them
with reasonable accommodations.” The plaintiffs also allege Corizon
“discriminated against qualified persons with disabilities nationwide ...
subjected some employees to a hostile work environment based on disability,
failed to promote qualified individuals because of their disabilities, and
retaliated against some of the charging parties.” Plaintiffs
attorneys are seeking a jury trial to “correct Corizon’s nationwide
unlawful employment policies and practices that discriminate on the basis
of disability.” The EEOC is seeking relief for the plaintiffs based
allegations dating back to April 1, 2012, that Corizon violated the Americans
with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit takes issue with the way Corizon handles
employees on medical leave. “As a matter of policy or practice, Corizon
would not approve modified job duties, allow more than twelve weeks of
leave permitted by the FMLA, allow extended leave past an unpaid 30-day
medical leave, or allow employees to return to work without being fully
healed” the attorneys wrote. Elizabeth McCrehin
worked as a nurse for the Arizona Department of Corrections, when prison
health care was run by the state, as well as Wexford and finally Corizon as
the contract moved through two different private companies. Working as a
nurse supervisor for Corizon in 2013, McCrehin
suffered a foot surgery that kept her out longer than the 30-day medical
leave provided by Corizon’s policy. The lawsuit alleges McCrehin
was fired despite a doctor’s orders that she was unable to return to work.
The lawsuit alleges that Nicole Moore, a registered nurse working at the
Perryville prison, was passed over for a promotion and ultimately fired for
having a medical condition. Moore alleges her superior told her she was in
strong contention for the supervisor position “but he had to take her
medical condition into consideration when making his decision and he
believed a supervisory position would be very stressful.” Moore alleges she
called Corizon’s corporate office to complain, only have her boss order her
escorted out of the building. In the complaint, attorneys say Moore was
allowed back into the prison property but face retaliation from her
colleagues and supervisors. “Mr. Coleman and Ms. Miller would not speak to
her and ignored her even when she was in the same group as other employees
with whom they spoke. . . Ms. Moore was always worried that she would be
called into another meeting related to her attendance, she felt like she
was walking on eggshells, and she was constantly worried that she would be
fired,” the lawsuit alleges. The EEOC is seeking several orders from the
District Court to compel Corizon to cease what it calls “unlawful
employment practices. In the complaint, the commission also calls for a
more flexible leave policy and for Corizon to discontinue what it calls a
“100 percent healed or no medical restrictions policy.” The EEOC says this
policy “has the effect of discriminating on the basis of disability by
denying qualified individuals with disabilities reasonable accommodations,
and instead terminating their employment.” The lawsuit also seeks back pay
and lost benefits for the plaintiffs and the reinstatement of the
terminated employees. In at statement, Corizon
Health denied the EEOC’s allegations regarding its treatment of employees
with disabilities. "Corizon Health policies prohibit illegal
discrimination and mandate compliance with all state and federal laws,
including the Americans with Disabilities Act," said Corizon
spokesperson Martha Harbin. "We value the contribution of every
employee and we are committed to protecting their safety while properly
providing for the needs and safety of our patients. We strongly believe our
policies and actions pertaining to our employees are in full compliance
with the law and will vigorously defend against this unmerited
lawsuit."
Jul 28, 2018 kjzz.org
Arizona Department Of Corrections Appeals Federal Sanction To 9th
Circuit Court
On Saturday, attorneys for the state filed a notice of appeal in the
Parsons vs Ryan prison health care settlement, indicating they would
challenge Magistrate Judge David Duncan’s contempt order, sanction and
additional oversight measures. The 9th Circuit court of appeals set a
calendar for the appeal process Monday afternoon. Before leaving the bench
in June, Judge Duncan fined the state $1.4 million for failing to meet
agreed upon health care standard in Arizona prisons. The Arizona Department
of Corrections said Tuesday that Corizon Health has reimbursed the state
for the entire amount of the fine. Addressing the legislature in February,
Ryan said if the fines are enforced, Corizon Health would pay. “I’ve
already made it clear to the the vendor that
they’re on the hook,” the director said. Lawyers for Department of
Corrections Chief Charles Ryan will have until late October to file their
briefs on the case. Attorneys for the inmates filed a brief describing how
they would like the money to be spent. “The Court should use 90 percent of
the funds to pay for one or more independent medical experts to investigate
and resolve concerns about the medical care of individual class members,”
Prison Law Office attorney Corene Kendrick wrote.
In an interview, Kendrick said the position could function as point person
for inmates facing serious lapses in treatment. “Concerns regarding medical
care may be brought to the expert’s attention by counsel for Plaintiffs,
class members and/or their families/friends, and/or by current or former
health care or custody staff. The expert shall investigate all allegations
of inadequate care within seven days of receipt of the complaint,” Kendrick
wrote in the filing. Plaintiff attorneys recommended giving the rest of the
money to the inmates that were affected by the poor health care in Arizona
prisons. “A sum of $100 for each instance of noncompliance should be
deposited in each listed class member’s prison trust account,” Kendrick
wrote. Kendrick says contempt fines can be “coercive, compensatory or both.
These people have suffered harm that’s been clearly documented. We’re
saying the court should consider the court should give 10% of fine to
affected individuals.” That decision will be up to Judge Roslyn Silver, who
was appointed to the case after Duncan’s retirement.
Jun
9, 2018 courthousenews.com
Whistleblower Gives Harrowing Look on Health Care in Arizona Prisons
PHOENIX (CN) – A counselor who worked at an Arizona prison testified
Thursday about a prison health care system riddled with inadequate
staffing, poor care, and correctional officers that slept on the job.
Angela Fischer worked at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Phoenix as a
psychology associate for Corizon Health, the health care provider for
Arizona’s prison system. Thursday’s hearing was called after Fischer came
forward with emails received and sent during her employment at the prison
that she said showed failures by the state to make improvements to the
prison healthcare system. Fischer resigned from her position in March.
Arizona agreed to make improvements to prison health care to resolve a
class action filed by inmates in 2012 over deficient care. Arizona did not
admit wrongdoing under the settlement, but U.S. Magistrate Judge David
Duncan has threatened to hold Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona
Department of Corrections, in civil contempt and fine the state $1,000 for
each instance it failed to make improvements to the system. The state has
acknowledged at least 1,900 violations that could cost it around $1.9
million in fines. Fischer testified she had concerns the Phoenix prison was
not adequately staffed to both perform intake services for inmates and to
meet their mental health needs. “My concerns were the actual treatment that
was provided, actually spending time with people and providing mental
health care to them,” Fischer told the court. “I felt we did a lot of
box-checking and not providing care.” Many days there were 60 to 80 inmates
that would come in to intake, she said, but only one staff member assigned
to them. Some days, Fischer would be told to help out in intake, which took
her away from her psych assignment. “It was this constant shuffling back
and forth trying to get the intakes done,” Fischer said. Fischer repeatedly
addressed her concerns about the limited staff in emails to her
supervisors, but did not see a change. In one, Fischer called out Corizon’s
mission and detailed failures to meet standards. “By our Corizon mission we
purport to use clinical best practices and evidence-based practices,
neither of which are apparent given the fact that the staff is stretched so
thin that they barely get time to check in with patients, let alone provide
therapy,” Fischer wrote. “If we want a stabilization unit then we have to
be staffed for stabilization. Inmates will not become stable by sitting in
their cells alone 23 hours of the day.” The state extended its prison
health care contract with Corizon this year. The current contract, which
ends July 1, will be extended to June 30, 2019. Fischer detailed one inmate
with a history of self-harm who was not properly classified when he went
through the intake process. “When this patient came in and had his intake
assessment, the records may not have been reviewed thoroughly,” Fischer
said. She said information included in his records indicated that his
history of self-harming was not taken into account. “It appeared to be a
very quick intake assessment; under five minutes,” Fischer testified. When
she first met the inmate, she said he was completely psychotic. After they
got his medication straightened out, he improved to the point where he had
a roommate and wanted to be moved to a unit where he could spend some time
outdoors. He was never moved, though, and eventually his condition started
to decline. The inmate ripped off part of his ear with a pencil and peeled
away his toenails and parts of his eyelids. She asked her supervisors if he
could be moved to the Arizona State Hospital where he would receive a
greater level of care and be allowed to go outside, but that request was
denied. Fischer is the second former Corizon employee to come forward with
allegations of poor prison health care within the last six months. Jan
Watson, a doctor who performed part-time services for Corizon, testified in
February about nurses withholding medications from inmates – including
insulin – and denying them access to specialists. Fischer said she also
often complained to supervisors about correctional officers sleeping on the
job when they were supposed to be watching inmates on suicide watch. In one
email, Fischer detailed two officers that were “sleeping, and I don’t mean
dozing.” “Can someone talk to DOC about some type of supervisory
methodology that would prevent officers from sleeping?” she wrote. While on
the stand, Fischer read from another email she lodged that caused her to
break down in sobs. The email detailed how one inmate on constant suicide
watch attempted to hang himself while correctional officers were asleep.
David Fathi, an attorney for the prison class and
director of the ACLU National Prison Project, asked Fischer if she
witnessed the emergency response by prison employees when the inmate was
found hanging. “He was lying on the floor and they were trying to use a
tool to cut the thing off his neck, but the blade wasn’t sharp enough to
cut it so it took extra time,” Fischer said, choking up. Officers were able
to get him to gain consciousness, though, and he was transported to a
hospital. The hearing is expected to last through Friday and an additional
two days. It’s unclear when Duncan will issue his order, but he has
announced he will retire June 22 due to medical reasons. Arizona is trying
to have Duncan removed from overseeing the contempt findings. The state
wants U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa to take
on the case, a request attorneys for the inmates
say only serves to prevent sanctions. “There is no reason to jettison the
substantial time and effort that Judge Duncan and the parties have devoted
to the issues other than the fact that the defendants fear adverse
rulings,” the attorneys wrote in a court filing Tuesday. The state
previously tried to remove Duncan from the case, but he denied the motion.
Apr 1, 2018
azcapitoltimes.com
DOC director blames private provider for health care failures
With potential sanctions for his agency’s failure to meet court-ordered
prison health care standards looming, Arizona Department of Corrections
Director Charles Ryan laid the blame largely at the feet of private
contractor Corizon Correctional Healthcare. Ryan testified before U.S.
Magistrate Judge David Duncan on Tuesday in the Parsons v. Ryan prison
health care case. The case was settled in 2014 but slogs on in court as DOC
and its contractor continue to miss the mark on more than 100 health care
standard. Both Ryan and Assistant Director Richard Pratt, who is
responsible for overseeing prisoners’ care, face civil contempt charges if
they cannot show they’ve taken all reasonable steps toward improvement.
They testified for two days about the lackluster response from Corizon to
their verbal and written demands. Ryan said he made numerous attempts to
get Corizon to make changes during regular meetings with Corizon leadership
and in writing. For example, he said he has pushed Corizon to increase the
stock of medications on site at DOC facilities, rather than relying so
heavily on an out-of-state pharmacy, and to fly Corizon personnel to
Arizona facilities to compensate for vacant positions, which are largely
blamed for the provider’s deficiencies. But according to his testimony,
Corizon has not done much to comply with Ryan’s requests or demands. Ryan
did say communication between his department and the contractor has
improved since “CEO number seven,” Steve Rector, was appointed, but still,
“they’re not perfect.” Duncan said Ryan’s testimony showed he had been
approaching Corizon “aggressively” in his attempts to compel compliance to
an extent the judge had not been made aware of. But questioning by
plaintiffs’ counsel David Fathi of the ACLU’s
National Prison Project indicated Ryan could have done more. Corizon
originally won a three-year contract with the opportunity for two one-year
extensions under state law. Ryan acknowledged Corizon did receive the two
extensions and two rate increases of 4-percent per prisoner per day since
2015 despite Ryan’s admitted displeasure with Corizon’s performance. Each
extension and raise came after Ryan and Pratt sent letters expressing a
need for Corizon to do better. “Corizon must demonstrate immediate
improvement in the performance measure scores,” Ryan read to the court from
a letter sent in July 2016, a month after granting a 4-percent rate
increase. “ADC will not tolerate perpetuation of the status quo.” “Corizon
cannot continue to conduct business as usual,” the letter went on,
suggesting the contractor determined sanctions imposed by the department
were merely the cost of doing business and that Corizon’s behavior would
force court monitoring on the system for years to come. The department
itself fined Corizon at $5,000 per instance of noncompliance, but in May
2015, the contract was amended to cap monthly sanctions at $90,000. Plaintiffs counsel pointed out that amounted to less
than a quarter of the company’s daily gross income of more than $400,000.
Under questioning about that choice, Ryan said it was a “negotiated
business decision.” The cap has since been removed, but $3.5 million in
incentives taken from available health care funds has vastly outweighed
sanctions. The dollars were available because of a lower than anticipated
prisoner population and Medicaid savings, according to a document filed by
the department on Wednesday. Between October and January, Corizon racked up
$675,000 in fines for noncompliance, but received $2.55 million in
incentives for overall compliance. Ryan did say no further incentives will
be offered once the $3.5 million on the table is exhausted. However,
Corizon’s current contract worth more than $140 million will expire on June
30. The company has entered a bid for a new contract, and Ryan said Corizon
CEO Rector has already asked about the potential for additional incentives,
which Ryan said he has denied. In an emailed statement to reporters,
Corizon spokesman Kurt Davis said Ryan’s testimony provided a “factual look
at the high level of healthcare Arizona inmates are receiving.” “The ACLU
lawyers have attempted to push a calamitous narrative, but the expert
witnesses and the testimony of Director Ryan clearly demonstrated the
opposite,” Davis wrote. While it’s true both Ryan and Duncan acknowledged
the improvements made over the years, each made it clear Corizon’s
performance has not been entirely satisfactory. As Davis pointed out in his
statement, Corizon has reached 94 percent overall compliance with the more
than one hundred performance measures as of January. “One hundred percent
would be a perfect world, but I don’t know that 100 percent is realistic in
terms of achievement,” Ryan told Duncan. “I’m not aware of any corrections
that achieves that type of threshold. That’s not to say we should not
continue to strive for that, but that’s a pretty lofty goal. Perfection is
not achievable.” However, Duncan admonished Ryan for referring to overall
performance on the stand, saying the stipulation did not direct the court
to consider overall compliance but rather compliance with each individual
measure. And to suggest overall compliance is more important than any
single measure found to be substantially noncompliant is not in keeping
with the settlement. That, Duncan said, continues to represent an “abject
failure” in Arizona’s prison health care. For months now, Duncan has
threatened fines of his own against the state of up to $1,000 for each
instance of noncompliance with 11 specific performance measures tracked in
each of 10 state prisons. Those measures include requiring providers to
discuss the results of diagnostic reports with their patients within five
days of receiving them and ensuring that medications be transferred along
with prisoners who are moved to another facility. The last two days of
testimony were intended to resolve whether the fines would be imposed at
last. But Ryan and the state will have to wait a bit longer. The court ran
out of time Tuesday to hear all necessary testimony, and so, the parties
will reconvene on the issue April 10. Correction: An earlier version of
this article stated that the $3.5 million in incentives the Arizona
Department of Corrections made available to private contractor Corizon came
from savings from vacant DOC positions and the department’s operating
budget. DOC Director Charles Ryan
issued a written statement on March 28 to correct his testimony on the
source of the incentive pay.
Mar 28, 2018
azcentral.com
Arizona DOC Director Charles Ryan grilled on costs, performance of
prison health care firm
Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, took
the witness stand in U.S. District Court in Phoenix on Tuesday during a
hearing to determine whether he and his department should be held in
contempt of court over monitoring prison health care. The gist of his
testimony, as one of his medical directors testified the day before, was
that the health-management company retained by his department to manage
inmate health care has been the root of the problem. Over two days of
testimony, Ryan and Richard Pratt, the person responsible for monitoring
health care, told how they have sanctioned the health care management
company, offered incentives and demanded that they remain in compliance
with court-ordered performance measures. But attorneys for the plaintiffs
fired back with numbers, noting that for 20 months, the management company,
Corizon Correctional Healthcare, was only required to pay $90,000 per month
instead of the full cost of sanctions. And that $90,000 amounted to less
than one quarter of one day's gross earnings of $440,000 for providing
health care for 35,000 Arizona prison inmates. "Does that strike you
as a smart business decision?" asked David Fahti,
an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "It was a
negotiated business decision," Ryan answered. The class-action suit,
Parsons vs. Ryan, was brought in 2012 by the Arizona Center for Disability
Law on behalf of 13 inmates in Arizona Department of Corrections prisons,
alleging that the department was providing inadequate health care. It has
been led by attorneys for the ACLU and a California-based specialty
practice called the Prison Law Office. The case settled in 2014, but U.S.
Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan stayed on to monitor compliance with the
settlement. By June 2017, Duncan was becoming increasingly upset that the
DOC and Corizon
were not complying with the terms of the settlement, and his
court pronouncements became ever more angry. In October, he issued an order
to show cause why the DOC should not be held in contempt of court and, by
November 2017, he was threatening to fine the DOC and Corizon $1,000 for
each instance of non-compliance. Since then the case has slogged forward
with hearings every month. Ryan gave a history of his department's business
with Corizon when he took the stand Tuesday. The company's contract dates
to March 2013, after the Arizona legislature mandated that prison health
care be privatized and another health-management company pulled out after
just eight months. Corizon is paid a per diem of $12.54 for each of roughly
35,000 inmates in the state's prisons. (Another 7,000 inmates placed in
private prisons are not part of the deal.) That comes to nearly $450,000
per day in gross income just from Arizona alone. Ryan built controls into
the contract. “The skin in the game for them was, if you do not meet
performance measures, if you do not cooperate, (there) would be
sanctions," he said. Specifically, there are 103 different performance
measures Corizon is supposed to meet, and ten prisons. Not all of the
performance measures apply to every prison, so in total, Corizon has 849
marks they are supposed to hit consistently. They are supposed to be fined
$5,000 a month for each "fail point." But Corizon negotiated a
$90,000 per month cap on sanctions and then consistently exceeded the
limit. “The skin in the game for them was, if you do not meet performance
measures, if you do not cooperate, (there) would be sanctions.” According
to figures tabulated by Fahti and Corene Kendrick of the Prison Law Office, for 20
consecutive months ending November 2017, Corizon racked up sanctions of
$8.61 million, for which they only paid $1.8 million because of the cap.
That means the company was forgiven $6.81 million in sanctions. Attorneys
for both sides read letters Ryan and Pratt wrote to Corizon executives
complaining of the failure to meet standards. At one point, they demanded
that Corizon fly in medical personnel from other states to meet staffing
needs. But they also made available another $3.5 million in incentives for
Corizon, easily making up for the $1.8 million withheld as sanctions.
"Corizon Health has worked tirelessly and in a strong partnership with
the Arizona Department of Corrections to provide healthcare to Arizona
inmates since March of 2013," Corizon spokesman Kurt Davis said in a
prepared statement. "The ACLU lawyers have attempted to push a
calamitous narrative, but the expert witnesses and the testimony of
Director Ryan clearly demonstrated the opposite." Davis claims that
Corizon exceeds the standards set by the settlement. "The terms of the
stipulation require the monitoring of the performance measures … must be maintained for a minimum
of four years," Davis said. "The parties had no expectation that
there would be full compliance with the performance measures until a
minimum of four years had passed. It is premature, misleading and
inappropriate for the plaintiffs' ACLU lawyers to claim that Corizon Health
has failed, when in fact, at the three-year mark, Corizon Health complies
with 94 percent of the performance measures." Duncan has not yet
imposed any sanctions of his own. As has happened frequently, the attorneys
were unable to get through all of the witness testimony. Duncan scheduled
the next hearing for April 10. But the attorneys for the DOC have filed
motions to have Duncan removed from the case because of what they perceive
as bias. Indeed, Duncan, at times, has angrily orated from the bench,
especially after reading an article written by a KJZZ reporter suggesting
that Corizon and ADC were possibly gaming the system. On Tuesday, when Ryan
mistakenly addressed him as "Magistrate Duncan" instead of
"Magistrate Judge Duncan," Duncan immediately interrupted him and
spent several minutes lecturing on his actual title.
Mar 24, 2018 kjzz.org
Corizon Health Keeps Falling Short On Performance, Hiring Benchmarks For
Arizona Prisons
At a hearing in federal court on Monday, Arizona Department of
Corrections Assistant Director Richard Pratt updated the court on the
Parsons v. Ryan prison health-care settlement. Pratt told the court Corizon
Health continues to fail to meet performance measures agreed to in the
settlement as well as hiring benchmarks outlined in a contract with the
state. The state pays Corizon Health $12.56 per inmate per day to provide
health care in Arizona prisons. According to Pratt, Corizon owed $200,000
and $210,000 for failing to meet performance measures in November and
December 2017. Corizon also paid more than $150,000 for understaffing
during those same months. The fines and staffing offsets are applied to
payments made by the state to Corizon. In addition, Magistrate Judge David
Duncan has threatened to impose $1,000 in fines for specific performance
measures the state is missing, which plaintiff’s attorneys believe could
cost millions of dollars per month. Attorneys for the state said Arizona is
still deciding whether to renew Corizon’s contract for another five years.
Jan 13, 2018 newsweek.com
INMATE CHEWS OWN FINGERS OFF AFTER PRIVATE PRISON HEALTH CARE LEFT HIM
IN UNBEARABLE PAIN, COURT PAPERS SAY
A paralyzed man held inside an Arizona prison chewed off three fingers
on his left hand in a desperate attempt to receive treatment for
“excruciating pain” from previous injuries, according to new court papers
filed in a legal fight over private prison health care. “He reported that
the terrible pain he felt makes everything else seem insignificant,” stated
a letter from a lawyer representing inmates in the state’s prisons. “He
chewed off part of the fingers on his left hand because the pain was so
unbearable.” The man, who uses a wheelchair and is not identified in the
court papers filed Friday, told prison medical workers they weren’t giving
him the right pain medications and that he would rather kill himself than
live in such extreme agony, according to his medical records. The extreme
example of a man mutilating his own body is part of an ongoing battle over
inmate health care in Arizona, as well as the broader national issue of how
budget-minded states use private companies to care for its prisoners. A
group of inmates sued the state in 2012 over prison conditions and the two
sides reached a settlement in 2015 that required Arizona to reform medical
care in its prisons, which is now provided by for-profit company Corizon Correctional
Healthcare. But both the state and Corizon have shown “pervasive and
intractable failures to comply” with the settlement and provide better
care, the federal court judge overseeing the agreement wrote in an October
order. During a hearing in the case last month, Judge David Duncan asked
Richard Pratt, the health director for Arizona prisons, whether he had
trouble sleeping at night because inmates with cancer weren’t getting
treatment. Pratt answered that he relies on Corizon to provide that care.
The filing Friday revealed other disturbing examples of apparently
substandard care in Arizona prisons. One woman complained of a mass in her
breast—and a family history of breast cancer that killed her sister—but
Corizon workers denied her a mammogram because she was only 37 years old.
Her treatment was delayed for months and once she began chemotherapy,
Corizon only provided her with Alleve to manage
the pain, according to the filing. A major problem with private companies
providing health care in prisons is that the company has an incentive to
provide as little expensive care as possible in order to boost their
profits, prisoner advocates say. But Corizon spokeswoman Martha Harbin has
disputed that argument, claiming that their workers aren’t paid based on
the company’s financial performance. “We bring services inside the walls
and help states and counties meet their constitutional requirement to
provide a community standard of care to those incarcerated within limited
public budgets,” Harbin said in an email last month. A spokesman for the
Arizona Department of Corrections declined to comment on ongoing litigation
last month, but told Newsweek in an email the department expects Corizon to
provide all inmates with the “constitutionally-mandated health care” to
which they’re entitled. The man who gnawed off his own fingers told the
lawyer from the Prison Law Project who interviewed him in December that he
tries to keep the pain inside him, but “the tears fall inside.” In a letter
to the state, the lawyer wrote, “He keeps a photograph of his daughter
posted above his bed to remind him that he needs to get out of prison for
her.”
Dec 30, 2017
azcentral.com
Judge calls for hearing after KJZZ report on Arizona prison health care
Jimmy Jenkins is a senior field correspondent for KJZZ. This story is
published as part of a collaboration between KJZZ and The Arizona Republic.
The Arizona Department of Corrections contracts with privately owned,
correctional health care company Corizon Health to oversee all medical, mental and dental care at 10 state prisons. But that
care has come under scrutiny in federal court. In 2015, inmates settled a
lawsuit with the state over poor health care conditions in state prisons.
More than two years later, ADC and Corizon have failed to meet the more
than 100 stipulations agreed to in the settlement. Inmates have testified
in the settlement process to long wait times for medicine, delayed chronic
disease care and a lack of access to specialists. In an interview with
KJZZ, a former prison doctor confirms those allegations and describes the
chaos of the state prison health care system. After Dr. Jan Watson’s
allegations were published along with internal emails from Corizon Health,
Magistrate Judge David Duncan ordered a special hearing. On Feb. 9, 2017,
witnesses and evidence will be presented in federal court to investigate
the claims and to see if the internal monitoring numbers Corizon is
reporting can be trusted. Watson is expected to take the stand. She has
seen a lot in her career. She’s worked on trauma teams in emergency rooms,
practiced internal and occupational medicine, and for most of her career
she was an OBGYN. Birth, death and everything in between. After more than
30 years in health care, Watson thought she had seen it all. But then she
took a job at an Arizona state prison. “And I had never seen anything like
that in my life.”
31
Oct 15, 2017 reason.com
Judge Threatens Arizona Prison Officials With Contempt For ‘Pervasive
and Intractable Failures’
A federal judge said Tuesday he is considering holding Arizona prison
officials in contempt of court for their "pervasive and intractable
failures" to abide by a 2014 agreement to improve care of inmates in
the state prison system. Three years ago, the Arizona Department of Corrections
agreed to settle a federal class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) and several other law firms by taking steps to
improve medical care inside its prisons. The lawsuit, filed in 2012,
followed media investigations and persistent allegations of fatally
inadequate medical care by the department's medical provider, Corizon.
Prison officials have been accused of defying court orders and intimidating
inmate witnesses as they resisted complying with the settlement. An increasingly
exasperated U.S. Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan issued an order Tuesday
calling on the department to show why it should not be held in civil
contempt for failing to meet the guidelines and benchmarks in the
agreement. Duncan's order came after he hauled Arizona Department of
Corrections Director Charles Ryan into his court in August to address
allegations that guards were retaliating against inmates who testified
about poor conditions inside the state's prisons. When Duncan ordered the
department to stop any such retaliation, Ryan sent an email to his staff
saying the ruling was "disappointing," and that they
"deserved better." In another court filing in September, an ACLU
lawyer says she overheard an Arizona correctional officer say to several
fellow officers, "Those fucking ACLU lawyers. Who the fuck do they
think they are telling us what we can and cannot do to inmates? I can do
whatever I want, whenever I want." "All of this disrespect for
the rule of law," Duncan fired back, "is something I have never
experienced or seen in nearly 30 years of being a lawyer, or in 16 years as
a judge." If Ryan is held in civil contempt, he would join the company
of former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, a fellow Arizonan and one of
America's most anachronistic and cruelest lawmen. President Trump pardoned
Arpaio this summer after he was found guilty of both criminal and civil
contempt of court. Andrew Wilder, a spokesperson for the department, says
in a statement to Reason that it is "firmly committed to holding its
current contracted health care provider, Corizon, accountable for its
contractual responsibility to provide inmates the constitutionally-mandated
health care to which they are entitled." "Moreover, ADC already
has taken significant and concrete actions to encourage Corizon to meet the
specific performance measures under the Parsons Stipulation," Wilder
continues. However, in 2016, when the ACLU and other lawyers for the
plaintiffs filed complaints that the Arizona Department of Corrections had failed
to comply with the settlement, local media outlet 12 News reported that it
was still being "inundated with emails and phone calls from families
of prisoners alleging their loved ones are not getting the treatment they
need." The news outlet 12 News published an investigation in 2014
revealing that, despite Corizon's $125 million annual contract with the
state, Arizona inmates faced disastrous delays in physical and mental
health treatment. Separate reports by doctors touring Arizona prisons also
found stomach-churning conditions and neglect. Courthouse News, summarizing
the reports, described it as "an understaffed system in which an
inmate died with infected lesions swarmed by flies, a man who ate his own
feces was never seen by a psychiatrist, and a woman swallowed razor blades
while allegedly under constant watch." One of the doctors described a
30-year-old inmate who was given less than a year to live after extreme
delays in detection and treatment of testicular cancer led to the disease
spreading to his internal organs. Corene Kendrick
of the Prison Law Office in Berkeley, California, told the Phoenix New
Times this week that her office is still getting "dozens of letters
each week" from prisoners suffering from serious medical conditions.
"This spring, four people committed suicide in three weeks, and our
mental health expert's report indicated the suicides were tied to
inadequate or nonexistent mental health care," she wrote. In a press
statement, director of the ACLU National Prison Project David Fathi says the Arizona prison system remains out of
control. "It was three years ago this week that the Arizona Department
of Corrections signed the settlement agreement in this case over prison
health care so inadequate that it leads to needless suffering and even
death," Fathi said. "The fact that the
Department of Corrections is still grossly out of compliance with the
settlement is proof that the department is profoundly broken, leaving the
thousands of prisoners under its control with scant access to medical
care."
Apr
2, 2017 kjzz.org
2 Years Later, Arizona DOC Still Not In Compliance With Healthcare
Performance Measures
It’s been more than two years since the Arizona Department of
Corrections agreed to reform its prison healthcare system. But the DOC is
still not in compliance with court orders that affect the more than 34,000
people held in Arizona prisons. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution
prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and that has been interpreted to
entitle prisoners to reasonably adequate health care. “Prisoners can’t take
care of their own healthcare needs," said David Fathi,
director of the ACLU National Prison Project. "They can’t go to the
doctor themselves. They’re locked up. So the state is legally required to
provide for their medical and mental health and dental care needs." In
2012, the ACLU sued the state on behalf of a plaintiff class Arizona
prisoners, alleging that the health care provided by the Department Of
Corrections was so bad that it violated the Eighth Amendment. Jonathon
Trethewey is a member of that plaintiff class. He said “cruel and unusual”
is an understatement. "You’re made to feel less than human and you’re
being neglected and you’re being mentally abused," Tretheway
said. "It feels like you’re being tortured." He spent seven years
in the Department of Corrections struggling with major health issues. After
his release, Trethewey founded the Atlas Justice Center to help advocate
for the rights of the incarcerated. At a recent board meeting in a Tempe
coffee shop, he recalled hid first symptoms in a
Tucson prison. "In my lower left stomach, I was having really sharp
pains. And when I would push on that area, I would feel a mass and the pain
would increase.” When he started seeing blood in his stool, he put in
what’s called a Health Needs Request. DOC’s own policies say after
submitting a request, prisoners are supposed to be seen by a registered
nurse within 24 hours. But Trethewey said it was six months before he got a
response and two more before he saw a physician. “(The doctor) looked at
me, asked me to lift my shirt, said that I looked healthy and then gave me
a medication for ulcer - ulcer medication,” Tretheway
said. The physician told him the swelling in his stomach was probably just
gas. But it got worse. Months went by and Trethewey’s condition got so bad
his fellow inmates threatened to riot if he didn’t receive medical
attention. By the time DOC finally got him to the hospital, it turns out it
wasn’t gas - it was colon cancer. “My tumor had metastasized to the point
where it completely blocked off my intestines and that’s why I was getting
sick and got septicemia,” Tretheway said.
Trethewey would go on to fight both the cancer and the system. He joined
the plaintiff class in Parsons v Ryan that ended up settling with the
Department of Corrections. In 2015 a federal court mandated the DOC comply
with 103 stipulations to improve conditions in the state prison health care
system, but the ACLU’s David Fathi said recent
hearings show that DOC, which is monitoring its own compliance - just isn’t
getting the job done. "The picture that is emerging is of a haphazard,
make it up as you go along system that has very little training and
oversight and very little consistency in how the monitoring is done,” Fathi said. So far, the plaintiffs and the state
haven’t come to an agreement on just how many of the Health Performance
Measures have been met. In a statement, ADOC said “The ACLU’s allegations
are unsupported by the evidence.” At a recent status hearing, the state claimed
it met the standard for timely access to care for the month of January at
all of the state prisons it sampled. But Fathi
said if you look at the same data over the course of a year, DOC is
woefully non-compliant. He said recent witness testimony shows that the
monitors need more guidance and direction and that their sampling model is
anything but random: "I’m reminded of the saying, garbage in, garbage
out," Fathi said. "If the monitoring
isn’t being done properly and consistently and rigorously then the results
are meaningless.” DOC contracts with a private health-care provider called
Corizon Health. Spokesperson Martha Harbin said that claims of Corizon and
DOC putting off diagnoses and delaying access to treatment are unfounded,
"To the contrary, what makes good medical sense and good business
sense is excellent and proactive preventive care.” Marc Stern teaches
correctional health care in the School of Public Health at the University
of Washington. "Prison health is public health,” Stern said. He points
out that almost 1 percent of the adult population in the United States is
currently behind bars. Stern said even if you don’t really care about their
rights, it behooves the rest of us to ensure prisoners get proper care. “So
that when they come back to society, they’re healthier, they contribute,
they don’t use up hospitals and emergency rooms and jails - that’s a way of
caring for ourselves.” Jonathon Trethewey is a testament to that line of
thinking. He’s moving on with his life and his cancer is in remission. But
he said we can’t forget about the tens of thousands that are still
suffering behind bars in Arizona. “The yards are full of people with cancer
and medical conditions that have to struggle with these same things, over
and over again you see it everywhere, it’s so commonplace in prison, and
you really feel like you have no voice,” Tretheway
said. He said it’s up to society to speak for them. And it’s the
responsibility of the state to live up to the Parsons settlement, so that
prisoners are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
May
29, 2014 america.aljazeera.com
SAFFORD,
Ariz. — Regan Clarine found out she was pregnant just two days before she
was sentenced to two and a half years behind bars for possessing a narcotic
for sale. Giving birth to her baby daughter while she was incarcerated at
the state prison complex near Tucson was an experience she says nearly
killed them both. Clarine says her first indication things were not right
with her health care was when she asked prison officials for an ultrasound.
She was worried she wasn't gaining enough weight, but they never gave her
one. Instead, Clarine said that after about nine months, prison doctors
sent her to the hospital to induce labor, but when the baby still didn’t
come, they performed a cesarean section against her wishes. When Clarine
went back to her cell, her C-section wound re-opened. “It was big enough
for me to put my fist in there,” she said. “It was the worst pain I’d ever
been through in my life.” Clarine said she alerted guards, but they refused
to let her see a doctor, leaving her on the prison yard with a gaping wound
for two weeks. When she finally saw medical staff, she said they told her
that she was lucky to be alive. They treated her with a wound vacuum. Then,
she said, they employed an antiquated medical treatment. “They decided to
use sugar … like McDonald’s sugar,” she said. “They would open it and pour
it inside [the wound] and put gauze over and tape it up. And I had to do
that for like three weeks.” Clarine’s story is one of dozens. Like many
other states, Arizona privatized its prison health care system two years
ago. In a six-month investigation, “America Tonight” found disturbing cases
of inadequate treatment, and evidence that Wexford Health Sources, the
first private company Arizona contracted to provide prison health care, was
aware that it was violating prisoners’ constitutional rights. Arizona’s
system is currently run by Corizon Health, the largest private prison
health care provider in the country. Now, for the first time ever, one of
its former employees is blowing the whistle about its failures. Teresa
Short was a patient care technician for Corizon, but lost her job in late
March for refusing to go to work while suffering from a case of scabies she
caught from a prisoner. Short said she thought it would be unethical to
treat patients while she was still contagious. She had already infected a
family member, she said, and feared her son could contract it and bring it
to his high school. According to Short, Corizon and Arizona prison
officials have been trying to cover up the outbreak, which now includes the
original prisoner and seven staff members. (Read Corizon's response.) But
the most persistent problem at Corizon, Short said, was staffing. “We have
a lot of dementia patients that take time in feeding,” she said, “and
because of the short staff we'd have to stand there for hours to try to
feed them and it was just not permitted.” Sometimes, those patients would
go unfed, she said. Others who were incontinent would sit for hours in
their own feces, she said. And still others died. Short described one
dementia patient who had a vascular catheter in his arm for dialysis
treatments. He didn’t understand what it was and kept playing with it, she
said, so she repeatedly told senior staff he needed additional supervision.
Instead, they sent him back to his cell, alone. At 5 a.m., she went in to
check on him. Former Corizon patient care technician Teresa Short said some
Arizona prisoners have died because there weren't enough medical staff on
duty. Former Corizon patient care technician Teresa Short said some Arizona
prisoners have died because there weren't enough medical staff on duty.
America Tonight “[I] could smell blood before I even went into the room,”
she said. “And when I turned on his light, it looked like somebody had been
murdered. There was blood all over the room. I screamed for help.” Short
said the man had unplugged the catheter and quickly bled out. If Corizon
had employed more staff to monitor patients, she said, he might still be
alive. There are some numbers to back up Short’s claims. Since the state
privatized its prison health care, medical spending in prisons dropped by
$30 million and staffing levels plummeted, according to an October report
from the American Friends Services Committee, a Quaker social justice
organization. It also found a sharp spike in the number of inmate deaths.
In the first eight months of 2013, 50 people died in Arizona Department of
Corrections custody, compared with 37 deaths in the previous two years
combined. According to a 2012 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties
Union, the health care in Arizona’s prisons now amounts to cruel and
unusual punishment, with prisoners at serious risk of "pain, amputation,
disfigurement and death.” The suit cites examples of Arizona health
officials telling prisoners to pray to be cured and drink energy shakes to
alleviate cancer symptoms. “People are often sent to prison for two-year,
three-year sentences that have turned into death sentences because of the
absence of the basic minimal care,” said Dan Pochoda, legal director for
the ACLU in Arizona. He said in his 40-year career, he’s never seen a worse
prison health care system. In an emailed statement, Corizon spokeswoman
Susan Morgenstern said that the company could not discuss individual cases
because of privacy laws, but that “the vast majority of our current staff
levels exceed contract requirements,” and that their care follows the
guidelines of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and the
American Correctional Association. “Our goal is always to provide quality
care while being good stewards and making the best use of public funds,”
she wrote. “As for lawsuits, we treat hundreds of thousands of patients in
millions of healthcare encounters each year,” she added. “… The majority of
lawsuits are brought by inmates without an attorney representing them and
are dismissed or resolved prior to trial.” (Read the company’s full
statement.) 'He had plans' After his cancer, inmate Tony Brown's
pain medication was switched from morphine to less-powerful Lortab. After
his cancer, inmate Tony Brown's pain medication was switched from morphine
to less-powerful Lortab. America Tonight Tony Brown is another inmate who died
since Arizona privatized its prison health care. He was serving a 10-year
sentence for aggravated assault and was due to be released last September.
“They were supposed to come down for Thanksgiving this year,” his daughter
Jenna Jumper said. “He never got to meet my husband and he wasn't there
when I got married, so they were going to come visit.” Brown was in
remission from esophageal cancer, according to his medical records, and had
been prescribed morphine for the pain. But in October 2012, the prison ran
out of the drug. Medical staff switched him to Lortab, a weaker painkiller.
In a video taken by prison guards and obtained by “America Tonight,” Brown
is seen just after he was put on the new medication, writhing in pain while
handcuffed to a gurney. His medical records show that guards told nurses
his condition was worsening and that he "needed to be checked
out." But there is no record of medical staff visiting his cell. In
another video taken two days later, a prison chaplain checks on Brown at his
wife’s request. “Inmate Brown, I spoke with your wife earlier today,” the
chaplain is heard saying. “Can you communicate with me please? I’d like to
speak with your wife later on. Is there something I can tell her?” Brown,
face down on a bunk, barely moves and doesn’t respond. A guard can be heard
saying, “Is it me or does this just not feel right to anybody else?” The
guards started CPR and nurses came to assist, but 40 minutes passed before
they realized no one had called an ambulance. He died in a hospital the
next day. Two days later, his widow Jami Brown said she finally received a
call back from Wexford, the private prison health care company in charge at
the time. “My biggest thing is that if people would stop to realize that he
did have family,” his daughter said, “and that he did have a child and he
did have a wife and he had plans.” The official cause of death was listed
as complications from cancer. But Brown's family is suing Wexford, claiming
he died from lack of adequate medical care. In a statement, Wexford
attorney Ed Hochuli said he couldn’t discuss details of the case because of
the lawsuit and health care privacy laws, but wrote: "Based on the
limited information we have at this time, though, I am very confident
Wexford Health and its employees acted appropriately, and further
investigation of this claim will demonstrate and prove the lack of any
wrongdoing or negligence by Wexford Health.” But there are signs that
Wexford was aware of problems. “America Tonight” obtained a copy of a PowerPoint
presentation written by top Wexford executives for a meeting with the
Arizona governor's office in November 2012 – four months after the company
started providing care in the state. It warned that the care it and the
Department of Corrections were providing was "not compliant with …
requirements" and that "the current class action lawsuits are
accurate." It recommended an overall operational cleanup, staffing
reassessment and the appointment of a governor’s office liaison. The PowerPoint
presentation also says that the department's "transparency"
policy with the media could "encourage negative press." 'A
grain of sugar' State Rep. John Kavanagh said Clarine’s story about
being treated with sugar didn’t seem like a “true allegation,” adding that
it “sounds ridiculous.” State Rep. John Kavanagh said Clarine’s story about
being treated with sugar didn’t seem like a “true allegation,” adding that
it “sounds ridiculous.” America Tonight Prison officials deny any problems
with privatized care. Richard Pratt, the interim director of the health
services division of Arizona’s Department of Corrections, told “America
Tonight” that staffing levels since privatization were “basically the
same.” “Corizon staffing levels have been coming up on a monthly basis to
the point even last month the hours that they were working with their
existing staff exceeded the contract requirements,” he said. He also denied
there was a scabies outbreak, as Teresa Short had charged. But Pratt
emphasized that privatizing health care wasn’t a decision made by the
Department of Corrections. “It was legislated and mandated and it was the
law,” he said. “So we were forced to do this.” Legislators who supported
the privatization promised that it would save taxpayers money, while
maintaining adequate levels of care for inmates. The majority of states
have privatized prison health care, rewarding private companies for keeping
costs down. “I mean, people die in prisons,” said state Rep. John Kavanagh,
who wrote the legislation that privatized the state’s prison health care.
“I receive a lot of handwritten notes from prisoners. I receive emails from
prison families with all sorts of allegations of crazy behavior. And then,
you call the prison people up and they usually have a reasonable
explanation for it.” Kavanagh said Clarine’s story about being treated with
sugar didn’t seem like a “true allegation,” adding that it “sounds
ridiculous.” “You know prisoners have 24/7 to think up allegations and
write letters,” he said. “I'm not saying that some of them can't have a
basis in fact. But you got to take them with a grain of salt or in the case
of the hospital, with maybe a grain of sugar.” Kavanagh was also dismissive
of the ACLU lawsuit. “I think most people who get into [class-action
lawsuits] wind up with nothing and the lawyers walk away in limousines with
their trunks full of cash,” he said. No bid, nothing: Richard Pratt,
interim health services director for Arizona’s Department of Corrections,
denies that there’s a scabies outbreak in prison and says that Corizon’s
staffing levels have exceeded the requirements of the contract. Richard
Pratt, interim health services director for Arizona’s Department of
Corrections, denies that there’s a scabies outbreak in prison and says that
Corizon’s staffing levels have exceeded the requirements of the contract.
America Tonight Before Tony Brown’s death, Wexford was already coming under
fire after a contract nurse exposed more than 100 inmates to hepatitis C by
using dirty needles to deliver medication, according to the Department of
Corrections. Four months later, Arizona severed ties with Wexford and
awarded the three-year, $369 million contract to Corizon, which has similar
contracts in 28 states, according to its website. But it has faced problems
in many of them; in the last five years, Corizon has been sued for
malpractice 660 times. Arizona Democratic House Minority Leader Chad
Campbell said the Legislature didn't properly vet Corizon before signing
the contract. “No bid. Nothing,” he said. “It was deemed an emergency
situation by Department of Corrections so they didn't have to go through
the normal process.” Campbell also noted that Corizon had just hired the
former head of the Department of Corrections, who was the mentor of the
current head of the department. That’s not the only tie that members of the
state government have to private prisons. Charles Coughlin, the former
campaign strategist for Gov. Jan Brewer, runs a lobbying firm called HighGround Public Affairs Consultants, which
represented one of the country’s largest private prison companies. HighGround donated $5,000 to Jan PAC, Brewer's super
PAC. Then in late March, Kavanagh allocated $900,000 in state funding to
the private prison company GEO Group Inc., even though the Department of
Corrections said it wasn’t needed, according to the Arizona Republic.
“They're profiting on taxpayer dollars and to me, if I'm going to hand out
money to a private entity, I want to make sure it's being spent wisely,”
said Campbell, who is now calling for an investigation. The governor's
office declined a request from “America Tonight” for an interview and
referred us back to Kavanagh, who said the allegations that Brewer accepted
bids because of personal relationships were “baseless.” “I think they're
propaganda,” he said. “I mean, people say to me I've gotten campaign
contributions from private-prison people. Well, yeah. I got from a lobbyist
who represents them but that lobbyist also represents 40 other clients in
different industries. It's smoke and mirrors. It's a façade.” In the
meantime, allegations of wrongdoing continue to mount. According to the
American Friends Service Committee report, an inmate at the Whetstone Unit
of the Arizona State Prison Complex tested positive for tuberculosis in
August. But Corizon did not test other prisoners, even those who were doing
community service outside the complex. A healthy baby: Clarine walks
out of prison, escorted by her father Clarine walks out of prison, escorted
by her father America Tonight Earlier this month, Regan Clarine completed
her sentence. “America Tonight” met her as she was released into the
waiting arms of her father, Paul. “It’s one of the happiest days of our
life,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll never have to do this again.” They drove
to a nearby hotel to reunite with the rest of the family, including her
11-month-old daughter, Rylan. They’d met a handful of times on brief prison
visits, but Rylan didn’t recognize her mother. Still, Clarine was happy to
see her so healthy. She responded to Kavanagh’s allegation that she was
probably making up her story with a laugh, saying, “That’s crazy. I don’t
think I could even come up with something like that … Sugar?” To add insult
to injury, her mother, Lori, said the prison has billed her $2,000 for
Rylan’s birth. She is disputing the charges but fears it could hurt her
credit if she doesn’t pay them. She says privatized prison health care
simply isn’t working. “You know, she got her just punishment,” Lori said.
“But, oh my goodness, they're still human beings. Take care of them.”
Arizona Legislature
Feb 17, 2018 kjzz.org
$1 Million And Counting: Fines Mounting For Arizona Department Of
Corrections
The latest court filings in an ongoing federal court case show Arizona
could now be facing more than a million dollars in fines — just for the
month of December. On Wednesday, attorneys representing the Arizona
Department of Corrections filed the latest results from the monitoring
process in the Parsons v. Ryan prison health care settlement. In 2015, the
state agreed to meet more than 100 performance measures outlined in the
settlement to provide better health care to inmates in Arizona prisons. But
Arizona and its private contractor Corizon Health are failing to meet
several of those benchmarks. In October of 2017, Magistrate Judge David
Duncan issued an order stating, “because of pervasive and intractable
failures to comply with the Stipulation, the court is considering the
exercise of its civil contempt authority.” If Duncan uses his authority,
the state could face $1,000 fine for every violation of the stipulation.
Duncan ordered the defendants to immediately comply with 11 health care
performance measures. The state previously disclosed more than 650
violations at six state prisons. The latest filing reveals more than 400 additional
violations at the Eyman state prison for failing
to meet a performance measure that guarantees “chronic disease inmates will
be seen by the provider as specified in the inmate’s treatment plan, no
less than every 180 days.” Attorneys for the state have told the judge in
recent hearings that Corizon Health is having trouble finding specialty
care doctors to work with the contactor. The new violations would bring the
total fines for the month of December to more than a million dollars.
During a budget proposal at the statehouse on Tuesday lawmakers asked
Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan about the impending fines.
Ryan said if the fines are enforced, Corizon Health would pay. “I’ve
already made it clear to the the vendor that
they’re on the hook,” Ryan said. Duncan could address the fines at a status
hearing on Feb. 28.
Arizona
State Prison Complex – Florence
Feb 9, 2019 phoenixnewtimes.com
Arizona Prisoner Dies After Writing 'I Am Being Killed' in Court
Document
An Arizona state inmate died of health complications six weeks after he
filed a court document claiming that he was “being killed” due to
inadequate medical care. Richard Washington died on January 31 in the
prison infirmary, according to a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of
Corrections. He died of complications related to diabetes, hypertension,
and hepatitis C, according to an investigator with the Pinal County Medical
Examiner’s office. Washington, who was being housed at Arizona State Prison
Complex - Florence, was 64. He was serving a 63-year sentence on armed
robbery convictions. Washington is the second case since 2017 in which a
Florence inmate filed a court record raising concerns about imminent death
before actually dying. About six weeks before his death, Washington wrote a
court filing titled "Notice I am being killed." Washington
claimed in his filing that the corrections agency was "actively
refusing" to give him medication for his medical conditions, including
"diabetes, liver conditions, and blood pressure issues." "My
greatest fear is that I'm going to die more sooner than later should this
treatment — or lack there of — continues
[sic]," Washington wrote in a document dated December 15, 2018.
Washington filed the document in the docket for Parsons v. Ryan, the
federal lawsuit that resulted in a settlement requiring Arizona prisons to
improve healthcare services at facilities and conditions in solitary
confinement units. The Parsons settlement, reached with the American Civil
Liberties Union in 2014, outlines more than 100 health-care standards for
the ADOC. In June, a federal judge found the state prison system in
contempt of court for failing to meet Parsons settlement requirements. U.S.
Magistrate Judge David K. Duncan imposed fines of $1.5 million on the prison
system. Arizona currently contracts with Corizon, a private company, to
provide its health-care services. Beginning on July 1, state prisons will
switch to a different healthcare provider, Centurion, following
whistleblower reports on KJZZ of shoddy record-keeping by Corizon. Corene Kendrick, a staff attorney with the Prison Law
Office, said she saw Washington's court notice in the Parsons docket on
Wednesday evening, the same day the U.S. District Court of Arizona
officially filed the record. The Prison Law Office serves as co-counsel
with the ACLU on the Parsons case. Kendrick says it's unclear why
Washington's notice is dated six weeks before it was actually filed in the
court. She said Washington's case reminded her of a case in 2017 when an
Arizona inmate named Walter Jordan predicted his death from cancer in a
court document in the Parsons docket titled "Notice of Impending
Death." Jordan wrote on August 29, 2017, "ADOC and Corizon
delayed treating my cancer. Now because of there [sic] delay, I may be luckey [sic] to be alive for 30 days. The delayed
treatment they gave me is causing memory loss, pain." Jordan died on
September 7, 2017, from cancer. Three months later, Todd Wilcox, a medical
expert, filed a declaration in the Parsons case stating, "Mr. Jordan's
case was unfortunate and horrific, and he suffered excruciating needless
pain from cancer that was not appropriately managed in the months prior to
his death," Like Washington, Jordan was housed at Florence.
Arlington County
jail
Mar 12, 2022 wjla.com
Arlington Co. jail,
sheriff, medical staff sued for $10 million following death of inmate
ARLINGTON, Va.
(7News) - Plaintiffs representing Darryl Becton, an inmate who died under
suspicious circumstances at Arlington County Detention Facility in 2020,
have filed a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the jail, the
Arlington County Sheriff, and several members of the jail's medical staff
who are contracted through Corizon Health, Inc. According to an attorney
representing Becton's family, this is the 7th inmate to die at the jail in
recent years. All were people of color, an Arlington County NAACP
spokesperson said, who attended a Friday press conference where the lawsuit
was announced. The lawsuit, filed in Arlington County Circuit Court,
alleges that Becton, 46, was left unattended and was untreated for serious
medical conditions after being admitted to the jail on September 29, 2020.
Becton was admitted for probation violation. The lawsuit says during his
intake process, he informed jail officials he had an opioid addiction, had
suffered from withdrawal in the past, and expected to experience withdrawal
again being incarcerated. He also told jail officials he suffered from
hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Two days later, according to jail
medical records, in the early morning hours of October 1, Becton had a
blood pressure reading of 191/102, the suit contends. "He had a
[reading] of 191 over 102, It's called a hypertensive emergency, an
attorney representing the Becton estate said. "He was just being
casually monitored by the nursing staff. This did not have to occur. His
conditions should have been treated immediately." Becton was
pronounced dead later that day around 5 p.m., after a visiting counselor
checked him in his cell where he was found nonresponsive. The details
between the medical emergency the morning of Oct. 1 and Becton's time of
death are inconsistent, an attorney said. "At 6:59 a.m. on October 1,
2020, an incomplete set of vitals was taken by an unidentified Corizon
Health employee. Thereafter, all monitoring, observations, and treatment of
Mr. Becton simply ceases. Mr. Becton's medical record contains a recorded
encounter at 2:34 p.m., but that alleged encounter is highly dubious.
"Defendant Antoine Smith - a licensed practical nurse and Corizon
Health employee - has been criminally charged with falsifying patient
records, upon information and belief, in connection with Mr. Becton,"
the lawsuit states.
Oct 26, 2021 wjla.com
Medical contractor
deal terminated after Arlington County inmate's death
ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) - After an inmate died in October of 2020 while he
was at the Arlington County Detention Facility, prosecutors have charged a
man with a misdemeanor. More than a year later, on Oct. 12, 2021, the
Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney announced that Antoine Smith was
charged with falsifying a patient record. "The warrant was obtained in
connection with the investigation into the death of (inmate) Mr. Darryl
Becton at the Arlington County Detention Center in October 2020."
Smith worked for Corizon Health. "After careful consideration, the
county has entered into contract negotiations with a new provider. Services
with a new provider are expected to begin November 15, 2021," said a
spokesperson for the Arlington County Sheriff's Office. "Becton, 46,
died on October 1, 2020, after he was found unconscious in his cell at the
Arlington County Detention Facility," according to the Arlington
County Sheriff's Office. "Mr. Becton was arrested on September 29,
2020, and charged with Probation Violation, awaiting his court
hearing." The Arlington County NAACP released the following statement:
"The Arlington Branch NAACP #7047 is aware that the Arlington County
Sheriff's Office has "entered into negotiations with a new [medical]
provider." Although the Sheriff's Office is seeking a new medical
contractor, the issue remains that there have been six in-custody deaths in
six years, as reported by the Arlington County Sheriff's Office. The
Arlington Branch NAACP's position remains firm in seeking justice for those
who have died while in the custody of the Arlington County Sheriff's
Office. Ultimately, the Arlington County Sheriff, the Command Staff, and
Sheriff's Office personnel are responsible for the health, care, and safety
of the individuals in their custody - and the Arlington Branch NAACP will
continue to seek justice to find All who are responsible, complicit, and or
negligent in the deaths of those in-custody and hold them
accountable." Sheriff Beth Arthur released the following statement:
"The Arlington County Sheriff's Office is committed to providing the
highest level of medical services to those in our custody and I take each
individuals care very seriously. How we care for those remanded to our
custody is a priority. We are committed to having a vendor that provides
the level of medical service that reflects the high expectations of not
only myself, but the Arlington community."
Oct 14, 2021 arlnow.com
Charges Filed in
Investigation of Man's Death While in County Jail
One year after an
inmate died in the Arlington County jail, a man has been charged in
connection with his death. For the last year, the Arlington County Police
Department has been investigating the death of Darryl Becton, 46, while in
custody of the county jail on Oct. 1, 2020. One year later to the day, a
man named Antoine Smith appeared in Arlington County General District Court
on charges related to the investigation, according to a press release from
the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney. Smith was charged with the
misdemeanor of falsifying a patient record, according to the release.
Police obtained a warrant for his arrest on Sept. 24. The Commonwealth's
Attorney did not return requests for more information about who Smith is,
who he works for and what records he falsified. "The Commonwealth may
not discuss the details of an ongoing investigation and Professional Rule
of Responsibility 3.6 prohibits public commentary regarding the details of
a pending case," the release said. "A defendant is presumed
innocent until proven guilty, and a charge is not evidence." What we
do know is that Arlington County's jail contracts with correctional
healthcare provider Corizon Health to provide medical care to inmates. Last
year, the contract was extended to 2025. A D.C. area man who goes by the
name Antoine Smith lists his occupation as a licensed practical nurse and
his employer as Corizon Health, according to a LinkedIn profile. Corizon
has been sued multiple times across the nation for inmate deaths allegedly
connected to inadequate care. Assuming Smith is indeed employed by Corizon,
this is not the first time a correctional nurse from Corizon has been
charged with a crime involving an inmate in Arlington. In 2014, another
nurse from Corizon was charged with misdemeanor sexual battery and found
guilty in Arlington General District Court, in an incident that was not
previously reported publicly. He appealed to the Circuit Court and a deal
was reached between the inmate and the nurse that allowed him avoid a jail time, according to Maj. Susie Doyel, the then-spokeswoman for the Arlington County
Sheriff's Office, which runs the jail. The news of the latest charges marks
a step forward in the case, which police told ARLnow
in August could soon be concluded. Last fall, Becton, who is Black, was
being held on an alleged probation violation after being convicted in 2019
of a felony, "unauthorized use of a motor vehicle." On Oct. 1,
2020, a sheriff's deputy and an Arlington Department of Human Services
caseworker found Becton unresponsive in his cell. Despite resuscitation
efforts, Becton was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. Within a week, the
Arlington branch of the NAACP wrote to the sheriff's office and the police
department requesting an independent investigation. The same month, Sheriff
Beth Arthur and then-Acting Chief of Police Andy Penn wrote a joint
response. "The death of Mr. Becton is tragic
and we can assure you that a thorough and comprehensive criminal
investigation into this matter will be conducted by the ACPD, followed by a
comprehensive administrative investigation by ASCO to determine if all
applicable policies and procedures were followed surrounding Mr. Becton's
incarceration," Arthur and Penn wrote. Between then and August, little
information had surfaced in Becton's case. ARLnow
learned from the medical examiner's office that his cause of death was ruled
to be hypertensive cardiovascular disease - caused by sustained high blood
pressure - complicated by opiate withdrawal, and the manner of his death
was ruled to be natural. This case has been a top priority for the NAACP,
as Becton was the fifth person - and the fourth Black man - to die in the
facility between 2015 and 2020, per the Sheriff's
and Police Chief's letter. Those numbers increased last week, when an
inmate named Clyde Spencer became the sixth person, and the fifth Black
man, to die in custody in six years. In the wake of his death, the NAACP
again raised concerns about "delayed answers for Mr. Becton's
family" and calling the pattern of deaths "unacceptable,
unconscionable, and distressing." In response to yesterday's news
about charges against Smith, Arlington NAACP President Julius
"JD" Spain, Sr. said charges are not enough, as Becton's family
still needs answers. "This is not justice for the NAACP," Spain
tells ARLnow. "This is not justice for the
family. We will continue to assure that justice is served." Smith is
expected to return to court on Nov. 9 for a hearing. As for the review the
NAACP requested, after ACPD concludes its investigation, the file will be
sent to the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office for independent review, according
to the joint letter. The Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, is investigating
whether applicable policies and procedures were being followed.
Baltimore City Detention Center, Baltimore, Maryland
May 19, 2008
Daily Record
The Court of Special Appeals once again ruled Baltimore County was a day
late in an attempt three years ago to renew its contract with a medical
services provider for inmates. A three-judge panel last week unanimously
reversed a Baltimore County Circuit Court decision and remanded the case back
with instructions to grant summary judgment in favor of Prison Health
Services Inc. “It was the county’s burden to establish that it timely
manifested its option to renew the contract, not PHS’s burden to establish
the opposite,” Judge Mary Ellen Barbera wrote. “We have concluded that, on
this record, the county is unable as a matter of law to carry that burden.”
Andrew D. Levy of Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP in Baltimore, who
represented Prison Health, was pleased with the decision. “We were not bound
by their exercise option,” he said Wednesday. “I’m glad the Court of
Special Appeals agreed.” Jeffrey G. Cook, an assistant county attorney
involved with the case, did not return calls for comment. Clear intent --
The case stemmed from a contract the county and Tennessee-based Prison
Health entered into on July 1, 2000, covering two jails. The five-year
agreement was to “continue through” June 30, 2005, with options for up to
three two-year extensions. The county sent notice of its intention to
extend the contract July 1, 2005; earlier that same day, Prison Health sent
a letter to the county declaring the contract completed because the county
did not extend it by June 30. The county filed a declaratory and injunctive
relief action against Prison Health in Baltimore County Circuit Court in
July 2005. Four months later, Judge Dana M. Levitz found in favor of the
county, saying “through June 30” meant a reasonable time thereafter, a
standard met by the July 1 notice of extension. Prison Health appealed the
decision, and the Court of Special Appeals reversed Levitz in December
2006, sending the case back to the lower court. Levitz again ruled in favor
of the county last May, a decision appealed by Prison Health a month later.
The county argued the two sides had conversations prior to June 30 about
extending the contract, so its intent to renew was apparent even if not in
writing. It cited a May 2005 e-mail from a county official indicating it
would grant an increase in Prison Health’s compensation based on a rise in the
Consumer Price Index once the company returned paperwork with the necessary
corrections. But the court agreed with Prison Health that the county’s
e-mail was “not an objectively reasonable expression of its intent” because
it did not “explicitly refer” to the contract extension. “We have made
clear…that acknowledgement of an existing relationship that is anticipated
to continue does not constitute an exercise of an option,” Barbera wrote,
citing past court decisions. Levy said the decision means Prison Health
does not have to pay the county the difference between the 2000 contract
and the county’s subsequent contract with another medical services
provider. He did not know the exact amount, but believed it was several
million dollars. A county spokeswoman did not know the dollar figure either
and said Cook was the only lawyer who did. Prison Health has not performed
work for the county since September 2006, Levy said.
April
7, 2008 Daily Record
Baltimore County and Prison Health Services Inc. once again asked the
Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Monday to determine what difference a
day makes when it comes to a contract’s expiration. The two sides repeated
many of the same arguments they have used the past three years in a dispute
concerning the county’s attempt to renew a contract providing medical
services to inmates one day after Prison Health claims the deal expired.
The case returned from Baltimore County Circuit Court after the appeals
court remanded it there in a 2006 opinion. Lawyers for Tennessee-based
Prison Health again argued the county could not seek to extend a contract
providing medical services to inmates at two county jails the day after the
deal expired. “They are not allowed to create a contract and then hold us
to perform what is really connect-the-dots,” said Andrew D. Levy of Brown,
Goldstein & Levy LLP in Baltimore, representing Prison Health. Jeffrey
G. Cook, an assistant county attorney, acknowledged under judges’
questioning the county could have handled the renewal process differently
but said it was still done lawfully. “It might not be the best way, but it
is a permissible way,” he said. The case stems from a contract the two
sides entered July 1, 2000, covering two jails. The five-year agreement was
to “continue through” June 30, 2005, with options for up to three
additional two-year terms. The county did not send notice of its intention
to continue the contract until July 1, 2005. Earlier that same day, Prison
Health sent a letter to the county declaring the contract completed because
the county had not exercised its option for renewal by June 30, 2005. The
county filed a declaratory and injunctive relief action against Prison
Health in July 2005 in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Four months later,
Judge Dana M. Levitz sided with the county, saying “through June 30” meant
a reasonable time thereafter, a standard the county met by exercising its
renewal option July 1. Prison Health appealed the decision, and the Court
of Special Appeals ruled in the company’s favor in December 2006. The
three-judge panel sent the case back to Baltimore County. Levitz again
ruled in the county’s favor last May, and Prison Health filed an appeal in
June. On Monday, Judge Mary Ellen Barbera questioned the county’s reasoning
and wondered if Prison Health was simply protecting itself by sending the
letter to the county July 1, 2005. Barbera was joined on the bench by Judge
James P. Salmon, who also heard the first case, and Judge Sean D. Wallace,
who was specially assigned from Prince George’s County Circuit Court. Cook
repeated one of the county’s arguments that both sides were discussing
terms of a contract extension before July 1, 2005, so the county’s intent
was clear even if not in writing. “Everybody knew what was going on,” Cook
said. Levy countered that intent to renew is not enough. “They are still
required to exercise the option in a clear, unconditional and unequivocal
way,” he said. The court is expected to issue its opinion later this year.
June
6, 2007 Daily Record
The mother of a mentally troubled man who died in state custody has filed a
$2 million lawsuit following his overdose on prescription medication given
to him at the Baltimore City Detention Center. Verbena Harris is suing the
state, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and Prison
Health Services Inc. for malpractice and the wrongful death of her son,
Ronald E. Faulk. She claims he was denied treatment for more than a week,
then given a month’s supply of drugs instead of the daily dose he required.
“Not only is this another piece of evidence of the way Prison Health
Services has failed to live up to the standard of care necessary, it’s
another example of what happens to men like Mr. Faulk,” said Alison Kohler
of Dugan, Babij and Tolley LLC, Harris’ attorney.
Faulk, 51, was a Vietnam War veteran whose ailments included high blood
pressure, post-traumatic stress syndrome, bipolar disorder and alcohol
abuse. The Baltimore resident had been in and out of the detention center
for various minor charges since at least 1990. “He had his mood swings, but
he was a good person,” Harris said of her son in a telephone interview on
Wednesday. “There was nothing he wouldn’t do for me. He loved his mother.”
According to the complaint pending in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Faulk
was arrested on Feb. 22, 2004, for disorderly conduct and street fighting.
After his arrest, he allegedly went more than a week without receiving
medication of any kind, despite being evaluated and prescribed medication
by physicians at the detention center. Faulk was twice referred for a
psychiatric evaluation he never received, and physicians’ orders to monitor
his heart and blood pressure daily were not followed, the complaint
alleges. Harris said she learned of Faulk’s arrest the day it happened and
contacted the facility herself to explain her son’s medication needs, but
said she did not receive a convincing response that they would be met.
“There seems to be at best a deliberative indifference to the care while he
was in jail,” said Kohler. “As I read through the record, the message that
I get is ‘We’ll get to you when we get to you.’” By the morning of March 3,
2004, Kohler said, Faulk was “agitated and manic,” pacing the room and
asking repeatedly for his medication. Later that day, staff nurses gave
Faulk an entire month’s supply of blood pressure medication, rather than
administering it dose-by-dose as ordered by the facility physicians, the
complaint says. The next morning, Faulk was found pale and heavily
perspiring and taken to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where a doctor called
Harris to tell her that her son had overdosed. “I’m thinking it was illegal
drugs, I’m not thinking prescription drugs,” Harris said of her first
reaction. Faulk died at Hopkins early the next day. An autopsy confirmed that
the cause of death was an overdose of the blood pressure medication given
to him at the detention center. Harris, on behalf of herself and Faulk’s
estate, as well as Faulk’s father and his son, is seeking $1 million each
in compensatory and punitive damages. The attorneys for the state and
Prison Health Services were unavailable for comment. This is not the first
time a death in custody has provoked debate about Baltimore City Detention
Center’s health services. The American Civil Liberties Union’s National
Prisons Project and the Public Justice Center in Baltimore sued the state
in 2003 to improve conditions at the detention center and central booking
facility in Baltimore. The suit is in negotiations, according to Elizabeth
Alexander, director of the ACLU’s prisons project. Alexander said the ACLU
suit highlights multiple cases of serious medical neglect at the jail that
have aggravated chronic conditions and in some cases caused death. Prison
Health Services Inc., a defendant in both Harris’ suit and the ACLU’s, has
traditionally had “a very bad reputation, particularly in administering
medication,” Alexander said. The company’s contract with the state expired
nearly two years ago, and since then multiple vendors have been selected to
provide services in a completely restructured health care system. Alexander
called the new standard of care “not quite as dreadful” as in years past. A
February report on inmate health care by the Department of Legislative
Services in Annapolis also exposed understaffed facilities and found
inconsistent monitoring of patients. Although originally filed in Baltimore
City Circuit Court earlier this year, Harris’ case was removed to federal
court this month.
September 20, 2005 Baltimore Sun
The state did a poor job of providing medical care to prisoners at
Baltimore's downtown prison over much of the past five years because of a
flawed and underfunded contract with a private company that took effect in
2000, according to a grand jury report released yesterday. The grand jury
report came out of a review of prison conditions that are part of the
routine of grand juries in Maryland. Circuit Court Judge Stuart R. Berger
ordered the Baltimore grand jury in May to examine health care services at
the state-run detention center in Baltimore. The grand jury identified what
it said were serious problems with the flat-fee contract the state held
with Tennessee-based Prison Health Services Inc. Under the contract, which
expired June 30, Prison Health was responsible for all health care needs for
most Maryland inmates. Putting one organization in charge of all aspects of
offender health care was a serious mistake at the outset," the report
states. In addition, it said, the documents the state sent out inviting
companies to bid on health care services for inmates in 2000 were poorly
written. And the state's monitoring for compliance in the initial years
after the contracts were signed was inadequate, jurors found. More
importantly, jurors said, the long-term, fixed-price contract locked Prison
Health into what turned out to be a money-losing deal that affected
services provided to inmates. "This resulted in enormous pressure from
PHS management to economize on operations," the report says.
"Instead of looking for efficiencies, PHS made it more and more
difficult for offenders to receive prescription medications, hospital
procedures or laboratory tests." The report said that detainees often
did not receive prescribed medication for weeks after they were booked into
the city's jail, and it listed a series of other problems that The Sun had
also discovered in its investigation. PHS officials have consistently
denied that economic factors influenced decisions on medical care. They say
the company lost $15 million on the Maryland contract, which generated $260
million in revenues over five years. "We hope the report will be
helpful, but their tone is a little more hopeful than we think the current
situation calls for," said Sally Dworak-Fisher,
a lawyer with the Public Justice Center in Baltimore. Her group and the
American Civil Liberties Union's National Prisons Project have a
long-standing lawsuit against the state to improve conditions at the
detention center and central booking facility in Baltimore. Dworak-Fisher said that detainees, in interviews, are currently
reporting many of the same kinds of problems as in the past, with few signs
of improvement since the new contracts took effect July 1. She noted that
the company that holds the $125.6 million, two-year contract for primary
care services, by far the largest segment of the work, has fallen short of
supplying the number of staff it agreed to provide. The grand jury report
also said that St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services "has a
history of troubled performance in other states, as well as in
Maryland."
June 1, 2005 The Daily Record
The company that provides medical services to Baltimore County inmates
is arguing that it should not have to continue delivering those services at
the county's expanded prison. Tennessee-based Prison Health Services filed
suit against the county in Baltimore County Circuit Court last week,
alleging that logistical aspects of the expansion will force the company to
spend more to provide the same services. The $74 million expansion on
Kenilworth Drive in Towson is set to be completed in the fall. The County
did not bargain for, and the PHS did not agree to provide services,
personnel and costs at this new facility; rather PHS contracted to provide
services to the 'facilities' as they existed at the time the contract was
formed, based on the RFP and Bid documents, the complaint states. The
County has given notice to PHS that it expects PHS to provide the same
services at the new facility as at the old facilities, despite the
increased manpower required, at no increase in price.
May 10, 2005 Baltimore Sun
As they were sworn in yesterday, members of Baltimore's newest grand
jury were charged with investigating the city jail's health care system
over the next four months. City grand jurors, in addition to deciding which
felony cases to indict, typically prepare a report on a specific criminal
justice issue, such as prison conditions, drug treatment and witness
intimidation. A major reason to explore the status of health care is
because of "the extent the health issues associated with the ever
increasing population in our prisons," he wrote. He also noted that
prisoners are 17 times more likely than the general population to have
tuberculosis and five times more likely to have AIDS. Since 2000, health
care at the jail has been provided by Tennessee-based Prison Health
Services. That company has a contract with the state, which expires in
July, for health services at more than 20 state prison facilities.
October 20, 2004 AP
The firm providing medical care to Maryland's prison inmates has
disciplined four employees in connection with the treatment they gave to a
34-year-old woman who died last month after she became ill at the women's
detention center in Baltimore. A statement from Prison Health Services says the three nurses
and a physician's assistant have been reprimanded and reassigned. The
statement says the workers didn't perform a function usually done during
the sick-call intake process. Hospital records
indicate she had been experiencing fainting spells before she was sent to
the hospital. Her family wonders if better care might have saved her life.
Broward County Detention Center, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
December 4, 2004 Miami
Herald
Three days after Correctional Health Services was formed, the Broward
Sheriff's Office sought bids to provide medical care to 5,000 inmates at
the county Jail. Only companies with longstanding experience at large jails
or prisons need apply, officials wrote in a request for proposals. But a
week later, on July 28, BSO did an about-face on its requirements. The
agency announced it was tossing out its request for bids. And when a new
request for proposals was issued Aug. 10, one requirement had been dropped:
bidders no longer needed to have experience providing healthcare to
inmates. The new solicitation left the door open for Correctional Health to
bid, and the newly formed company was awarded a $127 million, five-year
contract to manage healthcare at the Broward County Jail. Correctional
Health Services (CHS) was not the lowest of the four bidders for the
lucrative contract. Wexford Health Source, the company that had provided
care at the jail for the last three years, submitted a bid that was
$300,000 less, records show. The company's first few days at the jail
already have been rocky. State pharmacy officials said they had not issued
pharmacy licenses when CHS took over management of the jail on Wednesday,
and company employees could not dispense medications until Friday, when
they obtained a temporary license. Attempts to reach Doyle H. Moore, CHS's
chief executive officer, or Jose Armas, CHS
president and chairman, were unsuccessful Friday. Acccording
to county Supervisor of Elections records, businesses owned by Armas, a doctor, contributed $4,250 to Broward Sheriff
Ken Jenne's most recent campaign for reelection.
In addition, Armas contributed another $500 as an
individual to Jenne's campaign. The company's
chief executive officer, Doyle Moore, had run into trouble in Broward
before, however. At the 1993 federal tax fraud trial of former Port
Everglades Commissioner Walter Browne, Moore -- the founder of a company
called Prison Health Services -- testified he funneled money to a
Republican power broker and hired lobbyists to sway then-Sheriff Nick
Navarro when he became concerned Prison Health was going to lose its
contract to provide medical care at the Broward jail. Moore testified with
the guarantee his testimony would not be used against him. His attorney at
the time said neither Moore nor the company did anything wrong. In 1985,
Palm Beach County jail inmate Mario Abraham died after languishing in his
cell for five days with a broken neck before Prison Health Services
employees treated him. A grand jury at the time called the company's care
of the man ``grossly inadequate and incompetent.''
Camden
County Jail, Camden New
Jersey
The family of a Cherry Hill man killed in Camden County Jail filed a
federal lawsuit Wednesday, charging county correctional officials with
"reckless and deliberate indifference" in his death. The
suit charges that Joel Seidel's constitutional rights to medical care, due
process and to be free from cruel and unusual punishment were violated
while the former stockbroker was in custody. The lawsuit was filed in
U.S. District Court on behalf of Seidel's daughters, Sharon Clark and Devra Seidel, co-administrators of his estate.
"This tragedy was preventable and we intend to prove that the reckless
and deliberate indifference of the prison guards and officials led to the
death of Mr. Seidel," said Tom Kline, of Kline & Specter of Cherry
Hill, attorney for the Seidel daughters. County officials had not
been served with the lawsuit late Wednesday and because of that were unable
to comment, according to a spokesman. The suit alleges
"negligent, reckless, intentional, wrongful, deliberately indifferent
and unlawful conduct" on the part of prison officials. The suit
cites overcrowding at the prison in general and the failure to move Seidel
to a hospital, psychiatric facility or his own cell and failure to provide
adequate observation. The suit names as defendants the Camden County
Jail, Camden County Department of Corrections and Camden County; and Prison
Health Services Inc. and Steininger Behavioral
Care Services, both of which had contracts to provide services to
inmates. (Courier-Post, April 29, 2004)
Charlotte County Jail, Punta Gorda,
Florida
April 11, 2006 NBC2
A former Charlotte County inmate is demanding answers after two nurses
at the Charlotte County Jail took drugs out of a bio-hazard trash bin and
injected him with the drugs. William Parbus, a
diabetic, was given a shot of insulin that could have cost him his life.
The nurses have since been fired. Parbus is now
out of jail. He was serving 15 days for driving with a suspended license.
He may be out of jail, but he's a prisoner to fear. "I don't want to
be with my wife. I kind of miss it already. Five months to go," said Parbus. Doctors told him HIV or hepatitis may be
lurking in his system, but won't know for certain for six months. The
concerns come after Parbus, a diabetic, was
injected with outdated insulin from a bio-hazard trash bin while he was an
inmate at the Charlotte County Jail. "I was outraged. For what reason
could this person do this to me? What reason in the world? She's out of
insulin, fine. I'm out of insulin," said Parbus.
The two nurses worked for Prison Health Systems, an outside contractor
hired by the jail. They said the nurses responsible were immediately fired.
PHS officials and jail commanders alerted Parbus
that his health could be at risk. "It's not anything we want to tell
anybody. We had to be up front with it. Told him what happened and told him
what we would do to rectify the situation," said Lieutenant Daniel Kacynski, Jail Support Commander. PHS told Parbus to send them his medical bills and they might
pay them. But Parbus says that's not enough.
"I think there should be an investigation. They just fired these
ladies. Are they licensed nurses? Are they going to get a job at a hospital
down the road? Is this going to happen again if they don't feel like going
down the road for insulin?" said Parbus. Parbus claims he won't give up until he gets some
answers. Until then, his thought will be on his health. Parbus
says he is looking for an attorney. He says he wants to make sure this
doesn't happen to anyone else. PHS commented about potentially paying Parbus' medical bills through a statement they released
through jail supervisors. We tried to reach the two nurses who were fired.
Sheryl Staples declined to comment. Karen Helmick has not returned our
call.
April
5, 2006 Herald Tribune
Two nurses charged with the care of inmates in the county jail were
fired for giving an inmate expired medication taken from a biohazard
disposal box. Karen Helmick and Sheryl Staples were both registered nurses
with Prison Health Services Inc., the agency contracted to care for
inmates' medical needs. They were fired March 14. "Unfortunately, it
happened," said Linda Antuono, PHS health
service administrator. "It was rectified immediately." A PHS
doctor checked on the inmate the day after the incident, explained the risk
factors to him and ordered testing for HIV and hepatitis, according to the
incident report Antuono filed with the Sheriff's
Office. According to the report, another nurse saw Helmick break open a
sharps container -- a box used to dispose of glass medicine vials and used
needles -- and remove a vial of expired drugs. Helmick gave Staples the
medicine to administer to the inmate. Staples told authorities that the
nurses had run out of the medication the inmate needed. The nurses should
have called an outside pharmacy to order backup medication, the report
states. "Sheryl stated to me that she did not want to cross
Karen," Antuono wrote in the report. Karen
Helmick said that she knew she was in a supervisory position, which made
her responsible for retrieving backup drugs from the pharmacy, the report
states. She told Antuono that "she just did
not feel like driving and getting it," according to the report.
November 22, 2004 AP
A Charlotte County Jail inmate and his nurse girlfriend on Monday denied
charges she smuggled drugs into the facility for him. Ruth E. Brodis, a nurse at the jail, was arrested Thursday and
charged with introducing contraband into a correctional facility, a felony
punishable by up to five years in prison if convicted. Brodis
was working for Prison Health Services, a contractor which provides medical
services to the county. But Brodis said she suffers
from fibromyalgia and the pills found by detectives were hers and not
intended for her fiancee, Tyler Schwartzkopf, who is currently in jail on a
second-degree felony charge of grand theft.
November 20, 2004 Herald
Tribune
A private health care nurse at the county jail smuggled prescription drugs
to an inmate she planned to marry, according to the Charlotte County
Sheriff's Office. The nurse, Ruth Ellen Brodis,
was arrested Thursday at the jail when she arrived for her shift, sheriff's
Detective Martha Faul said. The Deep Creek
resident is charged with introduction of contraband, a felony. Brodis works for Prison Health Services, a
Tennessee-based company that provides health care to inmates in hundreds of
jails, prisons and juvenile facilities across the country.
Chatham County Detention Center
Savannah,
GA
Corizon
Jun 18, 2016 nashvillepost.com
Corizon losing Georgia contract
Local prison health care provider Corizon will soon hand over the reins
to a Georgia contract it's held since the early 1990s after its
relationship with the sheriff there turned "hostile."
Brentwood-based Corizon has been providing health services to inmates at
the jail in Chatham County, which is home to Savannah, since 1993. The
company's work with about 1,500 inmates there was earlier this year
reaccredited by the Medical Association of Georgia but its contract will
not be renewed after it expires July 31. County officials late last week
authorized staff to being negotiating with Atlanta-based CorrectHealth for a deal that could be worth up to $7
million in its first year. Corizon's contract has been paying $5.1 million.
WTVM-TV in Columbus, Georgia, reports that a big reason for Chatham
officials' switch in providers is that Sheriff John Wilcher
has been very critical of Corizon's record and has asked for numerous
changes to the company's contract. A Corizon spokesperson told the station
any requests were not formally made and that the company is on board with
moving on. Corizon did have an answer to that question when we spoke to
their representative on Friday. "As soon as possible" is their
wish. They want out of what they consider a hostile relationship with the
sheriff's office, as soon as Wilcher can get CorrectHealth's contract approved by his attorneys.
Corizon [went] on to say, whenever that is, they will make sure the
transition is a smooth one. Word of the pending end of the Chatham contract
comes a few weeks after Corizon executives lost out in their bid to extend
their contract with the New Mexico Corrections Department, a job they had
done for almost a decade and one that is worth more than $40 million per
year.
May 21, 2016 savannahnow.com
Deputy sues Chatham County jail's health care provider
A deputy sheriff is suing the Chatham County jail’s contract health
care provider for what she alleges is negligence that led to a 2014 attack,
which left her unable to work. In addition to seeking damages from Corizon
Health, Chatham County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Wendy Smoot-Lee is suing Shena Danielle Burton, the inmate accused of attacking
her on May 27, 2014. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Chatham County State
Court, claims Smoot-Lee suffered “severe and permanent” injuries after the
altercation with Burton. She is seeking a jury trial, compensation for more
than $100,000 in medical bills and other, unspecified damages. Jail records
show Burton, then 28, was arrested March 16, 2014, on a contempt of court
charge. The lawsuit alleges Burton was tapped for psychiatric evaluation by
a Corizon nurse, but that she needed medicine and did not receive further
mental health treatment over the next two months despite the nurse
“repeatedly” requesting it. That, according to the lawsuit, amounted to
negligence and “created a dangerous and unsafe environment.” Corizon, the
lawsuit reads, “knew, or with exercise of reasonable care, should have
known of (Burton’s) psychiatric disorder and propensity for violent/aggressive
behavior should she fail to receive her medications.” Smoot-Lee, who spoke
to the Savannah Morning News by phone Wednesday, said she suffered a spinal
injury in the struggle to subdue Burton, who had just tried to elbow her.
Smoot-Lee fell to the ground in a way that caused a compression injury. Two
days after the fall, Smoot-Lee said, the pain kept her from getting out of
bed. That was the last time she worked a shift at the sheriff’s department,
her employer for 14 years. The 50-year-old deputy, who has been walking
with a cane since the incident, said she had to have back surgery and needs
ongoing physical therapy. She still works for the sheriff’s department but
is on long-term disability. “Every day I’m in excruciating pain,” Smoot-Lee
said. Most of all, though, she said the incident left her unable to perform
her job, which she calls a “passion.” “I miss work,” she said. “I miss my
job.” Corizon spokeswoman Martha Harbin said she could not comment on care
provided to Burton or “the merits of the complaint” due to patient privacy
and pending litigation. Harbin, however, did say that lawsuits “by their
nature are one-sided documents.” “While we are sympathetic to the
difficulties this former sheriff’s deputy is experiencing from injuries
sustained in the line of duty, we believe the facts of this case will not
support her attorney’s claims,” Harbin said in an emailed statement. “We
will vigorously defend the care provided by our Chatham County nurses,
doctors and mid-level providers, who work every day in a particularly
dangerous environment to provide compassionate care to some of the most
vulnerable members of the community.” It was not immediately known if
Burton, who is being sued for damages related to assault and battery, had
an attorney. The incident marks at least the fourth time Corizon has been
sued over its operations at the Chatham County jail. While the two most
recent lawsuits arose after the deaths of inmates, attorney Will Claiborne
said the incident involving Smoot-Lee shows that the company sometimes puts
sheriff’s department employees at risk. Claiborne filed two other lawsuits
this year in which family members of inmates who died in custody sought
damages from Corizon, and he represented three of the company’s employees —
a doctor, a physician’s assistant and a nurse — who claimed they were fired
in 2014 for reporting perceived lack-of-care issues to sheriff’s department
commanders. Currently, the sheriff’s department and Chatham County
government officials are working on a new health care contract for the
jail. County Manager Lee Smith says several companies have put in bids, and
that county staffers are “doing due diligence” before making a
recommendation to the sheriff’s department. The county provides the
sheriff’s department with much of its funding, and Smith said he expects a
recommendation will come in June as part of the budgetary process. Corizon
is one of the companies that returned a proposal, but, Smith said, “we are
negotiating with another company.” The county became more involved in the
process last year after the high-profile death of an inmate led to a wave
of firings, policy overhaul and consultants being brought in at the behest
of then-Sheriff Al St Lawrence, who died in office in November. Ultimately,
though, it will be up to newly elected Sheriff John Wilcher
to decide who provides health care at the jail. Wilcher,
a 40-year veteran of the department, said Wednesday that he could not
comment on the lawsuit, Corizon or the future of health care at the jail
because of ongoing litigation. He did, however, call Smoot-Lee “an
excellent officer.”
Mar 26, 2016 wbrc.com
Probation lifted for Chatham Co. Jail's health provider
CHATHAM CO., GA (WTOC) - The health group contracted to serve the
Chatham County Sheriff's Office has been on probation since last summer.
The decision came down from the Medical Association of Georgia when they
conducted an audit of the facility after a number of complaints and two
inmate deaths since 2014. WTOC found out Wednesday that their probation period
has now been lifted. They are once again fully accredited by the Medical
Association of Georgia, but only after they were audited several times over
the last couple of months. The probation issued by the Medical Association
of Georgia cited issues with the jail's procedures relating to the death of
an inmate - restraint and seclusion - and their continuous quality
improvement.
The sheriff says being on probation meant that they could have lost their
accreditation at any point but after months of making improvements. They
are no longer on probation and the Medical Association of Georgia and is
once again fully accredited. In a statement from the Corizon Health
President Scott Bowers: "I have every confidence in our people,
policies and practices in Chatham County. I want to acknowledge and thank
our healthcare professionals for their steadfast dedication to the patients
in our care throughout the challenges of the past year." Corizon has
been serving Chatham County for more than 20 years, but that may all change.
Chatham County Interim Sheriff Roy Harris announced Wednesday that the
Chatham County Sheriff's Office is raising the bar higher than ever as they
vet four companies to provide healthcare to inmates. Corizon Health is also
bidding on this contract, like they've done every time they've had to renew
it in the last 23 years. The difference now is they must prove they can
meet these new standards that's been set by the county. "We had to
change our intake system, our forms, to more readily identify mental health
issues,” said Sheriff Harris. They were cited for several procedural
issues, including how they handled the death of an inmate. But after eight
months of audits, their accreditation has been reinstated. But Corizon's
contract ends later this year which means this is the county's chance to
revise what they expect from healthcare providers. "We are upping the
ante on this RFP because we are providing different parameters of people we
need in that jail,” said Sheriff Harris. Requiring more psychiatric nurses
so that one can be available at all times and allotting more time for a
doctor to be at the jail seeing patients. "We’re having several
suicide attempts a week. We have to put them on a special watch, which
means more staff is sitting there watching them. They have to be put in a
place under total camera surveillance,” said Sheriff Harris. He believes
being short staffed contributed to many of their issues and complaints over
the last couple of years. He's not looking to go back so he hopes to find a
group that will move forward with their new set of standards. A healthcare
group will be recommended in a couple of weeks and the county commission
will have to sign off on it.
Feb
1, 2015 PCWG watch
Family
members of a Chatham County jail inmate who died last year after spending
two weeks shackled to a hospital bed in a vegetative state are declaring
their intent to take legal action against Chatham County. Savannah attorney
Will Claiborne and the family of Matthew Loflin
say the 32-year-old man would have lived longer had he been taken from jail
to a hospital sooner, as he requested. In an ante litem notice submitted
Thursday, which is the first step toward filing a lawsuit against the
county, Claiborne alleges medical staff at the jail did not provide Loflin with adequate care when he was an inmate in
February, March and April of last year. Despite a doctor’s insistence that Loflin should be admitted to a hospital for treatment
of a heart condition, his supervisor at the private health care company that
services the jail would not approve the transfer, Claiborne said. “The lack
of care didn’t play a role in his death,” Claiborne said. “It caused his
death.” Loflin, who had been kept alive by a
ventilator for two weeks, died with his mother by his side April 24 at
Memorial University Medical Center, two days after a judge ordered him
released from custody. In the ante litem notice, Claiborne blames the
sheriff’s office, the county and Corizon Health Inc., the private health
care company at the jail, with Loflin’s death.
The notice, which was sent to the sheriff, the county commission chairman
and the county manager, states that Claiborne’s office and Loflin’s family are estimating damages of about $15
million. Loflin had been arrested by sheriff’s
deputies on a drug charge Feb. 6. From that time until he arrived at
Memorial on April 7, Claiborne said Loflin made
repeated requests to be taken to a hospital and that some medical staff at
the jail did not act on his symptoms of congestive heart failure. “While
state and federal privacy laws prohibit us from discussing the details of
an individual’s care or medical condition, we know many of the allegations
made in the letter are untrue,” said a Corizon spokesperson Friday in an
emailed statement. The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office deferred comment to
county attorney Jon Hart, who said Friday that his office is reviewing the
ante litem notice. Among the allegations raised in the ante litem notice:
•
No medical action was taken at the jail after an ECG showed results
consistent with congestive heart failure.
•
A nurse scheduled Loflin for a mental health
evaluation rather than a medical evaluation.
•
Despite an elevated heart rate, swollen feet, “coughing up blood” and an
X-ray that showed an enlarged heart and pneumonia, no medical action was
taken.
•
A doctor determined Loflin needed to be
hospitalized, but the regional medical director in Florida overruled him,
only allowing Loflin to receive an outpatient ECG
that further showed results consistent with a diagnosis of congestive heart
failure.
•
The regional medical director once again refused to allow the doctor at the
jail to send Loflin to the hospital after being
advised of the outpatient ECG results.
•
Every day from March 28-April 7, the jail doctor, a physician assistant and
a registered nurse told their supervisor at the jail that Loflin needed to be admitted to a hospital but did not
intervene.
•
Before Jan. 1, 2014, the jail doctor would have been able to send Loflin to a hospital without the regional director’s
approval, but Corizon changed its policies to require a supervisor’s OK “in
an effort to save money.”
In
medical records sent with the ante litem notice, nurses noted on several
occasions that while treating Loflin, they noted
no irregularities or acute distress, although he complained of chest pains.
Corizon
did not directly answer a question about whether there were times when
physicians at the jail would have to get approval to send a patient to a
hospital. “Across Corizon Health, safety protocols are informed by an
evidence-based medical plan,” the spokesperson said via email. “In
emergency situations, on-site physicians at Chatham County jail have
unfettered authority to refer a patient for hospital care.” The jail doctor
got approval to send Loflin to a cardiologist for
consultation April 7, but he called the specialist and informed him the
incoming patient needed hospitalization, Claiborne said. In a death summary
attached to the ante litem letter, the cardiologist noted that Loflin coughed up blood in his office and appeared to
be in congestive heart failure. He sent Loflin to
Memorial’s emergency room, where he coded several times, according to the
letter. He remained at Memorial in a vegetative state until April 24, his
mother and stepfather, Belinda and Joe Maley,
said last year. The doctor and the two other medical staffers at the jail
who reportedly told their supervisor Loflin needed
to be hospitalized sued Corizon last year, claiming the company fired them
in retaliation for reporting perceived lack-of-care issues to the sheriff
and chief deputy. That lawsuit was filed by Claiborne and another local
attorney last fall in Chatham County Superior Court.
Cheyenne Mountain
Reentry Center
Jan 8, 2020 cpr.org
Private Prison To Close Colorado Springs Facility, Forcing The State To
Reopen A Shuttered Prison To Rehouse 650 Inmates
Colorado’s
Department of Corrections is preparing to find new beds for hundreds of
inmates after the private prison company GEO announced Tuesday it will
close its facility in Colorado Springs in two months. “Although we are
disappointed by (GEO’s) decision, we are confident that as a department we
will be able to manage the considerable impact of this change safely,” DOC
Executive Director Dean Williams said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. The
state has 60 days to relocate 650 inmates from GEO’s Cheyenne Mountain
Reentry Center. GEO’s move comes after Gov. Jared Polis announced in
November that he intended to close the private facility as part of his 2020
budget request. GEO Group spokesman Brian Miller said in an emailed
statement that the company has had challenges retaining and recruiting
staff at Cheyenne Mountain. “We will work with the DOC to develop a
transition plan and prioritize the health, safety and well-being of CMRC
staff and residents,” Miller said in the email. “The state has made its
intentions clear; that it wants to manage this population within its own
facilities, and we will work with them toward that end." Miller said
the Colorado Springs facility has 180 employees and GEO will work with its
staff on transition assistance. The state paints a different picture of its
interactions with the company. The DOC statement says state officials have
been in ongoing conversations with GEO regarding its “inability to provide
appropriate treatment, lack of offender programs, staffing level issues,
and turn-over rate.” Williams said he was surprised and disappointed in the
short notice GEO gave the state.
“While we had been maintaining regular communications with the GEO
Corporation regarding our serious concerns about their current operations
and the terms of our contract with them, we had simultaneously been
preparing for the very real concern that they would choose to rapidly close
the facility,” Williams said. To absorb the 650 inmates from Cheyenne
Mountain, the state wants to reopen its Centennial South prison in Cañon City to house higher-security inmates from other
Colorado facilities. Those inmates’ open beds would be filled by the
medium-custody inmates from the Colorado Springs facility. Centennial South was completed in 2010 to
hold inmates in solitary confinement but was closed two years later as
Colorado’s prison population declined and the
state moved away from using administrative segregation. The facility can
hold almost 1,000 inmates and has since been restructured to give inmates
more human contact. Williams said transferring 650 inmates is doable, but
it isn’t an ideal situation. He estimates 300 inmates will be double-bunked, or put on gymnasium or day room floors
temporarily. He said there is no other long-term solution besides
re-opening Centennial South. “There
is no other place to put 600-some prisoners,” he said. “I understand there
may be reluctance. There's some history about what that facility's about,
but I've tried to assure the legislature and others that no, no, no, that,
whatever that was built for, that's not how we're using it.” In October, Democratic lawmakers on a
task force studying the state’s prison population agreed to back a proposed
bill that would cut the number of inmates held in private prisons by almost
30 percent by moving them to Centennial South. That measure will be
introduced in the legislative session that starts Wednesday. Colorado has
three private prisons currently in operation, including the one in Colorado
Springs. The other two are in Bent and Crowley counties, a spokeswoman with
the DOC said.
Chillicothe Correctional Center
Livingston
County, Missouri
Nov 30, 2019
kansascity.com
Therapist sexually abused women at Missouri prison for years, lawsuit
says
A therapist who worked at a Missouri prison for women sexually abused
his patients for years and preyed on inmates with mental health issues,
according to a federal lawsuit. While the counselor, John Thomas Dunn, was
known by inmates as a “creep,” his criminal behavior at Chillicothe
Correctional Center did not end until he was arrested by an outside agency,
the lawsuit contends. The lawsuit was filed by 49-year-old Teresa Ketner,
who said she was sexually assaulted by Dunn while she was confined at the
state Department of Corrections facility for possession of a controlled
substance. There, she sought counseling to address her history of trauma
and hoped to secure a referral to a psychiatric professional. She was
assigned to Dunn, and became his victim, according to the lawsuit. She said
she still has nightmares. “It’s hell,” Ketner said in a phone interview
from her home in the Lake of the Ozarks area. “I hope these people have to
answer for what they’ve done.” The allegation was not the first against
Dunn. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with another prisoner.
The year after, another woman, Karen Backues
Keil, filed a lawsuit alleging Dunn began sexually assaulting her after she
was raped by a guard at the facility. As many as nine women have accused
Dunn of wrongdoing, whether officially or not, Ketner’s attorney, Brendan
Roediger, told The Star. Roediger said as far as he knows, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate sexual misconduct at
Chillicothe Correctional Center, which is about 90 miles northeast of
Kansas City. In February, the other woman suing Dunn was informed the U.S.
Department of Justice was investigating the possibility of federal criminal
charges. Ketner’s lawsuit names as defendants Dunn; Corizon Health Inc.,
which employed him and has a contract with Missouri prisons; and three
other people, including Dunn’s supervisor and a state employee who
investigated Ketner’s allegations. They had an obligation to work to
prevent inmates from being abused and failed to protect Ketner, according
to the lawsuit. Corizon Health and the Department of Corrections did not
respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday. Dunn could not be reached for
comment by phone and no one answered the door at his listed Kansas City
address. Dunn’s attorney has said he no longer works at the prison. The
federal lawsuit was the fifth filed since mid-2018 to allege sexual assault
at Chillicothe Correctional Center. Ketner was at the prison from 2013 to
February 2015. She sought counseling and medication for post-traumatic
stress disorder, depression and anxiety, but she was told she first had to
speak with a counselor and be given a referral, her lawsuit states. Dunn
was assigned as her counselor. He harassed her from the beginning, directly
asking her, according to the lawsuit: “Would you like to be molested?” and
laughed. The sexual abuse occurred in Dunn’s office, which had no cameras,
according to Ketner’s lawsuit. During sessions, he kept the door shut and
the shades pulled down, Ketner’s attorneys wrote in the suit. The
correctional center has historically placed inmates in solitary confinement,
cutting them off from visitation, when they reported Prison Rape
Elimination Act violations, according to the lawsuit. Ketner has been in
solitary, also known as the “hole,” before. It was cold and scary, she
said, so she didn’t report the alleged abuse. Ketner was released from the
correctional facility in 2015 and returned in 2016. She feared being
abused. She requested to see a mental health provider other than Dunn. When
Ketner came forward, her allegations were investigated by a corrections employee
who had no authority to investigate Prison Rape Elimination Act violations,
according to the lawsuit. He made sexually suggestive comments as he
interrogated Ketner, the suit says. That investigator threatened Ketner
with solitary and additional charges if she did not recant her story, her
attorneys said. The investigator, she told The Star, asked her: “Why would
he go after you when there’s young, beautiful women on this camp?” “Like
I’m too old and ugly to rape,” Ketner said. The investigator did not
substantiate Ketner’s complaint and Dunn was allowed to continue working at
Chillicothe Correctional Center, according to the lawsuit. After Dunn was
arrested in 2017, another investigator reviewed previous probes of
allegations against Dunn. The new investigator substantiated Ketner’s claim
and determined the other employee “acted outside his scope of duty,” the
suit says. Ketner said she hopes her lawsuit lets other women know they can
come forward. She wants Dunn to never work at a women’s facility again.
“Mr. Dunn shouldn’t be a counselor, period,” Ketner said. “He shouldn’t
counsel animals.”
Jun 16, 2018 kttn.com
Former Corizon employee at Chillicothe Correctional Center pleads guilty
to sexual conduct with a prisoner
A former employee of a company contracted for services at the
Chillicothe Correctional Center, who previously pleaded guilty to felony
sexual conduct with a prisoner, appeared in Livingston County Circuit Court
Tuesday. Online court information shows John Thomas Dunn of Kansas City, Missouri
was sentenced to a facility to be determined by the Missouri Department of
Corrections and Human Resources for four years, which was to run
concurrently with all other sentences. Execution of sentence was suspended,
and Dunn was placed on probation for five years under the supervision of
the Missouri State Board of Probation and Parole. He was ordered to serve
120 days of shock detention with credit given for time served. Judgment
against Dunn was in the sum of $10 for the Crime Victim’s Compensation
Fund, and his home plan was approved. A spokesperson for the Missouri
Department of Corrections previously reported Dunn was an employee of
Corizon Health at the time of the incident in September 2017. A former
inmate filed a suit in the Western District federal court of Kansas City in
May against Dunn and corrections officer Edward Bearden accusing them of
rape and sexual abuse. According to the lawsuit in federal court, Dunn
began sexually assaulting the victim after she told him Bearden raped her.
Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, Burlington, Vermont
September 2, 2010 Burlington Free
Press
A prison rights group's efforts to force disclosure of information from a government
contractor is a critical effort to keep public records open as state
government increasingly looks to privatize services to save money. Prison
Legal News -- a magazine and organization promoting prisoners
rights -- is arguing that a company formerly known as Prison Health
Services that provides health care services in Vermont prisons is subject
to the state's public records law. Prison Legal News editor Paul Wright got
it right when he told The Associated Press that the state "cannot
contract out the public's fundamental right to know how their tax dollars
are being spent and the quality of services the pubic
is getting for its money." If there is any ambiguity about the reach
of open government laws when government functions are contracted out to
private firms, then the Legislature must make erasing that ambiguity a
priority in the next session. Vermont's open government laws are so full of
exemptions and so lacking in consequences for the offender as to render
them largely meaningless. The least the Legislature can do is to make sure
the public's already limited ability to keep government accountable isn't
shut down by privatization. Around the country, private contractors are
being hired by state and local governments in search of savings. There is
no reason the reach of open government laws should stop simply because
government functions paid for with tax dollars are in the hands of private
companies. If private companies want to profit by performing government
functions, then they should expect to held
accountable by taxpayers who will be paying the bills. The principle must
be that any government meeting or information that would be open to the
public must remain so even if the function has been transferred outside of
government. Otherwise, government officials could erect a wall of secrecy
simply by outsourcing anything they might be hard pressed to explain to the
public. People have a right to know what their government is up to, and
access is the first step in keeping government accountable. The
responsibility to deliver information to the public rests with the elected
officials and civil servants. That responsibility is undiminished even if
government functions are privatized. Advocating for open government will
require a shift in culture for a Legislature more prone to seeking
exclusions and exceptions to the open government laws to every interest
that comes along. This is a change that must happen at the polls in
November by extracting a pledge of open access and accountability from
every candidate.
August
26, 2010 Serious News
Here's a fascinating lawsuit that will test the legal boundaries of
Vermont's public-records statute. Prison Legal News (PLN), a
Brattleboro-based nonprofit that publishes the nation's largest jailhouse
newspaper, filed suit today against PHS Correctional Healthcare — formerly
known as Prison Health Services — seeking documents related to the August
2009 death of a female inmate at Northwest State Correctional Facility in
St. Albans. Until last year, PHS, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based private
corporation, was contracted by the state to provide medical services to
inmates in all of Vermont prisons. On August 16, 2009, Ashley Ellis, a
23-year-old Rutland woman who suffered from anorexia and was serving a
30-day sentence, was found unresponsive in her cell and later pronounced
dead. The state's chief medical examiner determined that a contributing
factor in her death was the "denial of access to medication" by
the prison's medical staff. Ellis' family eventually settled its lawsuit
with PHS for an undisclosed sum. Late last year, the Vermont Department of
Corrections decided not to renew the company's five-year contract when it
expired in January. According to a PLN press release issued today, the
Brattleboro nonprofit submitted a formal document request to PHS
Correctional Healthcare under Vermont's open-records law, seeking
"copies of the company’s contracts with government agencies in
Vermont; records related to settlements and judgments that PHS had paid as
a result of lawsuits and civil claims; and documents concerning costs
incurred by PHS to defend against claims or suits." PHS Correctional
Services subsequently denied that request, claiming that, as a private
company, it wasn't subject to Vermont's public-records law. However, in a
complaint filed in Vermont Superior Court, PLN contends that the prison
health provider served as the "functional equivalent" of a state
agency, as it provided a service that would otherwise be delivered by the
state. According to PLN Editor Paul Wright, this "functional
equivalency" standard has been successfully applied to private
corporations providing similar services in other states. “The state can
outsource public functions and services such as health care for prisoners,”
Wright said, in a statement, “but it cannot contract out the public’s
fundamental right to know how their tax dollars are being spent and the
quality of services the public is getting for its money.” Wright also
questioned “why PHS refuses to release records that state agencies would
have to produce if the state were providing prison medical care.”
May
28, 2010 Rutland Herald
A watchdog group charged with safeguarding the rights of the disabled
released a report Thursday that cites a number of systematic failures that
led to the death of a Vermont inmate last year. Disability Rights Vermont's
23-page report about the death of Ashley Ellis found that miscommunications
between the Department of Corrections and Prison Health Services — the
private company contracted to provide health care in the state's prisons at
the time of Ellis' death — along with other breakdowns in the system of
care led to the 23-year-old's death from a combination of
hypokalemic-induced cardiac arrhythmia due to anorexia/bulimia nervosa and
denial of medications to boost her potassium levels. The report also
includes a number of recommendations to prevent similar deaths, including
improving the identification of inmates in need of medical treatment for
substance withdrawal, assuring that important medical information is
received and verified promptly by prison health staff and assuring that
qualified nursing staff are available at all shifts, including weekends.
December
29, 2007 Rutland Herald
The proposed settlement in a wrongful death suit against the state has been
sealed. Earlier this month, attorneys for the estate of the late Robert
Nichols of Brandon filed a motion to seal an order for the distribution of
settlement proceeds and related documents. The papers will remain sealed at
least until Rutland Superior Court holds a hearing on the motion, according
to a court clerk. Robert "Bones" Nichols, a meat cutter who
worked at his family's slaughterhouse, died in 2005 at age 44 while at the
Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. He was
undergoing a severe case of heroin withdrawal and a later report by a
statewide advocacy group said his death could have been prevented. His
widow, Eva Nichols, filed a lawsuit in 2006 against the state and against
Prison Health Services, Inc., a company contracted to provide medical
services in the Vermont prison system shortly before Nichols died. Eva
Nichols was acting as administrator of her husband's estate. The lawsuit
sought unspecified damages. The documents were sealed because of a
confidentiality agreement between the plaintiff and Prison Health Services
that is part of the proposed settlement. Attorney Devin McLaughlin, who
represents the plaintiff, could not be reached for comment Friday. Samuel
Hoar, the attorney for Prison Health Services, said that the motion was
necessary because wrongful death suits require a court order on the
distribution of settlement money and the parties cannot just mutually
dismiss the case like in other types of lawsuits.
September
13, 2007 Rutland Herald
A settlement has been reached in a civil lawsuit against the state filed by
the family of a Brandon man who died in a South Burlington jail while
suffering from severe heroin withdrawal, according to court records.
Paperwork indicating that the lawsuit brought on behalf of the estate of
the late Robert Nichols has been resolved was filed last week in Rutland
Superior Court. The documents do not state a dollar amount of the
settlement, only that a resolution of the case was reached following a
mediation session involving the parties. Attorneys in the case said since
formal paperwork regarding the settlement hasn't yet been filed in court as
of Wednesday, they could not disclose details of the resolution.
"Unfortunately I can't really comment at this point in time because it
hasn't been finalized," Assistant State Attorney David Groff, said.
"When that happens there will be a stipulation of the parties and I'll
be able to comment at that time." Peter Langrock,
a Middlebury attorney representing the Nichols' family, said he could not
yet talk about the settlement amount either. "I can tell you that we
settled and at this point it's for an undisclosed sum," Langrock said. The lawsuit was filed in October 2006 on
the behalf of Nichols' estate, which is administered by his wife, Eva
Nichols. Nichols died in February 2005 while in the Chittenden Regional
Correctional Facility in South Burlington. The lawsuit named the state of
Vermont as a defendant as well as Prison Health Services, a company that
had been contracted to provide medical services in Vermont's prisons
shortly before Nichols' death. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages.
According to court records, Nichols, 44, was arrested Feb. 3, 2005, on
federal firearms charges and the next morning he was taken to the South Burlington
jail before being taken to federal court. However, he was deemed too ill to
go before a judge and later that night, he saw a nurse from Prison Health
Services, the lawsuit said. "This was approximately 16 hours after
first arriving at the facility with obvious withdrawal symptoms. Mr.
Nichols was not seen by a doctor or referred to an outside facility,"
according to the lawsuit. "Rather, he was returned to his cell after
apparent administration of some medication. He was not sent to a medical
bed or facility." Nichols told the nurse that he had vomited three
times and had a fever and tremors. Fifteen-minute checks were ordered. In
the response to the lawsuit, the state acknowledged that not all the checks
were done properly. "The state admits that Mr. Nichols was placed on
15-minute checks, but was not observed on a continuous, uninterrupted
basis," the response stated. "The state further admits that some
checks did not comply with the standards and practices demanded by the
state." Nichols was found dead just before 6 a.m. the next morning. In
June 2005, Vermont Protection & Advocacy issued a report stating that
Nichols' death at the jail could have been prevented if the staff had
provided better medical care. The advocacy group stated corrections officials
knew Nichols was sick when he arrived at the jail, but did not properly
monitor his condition. "Had they taken a more active role in assuring
he was receiving adequate medical care and follow up, this tragedy may have
been avoided," the advocacy group's report stated.
October
9, 2006 Rutland Herald
The family of a Brandon man, who died in a jail more than a year ago, is
suing the state, claiming that while he was suffering from severe heroin
withdrawal, he failed to get necessary medical care while behind bars. The
lawsuit was filed last week in Rutland Superior Court on behalf of the late
Robert Nichols' estate, which is administered by his wife, Eva Nichols.
Robert Nichols died Feb. 5, 2005, while in the Chittenden Regional
Correctional Facility in South Burlington. The lawsuit names as defendants
not only the state of Vermont, but Prison Health Services, a company that
had been contracted to provide medical services in the Vermont's prisons
shortly before Nichols' death. The lawsuit alleges proper procedures were
not followed for Nichols, an inmate experiencing withdrawal symptoms from
the use of heroin at the time of his incarceration. The lawsuit seeks
unspecified damages. According to the lawsuit, Nichols was arrested on Feb.
3, 2005, on federal firearms charges, and on Feb. 4 at about 3:30 a.m.,
agents from the federal Department of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms
brought Nichols to the South Burlington jail, where he was lodged as a
federal detainee. "Mr. Nichols reported that he was suffering from heroin
withdrawal, and that he had ingested eighty (80) bags of heroin within
three days of being incarcerated," the lawsuit stated. "He was
not given immediate medical attention." At about 9 a.m. on Feb. 4,
Nichols was transported to federal court in Burlington, but because of the
severity of his withdrawal symptoms, he could not appear before the judge
and was taken back to the South Burlington jail around 1:30 p.m., according
to the lawsuit. "Again, Mr. Nichols received no immediate medical
treatment," the lawsuit stated. "The U.S. Marshals reported the
severity of Mr. Nichols' symptoms to (the South Burlington jail)." The
first medical treatment Nichols received at the jail was more than five
hours later, at about 7:15 p.m. of Feb. 4, when he was seen by a nurse from
Prison Health Services, the lawsuit stated. "This was approximately 16
hours after first arriving at the facility with obvious withdrawal
symptoms. Mr. Nichols was not seen by a doctor or referred to an outside
facility," according to the lawsuit. "Rather, he was returned to
his cell after apparent administration of some medication. He was not sent
to a medical bed or facility." Nichols had reported to the nurse that
he had vomited three times that evening and had a fever and tremors, the
lawsuit stated. Fifteen-minute checks were ordered on Nichols, who had been
returned to a cell. "However, these checks were either not conducted
in whole or in part or were so cursory a fashion as to not constitute
meaningful observation," and Nichols continued to vomit in his cell,
the lawsuit stated. The next morning, at 5:54 a.m., when a correctional
officer opened the cell door to bring in breakfast, Nichols was found dead,
and he appeared to have been deceased for about an hour. The lawsuit stated
that state Department of Corrections employees, as well as employees of
Prison Health Services, violated Nichols' rights "by their deliberate
indifference to Mr. Nichols' serious medical needs, as they knew of and
disregarded excessive risk to Mr. Nichols though gross incompetence and
grossly inadequate treatment and supervision." In June 2005, a
statewide advocacy group issued a report looking into Nichols' death. The
report stated that Nichols' death could have been avoided if he had
received better medical care. Vermont Protection & Advocacy reported
that the state Department of Corrections knew Nichols had been sick when he
came into the jail, but did not properly monitor him.
August
11, 2006 Burlington Free Press
The parents of an inmate who committed suicide in his cell in 2004 have
sued the state Corrections Department, alleging that prison workers knew
their son was thinking of killing himself but did not act to prevent his
death. Ryan Rodriguez, 24, was found hanging in his cell Oct. 19, 2004 at
the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. He died
at Fletcher Allen Health Care four days later after his parents had him
removed from life support. Court documents show he had been in jail for 15
months awaiting trial on charges he mistreated a toddler he was caring for
at a Burlington motel. Rodriguez, from New Mexico, was visiting friends in
Burlington at the time of his arrest. Rodriguez's death occurred six months
after an independent study examined seven inmate deaths in an 18-month stretch,
including two by suicide. The study found evidence the Corrections
Department had mishandled inmates with mental health issues. "We had
no idea Ryan was being treated so badly," Ryan Rodriguez's mother,
Carol, said during a telephone interview last week from Tucson, Ariz.,
where she and her husband, Joe Rodriguez, live. "When Joe got there
after Ryan's suicide, one of the guards told him to seek legal help. He
said, 'This has happened previously here.'" The Rodriguezes
allege in their lawsuit that four times during their son's 15 months in
jail awaiting trial, he told Corrections officers he was thinking of
hurting or killing himself but was never referred to mental health workers
for help. The case, filed in federal court in Burlington, lists as defendants
the Corrections Department, three of its employees and Correctional Medical
Services, the department's medical care contractor at the time.
June 23, 2005 Rutland Herald
An advocacy group claims the death of a prison inmate suffering from heroin
withdrawal could have been prevented if staff had provided better medical
care. Vermont Protection &
Advocacy said Friday that the Corrections Department knew Robert Nichols
was sick when he arrived at jail but failed to adequately monitor his
condition. "Had they taken a more active role in assuring he was
receiving adequate medical care and follow- up this tragedy may have been
avoided," Vermont Protection & Advocacy said in its report
released Friday. The advocacy group claims procedures were not
followed for inmates experiencing drug withdrawal symptoms or undergoing
detoxification. The records show Nichols was seen by a
nurse 14 hours after he lodged at the prison when Corrections policy
require that inmates who are suffering from drug withdrawal be reported to
medical staff for evaluation, the report said. The report also questioned whether prison
guards checked on Nichols throughout the night. The report also raises
concerns about Prison Health Services, who was contracted to provide
medical services in the state's prisons a week before Nichols' death. Among the recommendations, the report
advises the state to monitor the care provided by Prison Health Services
and makes sure staff follow policies and are trained to recognize behaviors
that are potentially life threatening. The group also recommends that the
Corrections Department provide an apology and financial settlement to
Nichols' family. Nichols death follows a spate of seven inmate
deaths, including two suicides, over an 18-month period that ended in late
2003. An outside investigation concluded that state actions and policies
were partly to blame for the deaths of some of the seven people who have
died in state custody.
Clarke County Jail, Athens, Georgia
December 6, 2004 Athens
Banner Herald
The denial of medical care to a Clarke County Jail prisoner who later died
from a heart attack was tantamount to the woman being "punished by
death on a misdemeanor charge," according to a lawsuit filed by her
husband in Clarke County Superior Court. In the lawsuit, Muscogee County resident Stephan Lamar Hubbard
Jr. claims his wife, 40-year-old Laverne Rose Hubbard, died two years ago
after repeatedly pleading for jail personnel to take her to the hospital
because she was suffering with chest pain. In the lawsuit, however, Clarke
County Sheriff Ira Edwards, Athens-Clarke County and the jail's contracted
health care provider, Tennessee-based Prison Health Systems Inc., are all
alleged to have been negligent in the training of jail personnel on proper
emergency medical response and treatment procedures. Eight hours after arriving at the jail, the
lawsuit states, Mrs. Hubbard was taken to the hospital after being found
unconscious on the floor of her cell. "Mrs. Hubbard died of a heart
attack, which would have been avoided if (jail personnel) had not denied
Mrs. Hubbard medical care," the lawsuit states. "(Their medical)
policy violated contemporary standards of decency."
Clark County Detention Center, Clark, Nevada
Just as they were due to
present their case, trial attorneys for Prison Health Services and Metro
Police settled a civil rights lawsuit filed by the estate of a Las Vegas
man who allegedly died from the denial of his AIDS medication while in the
Clark County Detention Center. The undisclosed settlement was agreed to
Friday before U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt. The ACLU and Robert Langford
acted as joint counsel on the case that centered on Karl Robert Kurfis' death...Langford told the jury that Dr. Harvey
Hoffman, the jail's medical director, discontinued Kurfis'
medication soon after he was booked into the jail, and in a deposition Kurfis testified that Hoffman told him that he didn't
deserve his medication because he was a drug addict. (Las Vegas Sun, May 10,
2004)
The death of Karl Robert Kurfis was caused by the
denial of his HIV medication while in the Clark County Detention Center,
attorney Robert Langford said during opening arguments in a federal trial
Monday. A lawsuit originally filed on Kurfis'
behalf and now listing his mother as the plaintiff seeks $10 million in
punitive damages from Metro Police and Prison Health Services Inc., the
medical contractor for the Clark County Detention Center. "Karl Kurfis died because of a system that does not care
about the detainees who arrive and get sick at the Clark County Detention
Center," Langford said. "This trial is about a system that isn't
working. A system that does not provide medical care to citizens when they
are detained at the detention center." Bruce Alverson,
representing the defendants in the case, who also include former Sheriff
Jerry Keller and Dr. Harvey Hoffman, the jail's medical director, countered
that Kurfis did not die because of mistreatment
at the jail, but because of his own unwillingness to take his
medication. "The plaintiff refused to take his HIV
medication," Alverson said. "Why?
Because he abused methamphetamine and it has been shown that drug abusers
lack the responsibility to take care of themselves." Kurfis, 34, died on June 3, 2002, of a strain of
pneumonia that often attacks AIDS patients. Kurfis
had been arrested in February 2000 on a burglary charge, and was held until
September of that year. Kurfis only received his
HIV medication for 14 days during the incarceration, Langford said.
(Las Vegas Sun, May 4, 2004)
The family of a French citizen
who died in a videotaped struggle with Las Vegas jail guards has settled a
federal lawsuit against the jail's health care provider, according to a
relative and the American Civil Liberties Union. The undisclosed settlement
between the family of Philippe LeMenn, 33, and
Prison Health Services Inc., was the last of a series of civil lawsuits
stemming from LeMenn's death in January 2001.
(Reno Gazette-Journal, November 19, 2003)
Clarke
County Jail, Clark,
Washington
Donna Power says officers at the Clark County Jail abused her husband,
Gale, by failing to provide his medication for several days after he was
arrested. The Powers, who live on a 12-acre horse ranch in Brush
Prairie, have threatened to sue. They say Gale Power, 62, suffered elevated
blood pressure, headaches, shakes and difficulty walking as a result of not
getting his medicine. In recent years, several people have complained
of not being allowed to bring their meds into the jail, Sheriff Garry Lucas
said. The Columbian also has heard many such beefs from inmates and their
family members. Donna Power complained to Lucas on March 10.
For at least nine days while Gale Power was in custody in October and last
month, she said, he wasn't allowed his doctor-prescribed blood-pressure and
antidepressant medication. She said their attorney intervened, and
officials provided the drugs. Officials investigated the Powers' complaint
and determined that any delays were justified, said jail Chief Joe Dunegan. Since January 2001, the county's inmate
medical program has been operated by Prison Health Services, a Nashville,
Tenn., managed-care company. Now serving jails in 26 states, the company is
the largest provider of contracted inmate medical services in the United
States, a spokesman said. (Columbian, April 4, 2004)
Clackamas County
Jail
Oct 6, 2018 koin.com
2 inmate death lawsuits, same medical provider
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- The mother of a Clackamas County Jail inmate
who died in custody is suing the county and the contracted jail medical
provider -- the same medical provider being sued in the death of a
Washington County inmate. Tennessee-based Corizon Health provides medical
care for inmates at 26 jails in 13 states. They've been sued multiple times
across the country over the death of inmates. The lawsuit filed by the
mother of Bryan Perry against Clackamas County and Corizon Health said they
did not do more to help her son. In
November 2016, deputies took cell phone video and joked as Perry moved
uncontrollably in his padded cell, likely from a drug overdose. The lawsuit
claims 2 nurses only checked on Perry twice that night for a total of 5
minutes. He eventually went into cardiac arrest and died at the hospital.
He was 31. The lawsuit claims Corizon Health "has a nationwide pattern
and practice of failing to properly treat jail inmates experiencing drug or
alcohol overdose or withdrawal." The death of Madaline
Pitkin. About a year ago, KOIN 6 News reported about the disturbing death
of Madaline Pitkin while she was an inmate in
Washington County. Madaline Pitkin died in April 2014 while being held at
the Washington County Jail. Her parents filed a lawsuit against the county
on November 30, 2016 (Courtesy photo). Her family is also suing Corizon
Health. According to the lawsuit, in 2014 Pitkin made multiple requests for
help involving heroin withdrawal. She died in her jail cell. Corizon Health
failed to provide timely and complete medical care, her family said.
"I just can't imagine people that are so heartless," Mary Pitkin
told KOIN 6 News at that time. "They maybe don't view prisoners as
people. I don't know." Washington County changed medical providers in
2015. The Clackamas County Jail is currently the only jail in Oregon where
Corizon Health operates. The deputies involved in the cell phone video of
Bryan Perry are employed by the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, not
Corizon Health. Sheriff Craig Roberts said he took disciplinary action
against those employees who still worked there. In a statement to KOIN 6
News, Corizon Health officials said: Corizon Health is first and foremost a
healthcare company with doctors and nurses dedicated to working in a
challenging setting to provide care that follows medical guidelines and
meets national standards of care. Due to patient privacy and active
litigation, we are unable to comment on this individual case, but we
believe it is important to note that Corizon employees were not involved in
videotaping Mr. Perry and the comments on the tape are not those of any
Corizon Health employee.
Collier County Jail,
Naples, Florida
November 13, 2010 Naples Daily News
A 24-year-old woman who lost her baby while she was an inmate at the
Collier County jail has sued the sheriff and the jail’s medical provider,
alleging they violated her civil rights by denying her necessary medical
treatment. Joan Small, a former Bonita Springs woman now known as Joan
Graeber, is suing Tennessee-based Prison Health Services and Collier County
Sheriff Kevin Rambosk after suffering pregnancy
complications that led to her baby’s death. Prison Health Services is the
target of pending lawsuits in Collier and Lee counties — and nationally —
involving denial of medical care in jails. Publicity over baby Elena’s
death in February 2009 ended in other pregnant inmates with complications
getting released in the weeks afterward. The lawsuit was filed this month
in Collier Circuit Court by Naples attorneys Sharon Hanlon and Ted Zelman.
It’s been assigned to Judge Cynthia Pivacek.
Hanlon declined comment.
February
4, 2010 Naples Daily News
Joan Laurel Graeber still cries when she thinks about the baby she and
her fiancé, Elias Guzman, lost while she was an inmate in the Collier
County Jail last year. The 23-year-old former Bonita Springs woman visits
Elena Laurel Guzman’s grave often and works from home because socializing
is still hard for her while she’s grieving. Today, it will have been a year
since they lost Elena, and the couple, who have since moved to New Jersey,
plan to get married soon. They’re also expecting another child, Julieta
Isabella. Because of the problems Graeber had with Elena’s dead fetus
remaining inside her for so long in the jail, her doctor is monitoring her
closely and their baby may be delivered by C-section early, possibly this
week. “Doctors have said she was in there too long and an infection had
started to develop,” said Graeber’s attorney, Sharon Hanlon of Naples.
Graeber said doctors don’t want to wait the full 40 weeks. “They’re just
really worried and don’t want the same thing to happen again,” Graeber
said. “But she’s very healthy. Because of Elena, I’ve had to go through so
many tests.” Graeber, who was jailed under her married name, Joan Laurel
Small, has since divorced Ken Enright Small, whom she blames for landing
her in jail when she was 22 and pregnant. She’d never been in trouble with
the law. “I wanted that name gone,” Graeber said, adding she filed for
divorce and pushed doctors to remove “Small” from her medical records.
“It’s his fault I was in this predicament.” In September 2007, Graeber
landed in jail when her estranged husband was stopped for a traffic
violation as he drove her to the bus station. She was leaving him to return
to New Jersey. Small, who has a criminal record involving drugs and
domestic violence, asked her to hold $30 of crack in her purse, according
to arrest reports and Graeber, who said she told deputies it was his. But
it was too late. She was jailed. Because she had no record, she qualified
for pretrial release and in July 2008, she was sentenced to probation and
an adjudication of guilt was withheld. Because she relied on friends for
transportation, she was late returning from a class and her probation was
violated when she returned late one night, after curfew, and her probation
officer was waiting. On Dec. 22, 2008, eight weeks before her baby was due,
she was thrown in jail. About a month later, she was sentenced to six
months in jail with credit for 127 days. While behind bars, she experienced
pregnancy complications. Graeber told jail medical staff she had RH
negative blood and needed a RhoGAM shot to protect the baby, but she was
denied the recommended shot for weeks. Then she experienced a discharge and
asked to go to the emergency room. Graeber was told it was normal, to
monitor it. It continued for 1½ weeks and she kept medical staff apprised.
She also questioned why her baby appeared to be so small, but was told
nothing was wrong. On Feb. 3, 2008, she was scheduled to go to the health
department, just yards away from the jail, to have the shot and an ultrasound.
She planned to schedule delivery for Feb. 19, her release date. But the
doctor told her the baby was dead: The skull had collapsed because all
Graeber’s amniotic fluid had leaked out. Still, jail officials refused to
release her and scheduled removal of the baby for three days later. Knowing
a dead fetus could lead to infection or death, Graeber’s public defender,
Amy Shirvanipour, fought for her release the next
day. Circuit Judge Fred Hardt signed the order at 11:57 a.m. Feb. 4, ending
her sentence and granting immediate release due to her “grave condition.”
But jail officials didn’t release her until 3:10 p.m. and refused to let Shirvanipour drive her to the hospital, where she’d
scheduled a room. A deputy drove her. “I can’t believe they forced me to go
with them,” Graeber said. She and Guzman hired Hanlon before they moved to
New Jersey. The American Civil Liberties Union, which heard about her
plight and others’ detailed by the Daily News, demanded records from the
county jail to review its medical policies and others statewide. Other
mothers told the Daily News similar stories and one described having to
deliver her baby inside the jail as guards watched and joked. Two other
pregnant mothers were released by judges after their attorneys detailed
complications. “I anticipate filing a lawsuit against both parties in the
near future,” Hanlon said of the sheriff’s office and Tennessee-based
Prison Health Services, which provides medical care. Jail and sheriff’s
officials and PHS have defended their care, but declined comment.
March
1, 2009 Naples News
After an inmate lost her baby and two other pregnant inmates were
released due to complications, the American Civil Liberties Union of
Florida is asking the Collier County jail to disclose how many inmates
reported miscarriages or stillborn babies — and to detail its policies for
pregnancies in jail. The request, filed under the state public records law,
followed several reports in the Daily News about pregnant women’s
complaints about the jail’s medical provider, Prison Health Services,
including an inmate whose dead fetus was left inside her, inmates shackled
to hospital beds, and one who said her cries that she was in labor were
ignored so long that her baby was delivered inside the jail. Defense attorneys
quoted in the Daily News articles were contacted by Maria Kayanan, ACLU of Florida’s legal director. “The ACLU of
Florida is committed to ensuring pregnant women who are incarcerated get
the health care they need and that their constitutional rights are not
violated,” Brandon Hensler, spokesman for the
ACLU of Florida, said of its check on jails and prisons in Florida. The
ACLU request, sent to Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk
last week, also asks for the number of inmates who gave birth full-term and
prematurely; grievances filed by inmates involving pregnancy and
birth-related complaints about treatment or lack of treatment; how
grievances were handled; how many inmates sought prenatal care; and its
policies and procedures for testing pregnant inmates for gestational
diabetes and sexually-transmitted diseases. In addition, the ACLU sought
information that included the jail’s policies and procedures involving the
care of pregnant inmates; policies involving shackling inmates during
delivery; diet and nutritional guidelines, including prenatal vitamins;
whether educational information is provided; and information on providers
who treat pregnant inmates. Jail officials and a spokeswoman for
Tennessee-based Prison Health Services have defended their medical care. Hensler said the ACLU has been gathering information
from various sources throughout the state since December 2008 about
prenatal care provided to pregnant inmates in jails and prisons, but added
that it was too early to determine what the results will show.
February
14, 2009 Naples News
Joan Laurel Small and her boyfriend, Elias Guzman, flip through a
remembrance book showing photos of the baby girl they lost a week earlier
while Small was an inmate at the Collier County jail. There’s a photo of
baby Elena Laurel Guzman tucked in a blanket. Another page shows her small
handprints and footprints. And then there are sayings to allay grief: “This
child was wanted. This child was real. This child is loved.” “The minute
they showed her to me, I couldn’t stop crying,” Small said as she sat in a
Naples hotel Tuesday, a day after her release from The Birth Place at North
Naples Hospital. “She was so small and fragile. I held her hand. We kept
her in the room with us all day.” They’re still in shock. The couple
question why Prison Health Services, which provides medical services at the
jail, ignored Small’s complaints that she was leaking fluid for nearly two
weeks, ending in her baby dying. On Feb. 3, a doctor told her an ultrasound
showed there was no amniotic fluid and the baby’s skull had collapsed. The
22-year-old Bonita Springs woman’s miscarriage is bringing to light other
medical complaints against the Tennessee-based company contracted by the
jail, a firm targeted in lawsuits nationwide that have ended in millions of
dollars in settlements. The death of baby Elena also led to the release
this past week of a 27-year-old woman who is eight weeks pregnant and
developed gestational diabetes in jail. Her term was converted to house
arrest on Wednesday. “I want them to make changes,” Small said of hiring
lawyers to file a lawsuit. “I don’t want this to happen to other mothers.”
This week, Small and Guzman, her 2-year-old son Michael, and her parents,
Jennifer and Michael Graeber, will attend memorial services in New Jersey
for the baby, who was cremated by Fuller Funeral Home. Meanwhile, Small’s
attorneys, Sharon Hanlon and Ted Zelman of Naples, are gathering evidence
for a negligence and wrongful death lawsuit. An autopsy conducted by Dr.
Marta Coburn, Collier County’s chief medical examiner, showed the baby,
delivered at 9 1/2 months, was perfectly formed, but seriously underweight
at 1 pound, 11 ounces. Coburn said she believed the baby had been dead “a
little while” and sent the baby’s heart to a cardiac specialist for
analysis. Coburn told Small it was “possible” the baby could have been
saved. Small said the emergency room doctor, and her obstetrician, Dr.
Sanford Estes, believed she could have been saved if she’d been taken to an
emergency room as soon as she complained of a heavy discharge about two
weeks earlier. A forensic medical expert interviewed by the Daily News, Dr.
Gary Helmbrecht of Virginia, a member of the The American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists, called it an “appalling” case of neglect. He also said the
baby probably could have been saved if Small was was
taken to a hospital immediately after she began leaking amniotic fluid.
February
5, 2009 Naples News
It was a girl. Doctors removed the dead fetus from Joan Laurel Small on
Thursday, a day after her release from the Collier County jail. The
22-year-old mother cradled baby “Elena Laurel.” Nurses cut a lock of the
baby’s hair for a keepsake. “They cleaned her up and allowed her to hold
her,” said Small’s mother, Jennifer Graeber of New Jersey. “The hospital is
making her a little remembrance book. They’re putting in a lock of the
baby’s hair.” Graeber said when her daughter arrived at The Birth Place at
NCH North Naples Hospital, her blood-pressure had risen and she had a fever.
“That’s the beginning signs of septic shock,” Graeber said of leaving a
dead fetus inside a mother. Because the baby had been left in her womb more
than a day, she said, Small could not deliver the baby, but had to undergo
a C-section. Small, a Bonita Springs woman who is recovering at the
hospital, could not be reached for comment. Her boyfriend and the baby’s
father, Elias Guzman, 24, also could not be reached Thursday. Graeber said
her daughter is very depressed and probably will cremate the baby after an
autopsy is conducted. Small, who was housed in the jail’s medical unit,
learned her baby was dead Tuesday morning as she underwent an ultrasound to
determine the baby’s sex and to schedule delivery after her Feb. 19 release
from jail. Small, whose 40-week due date was Feb. 21, has said she’d
complained about a heavy discharge, which continued for 1 1/2 weeks, but
was told it was normal and to monitor it. She told the Daily News the
doctor who conducted the ultrasound Tuesday morning told her all her amniotic
fluid had leaked out, the baby’s skull collapsed and it had no heartbeat. A
day later, after she remained in jail with the dead fetus inside her,
Small’s public defender, Amy Shirvanipour, spoke
to Assistant State Attorney Rob Denny, who agreed to a stipulation to
modify her sentence to time-served and immediate release. They went to
Circuit Judge Fred Hardt, who immediately signed the stipulation. Three
hours later, Shirvanipour was still waiting to
take her to a hospital and then learned a deputy would take her. She was
released at 3:10 p.m. and Shirvanipour met her at
the hospital. When told of Small’s account, a nationally known medical
expert said the death could have been avoided if Small had been taken to a
hospital immediately after complaining of the discharge. Dr. Gary Helmbrecht, a member of the The
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, called it a case of
medical neglect and said the symptoms indicated a pre-term rupture of
membranes that required immediate hospitalization. Small said she’d also
requested a RhoGAM shot, which protects her baby from her RH negative
blood, but wasn’t given one until Tuesday. The shot is recommended between
28 and 30 weeks and she was jailed on her 30th week. She’d been held since
Dec. 22 after she violated probation by returning home after her nightly 10
p.m. curfew. Small said she’d been attending a parenting class in Naples
and couldn’t get a ride home; she has no car. Records show the probation
violation involved a 2007 drug charge; an adjudication of guilt was
withheld. It’s her only criminal conviction and records show it occurred
when she was caught with drugs in the car of her former husband, Ken
Enright Small, during a traffic stop; his record includes drug convictions.
Graeber, who said her daughter plans to sue, has contacted local attorneys
about the case. “I feel they were negligent in not taking her to the
emergency room when she asked for help and was leaking amniotic fluid,”
Graeber said, adding that she hoped a lawsuit would improve care at the
jail and help her daughter move on. Chief Scott Salley, who oversees the
jail, said Tennessee-based Prison Health Services, which operates the
medical unit, was reviewing what occurred, but said initial reviews show
medical and administrative policies were followed.
February
4, 2009 Naples Daily News
Joan Laurel Small looked forward to becoming a mother again. The
22-year-old Bonita Springs woman and her boyfriend, Elias Guzman, 24, had
even picked out names: Elena Laurel or Jeremiah Nathaniel. But instead of
going into labor, she landed in jail on a probation violation eight weeks
before her Feb. 21 due date. While in the Collier County jail, Small said
she began to experience complications — leaking amniotic fluid for 1 1/2
weeks. And instead of finding out the baby’s sex during an ultrasound
Tuesday, a doctor told her the baby had died. One expert, after being told
of Small’s account, said the fetal death could have been avoided. “This is
neglect,” said Dr. Gary Helmbrecht of Virginia, a
member of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists who
testifies as a fetal medical expert. “When they had the complaint of fluid
leaking, she should have been brought to a hospital.” “I see this over and
over again. How jails treat women, everybody,” said Helmbrecht,
chairman of the American Society of Addictive Medicine’s Committee on
Incarceration. “This is out of line, without regard for an innocent life. I
am shocked and appalled. It’s inexcusable.” More than 24 hours later, Still
remained in the jail — a dead fetus inside her. Collier County Sheriff’s
officials would not explain why they didn’t take her to a hospital to
deliver the fetus until 3:10 p.m. Wednesday — after her public defender
sought her release. “We are prohibited from answering that question,” said
Capt. Mike Hedberg, the Sheriff Office’s legal counsel. “We would run afoul
of HIPAA.” Hedberg was referring to the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act, which prohibits release of medical information without
a signed waiver from a patient. Chief Scott Salley, who oversees the jail,
said Tennessee-based Prison Health Services, which operates the medical
unit, is reviewing Small’s case. “Medically and administratively,
everything was followed by policy,” Salley said, adding that logs show she
was provided with “adequate” health care. “There was nothing out of the
ordinary about her ailment.” Helmbrecht, calling
it a full-term baby, disputed that, saying a dead baby in the third
trimester could seriously harm Small. “This baby should have been
delivered,” he said. “They’ve got enough liability on their hands. They
already have a dead baby. They could have a dead mother.” Small’s public
defender, Amy Shirvanipour, worked Wednesday
morning to get her released. “I couldn’t sleep last night,” Shirvanipour said. “I told my husband I was
heartbroken. I woke up this morning and knew I had to do something.”
September
14, 2006 Naples News
An East Naples woman suffering from what her attorneys describe as a
severely painful condition in her hip has filed a lawsuit asking a federal
judge to force the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to allow her to leave
jail for surgery and rehabilitation. Patricia Ann Farrell, 41, of 4760 Pine
St., is serving a five-month jail sentence for second-offense drunken
driving. Farrell has osteoarthritis in her hip, a painful, degenerative
condition caused by broken-down cartilage that results in the bones of the
joint rubbing together. Farrell had scheduled a hip-replacement surgery for
Aug. 23 and had received permission from jail officials before she began
serving her sentence, her Naples attorney, Michael McDonnell, said. But
Deputy Joseph Bastys, one of the officials who’s
in charge of jail operations, refused to allow her to have the surgery.
“Defendant Bastys, in response to an inquiry by
plaintiff’s defense counsel’s office, advised that (Farrell) would not be
allowed to attend the surgery after all because the procedure she was
scheduled to undergo was elec- tive,” according to the lawsuit, filed Sept. 5 in U.S.
District Court in Fort Myers. Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kristin Adams
said Wednesday she couldn’t comment on the case because it’s pending
litigation. McDonnell said the surgery isn’t elective. He pointed to an
affidavit from Farrell’s doctor, Howard J. Kapp, that says the surgery is
necessary and would relieve her pain. She needs several days for the
surgery and recovery and about three weeks in a rehabilitation hospital
afterward, McDonnell said. She has been receiving only Tylenol, not her prescription
pain medicine, while in the jail, according to the lawsuit, which also
names Sheriff Don Hunter and Prison Health Services Inc., a private company
that administers health care to inmates.
Coxsackie
Correctional Facility
New York
Dec 15, 2020
hudsonvalley360.com
DA: Contract nurse
at Coxsackie Correctional charged with rape
COXSACKIE — A
certified nursing assistant contracted to work at Coxsackie Correctional
Facility was arrested late afternoon Friday on felony sex charges, state
police Public Information Officer Steven Nevel
said Monday. Amber M. VanValkenburgh, 35, of
Albany, was arrested by state police and charged with third-degree rape of
a victim incapable of consent, and third-degree criminal sex act with a
victim incapable of consent, both class E felonies; and official
misconduct, a class A misdemeanor, Nevel said.
The alleged offenses took place during the period of 2018-19 and involved
more than one male inmate, Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione said Monday. Stanzione
did not immediately know the exact number of inmates involved in the case.
By law, a person incarcerated in prison is incapable of giving consent to
sexual contact, Stanzione said. VanValkenburgh was a contract nurse and not an employee
of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Thomas Mailey, director of public information for the
department, said Monday. VanValkenburgh is a
certified nursing assistant employed by Corizon Correctional Healthcare in
Brentwood, Tennessee, Stanzione said. Eve
Hutcherson, director of corporate communications and marketing for Corizon,
identified VanValkenburgh as a former employee
but would not comment further. “Corizon doesn’t comment on former
employees,” Hutcherson said Monday. Corizon has been operating the 60-bed
Coxsackie Regional Medical Unit at the maximum-security correctional
facility since 1998, according to the company’s website. Corizon’s
agreement with Coxsackie Correctional Facility was extended in 2017 to run
from April 2017 through March 2022, at a cost of $29,926,678, according to
the DOCCS website. The medical unit provides care to incarcerated
individuals who do not require inpatient hospital care,
but require medical care beyond what is available in a correctional
infirmary, according to DOCCS. The department will hold anyone committing
offenses inside one of its facilities accountable, Mailey
said. “Our department has zero tolerance for any individual working in our
facilities who does not follow protocols, or worse, commits a criminal
act,” Mailey said. “Anyone found to have
committed a crime inside a DOCCS facility will be held accountable and
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Mailey
said. The department declined further comment, citing the ongoing
investigation, Mailey said. The investigation
that led to Friday’s arrest lasted approximately one year, Stanzione said. Following her arrest, VanValkenburgh was given appearance tickets by state
police for Coxsackie Town Court on March 1, at 4 p.m., Nevel
said.
Cumberland County Jail
Corizon, New Jersey
Oct 8, 2016 nj.com
4th lawsuit filed against Cumberland County Jail over inmate hanging
death
BRIDGETON — A fourth lawsuit has been filed against the Cumberland
County Jail over someone who died while imprisoned. The federal lawsuit,
filed on Oct. 5, involved the June 3 death of Jon Watson, who was found
hanging in his jail cell. Watson's was the fourth death that has occurred
in the Cumberland County Jail since 2014. The suit seeks a judgment
exceeding $1 million. The lawsuit alleges that the Cumberland County Jail
failed to properly monitor Watson or screen him for suicidal tendencies.
Also named in the lawsuit is Corizon Health, the health care provider for
the jail. "I am hoping that through our efforts, there will be a
review of the circumstances surrounding Jon's death and an immediate
investigating into the warden and the procedures that are in place,"
said Helen Lloyd, Watson's fiancé, in a statement released by
Philadelphia-based attorney Conrad Benedetto. Watson, 43, of Bridgeton, was
being held in Cumberland County Jail on charges of eluding police,
resisting arrest and driving while suspended. On June 3, he was just
returned to his cell after appearing in Cumberland County Superior Court
and then found unresponsive in his cell around noon. He was pronounced dead
at 12:30 p.m. According to Ted Baker, Cumberland County solicitor, Watson
was on suicide watch while incarcerated but was taken off of suicide watch
by medical staff. "We relied on our medical professionals who made a
medical judgment that he was OK and didn't pose a threat to himself so he
was returned to the general population," Baker said Cumberland County
officials arrested 21 people in an investigation into a drug and gun
trafficking ring. Benedetto's office represents three other families in
separate lawsuits against the Cumberland County Jail. David Hennis, 31, of Vineland, was arrested on July 22, 2014,
for violating a court order, aggravated assault and weapons charges. He was
taken to the jail infirmary after banging his head against his cell door
and then later found hanging in the infirmary holding cell. Alissa Allen,
24, of Millville, was arrested on March 22, 2015, after a traffic stop for
an outstanding warrant, drug possession and for not wearing a seatbelt. She
was held in the jail in lieu of $728 bail and was found the next morning
hanging in her cell. Robert Lewis was arrested on Oct. 26, 2015, for
robbery and was found a few days later hanging in the showers at the jail.
Curran-Fromhold Prison, Pennsylvania
May 10, 2006 Philadelphia Weekly
A new federal civil rights lawsuit alleges mistreatment of a Curran-Fromhold prison inmate that culminated in a brutal
rape. Attorney Rich Ostriak of the law firm Ostriak Birley filed the suit last week in U.S.
District Court, demanding unspecified damages on behalf of inmate Thomas
Moore, who entered the Philadelphia prison system in January 2005, awaiting
trial on robbery charges, and fought with a pair of inmates over use of the
phone on his first day there. Moore was transferred to restrictive
confinement, otherwise known as "the hole," where his complaints
about severe pain and difficulty breathing were ignored for almost three
days before he was taken to the infirmary. On June 20 he was transferred to
Frankford Hospital to receive coronary angioplasty and an arterial stent.
The suit alleges Prison Health Services failed to deliver his required
heart medications for five days after he returned to jail.
Three suicides in a month,
mentally ill patients being drugged senseless, filthy treatment rooms,
staffing shortages, management systems unable to cope. Those are just some
of the medical problems two consultants have found within the city's prison
health-care system, according to secret reports obtained by the Daily News.
It is a system operated by a Tennessee conglomerate that the city pays $25
million a year. The city's contractor, Prison Health Services, a subsidiary
of American Service Group Inc., freely admits it's losing money in
Philadelphia, but insists the quality of care has not dipped. (Daily News,
August 16, 2001)
When Kyle York, 20, showed up at the Philadelphia prisons, his life was in
utter shambles. After ingesting PCP on New Year's Eve last year, he'd gone
into a hallucinatory rage, shooting his mother, shooting at his father and
inflicting a grazing wound to himself. Less than three months later he was
dead. And Blake Berenbaum, the attorney hired by
York's parents, is trying to learn what happened to the troubled young man.
Was he beaten to death by prison guards? Given too many injections of
sedatives by prison physicians? Was it a combination of the two? Or did he
meet his fate by some unknown means? Prison spokesman Bob Eskind said York had been under "four-point
restraint," meaning that four guards each took a limb. Both Eskind and Berenbaum said a
PHS doctor had given York a dose of Ativan, a sedative. Berenbaum
identified the physician as Benjamin Caoile. Put
into an infirmary bed, York was still combative, Berenbaum
said. At that point Caoile left York and the
guards in the room. Berenbaum said records show
that the doctor ordered the nurse to give York "another"
injection of Haldol and Benadryl, both sedatives. To Berenbaum,
that suggests there were earlier and unrecorded doses of those drugs. When Caoile returned about 15 minutes later, York was in an
unresponsive state and emergency measures were started. York never regained
consciousness and died on March 14. (Daily News, August 16, 2001)
Dane County Jail, Dane, Wisconsin
December 6, 2007 Wisconsin State
Journal
Dane County 's new contract for jail health services will cost the
county about $600,000 more a year than its current agreement, but county
officials say mental health services should improve. The proposed $4.4 million-a-year
contract with Nashville-based Correct Care Solutions must win approval from
the Dane County Board tonight before it is sent to Dane County Executive
Kathleen Falk for her signature. Falk 's office said the expiring contract
with Prison Health Services cost about $3.8 million a year. Dane County
Sup. Paul Rusk of Madison, who chairs the County Public Protection and
Judiciary Committee, said the new contract includes staff for mental health
services to inmates around the clock. "That was among my highest
priorities -- to have more mental health care available in the jail, "
Rusk said. If approved, CCS will take over Jan. 1 from Prison Health
Services, which has had the contract for the last five years. According to
documents provided by Falk 's office, PHS was paying about 30 full-time
equivalent employees to work in the jail. The new contract calls for almost
39 staff workers, including a full-time mental health director, a part-time
psychiatrist and the equivalent of almost seven social workers. Contract
documents show an average hourly rate of $90 for a medical director, $92 an
hour for a psychiatrist, $69 an hour for a dentist and $40 an hour for a
health services administrator. Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney on Tuesday
said CCS did not have the cheapest proposal. "But the company will
deliver a level of service that is better than the current contract
provider, " said Mahoney.
December
7, 2006 The Capital Times
Some Dane County Board supervisors are up in arms over a huge, unexpected
cost increase in the health services contract for inmates at the Dane
County Jail. At the same time, county officials are also grappling with
costs that have risen by more than $2 million over the last five years to
house inmates in other counties. Both issues are up for votes tonight.
Prison Health Services Inc., the company contracted to provide health care,
is requesting more than $500,000 above what the county has approved for
next year's budget. It's a replay of what's happened in each of the four
previous years during which Prison Health Services has had the jail
contract, said County Board Supervisor Paul Rusk, chair of the Public
Protection and Judiciary Committee. The problem is, the company doesn't
come up with its estimated costs for the next year until most of the
current year is over, he said. The contract has averaged between $3.2
million and $3.3 million a year since the company was awarded the contract
in fall 2002. For 2007, however, PHS said it needs $3,886,155 to serve the
more than 1,000 inmates housed in the three county jail facilities. That's
the price the board will vote on tonight in authorizing the 2007 contract
with PHS, even though Rusk's committee has not approved the contract.
"I am very upset by this contract," said Supervisor Bob Salov. "We should put this contract on hold,
extend the status quo for a couple of months and investigate it."
Supervisor Mike Hanson said the board can argue for hours about minor line
items in the budget but will be okaying this half-million dollar expense
not budgeted for. "It's amazing how the board can quibble over $500
for Rhythm and Booms, and then we're expected to just rubber-stamp a
$500,000 item that's clearly needed, but so late in the game," Hanson
said. Sheriff Gary Hamblin said PHS's contractual cycle always comes after
the county budget is approved. "Their increase is tied to the consumer
price index, so they wait until the last quarter before they make their
estimate on how much money they need for the next year," Hamblin said.
"This year is no exception." Regardless of the overage, both
Hamblin and Rusk say they are happy with the work done by PHS. "It's
ten times better than what we had before," Rusk said.
August
9, 2006 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager's campaign took her opponent, Dane
County Executive Kathleen Falk, to task for taking donations from those
pursuing Dane County business. Lautenschlager's aides said that was
inconsistent with Falk's statements that as attorney general she would not
take money from people subject to enforcement actions by the state
Department of Justice. Lautenschlager's campaign blasted Falk for accepting
a $10,000 donation June 27 from the political action committee of Unite
Here, a laundry workers union. The donation came six days after Dane County
started an audit of non-union laundry contractor Superior Health Linens - a
company that Unite Here has long criticized for its labor practices.
Lautenschlager's campaign also criticized Falk for: • Accepting $1,500 from
America Service Group Inc.'s political action committee in 2004 because its
subsidiary Prison Health Services has a contract with the county. • Taking
$2,500 from Government Payment Service CEO Dale Conrad last year because
his firm has a county contract allowing people to pay bail with credit
cards. • Receiving money from developers and others who sat on a committee
that Falk convened to advise her on a land-use plan.
February 4, 2005 Capital Times
Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin and jailer Mike Plumer won't give a
detailed report on Meng-Ju "Mark" Wu's suicide to the County
Board's Public Protection and Judiciary Committee because a notice of
intent to file a claim in the last jail suicide hasn't been settled.
Following the suicide by inmate Tierra Hill, who hanged herself May 20 in
high-security Cell F of Cell Block 727 in the City-County Building jail,
Hamblin and Plumer gave a detailed report to the committee, trying to give
a clearer picture of the situation before and following Hill's death.
On Sept. 20, the last day of the 120-day window for claims following
an incident, a "notice of circumstances of a claim" with no
specific damages attached was filed with the county by attorney Todd Winstrom of the Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy on
behalf of Hill's estate, administered by Minnie Marie Hill, Tierra's
mother. According to the notice, Hill was not given the proper mental
health and psychiatric care by jail staff; the Mental Health Center of Dane
County; and Prison Health Services, medical services contractor for the jail.
There are no guarantees that
Terrance Griffith, who died in the Dane County Jail Nov. 17, 2002, would
have lived if he had gotten better treatment from jailers and the private
firm that provides medical service in the jail. But there is a good deal of
evidence to suggest that, had Griffith received better care, he might have
lived. And there is a good deal more evidence to suggest that Griffith was
neglected by the people who had a legal and moral responsibility to ensure
that he received basic care. Unable to sleep, vomiting relentlessly,
the 27-year-old man complained of numbness in his legs and blurred vision.
A paraplegic who was suffering from drug withdrawal, he was in deep
distress. Finally, with the last bit of strength he could muster, Griffith
pounded on the steel door of his cell in the segregation unit, begging for
medical care. He was told to shut up. He shook uncontrollably.
He vomited so much that at least one guard admitted the stench from
Griffith's cell was alarming. But after a cursory check, he was left
alone in a cell that stunk of vomit and decay. Then he died. One of
the most respected physicians in Dane County, Dr. Linda Farley, said after
reviewing the records of Griffth's last hours,
"He really was neglected." According to Farley,
health care workers at the jail ignored obvious signs that Griffith was
suffering a medical emergency. "The big point is that his physical
condition should have placed him in a hospital situation," said the
doctor. Yet Sheriff Gary Hamblin says "it's simply not
true" that Griffith was neglected. The sheriff claims that an
undiagnosed heart condition could have killed Griffith whether he was in
the jail or in a hospital. On that final point, the sheriff may be right.
Then again, he may be wrong. What is beyond debate, however, is that the
failure to move Griffith from the jail to the hospital has left open the
question of whether better treatment would have saved his life. For
Sheriff Hamblin to try to dismiss the evidence that points to failures on the
part of his own staff and the out-of-state health care firm that provides
care in the jail is deeply disappointing. We still think that the sheriff,
who has had the endorsement of this newspaper in every election campaign
that he has run, is a decent and honorable man. But he has fallen into a
bad pattern here. Sheriff Hamblin needs to rethink the unyielding
stance he has taken. Instead of defending actions that seem to be
indefensible, the sheriff should take steps to address the legitimate concerns
that have arisen as a result of Griffith's death. These include:
Inviting independent specialists on health care in jails to review the
record and propose reforms. Examining the contract with
Tennessee-based Prison Health Services with an eye to determining whether
private health care services are appropriate in a public jail.
Ensuring that the upcoming county budget process focuses on the need to
develop an infirmary inside, or closely associated with, the jail, which
was built 10 years ago without such a facility. The bottom line
should be clear to all: Sheriff Hamblin can, and must, respond more
thoughtfully and appropriately to the revelations regarding the death of
Terrance Griffith. (Madison.com, April 15, 2004)
Dauphin County Prison, Dauphin, Pennsylvania
September 20, 2005 AP
Dauphin County Prison's food service vendor agreed to reimburse the county
$65,000 for overbilling during 2002 and 2003, authorities said. Officials said
there was no criminal intent behind the overbilling, and Philadelphia-based
Aramark Corp. did provide adequate food as called for in its contract with
the prison. "I'm very pleased with the amount of money we
received," District Attorney Edward M. Marsico said. "I believe
it more than covers any loss the county may have had." Masrisco said much of the overbilling occurred because
the company had charged a flat amount for meals instead of tracking the
actual ups and downs of the jail population, and he said both prison
officials and the company would keeping a more careful eye on how many
meals actually are provided. Aramark officials declined to discuss what went wrong what
steps they were taking to prevent a recurrence. "We fully cooperated
with the inquiry and consider the situation to be resolved," company
spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said.
District of Columbia
Apr 18, 2015
washingtontimes.com
The D.C. Council narrowly voted down a $66 million contract that would have
placed for-profit company Corizon Health in charge of providing healthcare
at the city jail. The 6-5 vote pitted those who had concerns about the
company’s history of providing medical care at other facilities against
members who grimaced at getting involved in contracting matters already vetted
by the city’s procurement experts. “We shouldn’t be in this business. If we
are going to be in the business, then we ought to respect the process,”
said D.C. Council member Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat, who voted for
approval of the contract. But others questioned the thoroughness of a
procurement process that awarded the contract to Corizon without making
mention of numerous lawsuits filed against the company in other states as
well as those that have dropped contracts with the company over recent years.
Council Member Mary Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, said
the council’s job in this circumstance was to “serve as a backstop” for
contracting decisions. “We’re supposed to be here to catch what I would
call manifest mistakes. This is such a case,” Ms. Cheh
said before voting against the contract award. The contract would have put
Corizon in charge of providing medical, mental health, pharmacy and dental
services for at least three years to the roughly 2,200 inmates in the
District’s Department of Corrections. The District’s Office of Contracting
and Procurement recommended awarding the contract to Corizon at a cost of 7
percent, or $4.4 million, more than the bid received from Unity Health
Care, which has overseen health care at the jail since 2006. Council Chairman
Phil Mendelson said payouts from lawsuits filed against the District in
regard to healthcare issues at the jail have seen “a breathtaking drop”
during the time Unity has had the contract with the city. From 2006 through
the present, he said there have been $59,000 in judgments against the
District on account of lawsuits regarding healthcare at the jail compared
to $1.2 million in judgments from 2002 through 2006 under a different
provider, he said. Along with Ms. Cheh and Mr.
Mendelson, council members Charles Allen, David Grosso, Brianne Nadeau, and
Elissa Silverman voted against the contract award. The rejection of the
Corizon contract ends an 18-month procurement and review process that will
now likely have to be restarted so that the city can select a new
healthcare provider. In the interim, Unity will continue to provide
healthcare at the jail under an extended contract. But a spokesman for D.C.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who supported the Corizon award, said the city will be
overpaying in the short term on that contract because it is based on a
fixed number of inmates that is higher than the jail’s current population.
“The Council’s action will extend overpayment for care, which does not
fully meet the health needs of a vulnerable population, until a new contract
can be awarded,” spokesman Mike Czin said.
Corizon officials were disappointed with the decision. “It’s unfortunate
that the D.C. Council did not approve their peers’ recommendations,” said
Woodrow A. Myers, Jr., chief executive officer of Corizon. “The company
wishes the D.C. Department of Corrections and its residents well.”
Donaldson Prison, Jefferson County,
Alabama
March 18, 2005 Birmingham News
The administrator over health care at Donaldson Correctional Facility
was fired for failing to improve medical care at the beleaguered lockup,
but not before issuing repeated warnings about inadequate staff. Stephanie
Lawson, a registered nurse employed by the private contractor Prison Health
Services, said she was especially frustrated that no full-time physician
was assigned to the western Jefferson County prison, which houses about
1,625 men. "I was terminated for lack of progress at the site, and
it's an impossible site to manage with the staff that PHS has allocated for
health care," Lawson said. "It's just wrong." "It
really did kind of all tie in," she said. "How can I be expected
in 10 months to turn this place around when there is not even adequate
security?" She spoke highly of the officers but said they often were
tired. A few men sought care in the health unit for chest pains or
headaches. "A body can only take so much," Lawson said. Lawson's
staffing complaints are similar to those raised by Dr. Valda Chijide, the former HIV doctor at Limestone Prison. Chijide resigned earlier this year after sending PHS
several memos detailing inadequate support and staffing at the north
Alabama prison. Lawson's firing leaves Donaldson minus experienced staff in
the two top posts, overseeing the prison and the health care unit.
March 18, 2005 WHNT19
A fired medical administrator said Donaldson Prison in Jefferson County
needs a full-time doctor before medical care improves at the overcrowded
facility. Stephanie Lawson was fired in early March, the same week Warden
Stephen Bullard was placed on administrative leave after writing a memo
about inadequate staffing and poor conditions. Corrections officials said
Bullard was placed on leave because of health problems associated with his
job. Lawson was employed by the private contractor Prison Health Services.
She said she was fired for lack of improvements in medical care at the
prison. Lawson made the comments in an interview with the Birmingham News.
P-H-S has declined to comment on Lawson's termination or replacement. Her
staffing complaints are similar to those raised by another physician at
Limestone Prison. Doctor Valda Chijide resigned
earlier this year after sending P-H-S several memos detailing inadequate
support and staffing at the prison.
Dutchess County Jail, New York, New York
July 19, 2004
New York state investigators have accused Prison Health Services, the
company seeking to renew its contact at the Palm Beach County Jail, of
causing the death of a Schenectady, N.Y., inmate suffering from Parkinson's
disease. A scathing report issued last month by the New York
Commission on Correction echoed criticism in Palm Beach County that Prison
Health Services has withheld care to inmates for added profit. The company
is one of five bidding on the county contract. The New York report
details what led to inmate Brian Tetrault's brain
basically shutting down after he was denied his prescribed medication for
advanced Parkinson's disease by a Prison Health Services medical director
at the Schenectady County Jail. In October 2002, the commission -- a
three-member body that evaluates, investigates and oversees correctional
facilities in New York -- issued a report on the death of Victoria Smith,
who died of cardiac arrest at the Dutchess County
Jail in southeast New York after complaining multiple times of chest
pains. In the cases of both Tetrault and
Smith, Prison Health Services' main reaction to the commission's inquiries
was to get its lawyers involved, Lamy wrote to the company: "You and
your colleagues are exclusively focused on protecting the business
interests of PHS." The New York deaths evoke similar issues in
Palm Beach County. Both inmates were denied medication. Prison Health
Services staff concluded Tetrault was faking
illness and labeled Smith a drug abuser. Company officials and doctors have
cited malingering inmates and drug abuse as reasons for denying
medication. (Palm Beach Post)
El Paso
County Jail, El Paso, Texas
May 24, 2006 KTSM
Sheriff deputies tell us 47-year old Mario Lopez was arrested today,
charged with violating the civil rights of a
inmate and having improper sexual activity with a person in custody. The
Sheriff's Office say the investigation started after an inmate complained
about Lopez. He is now in the County Jail under a $50,000 bond. The
Sheriff's Office says Lopez is an employee of Prison Health Services, which
is under a contract with El Paso County to provide medical services to
prisoners at the jail.
Ellsworth Correctional Facility
Kansas
Apr 28, 2019 kansas.com
Kansas: Corizon short staffing and shorting meds
Locked in solitary confinement in a prison in rural Kansas without his
schizophrenia medication, Anthony Downing says he grew paranoid, fearing
the guards were poisoning his food. When he could take it no longer, he
started launching himself off the metal frame of his bed, kicking at the
windows in his cell again and again until men in protective gear came in
and dragged him out. “I broke the windows,” Downing said, “and they told me
I was getting transferred and I was like, ‘Thank God.” Downing, now out of
prison, was serving time at Ellsworth Correctional Facility, a small
institution in central Kansas. It’s one of several mostly rural facilities
where the state’s health care contractor, Corizon Health, has fallen well
short of the contract’s requirements for staffing key mental health
positions, according to documents The Star obtained through an open records
request. The documents, which covered Corizon’s performance from July 2015
through December 2018, showed that almost 20 percent of the 10,000 inmates
across the state prison system were on psychotropic medications during that
time. But prisons in Ellsworth, Norton, Winfield and Hutchinson went months
at a time without Corizon reporting any hours worked there by
psychiatrists, the medical providers most qualified to prescribe and
calibrate those medications. Some of the other prisons during that time
reported some psychiatrist hours but not the amount the contract called
for. “That’s pretty shocking,” said Eric Balaban, an attorney with the
ACLU’s national prison project. “How were they renewing meds for prisoners
who were there?” Corizon spokeswoman Eve Hutcherson said the documents
provided to The Star didn’t accurately reflect actual distribution of staff
within the prisons. The company
moved its psychiatrists around from one facility to another, she said, and
their hours may have been reported for their home base rather than the
places they actually worked. “To suggest that any of these facilities
had no coverage whatsoever is just plain inaccurate,” Hutcherson said via
email. She said the company’s behavioral health professionals also used
tele-psychiatry, which is conference calls or video-conferencing for
therapy sessions between doctors and patients who aren’t in the same place.
Confidential patient care records show psychiatry hours being provided at
prisons where the Department of Corrections staffing documents show none,
she said. But there’s other evidence that the company was well short of
staff, particularly in mental health, throughout the prison system as a whole. From July 2015 through December 2018
the state levied nearly $6.5 million in under-staffing penalties against
Corizon, and a significant chunk of it was for psychiatry shortages. During
a legislative hearing last year, Viola Riggin,
who leads a team at the University of Kansas Medical Center that evaluates
Corizon’s performance, told legislators the team flagged psychiatrist
staffing in western Kansas as a problem area. “We worked with Corizon,
called them in and said you need to work in this specific area to get staff
and they sent a recruiter to work on that and it’s been mitigated,” Riggin said. But the records obtained by The Star show
psychiatrist shortages persisting at Winfield and Ellsworth — and extending
to the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex in Topeka — throughout 2018.
And a Department of Corrections audit presented to legislators in February
showed Corizon job vacancy rates of up to 18% in the Kansas prisons, with
nurses and mental health professionals making up about half the openings. Jeanny Sharp, a spokeswoman for the corrections
department’s new leadership under Gov. Laura Kelly, said in a March email
that staffing continues to be an area of emphasis. “Our medical team is
attempting to reach out to colleges to recruit more medical providers,”
Sharp said. “However, medical care in a corrections environment isn’t
something being taught in medical school, (and there are) clearly a few
more barriers to recruitment efforts.” Joel Dvoskin,
a clinical and forensic psychologist who co-wrote a 256-page handbook on
mental health care in prisons, said the psychiatrist shortages didn’t
surprise him. “Everybody in the U.S., correctional and otherwise, is having
trouble recruiting psychiatrists,” Dvoskin said.
“There simply aren’t enough psychiatrists in the U.S. … It’s not OK. I’m
not saying it as an excuse or that it’s acceptable, but I sure understand
why they’re having so much trouble.” Dvoskin also
said private companies like Corizon should have an edge in recruiting
psychiatrists because they aren’t constrained by state employee pay scales.
Dvoskin said the national psychiatrist shortage
is particularly acute in rural areas, in part because states are competing
with VA medical centers, which have raised their psychiatrist salaries and
gone on a hiring binge in recent years. He said at one point California was
offering $300,000 salaries to get more psychiatrists into its prisons (in
Kansas the average psychiatrist salary is more like $200,000). The staffing
documents obtained by The Star show that at Ellsworth, Norton and
Hutchinson, Corizon filled in some of the vacant psychiatrist hours with
psychiatric advanced registered nurse practitioners. Dvoskin
said that’s a common solution, but not as desirable as having full-fledged
psychiatrists. “You can’t have all your hours filled by nurse
practitioners, but you can have some of them,” Dvoskin
said. Winfield didn’t report any hours worked by psychiatric advanced
registered nurse practitioners. It’s possible that primary care doctors
were prescribing psychotropic medications there, but Balaban said that
wouldn’t be ideal. “For a short period of time, in a pinch, you could have
a physician do that, but that’s pretty poor mental health treatment,”
Balaban said. “On the streets you wouldn’t go to your family physician for
psychotropic meds.” Downing’s experience shows what can happen when those
meds aren’t delivered. Downing said his mental illness was known when he
entered Ellsworth and had actually factored into
getting his sentence reduced. But he said he never got his medications when
he was there. “They didn’t do anything at all,” Downing said. “I told them
I need my meds and they said I didn’t need them, or
have a problem or whatever. … I tried to tell them if I had my medication I would do a lot better but they wouldn’t
listen to me.” Instead he acted out and ended up in “the hole,” which only
made things worse. “In solitary it’s like being in hell,” Downing said. “I
had all kinds of visions of people trying to kill me. I wouldn’t eat. I
didn’t eat for several days cause every time I took a bite
I would get physically sick.” His condition spiraled quickly until the day
he tried to kick out the window. Then he was transferred to a dedicated
mental health unit at the Lansing Correctional Facility, one of the biggest
prisons in the state. It was like night and day, he said. “Corizon in
Lansing is totally different,” Downing said. “It’s totally different than
in Ellsworth.” “They really should do something about the psych part of
Ellsworth,” Downing said. “The people that are still there, I feel sorry
for them.”
Erie County Jail, PA
July 19, 2005 Red Nova
Erie County must soon come up with another $311,877 to pay 2004 medical
expenses at the Erie County Prison. Warden James Veshecco
said medical costs have been rising partly because the number of inmates
has been increasing. The average population was 705 in 2004, compared with
676 in 2003. The $311,877 will be on top of the regular premium of
$1.3 million already paid in 2004, he said. Veshecco
said the prison is receiving more inmates who need mental health treatment
and related prescriptions. There are also more women, some of whom are
pregnant. The county has contracted with Prison Health Services of
Brentwood, Tenn., since 1999 to provide all medical care and pharmaceutical
costs at the prison. Because of the rising costs, the county in
recent years agreed to a contract that set limits on the amount that the
insurance company would pay for inmates who go to hospitals and other
facilities and for pharmaceutical products. The prison must pay any amount
above that. In 2003, the premium was $1.2 million and the county had
to pay an additional $60,000 for exceeding the cap. In 2004, the
prison once again exceeded the caps and had to pay $207,365 more for
off-site visits and $104,512 more for pharmaceutical products, totaling
$311,877. The premium to PHS has been increased to nearly $1.5
million for 2005, exclusive of the money owed if the caps are exceeded.
Escambia
County Jail, Pensacola,
Florida
January 14, 2008 Pensacola
News-Journal
The family of a man who died strapped to a jailhouse restraint chair
reached a settlement with six jail employees. Estelle Smith, the wife of
Robert Boggon, reached an agreement last week
during a private mediation proceeding, according to court papers. U.S.
Judge Casey Rodgers signed an order Friday giving all parties named in the
lawsuit 60 days to agree on the settlement terms, which were not made
public. Boggon, 65, a long-distance truck driver
from Lincoln Park, was placed in Escambia County Jail in August 2005 after
a disturbance at a Dollar Tree store in Ensley. Family members said he
suffered a "mental episode" and began acting strangely, knocking
over boxes in the store. Boggon was found dead
the night of Aug. 29, 2005, strapped to a restraint chair in the jail's
infirmary. The lawsuit, filed in October 2005 by Smith, originally claimed
that the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Ron McNesby,
and other Sheriff's Office and jail employees violated Boggon's
civil rights alleging that he died from "malicious" and
"sadistic" use of a Taser stun gun. Testimony at an two-day
inquest in April 2006 revealed that Boggon was
shot with a Taser on Aug. 25 and again on Aug. 26 ,
testimony that was at odds with an allegation contained in the civil
lawsuit. The final settlement names detention deputy Scott Driver, Lt.
Sherrie Day, Sgt. Brett Whitlock, Cpl. Roger Lastinger,
and Prison Health Services employees Trudy Burden, Dana Helms and Lisa
Whitlock as defendants. McNesby and others were
later dismissed from the lawsuit. Escambia County Judge David Ackerman
cleared all officers of any criminal wrongdoing after the inquest. All but
Helms continue to work at the jail. Prison Health Services no longer is the
medical provider for the jail, but Burden and Whitlock continue work for
Armor Correctional Health Services, sheriff's attorney Darlene Dickey said.
The department�s
liability insurance through the Florida Sheriffs Association would pay for
any monetary award to Smith, Dickey said. Dr. Andi Minyard,
the local medical examiner, said Boggon died from
heart disease and paranoid schizophrenia. But Minyard
listed confinement to a restraint chair and injections of Haloperidol, a
tranquilizer, as contributory causes. Because Boggon's
experience in the jail "exacerbated" the natural diseases that
ultimately led to his death, Minyard ruled the
death a homicide. But she stopped short of saying that it involved any
criminal intent or activity.
Falkenburg Road Jail, Florida
August 15, 2007 Tampa Tribune
A former Hillsborough County jail inmate who had cervical cancer filed a
federal lawsuit Monday saying the sheriff's former medical provider allowed
her to bleed and suffer for weeks before sending her to a hospital. Karen
Sue Ramsey says her civil rights were violated by Prison Health Services,
the Brentwood, Tenn.-based company that provided health care at the jail at
the time, and Sheriff David Gee in the capacity of his office. Ramsey, now
48, was transferred to Hillsborough from Orange County on Nov. 1, 2004, on
a prostitution charge, records show. Her petition gives the following
account: When booked into jail, Ramsey gave a history of cervical cancer
and vaginal bleeding. A PHS nurse examined her Nov. 5, 2004, and noted the
bleeding. About three weeks later, a PHS obstetrician found a large mass
extending from Ramsey's cervix. His plan was to send her to a clinic for a
biopsy, but she was returned to her cell for five more days. The bleeding
increased dramatically, and when she complained to a detention deputy, he
refused to summon medical help, the lawsuit said. On Nov. 29, 2004, PHS
sent her to a clinic, and she was transferred to Tampa General Hospital.
Doctors there found a 2-inch mass of dying tissue. She required multiple
blood transfusions and underwent a hysterectomy. When Ramsey was returned
to jail, a doctor's post-operative plan for cervical cancer treatment was
not carried out, her lawsuit said. She was transferred to prison a few
weeks later, having had no followup appointments.
Ramsey's one-year prison sentence stemmed from a third prostitution
conviction, state records show. She was released Aug. 10, 2005. Hillsborough
County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter referred calls to the
sheriff's legal counsel, Ellen Leonard, who did not immediately return a
phone call Tuesday afternoon. Messages for Ramsey's attorney, Mike Trentalange, and PHS also were not immediately returned
Tuesday afternoon. This year, Trentalange
represented another former Hillsborough County inmate, Kimberly Grey, who
received a $1.25 million settlement from PHS and a $350,000 settlement from
the sheriff's office. Grey gave birth in an infirmary cell March 4, 2004.
Records show she complained for 12 hours of labor pains, but that PHS staff
did not send her to a hospital. Nearly three months premature, the baby
died from an infection in his lungs, according to an autopsy. PHS served as
Hillsborough's inmate medical provider until October 2005.
April
19, 2007 AP
An inmate whose baby died after being born over a jail cell toilet has
received a $1.25 million settlement from the Tennessee company that
provided health care at the facility. Kimberly Grey sued over the death,
saying she had complained of labor pains for nearly 12 hours. But Prison
Health Services, based in Brentwood, Tenn., settled with her Wednesday,
after jurors heard two weeks of testimony and began deliberations. "We
had discussions of a settlement throughout the trial," Grey's
attorney, Mike Trentalange, said. "We were
finally able to do that with the imminent return of the jury." Prison
Health Services had no comment on why it chose to settle the case, company
spokeswoman Susan Morgenstern said. The company no longer serves as
Hillsborough County's inmate medical provider. The Hillsborough sheriff's
office settled its portion of the case in November for $350,000. In March
2004, nurses were giving Grey a pelvic exam when the boy was born over the
toilet. He died in an ambulance on the way to Tampa General Hospital.
Grey's lawsuit claimed officials displayed a deadly indifference to the
newborn's medical distress.
March
10, 2007 Tampa Tribune
A former Hillsborough County jail inmate whose baby died after being
born over a jail cell toilet in 2004 received a $350,000 settlement last
fall, according to records released Friday. Kimberly Grey kept $104,000 of
the money she received Nov. 27 in a check signed by Sheriff David Gee. The
remainder was paid to her attorney, Mike Trentalange,
and covered the expenses of expert witnesses, case consultants and
documents, Trentalange said. The settlement
removed the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office as a defendant in an
ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit Grey filed in December 2004. She
received the check shortly after being released from state prison in
November, having served nearly two years on a prostitution conviction. On
Friday, Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said the
sheriff's office decided to pay what it considered a reasonable settlement
to Grey rather than face continued litigation costs. Attorney fees,
payments to expert witnesses and document costs already had exceeded
$100,000, he said. The original court complaint named the defendants as
Prison Health Services, the Brentwood, Tenn.-based company that provided
health care at the jail at the time; the sheriff's office and the jail's
administrator; and a PHS-employed doctor and two nurses. As of Friday, only
PHS and one nurse remained as defendants, and the case is set for trial
April 2. Armor Correctional Medical Services became the jail's health care
provider in October 2005. Docobo said the
settlement does not mean the sheriff's office is admitting any negligence.
March
18, 2006 Tampa Tribune
Clint Joshua Grey barely whimpered when he was born two years ago over
a jail cell toilet, but his death sounded an alarm about the care of
pregnant inmates in Hillsborough County. His mother, in jail on a drug
charge, was nearly seven months pregnant when she gave birth on March 5,
2004. Kimberly Grey says her son died because a medical group was more
concerned with saving money than lives. She has pending lawsuits against
the jail's former care provider, Prison Health Services, its staff and
members of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Her attorney, Tampa
lawyer Mike Trentalange, said the death was more
than a tragic set of circumstances - it was a crime. That's why he is
asking Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober to consider filing felony
charges against PHS, which is based in Tennessee, and a member of the staff
at Falkenburg Road Jail. Last week, Trentalange
mailed Ober a letter outlining why the lack of care shown by PHS
constituted felony child neglect, he said. "States' attorneys are
typically reluctant to charge corporate entities with a crime," Trentalange said. "I think that's just so terribly
wrong. Grey filed her first lawsuit in December 2004 in federal court,
claiming a violation of her civil rights. That case is pending. She filed
another last month in state court claiming malpractice. Not long after the
baby's death, the sheriff's office announced PHS had fired a nurse
practitioner for not sending Grey to a hospital sooner. That nurse
practitioner, Debbie Devine, of Tampa, said she wasn't on duty during
Grey's labor and delivery, however. She filed her own lawsuit against PHS
in May. "I was terminated because I was [PHS'] scapegoat," Devine
wrote in an affidavit. The company "blamed me for the death of an
inmate's baby who died on a night that I was not working or on-call and
published information to the press and/or third parties that wrongfully
implicated me as the cause of the baby's death." Devine's affidavits
give this account of the events leading up to the baby's death: Over 11
hours, Devine responded to several phone pages from the jail's on-duty
nurses who were treating Grey. The first nurse told Devine it was her first
time there and that she was alone with 35 female patients, most of whom
were pregnant. Devine advised the day nurse to perform a litany of tests on
Grey for her complaints, but she later learned some were never performed.
When a night nurse called her shortly before 2 a.m., Grey had complained of
bleeding. Devine told the nurse that if the patient was bleeding, she
should be hospitalized immediately. Two hours later, Grey was still in the
infirmary cell when she gave birth. Devine said she was not officially on
call, that she told the nurses that, and that she was never paid for taking
any off-duty calls. She previously told her supervisors about the off-duty
problem and offered to take calls if paid, but Devine said she was told
that would not be necessary. Devine said PHS suspended her but never
questioned her before firing her in May. The two other nurses kept their
jobs, but the sheriff's office denied them access to the jail.
October 28, 2005 St. Petersburg
Times
Another former inmate at the Hillsborough County jail has sued Prison
Health Services, the company once in charge of inmate medical care,
accusing the firm of taunting him instead of treating his injured hand.
Sean Norbury, now 21, had a severe hand fracture when he was jailed Oct. 3,
2003, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Hillsborough County
Circuit Court. When he arrived at the jail, he pleaded for treatment, the
suit says. But nurses taunted him, saying he shouldn't have hit anyone if
his hand hurt, the suit says. The next day, the jail's nurses and staff saw
his hand was bruised and swollen and that he could not make a fist, the
suit says. Norbury complained of pain and asked again for treatment but was
ignored, the suit says. On Oct. 8, 2003, an X-ray was ordered but never
provided, the suit says. Norbury never saw a doctor at the jail. Two days
later he was released on bail; his mother took him to St. Joseph's
Hospital, which noted his fracture, Norbury said. The negligence of the
jail's medical staff caused him undue pain and suffering and ongoing
medical problems, the suit says.
October 26, 2005 St. Petersburg
Times
A former inmate at the Hillsborough County jail has sued the company
once responsible for inmate medical care, alleging that the company's staff
blocked her from treatment and as a result she went blind. Aretha Jackson
accused Prison Health Services Inc. of cruel and unusual punishment and
failing to provide necessary medical care, according to the suit filed
Tuesday in Hillsborough Circuit Court. Jackson was an inmate at the county
jail from Aug. 16, 2004, until June 1, the suit says. Court records show
she had been charged with possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia. She
was an HIV patient with vision deterioration linked to the virus, the suit
says. She was evaluated by Dr. Todd Berger, a retinal specialist, on Oct.
13, 2004, who noted, among other complaints, one week with no vision in the
right eye, the suit says. He ordered lab work and scheduled another
appointment for two days later, the suit says. Instead, the jail
"and/or the employees or agents of PHS" ignored the follow-up
plan, the suit alleges. The jail's nurses and medical staff were untrained
and unfamiliar "or indifferent" to the proper care and management
of HIV patients with serious vision problems, the suit says, and did not
have proper HIV treatment policies and procedures. PHS refused or failed to
allow Jackson follow-up services by Berger or another qualified doctor or
otherwise failed to follow Berger's medical orders, the suit alleges, and
as a result, Jackson lost her eyesight. Late last year, Kimberly Grey filed
a lawsuit that is still pending saying she pleaded for medical help for 12
hours before giving birth to a baby boy in March 2004, over an infirmary
toilet. Grey had complications for five days, she said. Jail officials did
not call 911 until the baby arrived. The baby later died. A yearlong
examination of Prison Health Services by the New York Times published this
year revealed repeated instances of flawed and sometimes fatal medical care
in other parts of the country. But PHS is no longer doing business at the
jail infirmaries. The sheriff's office awarded the contract last month to
Armor Correctional Health Services Inc.
October 14, 2005 Tampa Tribune
A new company took over medical care this month for Hillsborough County's
jail inmates after Sheriff David Gee solicited new bids rather than renew a
contract with the previous provider. Armor Correctional Health Services
Inc. assumed control of the jail's two 50-bed infirmaries on Oct. 1,
replacing Prison Health Services. The contract will cost taxpayers
$19,888,000 in its first 12 months and total more than $60 million over the
course of the three-year agreement, Col. David Parrish said. PHS served
Hillsborough jails for for the last three years
and for seven years during the 1980s. The company came under fire and was
the target of a federal lawsuit by former Hillsborough inmate Kimberly Grey
earlier this year after she gave birth in a jail toilet after complaining
for hours she felt ill. Her infant son died en
route to the hospital. Parrish said one of the motivating factors that
prompted the sheriff to open up the contract to bidding rather than to
renew with PHS was the bad publicity that the jail received because of the
Grey case. Armor is based in Broward County, where it holds a five- year
contract with that county's five-jail system. Armor's chief executive
officer, Doyle Moore, founded PHS in 1978 and stayed with the firm in
various leadership positions until 2004. Four other key officers also
worked for PHS.
September 3, 2005 Tampa Tribune
Describing her attorney's request for documents as a ``fishing
expedition,'' a federal judge on Friday denied a former Hillsborough County
jail inmate's motion to compel the jail's medical provider to compile and
submit a voluminous set of documents. Kimberly Grey gave birth over a
Falkenburg Road Jail toilet March 4, 2004, after complaining for 12 hours
to medical and jail staff that she was in pain, records show. An ambulance
took them to a hospital, but the infant died en
route. Grey's medical care in the jail was provided by Prison Health
Services Inc., based in Brentwood, Tenn. Tampa lawyer Michael Trentalange filed a lawsuit in December on behalf of
Grey and her child, Clint Joshua Grey. The defendants include Prison Health
Services, the sheriff and the jail's medical director. The lawsuit contends
Grey's complaints were ignored and the care she received was grossly
inadequate. Trentalange asked the court to order Prison Health Services to submit
staff training records, documents on the company's standard of patient care
for 380 facilities in 38 states, and inmate complaints and court judgments
against the company. Trentalange
accused Prison Health Services of a widespread indifference to patients'
needs and said the records might prove it. ``This is not a one-time deal or
a two- time deal,'' he said. ``This is a pattern.''
December 10, 2004 Tampa Tribune
A former inmate whose baby died after being born over a toilet in
Falkenburg Road Jail filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against her
caregivers and sheriff's officials. Mike Trentalange,
a Tampa lawyer representing 35-year- old Kimberly Grey, filed the lawsuit
in U.S. District Court in Tampa on behalf of Grey and her deceased newborn,
Clint Joshua Grey. The complaint names Prison Health Services, the
Brentwood, Tenn.-based company that provides health care at the jail;
Sheriff Cal Henderson; sheriff's Col. David Parrish, who oversees the jail
system; and a PHS-employed doctor and two nurses as defendants. The lawsuit
alleges all parties ``demonstrated deliberate indifference to [Grey's]
serious medical needs and to the serious medical needs of her son.'' It
seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Medical records obtained by The
Tampa Tribune and WFLA, News Channel 8, showed that beginning March 4, Grey
complained for nearly 12 hours about labor pains and repeatedly asked to be
taken to a hospital. She was leaking fluid and running a fever, but jail
nurses gave her Tylenol and refused to call an ambulance. Nurses were
performing the first pelvic exam on Grey early in the morning March 5 when
the baby was born over a toilet. An ambulance was called, and the baby was
taken to Tampa General Hospital. He died before arriving. A medical
examiner determined the baby died of a lung infection. In October, a former
Lee County jail inmate sued county officials and jail health care providers
there, alleging her fetus died because her medical needs were ignored. Prison Health Services Inc. was named as a
defendant in that lawsuit also. Company officials could not be reached for
comment Thursday.
A sheriff's deputy assigned to
guard the infirmary at the Falkenburg Road Jail was scolded for calling 911
after an inmate gave birth while squatting over a jail toilet, records
released Wednesday show. An investigation into the birth of
inmate Kimberly Grey's baby shows nearly two dozen witnesses in the jail's
infirmary backed her claim that she complained she was in labor and needed
to get to a hospital for 12 hours before she gave birth. The baby died
later on the way to Tampa General Hospital. Sheriff's Col. David
Parrish, who oversees the county's jail system, declined to comment on the
documents in the report or the department's investigation. He said the
sheriff's office will release a synopsis of its three-pronged investigation
Friday and will comment then. He wouldn't say whether any disciplinary
action will be taken against medical officials on duty the night Grey, 34,
gave birth. Mark Cox, executive assistant to Hillsborough County
State Attorney Mark Ober, said Ober's office decided not to file criminal
charges after reviewing evidence from the county medical examiner's office
and the sheriff's office report. "Our position is that there
wasn't enough evidence to support criminal charges,'' Cox said.
Documents released Wednesday as part of a joint investigation by The Tampa
Tribune and WFLA, News Channel 8, show that sheriff's Deputy Holly Deluca
called the jail's command center and asked staff there to call an ambulance
after Grey gave birth to a premature baby boy at 2:45 a.m. March 5.
Officials at the command center told Deluca that an infirmary nurse would
have to call 911, and when the nurses on duty didn't, Deluca made the call
herself, records show. Witnesses reported hearing Deluca's supervisor tell
her ``Don't ever do that again'' after she called 911, documents
show. (Tampa Tribune, April 8, 2004)
Florida Civil Commitment Center, Arcadia, Florida
June 2, 2006 Sun-Herald
When its contract expires June 30, the contractor operating a state
treatment center for sexually violent predators near Arcadia will be shown
the door. The Florida Department of Children and Families, which manages
the Florida Civil Commitment Center, will not retain Liberty Behavioral
Health to run the facility until a new contractor can be hired, said Tim Bottcher, spokesman for the Florida Department of
Children and Families. The process to award a new contract and build a new
facility could take six months or more. To run the facility in the interim,
the state will assign perhaps dozens of Department of Corrections officers
from prisons in surrounding counties to provide security. And a temporary
employee service will provide other workers, Bottcher
indicated. Technically, Liberty is still in the running for the new
contract. But the DCF's inspector general in a past investigation cited
numerous incidents of violent assaults, drug abuse, alcohol bootlegging and
inappropriate behavior involving both residents and staffers. "I don't
think it's any secret we haven't been happy with Liberty's performance as
far as the current contract is concerned," Bottcher
said. The change in center management has Liberty's local employees worried
about both their jobs and the treatment of the residents, said John Brosnihan, a security supervisor for Liberty. Liberty
was the only bidder at the time the center was started. A competing firm
had declined to bid because of the facility proposed for the center -- in a
defunct state prison, an officer of the firm, Geo Group, said in a past
interview. In 2005, the Legislature passed a bill that authorized the DCF
to hire a contractor to both build and operate a new 600-bed center. The
DCF's bidding process was derailed, however, after Liberty challenged the
bid specifications for alleged bid-rigging. That litigation was recently
resolved and now the bidding selection process will get under way, Bottcher said. Liberty and the Geo Group have submitted
bids. Bottcher said a site for the new facility
has not been identified, but it will likely be located within the Arcadia
area. Prison Health Services will be hired to provide health care and
clinical treatment until the contract is awarded. The DCF is still "in
talks" with a temporary employment service to fill other roles in the
interim, Bottcher said.
Florida Department
of Corrections, Tallahassee, Florida
Aug 5, 2018
miaminewtimes.com
Florida: Inmate starves to death while under medical care
Mentally Ill South Florida Man Starved to Death in Prison, Lawsuit
Alleges. When Vincent Gaines was sentenced to five years in prison on
robbery charges in June 2013, state officials recommended he be placed in a
mental-health unit because he had regular visual and auditory
hallucinations. So Gaines was transferred to the Dade Correctional
Institution in South Miami-Dade County, where he was placed on a
"boneless diet" that left the five-foot-nine man 40 pounds
lighter — dropping from 190 to 151 — in just 18 months. After accumulating
a series of disciplinary reports, Gaines was shuffled through multiple
prisons before winding up at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford,
Florida, where he soon died. In his autopsy, he weighed only 115 pounds and
showed obvious signs of malnourishment, advocates say. Now Gaines' family
says the evidence is clear: He was starved to death inside the state prison
system and then buried on Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) property
without their knowledge or consent. His mother, Lorine, sued FDOC head
Julie Jones, former for-profit prison health provider Corizon Health, and
Union CI warden Kevin Jordan in North Florida federal court. The Palm Beach
Post, which published a stinging investigation into Corizon Health's deadly
failures across Florida in 2014, first reported on the lawsuit yesterday
afternoon. To file the suit, Lorine Gaines partnered with the Human Rights
Defense Center (HRDC), a nonprofit that fights for the rights of
ex-prisoners nationwide. "It is an outrage that in the 21st-century
American prisoners are being starved to death in barbaric conditions by a
prison system whose employees enjoy total impunity for their criminal
actions," HRDC executive director Paul Wright, himself a former
prisoner, said in a news release. (In addition to founding the HRDC, Wright
also founded Prison Legal News, a monthly news magazine for and by
prisoners, from his jail cell in 1990.) "We hope the civil justice
system will help provide the deterrence that is otherwise sadly lacking
within Florida’s prison system." In response, the FDOC told New Times
that it had not yet been served the lawsuit and could not comment on the
case's specifics but that the department "is committed to ensuring all
inmates have access to appropriate health services." A Corizon
spokesperson, Martha Harbin, told New Times via email that the company is
confident it handled the case correctly but that Corizon could not speak
further without violating the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act, or HIPAA, privacy laws. "Patient privacy laws and
the filed complaint prevent us from disclosing specific information from
the patient’s medical records that would provide a more complete picture of
Mr. Gaines’s health challenges and treatment, but we are confident that
appropriate, evidence-based medical care was provided," she said. But
the suit echoes an eerily similar case that also involved the Dade
Correctional Institute. In 2012, multiple witnesses said guards at the
facility scalded mentally ill inmate Darren Rainey to death in a makeshift
prison shower as punishment for defecating in his cell. State officials did
not reopen the case until the Miami Herald's Julie Brown wrote a blistering
series of articles about it. Even after Brown obtained gruesome images of
Rainey's scalded body, the county medical examiner's office and Miami-Dade
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle still insisted Rainey did not
suffer deadly burns. No one was fired or charged in the case. Perhaps more
importantly, the Herald also spoke to other witnesses who claimed inmates
at Dade CI were being starved. The Palm Beach Post series about Corizon
also noted that after prison medical care was privatized and handed over to
the company in 2012, inmate deaths spiked. Corizon walked away from its
$1.2 billion, five-year state contract after the award-winning Post series
but claimed the move was a fiscal decision. According to the latest suit,
judges and other justice-system officials knew in 2013 that Gaines was
severely mentally ill. After he pleaded guilty in 2013 to burglary charges,
a judge instructed officials to house Gaines near his family in Palm Beach
County. At a subsequent mental-health evaluation at the FDOC's South
Florida Reception Center (SFRC), officials noted Gaines had repeatedly been
"Baker Acted" — committed involuntarily to a mental institution —
because of his constant auditory hallucinations. Among other diagnoses,
officials stated Gaines had bipolar disorder, mania, had "psychotic
features," as well as "borderline intellectual functioning,"
which the suit says is "historically referred to as 'mental
retardation.'" He also struggled to comply with his medication regimen
and often refused his medicine. He was then transferred from the SFRC to
Dade CI in Homestead — while there, the suit says, he continued to
experience hallucinations and refuse treatment. After a particularly rough
period, he was sent back to a crisis unit at the SFRC, where he slept only
two to three hours per night and weighed 151 pounds. He was also written up
for alleged failure to follow orders and in 2015 was sent more than 300
miles away from his family to the Florida State Prison and then to the
Union Correctional Institution. On May 15, the suit says, because of
Gaines' "rapidly deteriorating" mental condition, he was placed
in a "close management" unit at the facility, where health
officials noted in reports that he had "been observed smearing feces
on his floor.” From here, the suit claims, things grew strange. On December
1, Corizon Health officials began to write that Gaines' condition seemed to
be improving. Reports from that day say a company social worker observed
his "clean and organized" cell and "neat" appearance.
But just two days later, Gaines was dead. Just after noon December 3,
officials noted he seemed quiet and had not eaten. They checked on him
around 1:26 p.m. and found him unresponsive. After emergency medical
technicians administered CPR, he was pronounced dead. Medical examiners
conducted an autopsy the next day. Though writing that his cause of death
was "undetermined," examiners wrote that Gaines suffered from
"malnutrition" and weighed only 115 pounds. In contrast with the
glowing Corizon report three days earlier, doctors said Gaines also died
with a "generalized unwashed appearance and probable feces on [the]
soles of [his] feet." "Following Mr. Gaines’ death, Defendants
did not timely inform Plaintiff," the suit adds. "As a result,
Mr. Gaines was not released to his family; the Decedent was buried by FDOC
on FDOC property against the wishes and without the consent of
Plaintiff." Gaines' mother is now suing for alleged violations of the
Eight and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibit
cruel and unusual punishment and guarantee equal protection for people of
all races under the law. The Gaines family also alleges their loved one's
treatment violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. The prison's
"conduct was so deliberately indifferent as to Mr. Gaines’
nutritional, medical, and/or mental health needs as to violate his right
against cruel and unusual punishment," the suit reads.
Apr 8, 2017
bradenton.com
State, former healthcare provider agree to settle suit over prisoners’
untreated hernias
About 1,800 current and former Florida prison inmates who were denied
medical care for hernias will be entitled to divide $1.7 million in damages
from a class-action lawsuit under a conditional settlement agreed to by the
Department of Corrections and its former prison health-care provider,
Corizon, and filed in federal court in Tallahassee last week. The suit was
brought by the Florida Justice Institute and the Coral Gables law firm of Kozyak Tropin &
Throckmorton in September 2015 on behalf of three inmates. It alleged
Corizon and the agency violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against
cruel and unusual punishments by denying the inmates medical care in an
effort to save money. The damages will be paid by Corizon, but the
settlement agreement also requires the state prison system to adopt a new
policy to provide consultations with surgeons for inmates with hernia
symptoms in all Florida facilities. “Obviously, the inmates are there for a
reason. We are not trying to make their time in detention a country club,
but there is a responsibility to provide humane conditions for their
incarceration and in this case we achieved a big step in making sure the
medical treatment complies with the standard of care in the industry,” said
Ken Hartman, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. U.S. District Court
Judge Robert Hinkle gave preliminary approval to the settlement at the
March 29 hearing but because several of the affected inmates are residing
in other states, the settlement requires that their state attorneys general
be notified and given an opportunity to object to the agreement. Hinkle
said he would enter a final an order in 100 days. Corizon would not comment
on the settlement, citing the fact that it had not been finalized. Ashley
Cook, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Corrections, would not
comment on the specifics of the agreement. “The health and safety of our
inmates is a top priority of the department, and we take any allegations
regarding their well-being very seriously,” she said, adding: “Corizon no
longer provides medical services to the department’s inmates.’’ But two
months after the lawsuit was filed in September 2015, Tennessee-based
Corizon announced it would not renew its $1.1 billion contract with the
state to provide healthcare to an estimated 74,000 of the inmates in the
state’s prison system. In February 2015, FDC was ordered to renegotiate the
medical contract by Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, chairman of the Senate
Criminal Justice Committee, after a series of reports in the Miami Herald
and other news organizations showed suspicious inmate deaths were covered
up or never reviewed and inmate complaints of harmful medical care were
dismissed or ignored. In April 2016, Centurion of Florida, LLC, a joint
venture between Centene Corporation and MHM Services, Inc., replaced
Corizon as the medical provider in Florida’s prisons. “The chief goal of
this litigation was to reform the way that FDOC treated patients with
symptomatic hernias,” the settlement states. “Before this litigation, the
practice was to refuse to provide surgeries, or even surgical consultations
— despite the recommendations of doctors — unless the patient was
experiencing an emergency ...” Although the settlement does not require the
agency to order a surgery if a doctor recommends it, the agency may not
unreasonably refuse to allow it. A hernia occurs when the abdominal wall
tears or weakens, forcing other tissue through the opening. It can cause
intense pain and further problems if left untreated. The settlement states
the agency and Corizon for years engaged “in a pattern of not permitting
FDOC prisoners to have hernia surgeries, by denying them at various
levels.” “These scenarios played out for years, resulting in thousands of
prisoners being left in severe pain, unable to engage in normal life
activities, and at risk for serious complications or death,’’ the
settlement says. Although the initial complaint was filed on behalf of
three inmates Amado Parra, Archie Green, and Tracy Copeland and detailed
the stories of 15 current and former prisoners, after the lengthy
examination of the agency and Corizon’s health care records, the scope of
the lawsuit was broadened to cover hundreds more. A consent order between
the parties was reached on Sept. 23, 2016, to cover “all past and current
prisoners in FDOC custody who were diagnosed with and/or treated for a
hernia between Sept. 8, 2013 and May 31, 2016” while Corizon was the
medical provider for that prison facility. To determine which current and
former inmates were eligible, the lawyers reviewed all the medical records
of inmates who arrived at the sick bays in Florida prisons during that time
period and found the cases coded for a hernia condition, Hartman said. They
also posted a notice in each of Florida’s prison facilities and collected
the names of hundreds more eligible inmates. The settlement will be divided
among the class members by giving $1.7 million to the affected inmates,
divided into two subclasses: 308 will each receive about $2,760 each
because a request for a surgical consultation was submitted and potentially
denied, and 1,480 who exhibited symptoms but were denied a surgical
consultation will receive about $574. Attorneys will be paid $385,000 and
the three individuals named in the lawsuit will be paid an additional
$5,000 each.
May 29, 2016
naplesnews.com
Lawyers: New evidence suggests error, cover up in attempted suicide that
left Lee jail inmate with brain injuries
Carlo Laudadio arrived at the Lee County jail
in October 2011 with a long history of mental health issues, including a
suicide threat just one month earlier. Jail staff noted this in evaluation
forms and ordered the 25-year-old to be placed on direct observation,
better known as "suicide watch." Yet within two days, Laudadio was moved out of direct observation and into
the infirmary for drug detoxification, where he didn't receive psychotropic
medications and didn't require the strict monitoring he had received under
watch. Laudadio appeared fine at first. But a few
days later, he acted out, refusing to follow orders from a deputy. He was
pepper sprayed, then ordered to clean himself off. While in the shower, Laudadio tried to hang himself, causing permanent brain
injuries. "I don't know what happened because I wasn't there, but I do
know that, knowing my brother and where he was at in his life, he should
have been given his medication," said Laudadio's
sister, Christina Bobbin. Nearly five years since Laudadio's
attempted suicide, lawyers representing Bobbin allege they've uncovered evidence
that suggests Laudadio wasn't evaluated before
his move off suicide watch, and that staffers of the jail's health care
contractor have tried to cover up their error. They point to emails and
jail logs obtained in the case and provided to the Naples Daily News that
they say show staffers with the jail's health care contractors scrambling
to understand how Laudadio ended up off suicide
watch. "We have just a few loose ends we'd like to tie up, but we
think at this point that email is pretty conclusive proof that he was not
evaluated," said Patrick Harland, a lawyer representing Bobbin. Bobbin
has filed a 16-count lawsuit against Corizon Health, one of the nation's
largest correctional health care providers, and the Lee County Sheriff's
Office, which contracted with Corizon for its jail medical services. The
lawsuit alleges, in part, that Corizon staffers failed to properly evaluate
Laudadio and prescribe him needed medications,
and that the Sheriff's Office improperly allowed the use of pepper spray on
Laudadio. Corizon and the Sheriff's Office have
denied the allegations in court filings. Corizon has said that Laudadio is responsible for his own actions and
negligence, while the Sheriff's Office has responded that it acted
appropriately. "Any and all actions undertaken were done so without
malice, in pursuit of lawful duties, and with such force as was reasonably
necessary under the circumstances," Robert Shearman, a lawyer for the
Sheriff's Office, wrote in a November 2014 filing. Both Corizon and the Sheriff's
Office declined to answer a series of written questions related to the
case, citing the ongoing legal proceedings. "It is important to keep
in mind the existence of a lawsuit is not necessarily indicative of quality
of care or any wrongdoing," said Martha Harbin, Corizon's director of
external relations, in a statement. From an early age, Bobbin noticed that
her brother was different. Laudadio had a hard
time concentrating and struggled with basic school subjects, like spelling
and reading, Bobbin said. As he moved into his teenage years, Laudadio gravitated toward drugs, dovetailing into a
series of crimes. "He always reached out for help, but he struggled
from a young age with substance abuse," Bobbin said. By the time he
was jailed in October 2011, Laudadio had been
arrested in Florida about 20 times, mostly for drug crimes, battery,
burglary and theft. According to a jail evaluation, Laudadio
had also been diagnosed with several mental health issues: depression,
borderline personality disorder, adjustment disorder and polysubstance
abuse, among others. In September 2011, he was involuntarily committed
under Florida's Baker Act after threatening to kill himself. So when Laudadio arrived in jail on Oct. 14, 2011, accused of
violating probation on a cocaine possession conviction, Corizon staff
members assigned him to Floor 5S, better known as the male suicide watch
wing, records obtained in the lawsuit show. According to records dated Oct.
16, a Corizon nurse, Janet Stepnoski, completed
an evaluation of Laudadio and recommended his
transfer to the jail infirmary for detoxification. In the evaluation, Stepnoski wrote that Laudadio
told her, "I am going to have a bad detox," and, "I am not
going to hurt myself." The next few days were relatively event-free.
But on the morning of Oct. 19, Laudadio refused
to come out of a shower and demanded a new jumpsuit. As a result of Laudadio's refusal to follow orders, sheriff's deputy
Rodney Payne used pepper spray on him, the records show. "I just
wanted him to handcuff up and get him out of the shower so I could have
somebody speak with him and see what was going on," Payne testified at
a December 2014 deposition. "I was actually going to have him escorted
right back down to suicide watch." A nurse then saw and cleared Laudadio, who was sent back into the shower to clean
off. While in there, Laudadio took his jumpsuit,
jammed it between the shower and door, and attempted to hang himself with a
pant leg, the records show. About three minutes passed between the time Laudadio was last heard and the time he was found and
cut down. Laudadio survived, but oxygen
deprivation to the brain caused permanent damage. Within a week after Laudadio's attempted suicide, Corizon administrators
noticed something missing in Laudadio's file:
documents showing he had been evaluated before his transfer out of suicide
watch. In an email, one that has become central to the allegations levied
by Bobbin's lawyers, a Corizon Health Services administrator, Natalia
Saunders, said the documents couldn't be found. "A clearance form was
in the chart," wrote Saunders. "I spoke to the (mental health
counselor) that signed it to inquire why she cleared (Laudadio)
but did not evaluate him." Over the next several weeks, Corizon
administrators grew worried about the form's absence. In one email, about a
month after the suicide attempt, a top administrator wrote that Corizon's
regional director for Florida was "afraid the note does not exist or
they will not be able to find it." The evaluation was finally found in
early December, about a month and a half after it went missing. In an
email, Saunders wrote that Stepnoski, the nurse
who authored the evaluation, found it in another patient's chart. But
Bobbin's lawyers suspect the evaluation didn't exist when Laudadio tried to hang himself. First, Stepnoski doesn't remember finding the evaluation, as
Saunders claimed she did. When asked in a May 2015 deposition whether she
located the missing evaluation, Stepnoski
replied, "I don't recall. It's been three years." "I believe
they later told me we — it was found in someone else's chart," Stepnoski said. Second, jail logs don't show Stepnoski or anybody from the mental health unit coming
onto the suicide watch floor in the time between Laudadio's
arrival and 9:45 a.m. Oct. 16, the date and time written by Stepnoski on her signed evaluation. Stepnoski
testified she was on the floor, as evidenced by the fact that five other
inmates were released from that floor around the same time as Laudadio. Bobbin's lawyers are in the process of trying
to track down the other inmates to question whether they recall seeing Stepnoski that morning. Harland, Bobbin's lawyer, said
the documents they've received "point to supporting that email"
by Saunders, who initially said Stepnoski cleared
but didn't evaluate Laudadio. Corizon has been
subject to critical media and governmental reports regarding its health
care in recent years, particularly in Florida. In September, the state's
independent Correctional Medical Authority reported "serious deficiencies"
including "significant delays in treatment and inmate care" at
Florida's largest prison for female inmates, where Corizon provided medical
services. In November, Corizon chose to not renew its $1.1 billion contract
to provide health care services in Florida's prisons, calling the agreement
"too constraining." The company says it still serves about 430
facilities and 320,000 patients in 25 states. The Lee County Sheriff's
Office ended its relationship with Corizon in 2014, switching to a new provider,
Armor Correctional Health Services. Sheriff's officials declined to comment
on the reason for the change, and they didn't comment publicly on the
switch at the time. Laudadio now resides in a
round-the-clock care facility in Wauchula, about 50 miles east of Sarasota.
He can't care for himself, can't hold a conversation and has no short-term
memory, Bobbin said. Bobbin's lawyers said the Wauchula facility costs
about $300,000 per year, though the rehabilitation center hasn't required
payment until the lawsuit is completed. Bobbin is seeking an unspecified
amount of damages. Bobbin knew her brother had struggled with drug
addiction and brushes with the law, but she sensed an improvement shortly
before his incarceration. "He wanted to do well. He was doing well at
the time," Bobbin said. "There's always the what-ifs. I just want
him taken care of."
Jan 2, 2016
ocala.com
Former Union Correctional nurse arrested in drug scheme
A former nurse
at Union Correctional Institution was arrested Tuesday in a case that
involved allegations of altering or falsifying a drug prescription,
according to records released by the Florida Department of Corrections.
Lloyd Collins, who worked for the prison health contractor Corizon Health,
was charged with falsifying or altering records and fraud in obtaining
medicinal drugs, the department said in a news release. Collins was fired
in November. Records released by the department were heavily redacted to
prevent release of protected information, but an arrest warrant indicates
the case stems from an incident Nov. 2. Part of the warrant alleged that
Collins "did knowingly cause a prescription for a medicinal drug … to
be falsely made or altered."
Dec 5, 2015 wfsu.org
After Corizon's Contract Cancellation, What Happens To Prison Health
Employees?
As a private prison health provider’s contract with the state draws to
an end, some wonder how Corizon’s cancellation of the contract will impact
Florida inmates as well as employees. Corizon Health is the nation’s
largest private prison health care provider company. It serves more than
110 correctional facilities, which includes work camps, across the state.
In a video featured on their website, former Corizon CEO Woodrow Myers
talks about the benefits of privatized prison health care they provide. “We
are healthcare providers first and foremost,” he stated. “Quality of care
is number one on our agenda. We are going to be as aggressive as we can in
making sure our team is optimally prepared to do the best job we can do for
our clients and our patients. Period.” But, back in January, Florida
Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones told some Florida lawmakers
that the private prison providers in charge of inmate’s health care wasn’t
up to par. By October 2013, the state fully privatized the inmate health
care services. Corizon covered most of the state, and another company,
Wexford, covered the Southern region. “The standard of healthcare with our
current providers is not at the level that’s required by their contracts,
and we’re working very diligently with those two vendors to try to get the
standard of care up to the level that’s required in those contracts,” said
Jones, speaking during a committee hearing. In addition to working with
Corizon and Wexford, Jones had also already begun looking into rebidding
those contracts to other providers. But, on Monday, Corizon sent a letter
to Jones, stating it was terminating its current contract with the state
and will stop the services by the end of May next year. In a statement,
Corizon’s new CEO Karey Witty said while they’d tried to address the
department’s concerns, they found the terms of the current contract “too
constraining.” “If the constraints were to provide the proper health care
for the inmates, then if that’s too constraining, then, they don’t need the
contract,” said Sen. Audrey Gibson (D-Jacksonville). Gibson is the Vice
Chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which is looking into these
issues. The chair, Sen. Greg Evers (R-Baker), is one of the lawmakers who
has made unannounced visits to correctional facilities and expressed
concern. Like Evers, Gibson has also expressed her disappointment in the
medical services rendered. “I find it interesting that Corizon would
terminate, rather than us terminate with them, which I’m sure they probably
knew it was coming,” she added. “And, it’s good. It’s time that we do
better by inmates, while they’re in our care and custody, because they are
still human beings, whose health issues should be recognized and taken care
of.” But, what about the employees, who will soon no longer be employed by
Corizon? “I am not certain about that, and that’s probably something I
would discuss with the chair of the Criminal Justice [Sen. Greg Evers], and
probably ask him to have a presentation so we understand all the
ramifications,” Gibson replied. And, Sen. Rob Bradley (R-Fleming Island)
had similar thoughts. He says it’s really up to Secretary Jones to come
forward with a plan. “So, I anticipate hearing from her very soon about
what her plan of action is to make sure when May comes around, that there
is no break in services and that we have a seamless transition to the next
provider,” he said. Still, some unions already have an answer to that
particular question: transfer those Corizon employees back into state
employment. Worried about the loss of thousands of state employee jobs,
AFSCME and the Florida Nursing Association were part of a lawsuit to stop
the state from privatizing prison health care services. The unions lost,
and while Corizon and Wexford employed many, there were still hundreds of
layoffs as well as others moving to work for other state agencies. “We did
have employees go to Corizon, and we have received calls over the last
couple years that working conditions were not as good as the state
employment that they had before and they were concerned about patients and
inmate safety,” said Jeanie Demshar with the
Florida Nursing Association. Demshar says she’s
not surprised by this turn of events. And, she adds her organization is now
working to save the situation. “We did predict that something like this
would happen,” she stated. “As you know, we did file lawsuits and were
involved in several legal actions contesting the privatization, but we did,
in the end, lose. So, we did predict that the contracts would not provide
adequate care for the inmates, and of course, a lot of our state employees
lost their jobs. We are taking the position now that the state should
return those positions now to the state employees.” Demshar
says her union is already in contact with the legislature and the
Governor’s office to start those talks. Meanwhile, Jones says she’s already
working to ensure a “seamless delivery of services.” She’s also indicated
despite the cancelation, the rebidding process may still be open to
Corizon.
Dec 3, 2015 miami.cbslocal.com
TALLAHASSEE (NSF) – Florida prisons chief Julie Jones is considering hiring
temp agencies to fill in the gap after Corizon Health officials decided to
walk away from the largest prison health-care contract in the country.
Officials from Tennessee-based Corizon put Jones on notice Monday they
intend to leave Florida — and a five year, $1.2 billion contract — as of
May 31 because the agreement is “too constraining.” And, even though the
company is fleeing the state years ahead of schedule, Corizon hasn’t done
anything that would keep it from participating in the forthcoming
invitation to negotiate, or ITN, for a new contract, Jones told The News
Service of Florida on Tuesday. “What they have done in exercising a legal
element in their existing contract, that does not preclude them from trying
to re-bid on parts of the new ITN. It just depends on how they score out
against other vendors,” she said. The possibility that the private provider
— which cares for about three-fourths of the state’s 100,000 inmates —
could be in the running for another deal left top Republican lawmakers who
oversee prisons incredulous. “If you drop out on a contract, and you’re
telling me that you’re not man enough to honor the contract that you
entered into and now you want the state of Florida to turn around and allow
you to bid again? No. Personally, for me, that dog don’t run,” said Senate
Criminal Justice Chairman Greg Evers, R-Baker. Corizon, which hasn’t ruled
out responding to the ITN, should be barred from participating, said House
Criminal Justice Chairman Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami. Absolutely. We had a
contractual agreement with them and they chose to opt out and move in a
different direction. Given their quality outcomes, I just don’t think
they’re a good partner for the state,” Trujillo, R-Miami, said. The ITN,
which is a relatively common contracting method in state government, is
expected to be released before the end of the month, but new contracts
won’t go into effect until mid-2017, according to Jones. That will leave
the Department of Corrections with a gap in providing health services after
Corizon leaves. Jones intends to use health-care companies that provide
temporary services for hospitals and other parts of the health-care
industry to bridge the gap. The department will “have a third party gather
up as many of the current Corizon employees as possible,” she said. “So
it’s important, not only for me to get a seamless supply of adequate health
care for these inmates, but it’s also important to me to make sure that we
keep all of these folks employed,” Jones said. “Because they used to be our
employees prior to Corizon coming.” Corizon has been under fire from
lawmakers and attorneys representing inmates who accuse the company of
routinely providing inadequate care since taking over services in most of
the prisons in the central and northern portions of the state two years
ago. Lawyers for Florida inmates in September filed a class-action lawsuit
against the Department of Corrections and Corizon, alleging that the state
agency and the company were denying hernia operations to save money. Less
than four months before Gov. Rick Scott was re-elected in 2014, former
Corrections Secretary Michael Crews quietly agreed to pay Corizon and
another prison health-care firm, Wexford Health Sources, an additional $3.2
million to stay on the job for another year. Scott had pushed for
privatization of the prison health-care services. Two months after he inked
the contract amendments, Crews threatened to stop payments to Corizon,
saying the company failed to follow through after audits revealed
shortcomings in multiple areas, including medical care, nursing and
staffing. The corrections department has fined Corizon nearly $70,000 in
liquidated damages so far this year, according to agency spokesman McKinley
Lewis. What could have ultimately been the final straw for Corizon was
whether the company’s payments should be adjusted annually according to
changes in the Consumer Price Index. While its contract made allowances for
such hikes, any increases would have to be approved by the Legislature,
which has been inconsistent in authorizing partial increases for Corizon
and never approved a full Consumer Price Index hike — as much as 4 percent
— since the contract went into effect. The failure to get the increase was
“distressing” to Corizon, Jones said. “Their concern was that their
escalating costs for personnel and for drugs was increasing and they were
not being compensated for it,” she said. “Now, that’s on them. I told them
from day one that you agreed to this and there was no agreement that you
were going to get CPI. But a significant driving force in terminating the
contract with Florida was no CPI.” Jones said Corizon executives initially
told her they were losing at least $1 million per month on the contract. “I
told them weeks ago that going forward, if they were going to continue with
us, that I would go and ask (the Legislature) for the money to cover their
costs, basically,” she said. “I asked them how much are you losing. The
original figure they gave me was $1 million. But in the meeting yesterday
afternoon, they said it was much more than that a month and that’s why they
finally just threw in the towel. They didn’t want to wait to see if the
Legislature was going to give them the extra funding. It was a business
decision, pure and simple.” Jones described her relationship with Corizon
executives, who met with her on a weekly basis, as “collegial,” and spoke
of the company’s decision to exit the state without animosity. Jones said
she met in her office on Monday with Corizon executives, who told her of
their intent to terminate the contract early. The company’s board of
directors made the decision to pull out of Florida during a meeting less
than two weeks ago. She acknowledged that its contract with Florida may not
have reaped the benefits Corizon anticipated. “I do believe that they were
losing money. Now, how much money, I have no way of knowing. And level of
profit … I don’t know how much profit they’ve made on this contract and I
don’t know what their expectations were,” she said. “But a private company
like this, they have investors. I think those were the people that were
making those decisions.” A spokeswoman for Corizon would not respond
directly to questions about the company’s finances or if it was losing
money on the deal. “We just made a decision to exercise the 180 days clause
that’s allowed in the contract,” spokeswoman Martha Harbin said Tuesday.
Critics of the current system say that it is time for the state to resume
providing health care for inmates. “I think privatization in this
particular area has just been a disaster. I think it will continue to be a
disaster as long as they attempt to contract with private companies like
Corizon,” said Florida Justice Institute Executive Director Randall Berg,
who is representing inmates on the class-action lawsuit related to hernia
care. It’s not the first time Florida has been left holding the bag. In
2006, Prison Health Services — which later merged with a company that
became Corizon — gave the state 90 days notice
that it was quitting a contract for inmate health care less than eight
month after the job started. The company said it was terminating the
contract because of unexpected costs after the state refused to increase
its payments, according to a legislative analysis written in 2010. Florida
lawmakers outsourced health care for inmates throughout the state in 2011
as part of the language in the state budget. Lawsuits kept the privatization
switch on hold until 2013, when Corizon took over health care for the
majority of the state’s prisoners. Wexford is being paid about $240 million
to handle the rest of the inmates. A month after taking over the helm of
the Department of Corrections in January, Jones announced that she would
re-bid prison health contracts with Wexford and Corizon through the
procurement process known as an invitation to negotiate. Through that
process, the department indicated it wanted to address issues such as staffing,
mental-health services and the use of electronic health records. Jones said
Tuesday she is uncertain whether she will grant a contract to a single
provider or parcel out the services. “We are going to allow vendors to bid
on a part of the state or a service or the entire state. That’s the beauty
of the ITN process. It really puts the vendor in the driver’s seat as to
what their specialty is, rather than having a company come in and try to
backfill on something that is so big and then not be able to accommodate
all of the services, which is pretty much what happened with Corizon,”
Jones said. “We’re going to look very carefully at these vendors and see
what their capabilities are and make sure that they don’t stretch beyond
their capabilities.”
Dec 1, 2015 miamiherald.com
Private prison healthcare in doubt as contract with Florida collapses
After two years of complaints about healthcare in Florida’s prisons,
the private company that has been responsible for the largest share of
inmate care — Corizon Health — decided not to renew its $1.1 billion
contract with the state Monday, leaving the future of care for 74,000
inmates in limbo when the company pulls out in six months. The decision by
the Tennessee-based company to exercise its right to terminate the contract
that was scheduled to expire in 2018 came as the Florida Department of
Corrections was attempting to renegotiate the agreement amid reports of
inmate maltreatment, chronic understaffing and rising numbers of unnatural
inmate deaths. “We appreciate the contracts for inmate health services
permit very little of the flexibility that Secretary [Julie] Jones would
like in order to address issues such as staffing, mental health care, and
electronic health records,” Corizon Chief Executive Officer Karey Witty
said in a statement. “We have tried to address the department’s concerns
but have found the terms of the current contract too constraining. At this
point, we believe the best way to move forward is to focus our efforts on a
successful transition to a new provider.” In February, Department of
Corrections Secretary Julie Jones was ordered to renegotiate the contract
by Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice
Committee, after a series of reports in the Miami Herald and other news
organizations showed suspicious inmate deaths were covered up or never
reviewed, staffing was inadequate, and inmate grievances and complaints of
harmful medical care were dismissed or ignored. Audits conducted by the
state’s Correctional Medical Authority found problems with inadequate
medical care, nursing and staffing shortages, and hundreds of pending
lawsuits against the state and the healthcare companies claiming inadequate
care. Last year, 346 inmates died in
Florida prisons — 176 of them listed with no immediate cause of death. It
was the highest number on record, even though the number of inmates in
Florida prisons has declined. The decision is a blow to the effort by
several legislators and Gov. Rick Scott to privatize medical care in
Florida prisons. After failing to pass legislation to authorize the state
to outsource its prison healthcare to companies that contributed heavily to
Republican campaigns, a provision allowing the privatization effort was
quietly inserted into the 2011 budget, during the governor’s first term. A
union-led lawsuit challenged the language in court but it was upheld and
the contracts were allowed. Under the deal first signed in 2013, Corizon
Health is being paid $229 million a year until June 30, 2018, to provide
healthcare to 74,000 inmates at 111 of Florida’s prisons, work camps and
work-release centers in North and Central Florida. Wexford Health Services
is being paid $48 million a year until Dec. 20, 2017, to provide health
services to about 15,000 inmates at nine prisons in South Florida. The
contract requires that both companies provide medical care to inmates for 7
percent less than it cost the state in 2010, but both companies sought and
received increases in the terms of their original agreement. In 2014,
former FDC Secretary Michael Crews agreed to raise the annual contract with
Corizon and Wexford by $3.2 million. Subsequent audits revealed that even
after the increased payments, Corizon failed to meet its contract
obligations regarding staffing and medical care. Evers asked the agency to
renegotiate the contracts with both private prison providers to demand
higher standards of care and hold them accountable for deaths and injuries.
Jones also criticized the contracts as too lenient for the vendors and
issued an invitation to rebid the contract on Feb. 23. The department did
not explain what will be next for the prison system, but said in a
statement that updates would be forthcoming. “In the coming months,
Secretary Jones will work closely with the Department’s Office of Health
Services to ensure that the appropriate staff and resources are available
at our facilities to continue seamless delivery of appropriate medical care
to our inmate population,’’ the statement said. Evers said he was not
prepared to comment on the decision but said he considered it a “good sign”
that Jones was following through on directions to hold the company
accountable for providing the level of care they agreed to when they signed
the contract with the state. “This is good news,” said Rep. Carlos
Trujillo, R-Miami, who chairs the House Criminal Justice subcommittee that
oversees prisons. He had been supportive of the effort to renegotiate the
contract because “the healthcare outcomes were some of the worst in any
sort of managed care.” “It’s a huge contract. People don’t walk away from
this easily,” Trujillo said. “It further goes to show that the secretary is
holding people accountable. Regardless of their reason for leaving, she’s
forcing people to come to the table and push for the outcomes.” Trujillo
said that the options include providing a “hybrid” system that would rely
on private healthcare services in areas of the state where that is most efficient
and return to in-house medical staffing in other parts of the state.
Nov
7, 2015 news.wgcu.org
Emergency Situation Declared At Florida Women’s Reception Center
An
oversight board has declared a health care emergency at a Florida women’s
prison, according to records obtained by WMFE. The Correctional Medical
Authority’s did an audit of the Florida Women’s Reception Center in Ocala.
It found “life threatening” issues that needed immediate medical care,
according to a letter sent Sept. 22. “A thorough review of (Florida Women’s
Reception Center's) healthcare delivery system … revealed several
deficiencies related to delays in treatment and inmate care,” wrote Jane
Holmes-Cain, the executive director of the Correctional Medical Authority,
in a letter to state officials. “These findings are considered to be very
serious, and require emergency notification and the Department’s immediate
attention.” Inspectors found: A diabetic prisoner didn’t get insulin for
two to three months. An inmate with a golf ball sized lump was denied an
MRI in July, and still hasn’t seen a surgeon. An inmate with a history of
cervical cancer had an abnormal screening in May, but no follow-up until
August – despite having symptoms that the cancer had spread to her brain.
Missing and incomplete records for the 1,000 inmates. Florida Department of
Corrections spokesman McKinley Lewis said all the major issues identified
in the audit have been addressed. The state is working through a correction
plan. “I do know additional staff were brought in,” Lewis said. “They came
from central office here, and I believe Corizon did bring in some
additional staff as well to handle some issues. But I can’t speak
specifically to what Corizon’s actions were.” Corizon is Florida’s
for-profit health care contractor for prisons. Company officials didn’t
respond to a request for comment in time for this story. State officials
said they plan to re-bid Corizon’s contract in December or January after
multiple reports of issues with inmates.
Sep 18, 2015 miamiherald.com
Lawsuit claims Florida inmates are denied
surgeries
Three
inmates are suing the Florida Department of Corrections and medical
contractor Corizon, alleging Corizon refused to provide medically necessary
surgical procedures in an effort to keep costs down. The class-action
lawsuit, which cites several other cases of alleged inadequate care,
accuses Corizon of violating prisoners’ Eighth Amendment right against
cruel and unusual punishment. Corizon and a second prison system healthcare
contractor, Wexford, have faced a flurry of litigation around the country,
accusing them of cutting corners on care to save money, sometimes with
fatal results. This latest lawsuit focuses on hernia surgeries. It claims
that Tracy Copeland, 48, was repeatedly denied a hernia operation despite
two recommendations from a doctor for the procedure, and that Amado Parra,
60, and Archie Green, 43, were also denied surgical evaluation for severely
painful hernias that limit their ability to move. All three have had symptoms
of groin hernias since 2012 and 2013. Copeland and Parra are serving time
for second-degree murder. Green is imprisoned for a handful of charges,
including burglary and grand theft with a firearm. “What they’re trying to
do is maximize their profits as a for-profit medical care provider,” said
Randall C. Berg Jr., executive director of the Florida Justice Institute,
which filed the suit on behalf of the prisoners. “The unfortunate thing
about inmates is if they don’t get surgery by the medical provider, they
can’t go elsewhere. There’s no other entity to turn to get the medical care
they need.” Martha Harbin, a spokeswoman for Corizon, said the company had
not yet been served with the lawsuit and denied the company has a policy
restricting surgeries for inmates. “Corizon Health has no policies limiting
or preventing surgery for the repair of hernias or any other medically
necessary procedures,” she wrote in an email. “We are first and foremost
healthcare providers. Our mission is to deliver safe, effective and
efficient healthcare services using best practices and evidence-based
medicine.” “One of the most common misperceptions about our company is that
we somehow benefit from providing lower-quality care,” she added. “To the
contrary, what makes good business sense and good medical sense is
excellent preventive care — intervening early to prevent and/or treat
conditions before they become serious and cause disease-related
complications.” The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring Corizon to
provide surgery to inmates who need it, and requests punitive damages from
the Brentwood, Tennessee.-based contractor. Corizon, which operates in 27
states, was awarded a five-year contract with the Florida Department of
Corrections in 2013, despite already facing numerous lawsuits across the
country for allegedly deficient care. Corizon manages medical care in 114
of the Department of Corrections’ 140 facilities, including prisons,
annexes, work camps and other units. Department of Corrections spokesman
McKinley Lewis said the agency is reviewing the complaint “to determine the
appropriate legal action.” “The prescribed course of care varies from
patient to patient and is based on the professional medical opinion of the
attending healthcare provider,” he added. The Department of Corrections
announced in February that it is rebidding its healthcare contracts before
the end of the year.
Mar 12, 2015 saintpetersblog.com
As
reported earlier this week in Florida Politics, Pete Antonacci
- former general counsel for Gov. Rick Scott - is back in the influence
business at his former firm GrayRobinson. Last
week, Antonacci’s roster of clients were
relatively anodyne, but not so as of today with the registration of his
fourth client. Antonacci has signed up private
prison giant Corizon, a firm that does a great deal of sensitive business
with the state. New Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones is
looking to overhaul exactly the kinds of facilities run by Corizon amid
reports of prisoner abuse and neglect across the state. Jones is the second
straight DOC chief to take an interest in the company: former Secretary
Mike Crews - very much in the news these days – awarded Corizon a boost in
its contract last year and has now been critical in legislative hearings of
Florida’s prisons, particularly the for-profit variety. Doubtless, firms
that contract with the state of Florida to provide correctional services
could certainly use a PR push right about now.
Feb
22, 2015 tampabay.com
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones
announced Friday that she intends to rebid contracts worth about $1.4
billion with private companies to provide health care services to the
state's 100,000 inmates. Jones's announcement came amid increased scrutiny
of Florida's prison system, the third-largest in the country, after reports
of guards abusing inmates, a rising number of unexplained inmate deaths and
lawsuits from investigators who claim they were retaliated against after
exposing wrongdoing. Lawmakers have recently focused on problems with
medical services provided to inmates by Wexford Health Sources and Corizon
Health. The for-profit companies took over prison health care nearly two
years ago after a drawn-out court battle over outsourcing ordered by the
Legislature in 2011. Jones has been highly critical of the state's current
five-year deals with the companies and began exploring ways to rebid or
cancel the contracts shortly after taking over as head of the department
last month. Under the current agreements, Wexford is being paid $48 million
a year until Dec. 20, 2017, to provide health services to about 15,000
inmates at nine prisons in South Florida. Corizon, which provides health
care to more than 74,000 inmates in North and Central Florida as well as
part of South Florida, receives $229 million per year. The Corizon contract
was set to expire on June 30, 2018. Rebidding the contracts is expected to
drive up costs because the department will want more services. "We are
anticipating a cost increase. But we're also adding electronic health
records, liquidated damages and other enhancements to the contract that
will help us in the delivery of health care services," department
spokesman McKinley Lewis said. Senate Criminal Justice Chairman Greg Evers
ordered Jones to redo the current contracts after he visited several
prisons in his Panhandle district and found they were understaffed by
doctors and nurses, a common complaint in other states where
Tennessee-based Corizon does business. Staffing was one of a variety of
issues Jones outlined in a news release Friday announcing her intention to
open a contracting process known as an invitation to negotiate "prior
to the beginning of 2016." Jones is seeking "enhanced
elements" to the current contracts that will include "the ability
to ensure that appropriate staffing is provided by our contractors that
enables a proper mix of administrative and institutional-level direct care,
the presence of medical staff who possess the proper skills and
qualifications to provide quality care to our inmate population and
clinical oversight and supervision." Jones wants the contractors to
perform internal audits of staffing levels, which will also be monitored by
the state Correctional Medical Authority and the department's
health-services staff. She also intends to demand higher penalties for the
companies if they fail to meet minimum staffing or standard-of-care levels.
In addition, the secretary is asking companies to use electronic health
records "to support decision making and improve provision of
comprehensive medical, dental and mental health services while ensuring
continuity of care," she said. Last year, 346 of the state's
100,000-plus inmates died behind bars. More than half of those deaths — 176
— were initially unclassified, meaning state investigators had no immediate
explanation for the causes of death. According to the Department of
Corrections website, 146 inmates died due to heart attacks, cancer,
gastrointestinal diseases or other medical problems. "I am confident
in the ability of this department to meet the health care needs of our
inmate population through a partnership with private health care providers.
Through this procurement process, the department will take steps toward
being better able to ensure that the health care services required to be
delivered to our inmate population are done so in a professional,
expeditious and quality fashion," Jones said in the news release.
Evers was cautiously optimistic about Jones's announcement. "In the
past year since the Florida correctional health care has become fully
privatized, inmates' deaths have increased a staggering 10 percent. I'm
encouraged to see that FDOC is responding to this health care crisis in our
health care system. It's been a terrible deal for the Florida taxpayers.
Floridians deserve better," Evers, R-Baker, said. "It is my hope
and expectation that this time FDOC will rebid these contracts in an open
and transparent process that includes proper accountability and oversight.
We will be watching this process very closely to make sure that FDOC is not
giving us whipped cream and telling us it's ice cream." Both companies
have pledged to continue to provide services throughout the rebidding
process. "We are pleased to see Secretary Jones doing exactly what she
promised to do when she took over leadership of the Department of
Corrections — making whatever changes are necessary to ensure the best
outcomes for the state, its taxpayers, and its inmate population. This new
procurement process will allow additional flexibility and increased
cooperation between the state of Florida and its partners, and we believe
we are well-positioned to continue as the state's principal correctional
health provider," Corizon Health Chief Executive Officer Woodrow
Myers, Jr., said in a statement issued Friday. Corizon, which employs 1,700
workers in Florida, is also "proud of the improvements we've made in
recent months, for instance enhancing reporting on healthcare metrics and
adding more staff at no additional cost to the state," Myers wrote.
Wexford President Dan Conn said in a statement that his Pittsburgh-based
company is committed to working with Jones. "We are confident Wexford
Health has been meeting the many requirements of our contract with the
State of Florida and know the overwhelming majority of concerns expressed
by the secretary and legislators don't apply to the inmates under our care
in Florida," Conn wrote. "The opportunity to rebid the contract
will give us a chance to take Florida prison health care to the next level
and implement additional cost-saving clinical programs not possible under
the current contract, such as discounted drug pricing programs and
electronic health records. Wexford Health looks forward to continuing our
partnership with the Department of Corrections now and into the
future." The rebidding of the contracts is the latest turn in
Florida's decades-long struggle with inmate health care. In the mid 1970s, lawyers launched a a
nearly 20-year court battle, known as Costello v. Wainwright, over
prisoners' health care, resulting in the appointment of a special master
and nearly a decade of federal-court oversight of health services in the
Department of Corrections. The Correctional Medical Authority was created
in 1986 as part of the settlement in the Costello case. The state's prison
health system stayed under federal oversight until 1993, when a judge
decided that the federal government could relinquish its role as long as
Florida remained committed to using monitors, like the authority, to ensure
that prisoners' rights were not being violated. In the midst of deciding to
privatize prison health care in 2011, lawmakers effectively shuttered the
authority by eliminating its $717,000 budget. That same year, Gov. Rick
Scott vetoed a measure that would have eliminated the agency altogether,
calling it a "valuable layer of oversight." The next year, House
and Senate leaders allocated $580,000 to revive the agency, shrunk from 12
workers to six with an oversight board of seven governor-appointed members.
Critics of the revived authority say the agency no longer has the power it
held when U.S. District Judge Susan Black agreed to end federal oversight.
Disappointment in the current health-care contracts began not long after
the privatization was fully implemented in late 2013. Less than four months
before Scott, who pushed for the privatization, was re-elected last year,
former Corrections Secretary Michael Crews quietly agreed to pay Wexford
and Corizon another $3.2 million to stay on the job for another year. Two
months after he inked the contract amendments, Crews threatened to stop
payments to Corizon, saying the company failed to follow through after
audits revealed shortcomings in multiple areas, including medical care,
nursing and staffing. The threat of another Costello-like class action
lawsuit and federal oversight is an additional incentive for lawmakers to
try to rectify prison health-care issues, which one lawyer who represented
the inmates said are worse now than when the case was settled. "Once
those bids come in, if the private health care providers can't do it at a
cost we can afford, then it may be cheaper because of the inadequate health
care the inmates are receiving. The state may have to look at taking it
back over," Evers said.
Oct
12, 2013 BrowardBulldog.org
The
two top executives of a state vendor who negotiated a $1.2 billion contract
with the Florida Department of Corrections to provide medical care for
thousands of state prisoners were abruptly dismissed on Wednesday.
Tennessee-based Corizon, operating subsidiary of Valitas
Health Services, declined to discuss the reason for the departures of Chief
Executive Officer Rich Hallworth and President
Stuart Campbell. The move, however, followed a Sept. 23 announcement by
Moody’s Investors Service that it had downgraded approximately $360 million
in Valitas’s corporate debt securities – changing
the company’s rating outlook from stable to negative and increasing the
likelihood of default. Last week, BrowardBulldog.org reported that Corizon,
which began work in August at 41 state correctional facilities in north and
central Florida, was sued 660 times for malpractice across the country in
the last five years. Nearly half of those cases remain open. Of those that
are closed, 91 – one in four – ended with confidential settlements. Wexford
Health Sources, which has a five-year agreement worth $240 million to
provide health services to state inmates in South Florida, was hit with
1,092 malpractice claims – suits, notices of intent to sue and letters from
aggrieved inmates – from January 1, 2008 through 2012. Wexford paid a total
of $5.4 million to settle those cases. Among the reasons cited by Moody’s
for Valitas’s deteriorating financial position
are the recent loss of prison health contracts with Maine, Maryland, Tennessee
and Pennsylvania, as well as “competitive pricing pressure” elsewhere.
Corizon/Valitas is the nation’s largest provider
of healthcare services to correctional facilities, in charge of medical
care for 410,000 inmates in 29 states. The company could be upgraded
financially next year if earnings increase, according to Moody’s. Yet the
sudden departure of the two executives who landed the enormous Florida
contract, and Moody’s generally weak financial portrait of the company, are
raising prior concerns about Corizon’s performance. In 2006, when known as
Prison Health Services, Corizon walked away from a 10-year, nearly $800
million contract with Florida to provide healthcare to thousands of inmates
in state prisons in South Florida. The Sun-Sentinel reported then that a
spokesman said the contract had “underperformed financially.” “The company
said higher than anticipated use of hospitals located off prison grounds
was the main reason it was ending the agreement,” the newspaper reported.
The Department of Corrections awarded Corizon the contract in 2005 “despite
protests from legislators and competitors who said the company’s bid was
too low to provide quality service.” That bid was $80 million less than its
nearest competitor, the newspaper said. While there is concern that history
might be repeating itself, a Corizon spokesman offered reassurance that was
not the case. “This change in company leadership should not impact
day-to-day operations with Corizon’s clients. The company will continue to
focus on patient safety and exceeding client expectations in every aspect
of our service delivery,” said spokesman Pat Nolan. Florida Corrections
spokeswoman Misty Cash said the state is not concerned about Corizon’s
future performance. “The placement of a new CEO at Corizon will have no
impact on our contract with the company. The Department of Corrections
looks forward to working with new CEO Woodrow A. Myers Jr., M.D. and his
leadership team.” Corizon announced the appointment of Myers as CEO on
Thursday, effective immediately. Myers is a Valitas
board member and former executive vice president and chief medical officer
of Indiana-based WellPoint. Valitas is majority
owned by Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company, a
Chicago-based private equity management firm. It reported revenue of
approximately $1.2 billion for the twelve months that ended June 30.
July
25, 2013 cjr.org
MIAMI
— With Florida embarking on an ambitious effort to privatize much of the
state’s prison healthcare—the largest such undertaking in the nation—the time
is ripe for journalists to take a deeper look into the history of such
programs, and the companies getting massive contracts for taxpayer dollars.
Newspapers in Florida have nibbled around the edges of this complex story,
and problems with privatization efforts in prisons have been investigated
periodically by news outlets around the country. (There are also, of
course, plenty of problems with publicly-administered jails and
prisons—more on that to come). Yet despite problematic records in other
states, and even in Florida, the two companies privatizing healthcare at
Florida prisons—Corizon Inc. and Wexford Health Sources—have received
little recent scrutiny here. The Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald statehouse
bureau has written about the court fight to stop the privatization, which
state workers ultimately lost in June. The Times/Herald team has also noted
that Corizon, the company that is about to take over healthcare at every
Florida prison north of Palm Beach, to the tune of $230 million, has faced
problems with contracts “from Maine to Idaho.” But these companies can be
hard to track. Corizon was created in 2011 with the merger of Prison Health
Services and Correctional Medical Services, companies that have had their
own issues in the past. For example, Prison Health Services had to pay $5
million in fines and restitution in 2004 to resolve a Florida Medicaid
fraud case, and has periodically lost contracts around the country because
of concerns about cost overruns or problems with service. Correctional Medical
Services has had its own difficulties in other states, and even in Florida.
It has lost or walked away from contracts as close to home for Florida
reporters as Palm Beach County. The for-profit prison healthcare industry
is hard to penetrate, with tangled relationships and complex histories. A
year before Palm Beach County dumped CMS in favor of a local company, Armor
Correctional Health Services, Broward County dumped another company,
Wexford Health Sources, in favor of Armor (which also has a contract with
Hillsborough County jails). Armor was founded by the founder of Prison
Health Services, and is “politically connected,” according to a story this
month by The Tampa Bay Times that looked at the challenges and high costs
of jail healthcare. Wexford hasn’t been written about as much in Florida,
though it recently took over health services at nine state prisons in South
Florida with, as the Tampa Bay Times wrote, “a five-year contract starting
at $48 million a year.” But it has faced issues in other states. Corizon
replaced Wexford in Arizona earlier this year, less than a year into
Wexford’s conract, after Wexford was fined by the
state and drew a class action lawsuit by the ACLU alleging “grossly
inadequate medical care.” Corizon has seen a dramatic uptick in lawsuits
filed against it, but those numbers may only reflect the dramatic increase
in contracts Corizon has gotten recently. A deeper look is warranted.
Wexford, too, appears to be seeing an increase in lawsuits, though its name
is not as unique, and easily searchable, as Corizon’s. Again, there’s an
opportunity there for an enterprising reporter to dig into the data.
For-profit health companies serving prisons and jails aren’t the only piece
of this puzzle that is ripe for investigation. Private companies running
entire facilities have also come under scrutiny by reporters, prisoner
advocates, and the Department of Justice. Last month the Atlanta Journal
Constitution noted that a company running a juvenile lock-up in Georgia was
singled out by a Justice Department survey that found it had the highest
percentage in the country of sexual contact between the children and
staffers— with 32 percent of inmates reporting such contact. The AJC noted
the company, Youth Services International, has had problems in every state
where it has a contract.
December 4, 2012WLRN
Private Prison Plan Is Flawed, Judge Rules The Florida Legislature has
struck out again with an attempt to privatize some or all of the state
prison system. FAIL: A judge rules Legislature must pass a law, not use a
committee, to privatize prisons. A Tallahassee judge ruled today that
lawmakers chose an unconstitutional method to turn prison health care
services over to private contractors. As Mary Ellen Klas
reported for The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times: The lawsuit was filed by
the unions that represent prison employees, the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees and the Alliance of Health Care
Employees, who argued that the state was not authorized to make the change
through the 14-member Legislative Budget Commission but instead needed to
make the shift through a full vote of the Legislature. (Leon County Circuit
Judge John) Cooper agreed and ruled that the $229 million contract the
budget commission approved for Nashville-based Corizon Correctional
Healthcare, a for-profit company, was illegal. The ruling will keep about
1,900 prison workers on the job, instead of requiring them to apply for
work with the new contractor. Early this year, under pressure from the prison
guard union and dissident Republicans, the state Senate defeated a bill to
privatize most of the prisons in the southern part of the state. A
privatization plan in the 2011 Legislature succeeded briefly before it,
too, was struck down as unconstitutionally designed.
July 31, 2012 News Service of
Florida
A Leon County circuit judge has agreed to hold a hearing next week in the
long-running dispute about whether the Florida Department of Corrections
will privatize prison health services. Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll has
scheduled an August 8 hearing, according to an online court docket. The
Florida Nurses Association and the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees filed a lawsuit in January challenging a legislative
move last year to privatize inmate health services. Carroll early this
month declined to rule on the constitutionality of the Legislature’s
decision because it was included in budget fine print, known as “proviso”
language, which expired at the June 30 end of the fiscal year. The nurses
association and AFSCME, a state employees union, asked Carroll for a
rehearing. Subsequently, the DOC said it would go ahead with the
privatization, regardless of the expiration of the proviso language. The
DOC said it had the authority to contract with two private companies under
existing state law.
July
26, 2012 Tampa Times
Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, has lodged a formal objection
to the Legislature giving final approval to budget transfers that would
allow the prison system to privatize health care for 100,000 inmates. Rich
wrote a letter (posted below) to Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, who
chairs the 14-member Legislative Budget Commission. The prison system has
asked the LBC to approve a transfer of $58 million between budget
categories so the agency can move forward with the privatization and
implement it by Jan. 1, 2013. The LBC generally functions as a rubber-stamp
for mid-year changes to agencies' budgets, and in the past, an objection
from a single lawmaker has carried great weight. The outsourcing of health
care in Florida prisons has a checkered history, and this latest venture is
highly controversial because it was created under budget proviso language
that expired June 30 when the previous fiscal year ended. "But for the
proviso, the appropriation would not be made," Rich wrote.
"Consequently, I believe the DOC does not have the authority to
privatize health services in prisons." Unions representing state
workers and nurses in the prison system have threatened to file a new
lawsuit seeking to block the project from going forward. Rich's effort to
block the privatization comes as the leading vendor, Corizon Health, has
agreed to pay a $1.85 million fine to the city of Philadelphia because of
irregularities in its handling of a contract in that city's jail system.
November
21, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
After making a dramatic decision not to award a $707 million contract
for prison health care, the Florida Department of Corrections spent its
first day Monday managing the job itself. ''We are very confident that we
can do this,'' said DOC Secretary Jim McDonough. ''I have been tracking it
hour by hour and it appears that the transition is going very well.''
McDonough stunned the private prison-health-care industry late last week
when he announced that the department was rejecting Tennessee-based Prison
Health Services' latest bid to continue the work. The company's existing
contract expired at just after midnight on Sunday. PHS has a troubled
history with the department, one that began earlier this year when it
announced it was pulling out of a 10-year contract it originally signed in
2005 because its $645 million bid did not anticipate the cost of
hospitalizing sick inmates. The department recently announced that it was fining
PHS $696,000 for failing to meet a series of benchmarks, including keeping
legible medical records and missing deadlines to assign caseworkers and
perform medical evaluations. Regardless, PHS was the department's choice
again last month, after it was allowed to compete in a new round of
bidding. That changed again after Pennsylvania-based rival Wexford Health
Sources Inc. challenged the PHS award, saying that its lowest bid of $689
million should have made it the winner. McDonough said Monday that a new
evaluation by outside experts showed that none of the contractors had the
financial qualifications to complete the contract. ''Therefore, there were
no responsive and responsible bidders,'' McDonough said. PHS spokesman John
Van Mol said the company would have no comment. Wexford executives could
not be reached for comment. As recently as this month, McDonough praised
the effort to hand over the job of treating 16,000 inmates in South Florida
to private industry, describing it as a $20 million cost saver for
taxpayers. But at the same time, McDonough ordered his contract managers to
begin an intensive review process to see if the department could perform
the work itself. McDonough said the solution they came up with is a
''hybrid'' form of privatization that involves issuing 145 smaller
contracts and purchasing orders. The department does not have to hire
additional workers to get the job done, McDonough said. McDonough estimates
that there will be a $12 million additional cost to the department in the
first year, but that the department will save money in the long run. ''I
have, in effect, cut out the middle man,'' McDonough said. ''I think we
have come up with a very cost-effective way of doing it.'' Sen. Dave
Aronberg, D-Greenacres, has been a critic of the privatization effort since
it began under McDonough's predecessor. Aronberg pressured McDonough to
impose the fines on PHS, and says he will be watching the department's
performance under the new scheme. ''This is too important an issue to have
a new policy in place every two weeks,'' Aronberg said.''We
are very confident that we can do this. ..... it appears that the
transition is going very well.''
November
17, 2006 AP
The Department of Corrections announced Friday that it will divide health
services for nearly 18,000 inmates in South Florida prisons among many
providers instead of bidding one comprehensive, multimillion-dollar
contract. The agency has issued about 115 purchase orders and more than 30
non-bid contracts for its new health plan that goes into effect midnight
Monday. A little-used state law provides an exception to bidding
requirements for medical services, but two price quotes still were obtained
for each contract, said department spokeswoman Gretl
Plessinger. The decision was made after a review
by independent auditors caught an error in the state's financial analysis
after a second round of bidding for a comprehensive contract last month.
The revised analysis indicated all bidders failed to met financial responsibility requirements. In October
the agency declared its intent to award a $703 million, 10-year contract to
Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn., as the only "responsible
and responsive bidder" based on the erroneous financial calculations.
The contract award had been subject to negotiating final terms and
resolving another bidder's protest. The rebidding had been ordered in
response to Prison Health Services' decision to pull out of its current
$645 million contract, signed earlier this year, claiming it was losing
money on the deal. "DOC has a legal and moral obligation to provide
appropriate health care, while ensuring the most efficient use of taxpayer
money," Corrections Secretary James McDonough said in a statement.
"The department has taken all necessary steps to ensure those
obligations are met." A spokeswoman for Prison Health Services'
parent, American Service Group Inc., declined comment beyond a news release
that simply announced the state's decision and that the company will not
provide service past Monday. McDonough last month also announced he
intended to levy fines against the company for shortcomings under the
original contract. Wexford Health Resources of Pittsburgh, Pa., had
challenged the department's intent to award the rebid contract to Prison
Health Services. Wexford submitted the low bid of $689 million but the
department deemed the company was not financially qualified. Wexford did
not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment. McDonough
said he is confident inmates and taxpayers will benefit from the new plan.
"This private-public hybrid is a groundbreaking approach to
privatization efforts that have brought great savings to Florida
taxpayers," he said.
November
7, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
A Pennsylvania-based prison health-care firm filed a formal protest Monday,
disputing the Department of Corrections decision to award a $707 million,
10-year contract to a rival company with a troubled history. Wexford Health
Sources Inc. filed a 10-page protest late in the day, saying that its
lowest bid of $689 million should have given it the advantage and that the
department made mistakes in calculating its financial strength. A Wexford
executive questioned why the department awarded the bid to Tennessee-based
Prison Health Services Inc., even though the department said Monday that it
is fining PHS $696,000 for problems with its past work. ''The question has
to come to mind, how can PHS be determined to be a responsible bidder?''
Wexford President and CEO Mark Hale said. Department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said the
department received the protest at the end of the business day and would
not be able to comment until after it had time to study the document. PHS
initially won the job in 2005 with a $645 million bid, tens of millions of
dollars lower than Wexford. But PHS abruptly announced it was pulling out
last year. PHS said it dramatically underestimated the cost of
hospitalizing sick inmates and was losing too much money. However, PHS was
invited to compete again when the department put out a new bid. ''Yes,
$696,000 is a lot of money, but this is a $78 million-a-year contract and
in terms of the overall contract, it is less than 1 percent,'' Plessinger said.
October
31, 2006 Palm Beach Post
Floridians who thought Gov. Bush was on to something when he touted
privatization as the cure-all for government's ills know better now after
seven years of disappointing results. When it comes to disappointment, no
private contractor has been worse than Prison Health Services. The
Department of Corrections awarded the company a contract to provide health
care in 13 South Florida facilities late last year. Then-DOC Secretary
James Crosby ignored warnings about the contractor's track record. PHS
faces dozens of lawsuits across the nation over allegations of shoddy care.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office dropped PHS in 2004 after a series
of suits and complaints from inmates; the county health department also
blamed the company for allowing staph infections to spread through the
jail. Crosby discounted the complaints and insisted that PHS was the right
choice. "As a result of this contract," he said, "it is
estimated that Florida's taxpayers will save nearly $3 million between now
and June 2007." When a company with a record of poor performance makes
a deal that sounds too good to be true, the odds are overwhelming that it
is. Within months, PHS was complaining that it was losing money and
threatening to pull out of the contract. This month, the state accepted a
revised bid and added another $58 million to the company's 10-year, $645
million deal. Crosby didn't have to answer for the mess because he was
forced out of office in July after admitting taking thousands of dollars in
kickbacks from another prison contractor. Jim McDonough, Crosby's
successor, wrote a tough-sounding letter to PHS: "Having been
disappointed by you in the past, I will be doubly vigilant to both your
performance and your attitude. You can expect that the next time, it will
be me, not you, who moves abruptly to exercise the withdrawal option."
Sens. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, and Walter "Skip" Campbell,
D-Tamarac, have asked Mr. McDonough to explain why the state shouldn't fine
PHS for its dishonest behavior. Clearly, the company low-balled its bid to
get the contract and, once the state was hooked, shook it down for more
money. Either of two other bidders last year - one higher, and one lower
than PHS - would have been preferable to the unfaithful partner DOC chose.
Mr. McDonough should back up his tough talk with tough sanctions against PHS.
Florida taxpayers know what to think the next time they hear about bargains
from the private sector.
October
24, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
With a stern warning and a promise to levy stiff fines for past
failures, Florida's top prison boss said Monday he would allow a
controversial Tennessee company to continue providing health care to 17,000
South Florida inmates. The Department of Corrections announced that Prison
Health Services is the only one of three competing companies that submitted
a qualifying bid for the nearly $800 million, 10-year health-care-services
contract. However, in a letter to PHS executives, DOC Secretary Jim
McDonough noted the company's abrupt pullout from an original contract it
signed last year. Company officials said they were losing money on their
$645 million bid because they dramatically underestimated the cost of
hospitalizing sick inmates. ''Having been disappointed by you in the past,
I will be doubly vigilant in regard to both your performance and your
attitude providing proper health services to the men and women under my
care,'' McDonough wrote. ''You can expect that the next time, it will be
me, not you, who moves abruptly to exercise the withdrawal option.''
McDonough also warned that the company faces ''significant fines'' for
''shortcomings of services provided by you under the original
contract." McDonough has been under pressure from Democratic legislators
who sit on committees that oversee prison spending. Sen. Dave Aronberg of
Greenacres and Walter ''Skip'' Campbell of Tamarac recently sent letters to
McDonough demanding to know why the department has been slow to fine PHS
for poor performance. In a letter McDonough issued Monday to the lawmakers,
he said he did not want to reveal the amount of fines PHS faces to prevent
companies from changing their bids. ''To have issued such a letter earlier
could have impacted the current (bidding) process, resulting in adjusted
bids that might have raised the bottom line to the taxpayer,'' McDonough
said. Aronberg said Monday that he did not object to allowing PHS to
compete again for the contract. But he didn't expect PHS to win the latest
competition. ''I'm surprised because of the way the last contract was
handled and terminated and because they were not the lowest bidder. My
concern has always been making sure that the state fulfilled its end of the
contract by imposing the fines,'' Aronberg said.
September
29, 2006 Tallahassee Democrat
Two South Florida Democratic lawmakers turned up the heat this
afternoon on the Florida Department of Corrections, demanding to know why
it hasn't imposed fines on a controversial prison health contractor. Sen.
Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Sen. Walter ''Skip'' Campbell of Tamarac,
who is running for attorney general, released a letter they sent Wednesday
to DOC Secretary Jim McDonough demanding to know why Prison Health Services
has not faced fines. ''This information is critical to better understanding
whether this privatization of prison health services is truly serving the
best interest of taxpayers,'' the letter states. Tennessee-based PHS
underbid its closest competitor eight months ago by tens of millions of
dollars for a 10-year, nearly $800 million contract to treat 17,000
prisoners in 13 institutions in South Florida. PHS withdrew from the
contract earlier this month after company officials said they dramatically
underestimated the cost of treating prisoners who needed to be
hospitalized. The company was invited to compete for a new contract that
will be awarded this fall. McDonough issued a statement this afternoon
defending the privatization effort. He said privatizing prison health care
has saved the state $23 million since 2001 in South Florida alone. A review
of PHS performance before it withdrew is still under way, McDonough said.
''No liquidated damages have been assessed of PHS at this time, but we
remain in the review process, which means all matters are still on the table,''
McDonough said. PHS spokeswoman Martha Harbin said the company expects to
face at least some fines, although she could not say how much. She
described it as the cost of doing business with the state on such a large
scale. ''We welcome these reviews as part of quality assurance,'' she said.
''At this point, I would say that the senators are probably just a little
premature. There is a process for reviewing performance, and that process
is not yet complete.''
September
19, 2006 Gainesville Sun
Back in January, the Department of Corrections thought it had health care
for a quarter of all state inmates taken care of for a decade. Prison
officials signed a nearly $69 million-a-year contract with Prison Health
Services to provide health care for inmates in 13 South Florida prisons for
the next 10 years. Instead of 10 years, however, the contract will end up
lasting just over 10 months. Officials at Prison Health Services, owned by
the publicly traded American Service Group, said they based their winning low
bid for the contract on faulty numbers from the state. They also blamed
rising health care costs for needing to bail out of a contract that they
said "underperformed financially." Before ending the contract,
the company tried to negotiate with Department of Corrections Secretary
James McDonough, a tact that had been successful for the firm in other
places, including: June 2002 - Philadelphia and Maine contracts were
renegotiated after Prison Health claimed it was losing money. October 2003
- Kansas contract with Prison Health was transferred to another company
after a failed renegotiation attempt. Winter 2006 - Wyoming contract
renegotiated after Prison Health claimed it lost $600,000 in a single
fiscal quarter. Summer 2006 - Renegotiations get under way in Vermont after
Prison Health announced it had lost $800,000 in a previous fiscal quarter.
Also during the summer, Prison Health tried to renegotiate the South
Florida contract. "They (Prison Health) came to my office and asked if
there was something I could do for them," McDonough said. "The
answer was a polite no - there was nothing I would be doing for them."
Among requests McDonough could recall Prison Health Services making during
the meeting was to have medically expensive inmates transferred out of prisons
in Region IV (South Florida) and into other regions where Prison Health
Services was not contracted to provide medical care. Following the meeting,
prison officials received the contract termination letter from Prison
Health.
September
12, 2006 Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Only eight months after launching one of Florida's largest privatization
projects, a Tennessee-based company has backed out of a $792 million deal
to provide health care to 14,000 inmates in South Florida's state prisons
over 10 years. Prison Health Services announced that, effective Nov. 20, it
will end its state contract, which "has underperformed
financially" for the firm, according to a company spokesman. The
company said higher than anticipated use of hospitals located off prison
grounds was the main reason it was ending the agreement. PHS won the
contract last year despite protests from legislators and competitors who
said the company's bid was too low to provide quality service. Publicly
traded PHS was the low bidder among three experienced national firms that
sought to do the work. PHS undercut the next-lowest bidder,
Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources, by more than $80 million. Despite
abandoning its deal with the state, the company intends to rebid to
continue the work, possibly at a more lucrative price for the firm,
according to Martha Harbin, a spokeswoman in Tallahassee for PHS. State
Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, grilled state officials before the
contract was under way about whether PHS would be adequately compensated.
On Monday, Aronberg said the company's decision to drop the contract shows
the need for greater legislative scrutiny. "This is what I was warning
about," Aronberg said. Last year, Aronberg noted, Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed
legislation that would have created a commission to approve state contracts
worth more than $10 million. Bush said the measure would add "layers
of process and bureaucracy" and cause substantial delays in the
purchasing of necessary goods and services. The measure came in the wake of
questions about several state contracts, including the outsourcing of the
glitch-filled state payroll system.
August
23, 2006 Gainesville Sun
One of the state's largest privatization efforts is ending abruptly with
Prison Health Services' decision to end work with the Florida Department of
Corrections nearly eight years before the contract was to expire. PHS, a
Tennessee-based company that handles health care needs for local- and
state-run jails and prisons around the country, announced on Monday that it
would end its contract providing services to nearly 14,000 prisoners in
more than a dozen South Florida prisons. "The contract has
underperformed financially," a news release states, "primarily
due to a higher than anticipated volume of off-site hospitalization
services. The company's decision to terminate the contract was made only
after diligent efforts on the part of both PHS and Florida Department of
Corrections representatives to reach agreement on provisions that would
allow the contract to continue on mutually beneficial terms." PHS will
cease providing services for DOC on Nov. 20. DOC spokesman JoEllyn Rackleff said that
was enough time for the agency to maintain prisoner well-being in the
transition. DOC Secretary James McDonough has previously said he is willing
to end privatization efforts and return oversight of certain programs to
the agency. PHS won the South Florida contract last year, despite protests
from some lawmakers that the bid was too low to provide quality service.
PHS was set to receive more than $790 million over 10 years for the work.
August
21, 2006 Yahoo News
America Service Group Inc. (NASDAQ:ASGR - News) announced today that its
primary operating subsidiary, Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS), has
formally delivered written notice to terminate its contract with the
Florida Department of Corrections, effective November 20, 2006. As
previously announced, the contract has underperformed financially,
primarily due to a higher than anticipated volume of off-site
hospitalization services required for this patient population. The Company
had been in discussions with the Florida Department of Corrections as to
potential alternatives that could improve the future financial performance
of the contract. The Company's decision to terminate the contract was made
only after diligent efforts on the part of both PHS and Florida Department
of Corrections representatives to reach agreement on provisions that would
allow the contract to continue on mutually beneficial terms.
August
2, 2006 Nashville Business Journal
America Service Group Inc. saw its earnings for the second quarter
plummet 81 percent compared to results for the same period last year. The
provider of prison health care and pharmacy services showed a profit of
$514,000, or 5 cents per diluted share, in the quarter ended June 30
compared to $2.8 million, or 26 cents per diluted share last year. Though
earnings were down, the second quarter saw the company return to an
operating profit - something that hasn't occurred since the second quarter
last year. Nevertheless, the company's stock dropped nearly 19 percent,
trading at $11.66 at 10:20 a.m. The 52-week range of the stock is $11.32 to
$23.20. Brentwood-based America Service (NASDAQ: ASGR) lowered its guidance
and now expects revenues to fall between $650 million and $660 million and
earnings to range between $7.7 million to 8 million. The company cited an
underperforming Florida Department of Corrections contract as the cause of
the reduction. The company's previous guidance called for revenues between
$660 million and $680 million and earnings between $9.4 million and $10
million. Second-quarter revenues were on the upswing, coming in at $160
million compared to $139 million in the second quarter a year ago. Expenses
increased to $150 million in the quarter compared to $128 million in the
second quarter last year. The company also recorded $1.0 million in charges
associated with an audit committee investigation of its Secure Pharmacy
Plus subsidiary. On March 15, the company said an investigation into
financial improprieties at its Secure Pharmacy Plus unit found that the
company failed to properly credit customers with discounts, rebates and
savings and failed to give customers proper credit for returned
pharmaceuticals. Expenses related to the audit amounted to $4.6 million
through the first half of this year and the company expects it will spend
another $400,000 to $900,000. The company continued its stock repurchase
program approved in July of last year to repurchase and retire 217,000 shares
at a value of $3.0 million. The repurchase was suspended during part of the
second quarter when the company received a third-party proposal to acquire
pharmacy services subsidiary Secure Pharmacy Plus. Ultimately, a deal
wasn't reached.
April
1, 2006 Gainesville Sun
The Florida Department of Corrections has taken the unusual step of
ending a contract for the splitting of pharmaceutical drugs, bowing to
legislative pressure on the matter. In a letter delivered on Friday, the
agency told TYA Pharmaceuticals that it was ending the $12 million contract
to split pills for inmates effective May 1. The agency will perform the
job, intended to save money by splitting high-dosage pills into smaller
doses, in its own pharmacies. The agency also notified TYA, a Tallahassee
company, that it will invite competing bids for the company's $72 million
contract to repackage pills in bubble packages. The packages are used to
prevent inmates from hoarding pills or misusing the containers. The
corrections department will publish a request for bids in the next 10 days
and have a new contract in place by July 1. Robby Cunningham, a DOC
spokesman, said interim Secretary James McDonough felt the decisions
"were in the best interest of the state."
February
18, 2006 Herald Tribune
A Florida company squeezed out of a lucrative contract to provide
prescription drugs to South Florida prisons says its replacement may harm
inmates by placing profits over proper prescriptions. And TYA
Pharmaceuticals officials say they were used by industry giant Prison
Health Services to secure the Florida contract late last year, before PHS
replaced them with a PHS sister company after one month of work. Last year,
PHS won the contract to supply health-care services to inmates in
Department of Corrections Region IV facilities in South Florida. PHS said
TYA Pharmaceuticals would handle the distribution of prescription drugs.
The PHS contract with the state took effect in January. TYA founder Terry
Yon said his employees had to begin working on Christmas Day to start
filling more than 30,000 prescriptions for the transition. But earlier this
month, PHS informed the agency that it was replacing TYA with a PHS
subsidiary, Secure Pharmacy Plus. While there was a letter of intent
between PHS and TYA, there was no signed contract. TYA has had a working
relationship with the department since the late 1990s, though lawmakers
have criticized that relationship, citing Florida Auditor General reports
that show the Tallahassee-based company failed to provide basic oversight
and accounting. Prison Health Services is based in Tennessee. "One
could conclude that PHS intended all along to use TYA to obtain the
contract because of our successful history with DOC and to do all the hard
work associated with the transition and then to abandon TYA in favor of
their own subsidiary," Yon said in a statement. "That certainly
is how this story has played out." DOC officials have said PHS was the
lowest bidder for the South Florida contract and was chosen on that basis.
Yon also said PHS will use older anti-psychotropic drugs like Thorazine and
Trilafon that "are less expensive for PHS,
but they have the potential of producing more serious side effects."
PHS spokeswoman Martha Harbin responded with a prepared statement:
"PHS is continuing to provide quality medical care to the inmates in
region IV and meeting each and every one of our contractual obligations we
have to the Department of Corrections. Every action we take is done in
support of that. PHS is now entering into a contract with Secure Pharmacy
Plus. The DOC is fully aware and has approved this contract." Yon said
PHS owes his company nearly $4 million for the month of work. His company
has retained an attorney to study legal options related to their dismissal.
TYA is fighting to keep its other business with the state. Lawmakers forced
the DOC to rebid the two no-bid pharmaceutical contracts TYA had received
for the splitting and repacking of drugs for inmate use in the state's
other three regions. But despite the agency's search of more than 100
companies to find a suitable replacement, only TYA made successful bids.
DOC officials are studying the financial advantages of the outsourcing and
are considering canceling the contracts. Prison Health Services has been
implicated in a number of deaths and mishaps in prisons and jails around
the country, including injuries allegedly caused by inattentive care of a
prisoner at the Sarasota County jail last year. A New York Times report
last year found at least 15 inmate deaths at 11 Florida jails due to
alleged inadequate care by PHS.
February
15, 2006 Herald Tribune
A controversial pharmaceutical company is losing its job of supplying
prescription drugs to Department of Corrections inmates in South Florida.
The company, Tallahassee-based TYA Pharmaceuticals, was chosen to dispense
prescription drugs to inmates in DOC Region IV, which serves 18 counties
including Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte. Prison Health Services, a
Tennessee-based company that has received a DOC contract to supply health-care
needs for inmates in that region, selected TYA for the job. The DOC handles
health care for inmates in its other three regions. PHS took over the
Region IV contract in January and had agreed to subcontract the
pharmaceutical program to TYA but never signed a contract. TYA has been
performing the work since January. PHS notified the Department of
Corrections that it has chosen to replace TYA with its own sister company,
Secure Pharmacy Plus. Martha Harbin, a spokeswoman for PHS, did not supply
specific reasons for the company's decision. "TYA doesn't have a
contract with PHS. They've been trying to reach terms for a contract, and
it's become clear that they're not going to be able to," she said.
January
12, 2006 Palm Beach Post
The Florida Department of Corrections is touting this week's deal with a
private prison health-care company that sounds too good to be true. It is —
since the company is Prison Health Services. The Brentwood, Tenn., firm
underbid two rivals by tens of millions of dollars to get the 10-year
contract to care for 14,000 inmates in 13 prisons from Vero Beach to
Homestead, including those from St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach counties.
The PHS bid was even $7 million a year below the existing contract. The state
will pay PHS about $792 million; Wexford Health Sources, which has held the
contract since 2001, wanted $884 million and Correctional Medical Services
more than $1 billion. Even if PHS had a sterling record, the bargain price
would be suspicious. But PHS doesn't. A New York Times investigation found
that the company's substandard care contributed to at least 15 inmate
deaths in 11 Florida jails over the past 13 years. PHS provided care at the
Palm Beach County Jail until 2004, and health department officials
complained that the company's slow response allowed staph infections to
spread, endangering workers, visitors and inmates. PHS, which provides care
at the St. Lucie County Jail, faced lawsuits from, among others, inmates
who said negligence and refusal to provide medication had caused them to go
blind, lose limbs and suffer psychotic episodes. PHS has 110 contracts in
37 states; many of those prisons have stories similar to those from the
Palm Beach County Jail. The low-ball bid seems particularly disingenuous
because of the increase in infectious health conditions such as staph, HIV
and hepatitis C. State legislators who supported giving the contract to the
lowest bidder and dismissed attempts to consider other factors should
prepare to give PHS more money when it comes back to lament its soaring
costs. An unrealistic deal will have consequences.
January 9, 2006 Ft Lauderdale
Sun-Sentinel
Health care for inmates in all South Florida state prisons is being
turned over this month to a national firm that promises to save the state
millions of dollars a year. Gov. Jeb Bush's administration is touting
the boon to taxpayers that comes with putting Nashville-based Prison Health
Services in charge of caring for more than 14,000 inmates in 13 prisons in
southern Florida, including those in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade
counties. Some legislators are wary, in part because Prison Health's bid
for the work was tens of millions of dollars lower than its nearest rival
bidders. They worry the company will take shortcuts that could bring
unnecessary health risks to the prisons, and hidden costs like inmate
lawsuits. "It all seems very suspect," said Sen. Frederica
Wilson, a Miami Democrat who sits on legislative panels dealing with
criminal justice and corrections issues. "We know the health care in
the prisons already isn't what it should be. There are deaths and there's
almost an epidemic of tuberculosis and hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS. If this
company is going to under-bid all the others, then I fear we can only
expect greater disappointment. "Under the contract, the state
Department of Corrections will pay Prison Health $792 million over 10
years. Wexford Health Sources, which held the southern Florida prison
health care contract since 2001, would have charged $884 million. A third
bidder, Correctional Medical Services, priced the contract at more than $1
billion. Prison Health, a publicly traded company with 25 years of
experience in Florida, is represented in Tallahassee by an influential
lobbying firm headed by Brian Ballard, who has ties to Bush and other
Republican leaders. But the contract with the state was competitively bid
and there are no indications the firm's political connections were key to
its getting the contract. Wexford officials say they were shocked that
Prison Health bid for the work at that price, and suggested the contract
could be financially risky for Prison Health. Inmates in these institutions
are considered to be among the sickest in the country, suffering
disproportionately from health conditions like HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C,
diabetes and hypertension, according to prison health officials. "I'm
willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But past experience doesn't
make me overly optimistic," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who
sits on criminal justice committees. The company has 110 prison health care
contracts in 37 states and previously has been in charge of inmate care in
Broward and Palm Beach county jails. Newspaper investigations and other
reports have raised some concerns. The New York Times found last year that
substandard care by the company contributed to at least 15 inmate deaths in
11 Florida jails since 1992, and it identified numerous administrative and
healthcare problems at correctional centers under its care throughout the
country.
January 4, 2006 St Petersburg
Times
The state Department of Corrections has hired Prison Health Services, one
of the nation's largest for-profit inmate health care companies, to care
for more than 14,000 inmates in a sprawling southeast Florida region from
Homestead to Vero Beach. The contract is for five years with a five-year
option to renew at the 13 prisons. PHS' bid of $545-million was nearly
$200-million less than its nearest rival, Wexford Health Sources, which
held the contract since 2001. The third bidder was Correctional Medical
Services. After a yearlong investigation of Prison Health Services, the New
York Times reported last February that substandard care by the company
contributed to at least 15 inmate deaths in 11 Florida jails since 1992.
Pinellas County severed ties with Prison Health in 1995, after the death of
a woman inmate from a heart attack. For two days, nurses refused to order
the heart medication her doctor had prescribed. In 2004, a woman in the
Hillsborough County jail sued Prison Health Services, blaming the company
for the death of her newborn son from complications during delivery. The
baby was born over an infirmary toilet at the Falkenburg Road jail. PHS'
new deal with the state also means more state work for Terry Yon &
Associates, a Tallahassee firm specializing in repackaging pharmaceuticals
for use by inmates. Under terms of its state contract, PHS partners with
other firms to provide pharmacy, mental health and dental services.
Franklin
County Jail, Pennsylvania
EMSA was warned that it -- not taxpayers-- must pay any legal damages that
might be awarded in connection with the death of an inmate last month.
Inmate, Rocky Eickstadt, dies of complications
from diabetes. Jail records show he requested medical help not knowing he
was diabetic, complaining of problems and did not see a jail nurse for
eighteen days. Family is suing. Three lawsuits are pending against EMSA and
one against CMS in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on other issues.
(Columbus Dispatch, October 5, 2000)
Fresno County
Jail
Sep 22, 2018 norcalrecord.com
Nurses formerly employed by Corizon Health allege they were not paid
lawful wages
FRESNO – Several nurses previously employed by a health care company
allege they are owed unpaid wages. Bruce Morrelli,
Jose Rojas, et al., individually and on behalf of all others similarly
situated, filed a complaint on Sept. 5 in the Fresno County Superior Court
against Corizon Health Inc. and Does 1-25 alleging that they violated the
California labor code and the business and professional code. According to
the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that they were damaged by the
defendant during their employment because of violation of labor codes. The
plaintiffs hold Corizon Health Inc. and Does 1-25 responsible because the
defendants allegedly failed to pay lawful minimum and overtime wages,
failed to provide off-duty meal and rest breaks, failed to provide accurate
wage statements and failed to pay all wages due and owing at termination of
employment. The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek unpaid minimum
and overtime wages, with interest, attorney's fees, costs, expenses and
such other just and proper relief. They are represented by Daniel F. Kopfman and Lawrence M. Artenian
of Wagner, Jones, Kopfman & Artenian LLP in Fresno. Fresno County Superior Court
case number 18CECG03296
Jul 28, 2018 independent.com
California: All better after Corizon leaves
The number of grievances filed by inmates at County Jail because of the
medical treatment they’ve received has dropped dramatically in the past
year while the number of inmates seeking medical treatment has gone
significantly up. Accounting for this dramatic turnaround is a combination
of factors: The jail has a new medical treatment provider — CFMG
(California Forensic Medical Group) — which is now
entering its second year. In addition, the Sheriff’s Office is entering its
second year of operating a more formalized grievance process, run by a
32-year veteran of jailhouse operations, Lt. Mark Mahurin, who has won
major praise by mental-health activists who in the past were among the
jail’s most relentless critics. “It’s really quite remarkable,” said
Suzanne Riordan of Families Act!, which has
watchdogged mental-health care at the jail for more than 10 years. “We call
Mark or Lt. Shawn Lammer with a complaint, and they’re inside the jail cell
almost immediately checking it out. We still have problems. They just get
resolved a lot faster now.” Families Act! helped get the new grievance
program started a few years ago when they released a dossier of medical
horror stories from the jail. In the first three months of 2018, the jail
received a total of 477 grievances, of which 87 were related to dental
care, mental health, medications, or general medical care. In the first
three months of the prior year, there were 520 total complaints, of which
138 related to health-care concerns. In the first quarter of 2018, 2,244
inmates sought medical treatment; the first quarter of the prior year, the
number was 1,852. In 2018, all 87 grievances were resolved in an average of
3.8 days. The prior year, it took 5.6 days for resolution to be achieved.
Last year, 15 cases required some form of follow-up before they were
settled, and three went to appeal. This year, no cases required any
follow-up, and none were appealed. Resolution, however, doesn’t necessarily
mean the complaint was settled to the liking of the inmate; it means the
complaints were investigated and a determination was made. Resolution could
mean getting painkillers to an inmate experiencing chronic dental issues or
scheduling an appointment with a gynecologist for an inmate complaining of
an ovarian cyst. In another case, it could mean denying hormones to an
inmate undergoing a gender change because there’s no history of the inmate
receiving such a prescription. Mahurin said once the county supervisors
gave the boot to the jail’s prior health-care contractor — Corizon — the
opportunities for improvement abounded. Corizon’s response to complaints,
Mahurin said, were too often “too vague and too general.” Corizon
professionals cited medical confidentiality rules for divulging so little
information, frustrating inmates, advocates, and jail custodial staff
trying to get answers. Once CFMG took over, Mahurin said the county changed
to a grievance procedure, asking inmates to sign confidentiality waivers so
that health-care providers could no longer hide behind vague generalities.
“It used to be, ‘We’ll look into it,’” Mahurin recounted. “Now we’ll get,
‘You’re right, that should never have happened, and we’re dealing with
it.’” Mahurin praised several ideas proposed by task-force members. Thanks
to Esther Lim of the ACLU Southern California Jails Project, he said, the
jail website now allows inmates’ relatives to provide pertinent information
to the health-care workers in the jail. Many inmates, especially those
experiencing mental illness, are less than forthcoming or accurate about
their conditions and the medications they need. Likewise, he gave credit to
Families Act! for posting a volunteer-run informational table in front of
County Jail every weekend to help inmates’ family members navigate what can
be a confounding and intimidating system. Information gleaned by those
volunteers, he said, has formed the basis of grievances in addition to the
ones submitted by inmates themselves. In 2017, volunteers processed 33
grievances; this year it was 15.
Gaston County Jail, Gastonia North Carolina
August 23, 2007 Charlotte Observer
Prison Health Services, Gaston County and Sheriff Alan Cloninger are
being sued in the 2004 death of a jail inmate who suffered a seizure in his
cell. The lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that Prison Health Services, a
company contracted by the jail, failed to provide Hugh Locklear Jr., 21,
his epileptic-seizure medication and didn't monitor his condition. The
suit, which seeks in excess of $75,000, alleges that the defendants
violated Locklear's civil rights by showing a "deliberate
indifference" to his "serious medical needs." It was filed
in U.S. District Court by Pamela Dunbar. The suit does not specify her
relationship to Locklear. Cloninger and the county's attorney could not be
reached Wednesday. Citing patient confidentiality, Prison Health Services
would not comment, spokeswoman Susan Morgenstern said. On Aug. 28, 2004,
Locklear collapsed in his cell, police said, and was pronounced dead at
Gaston Memorial Hospital. His father, Hugh Locklear, 41, was also an inmate
at the time. He has said his son never got epilepsy medication at the jail
despite repeated requests. Locklear Jr. had been taking phenytoin and
carbamazepine for seizures, but refused to take the medications after he
was arrested in June 2004, according to an N.C. State Bureau of
Investigation report.
January 6, 2005 Charlotte Observer
No criminal charges will be filed in the death last year of a
21-year-old Gaston County Jail inmate who collapsed in his cell and died of
a seizure disorder. The inmate, Hugh Locklear Jr., repeatedly asked
for medication to control his epilepsy and never received any, said his
father. Jail officials dispute that. So does Gaston County District
Attorney Mike Lands. "There is no indication in here that Locklear
(Jr.) asked for medication," said Lands, referring to a report from
the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, which looked into the Aug. 28
death. Jail officials knew Locklear Jr. had epilepsy because he noted it on
a form, but they said he refused to take any medication, the report said.
Hugh Locklear said he filed several requests asking that his son be given
medication, but the jail doesn't have any records showing that, the report
stated.
October 23, 2004 AP
A seizure disorder caused the death of a Gaston County jail inmate two
months ago, according to the state Medical Examiner's Office. Hugh Locklear
Jr., 21, collapsed in his cell Aug. 28, turned blue and made gurgling
sounds, police have said. Locklear died later that day at Gaston Memorial
Hospital. He was the second Gaston inmate to die at the jail in August --
raising some questions about the Tennessee-based company that oversees the
jail's medical care. The medical
examiner's report found that "the history of an untreated seizure
disorder provides a sufficient cause of death" but that "there is
nothing in the history to suggest foul play." The other inmate who died, Yolanda Patterson, 28,
of Gastonia, died of a cocaine overdose, an autopsy determined. She went
into cardiac arrest at the jail. The State Bureau of Investigation is still looking into the
two deaths. The jail's medical care
is provided by Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn., which has come
under fire in other states. The company has been criticized in two reports
by New York state in recent years, and last week, Florida's Palm Beach
County terminated a contract with PHS. Gaston officials renewed the county jail's contract in late
August. They said they weren't aware of PHS's troubles in other states but
have been satisfied with the level of care it has provided.
Gaston County officials say contracting with a private company
for inmate health care saves money, but a watchdog group spokesman says
such outsourcing is a growing practice that can lead to inadequate medical
treatment. Two recent deaths of people held at the Gaston County Jail
have raised questions about the quality of medical care there. Gaston
renewed its contract with Prison Health Services three days after the first
death. The county expects to pay PHS $750,000 during fiscal year
2004-05. Large companies that specialize in prison health care are
interested in making a profit, so they cut costs where they can, said Ken Kopczynski, executive director of Florida-based Private
Corrections Institute, a group that monitors privatization of prison health
care. He's a lobbyist for the Police Benevolent Association and believes
officers' safety depends on how inmates are treated. "You get
what you pay for," he said. "But the problem is, a lot of the
people that are going into prisons and jails don't take care of themselves
anyway. They probably already have medical problems." (The
Charlotte Observer, September 4, 2004)
Hugh Locklear Jr. did not have a trial. Yolanda Evett Patterson had not been charged with a crime. Yet
each received a death sentence while incarcerated in Gaston County.
Officials at the Gaston County Jail need to find out why, and how to keep
it from happening again. Mr. Locklear, 21, died Sunday in the Gaston
jail awaiting trial on drug and larceny charges. Ms. Patterson died at
Gaston Memorial Hospital Aug. 20 after she stopped breathing in the jail.
She was awaiting charges in connection with shoplifting. Autopsies
are not complete. Local and State Bureau of Investigation probes are under
way. But contradictory facts raise specific questions about the care taken
in Gaston County when medical emergencies arise behind bars. The
circumstances of these deaths also warrant a pointed examination of the
record of a private company paid to provide health care to prisoners.
Mr. Locklear's father, also a prisoner in the jail, said his son was
epileptic and did not receive his medication. A jail nurse and the Gaston
sheriff said the son did not cooperate and refused medical treatment.
Ms. Patterson's cousin, who faces charges of misdemeanor larceny, said she
complained of breathing problems after being taken into custody. Yet jail
officials did not respond for about 20 minutes, the cousin said, and called
Ms. Patterson "a good actor." Any police officer will tell
you: Suspects in custody are quick to cry medical emergency if they think
it will buy them preferential treatment in the harsh confines of a jail. It
is often difficult to judge the difference between distress and a
disruptive ploy. Yet allegations that two prisoners' needs were
either bypassed or ignored -- a response that may have contributed to their
deaths -- must be resolved. The record of Prison Health Systems
merits scrutiny as well. Palm Beach County, Fla., officials said the
company's performance in nine inmate deaths persuaded jail officials to
drop it as a health care provider. In New York, the state Commission of
Corrections has issued two reports critical of PHS's performance since 2001
in connection with two prisoner deaths. Privatizing services is a
proven way to reduce the cost of local government for citizens. Yet
accountability is often the rub. Medical care in particular is difficult to
monitor with quantitative measures because it requires subjective
decisions. Most ordinary citizens have never seen the inside of a
jail cell. They do not give much thought to details like medical care for
prisoners. Yet they bear the financial and moral responsibility for how
suspects are treated when in public custody. All citizens, then, have
a direct interest in finding out what happened when two suspects held in
Gaston's jail died. A medical emergency behind bars should not equate to a
death sentence. (The Charlotte Observer, September 1, 2004)
Gaston County Jail officials renewed their contract with
Prison Health Services last week, just days after the first of two people
held at the jail died after complaining of illness. Gaston officials
said they didn't know about PHS's troubles in other parts of the country
where lawsuits have been filed alleging improper medical care. Last
week, the Palm Beach County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office dropped PHS as its medical
provider before its contract expired, said Commander Diane Carhart Tuesday,
citing concerns about PHS's quality of care. Nine inmates at that
jail have died in the last two years, and a staph outbreak that lasted
about a year prompted county health officials to threaten legal
action. Nationwide, PHS serves about 235,000 inmates at more than 400
correctional facilities in 35 states. Fewer than 500 inmates die each year
at those jails and prisons, said Dr. Carl Keldie,
PHS's national medical director. The nation's jails had 919 inmate
deaths in 1999, according to a Census of Jails study from the Bureau of
Justice that year. Those deaths included 324 suicides, 385 due to
illness/natural causes, and 104 "others," including overdoses and
accidental injuries. The Gaston County Jail has had three deaths
since it opened in November 1999. Two of those deaths happened within eight
days of one another. (The Charlotte Observer, September 1, 2004)
Jail officials said Tuesday that Hugh Locklear Jr., who was
found not breathing in his cell Saturday, refused medical treatment during
the first two weeks he was incarcerated. As is customary, a jail
nurse tried to fill out a medical questionnaire when Locklear was arrested
June 7, said Gaston County Sheriff Alan Cloninger. "He refused to
answer any questions," Cloninger said. "He stood
mute." After 14 days, officers took Locklear, 21, to the jail's
medical department, which is done when inmates refuse initial treatment,
Cloninger said. But he refused a physical exam, he said. Cloninger
said Locklear's requests to see a nurse on June 23 and Aug. 22 were
granted. But he declined to say why Locklear made the request and whether
any medication was administered. (The Charlotte Observer, August 31,
2004)
The company that provides medical care at Gaston County Jail,
which has dealt with two recent deaths, was recently dropped as the
healthcare provider by Palm Beach County, Fla., jail officials. Palm
Beach County officials blamed the performance of Tennessee-based Prison Health
Services in nine inmate deaths in the last two years. "I would
think that at the very least, Prison Health Services with regards to their
services to Gaston County, should warrant an audit," said Gaston
County commissioner Tom Keigher on Sunday.
The most recent death occurred Saturday. Hugh Locklear Jr., 21, was
found not breathing in his cell that afternoon. His father, Hugh Locklear,
41, blames PHS. Locklear said from jail Sunday that his son was
epileptic. Father and son had asked repeatedly for medication since they
were jailed about three months ago, but received none, Locklear said.
Autopsy results are pending for Locklear Jr., who was facing drug and
larceny charges. A PHS registered nurse at Gaston County Jail said that
before he died Locklear Jr. was "being taken care of." (The
Charlotte Observer, August 30, 2004)
Glenn
Dyer Jail, Oakland, California
March 10, 2010 AP
Health care workers at both jails in Alameda County were locked out
Wednesday, a day after they staged a one-day strike to protest stagnant
contract negotiations. "It's just another intimidation tactic,"
said Maxine Persky, a nurse for 10 years at Santa
Rita Jail in Dublin who was told she would not be allowed back to work
until next week after showing up at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. "How is this
bargaining in good faith?" Nearly 140 health care workers — members of
the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West —
held a one-day strike Tuesday at both Santa Rita Jail and the North County
Jail in Oakland after working more than two months without a contract and
making minimal headway on a new one with Tennessee-based Prison Health
Services. That company has a contract with Alameda County to provide both
jails with health care staff and workers, such as nurses and medical record
technicians. On Wednesday, Prison Health Services released another
statement, saying it "will continue to fulfill its contract with the
county and to maintain patient care through the use of temporary
replacement employees through 6 a.m. March 16 or until we reach a
settlement with the union, whichever comes first." Persky
said the union and management are set to meet again today to try to work
out a new contract, but in the meantime are concerned about the inmates.
"We're concerned for them," Persky
said.
March
9, 2010 Oakland Tribune
Nearly 140 health care workers at both jails in Alameda County took to
the picket lines Tuesday to protest six months of stalled contract
negotiations and what they call unfair labor practices. The workers,
members of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare
Workers West, approved the one-day strike last month after working more
than two months without a contract and making minimal headway on a new one
with Tennessee-based Prison Health Services. That company has a contract
with Alameda County to provide health care staff, such as nurses and
medical record technicians, to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and the North
County Jail in Oakland. "This is to show we mean business and we're not
going to give in," said Kim Tovar, a medical records technician at
North County Jail. Tovar and about two dozen others protested outside North
County Jail while a much larger procession marched in front of the county's
largest jail, Santa Rita Jail. Although workers called for a one-day
strike, rumors swirled Tuesday that Prison Health Services was expected to
lock out the workers for a week starting at 6 a.m. today. Prison Health
Services officials would not comment Tuesday but did issue a statement
Friday that said, "PHS regrets SEIU's decision to walk out and remains
committed to negotiate a fair, reasonable and competitive contract"
and said it would "ensure patient care is uninterrupted."
Temporary workers did replace union workers at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Sgt. J.D.
Nelson, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said no problems at either
facility had been reported. A memo from the company to staff was circulated
last week saying the union workers would not be allowed back to work until
March 16 or until a new contract was signed — whichever happened first.
"I think it's dirty," Tovar said of the potential lockout.
"I think it's low." Carrie Singleton, a licensed vocational nurse
at North County Jail, said that if the company locks out workers, workers
still must stand their ground. "If they do it, they do it,"
Singleton said. "We have to make a commitment to fight." The main
sticking point in negotiations, according to the union, is what they see as
a huge increase in health care costs employees must pick up. According to
Blaire Behrens, a nurse at North County Jail for 19 years and member of the
union's negotiating team, any proposed wage increase is more than eaten up
by the 30 percent health care cost increase.
February
25, 2010 Oakland Tribune
Health care workers at both jails in the Alameda County have agreed to
strike as early as next month if negotiations for a new contract remain
stalled. About 140 workers — members of the Service Employees International
Union-United Healthcare Workers West — have voted to strike if their
representatives cannot come to a settlement with Tennessee-based Prison
Health Services. That company has a contract with Alameda County to provide
health care staff and workers — such as nurses and medical record
technicians — to both Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and the Glenn Dyer
Detention Facility in Oakland. The current plan by the health care workers
union is to hold a one-day strike March 9, according to Blaire Behrens, a
nurse at Glenn Dyer jail for 19 years and member of the union's negotiating
team. There are two bargaining sessions scheduled for next week. "It
would certainly be better if both sides could come to an agreement,"
Behrens said. "It would be better for management, the inmates and the
workers. "We work in a very difficult environment," Behrens
continued. "But it's a job we want to do. We don't want to
strike." Behrens said the main sticking point is what the union sees
as a huge increase in health care costs employees must pick up. She said
even though Prison Health Services is offering 3 percent wage increases,
those are more than offset by the 30 percent health care cost increase.
Starting nurses at the facilities make approximately $40.50 an hour.
Behrens said the union has been negotiating with management for nearly six
months with little movement. The current contract expired in December. The
union has sought the help of both county supervisors and the Alameda County
Sheriff's Office to help break the stalemate. Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman
for the sheriff's office, said if the union members do strike, it will be
up to Prison Health Services to provide the county with replacement
workers. Prison Health Services did not return multiple requests for
comment.
February
6, 2007 The Daily-Californian
The medical center at a county jail that some say has poor medical care
will hire additional personnel this year following the jail’s settlement of
negotiations with the health care providers’ union. The health contractors
said the conditions before the agreement led to potentially unsafe
conditions for the 4,000 inmates in Santa Rita Jail, the primary jail
facility for Alameda County. The facility’s safety has been questioned by
inmates’ relatives in the last several years. In 2006, eight Santa Rita
Jail inmates died. Most recent was the death of Berkeley resident and
inmate Cedrick Pinkney’s, suspected to be related to longstanding health
issues. Jail officials said Pinkney’s death was not due to medical
negligence. That mortality rate is lower than both that of the general
population and that in jails and prisons nationwide, said Bill Wilson, the
jail’s health services administrator Regardless of the circumstances of
those deaths, health care workers at Santa Rita Jail said the new agreement
will mitigate what they considered to be unsafe levels of staffing. “It’s
an excellent agreement for both the jail and the nurses as well,” Wilson
said. The agreement, which officials expect to finalize next week, is the
product of a settlement reached in December between Prison Health Services,
the firm contracted by Alameda County to provide care to the inmates, and
the union representing the jail’s 120 health care workers. Union officials
said the health workers were ill-equipped to respond to the inmates’
medical needs. “There were many days when the staffing levels were as low
as 50 percent of the staffing levels that Prison Health Services had
committed to provide in their contract,” said Dana Simon, spokesperson for
the Service Employees International Union-United Health Care Workers-West.
“Absolutely, it was affecting the basic care.” Understaffing put inmates
with chronic conditions in particular danger, Simon said, because they
cannot administer their own medicine. “There were many days when they just
cancelled pill call in particular houses,” Simon said. But Prison Health
Services representatives denied this claim.
January
5, 2007 Inside Bay Area
Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker is
probing accusations that severe understaffing of medical personnel at two
Alameda County jails is endangering their safety and inmates' health. The
inquiry by Lai-Bitker, the board's Health
Committee chairwoman, came in response to complaints by Prison Health
Services workers that staffing was 30 to 50 percent below contract
requirements from August to December. Nurses were forced to work overtime,
and inmates' access to medical care was denied because too few nurses were
available, according to Service Employees International Union-United Health
Care Workers-West, the union that represents about 120 of the employees.
"We are constantly plagued with understaffing in the Santa Rita
jail," a registered nurse and union member said in a statement
provided by the union on condition of anonymity. "We are all
tired." Prison Health Services has contracted with the Alameda County
Sheriff's Office since 1989. The company's current $51 million three-year
contract, which serves about 4,000 inmates at Santa Rita jail in Pleasanton
and Glenn E. Dyer jail in Oakland, expires in June.
December
20, 2006 Mercury News
Health care workers at two Alameda County jails late Monday night withdrew
notice of a planned two-day strike that would have begun Tuesday, as
negotiations continued to address staffing issues, according to a jail
administrator. Leaders of the union that represents about 120 nurses,
physicians and other health workers at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and
the Glenn E. Dyer jail in Oakland called the strike early Monday after a
bargaining session failed to produce a new contract. But by evening, they
called off the plan because of progress in contract talks. The workers are
employed by Prison Health Services Inc., a Tennessee-based firm that staffs
more than 300 prisons and jails nationwide, including the two in Alameda
County. "We're continuing to negotiate with the union this evening,
and we're optimistic that we'll come up with a collective bargaining
agreement," said Bill Wilson, administrator for the Alameda County
jails. The workers claim the agency's failure to recruit and hire enough
workers has endangered the health of inmates, said Dana Simon, a spokesman
for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers-West.
Workers and their supporters had planned to picket outside the jails in
Dublin and Oakland beginning at 6 a.m. and return to work at 6 a.m.
Thursday.
December
5, 2006 CBS 5
Healthcare workers negotiating a new contract with a firm that provides
health services at two jails in Alameda County were threatening to give
formal notice of a strike on Wednesday if talks failed to deliver an
agreement tonight. Employees represented by Service Employees International
Union-United Healthcare Workers-West are seeking a new contract with Prison
Health Services, Inc., a Tennessee-based firm that serves Santa Rita and
Glenn Dyer jails in Alameda County, among hundreds of other correctional
facilities across the country. Union representatives and healthcare
professionals allege the jails have a shortage of healthcare workers
causing detrimental conditions for the patients they serve. A nurse working
at Santa Rita Jail, Donna Chatman, said a recent example of substandard
care she heard of was "that an inmate with a colostomy bag was not
seen for days to get his bag changed because the nurse had to many patients
to take care of. So he used a Pepsi bottle for a colostomy bag until he
could see a nurse. That is what is happening in our jails." David
Wolf, a spokesman for Prison Health Services, said he had no information on
that allegation, or another alleged by a healthcare worker, in which an
inmate with an infected foot saw his condition worsen due to lack of
rudimentary care. Wolf said short staffing in the healthcare profession is
common, but no more so at the Santa Rita Jail than anywhere else. "We
are proud of the hard work that these nurses and the rest of the staff
provide for the inmates," said Wolf. Union spokeswoman Dana Simon said
that in addition to desiring a greater salary increase, "The main
issue here is PHS is staffing the jails with 50 percent of the required number
of healthcare workers as is required per the contract they submitted to the
Alameda County Sheriff's Office." However, Santa Rita jail
administrative Captain Wilkinson denied these allegations. "PHS is not
violating their contract and they are providing adequate staffing when they
are dealing with a shortage of nurses."
November
10, 2006 PR News Wire
Healthcare workers at Alameda County's Santa Rita jail in Pleasanton and
Glenn Dyer jail in Oakland announced today that they will give formal
strike notice to their employer, Prison Health Services (PHS), on December
2, if a new contract agreement is not reached. The caregivers are
represented by SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW) and include RN's,
LVNs, certified nursing assistants, technicians, and clerical workers. The
workers point to wages that are 35% to 40% below area averages, resulting
in dramatic understaffing. They consider the low staffing levels to be so
serious that the facilities are no longer safe for the caregivers or the
inmates/patients they care for. Workers also highlight the fact that under
the contract with the Sheriff's Department, PHS is paid a rate based on
specific staffing levels, but on most days reaches only about half those
levels. "Staffing at half the level that is required by the contract
between the Alameda County Sheriff's Department and Prison Health Services
is not only unsafe for the caregivers and the patients, but PHS is also
breaking its commitments to taxpayers and the Sheriff's Department,"
said SEIU UHW President Sal Rosselli. PHS, a
Tennessee-based for-profit corporation, was the subject of a three- part
New York Times expose in February, 2005 for practices harmful to the
well-being of patients/inmates, issues similar to those cited by the
healthcare workers in Alameda County. Access the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/nyregion/27jail.html?ex=1163307600&en=339
a81 097e61fe2c&ei=5070 SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West, with more
than 130,000 members, is the largest and most powerful healthcare union in
the Western U.S. We represent every type of healthcare worker, including
nursing, professional, technical and service classifications. Our mission
is to achieve high quality healthcare for all.
Gloucester County Jail, Woodbury, New Jersey
August 29, 2006 Gloucester County
Times
A former Gloucester County Jail inmate and his significant other are suing
the county, alleging that he contracted an often drug-resistant staph
infection while locked up and then brought it home. Michael DiFelice of Deptford Township was an inmate at the jail
for seven months, starting on April 11, 2005. Not long after his release on
Nov. 1, DiFelice's "domestic partner"
began exhibiting signs of the same infection, according to the lawsuit
filed in Superior Court. DiFelice and Kelly Filipponi have both been diagnosed with the boil-like
skin infection, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the
county failed to properly inform its staff and inmates of other cases of
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Also named in the lawsuit were
the county department of corrections, the sheriff's department and Prison
Health Services Inc. More than a dozen other lawsuits have been filed
against the county from both former inmates and corrections officers at the
jail.
July 13,
2006 Gloucester County Times
A fifth lawsuit filed against the county claims that a former inmate of
the Gloucester County Jail became infected with staph while incarcerated
there. Brantley Owens of Glassboro allegedly began "exhibiting signs
and symptoms of an infection" caused by staphylococcus aureus bacteria
shortly after his incarceration in August 2004, according to the complaint
filed in Superior Court. Owens claims that jail officials knew of other
cases of the often contagious and drug-resistant skin infection and failed
to notify inmates and put policies in place to minimize or prevent
exposure, according to the suit. Owens' suit is the fifth lodged against
the county concerning staph infection -- one officer and two former inmates
previously filed individual suits, and last month five people, corrections
officers and their spouses, filed a joint suit. The most recent claim names
the county, county freeholders, the county department of corrections, the
county Sheriff's Department, Prison Health Services, Inc., former jail
warden John Tevoli and former corrections
director W. Stanley Nunn. County spokeswoman Debra Sellitto
declined comment because the matter is in litigation. Owens' Attorney Scott
McKinley, of the firm Hoffman and DiMuzio, has
filed three other lawsuits on behalf of two former inmates as well as a
corrections officer who claim they contracted staph while at the jail.
March
23, 2006 The Daily Journal
Gloucester County faces a third lawsuit over an outbreak of
drug-resistant staph infections at the county jail in 2003 and 2004. The
latest lawsuit -- filed by Jeffrey Maxie of Johnson City, Tenn., and his
domestic companion, Marlene Byrnes of Westville -- accuses the county of
failing to address the staph outbreak properly. The contagious skin
infection can be fatal if untreated. Byrnes contracted staph from close
contact with Maxie after he left the jail in April 2004, but before he was
aware he had contracted it, said the couple's attorney, Scott C. McKinley.
In a lawsuit filed last week in Gloucester County Superior Court, Maxie
contends he contracted staph while in the jail on an unspecified charge in
April 2004. The county "failed to inform the plaintiffs of the risk of
exposure, failed to prevent said exposure, (and) failed to put procedures
or policies (in) place to eliminate or minimize the risk of exposure,"
according to the lawsuit. County Counsel Samuel J. Leone could not be
immediately reached for comment. The lawsuit also names as defendants the
county freeholder board; the county's Department of Correctional Services;
the Sheriff's Department; Prison Health Services Inc., which provides
medical care at the jail; former warden John Tevoli;
and W. Stanley Nunn, the former corrections director.
November 1, 2005 Courier-Post
A former inmate at Gloucester County Jail alleges in a lawsuit that
negligent oversight of the jail caused him to contract a staph infection
while he was incarcerated in 2003. The lawsuit, filed by Joseph Favacchia of Swedesboro, is the second to accuse the
county of failing to properly address an outbreak of drug-resistant staph
infections at the jail in 2003. The contagious skin infection can be fatal
if untreated. Favacchia contends he contracted
staph while in the jail on a violation of probation charge in November
2003. A year later, Favacchia learned that county
officials had been aware of other cases of staph infections at the jail but
"withheld and fraudulently concealed" that information, Favacchia contends in his complaint. The county
"failed to inform the plaintiff of the risk of exposure, failed to
prevent said exposure, (and) failed to put procedures or policies (in)
place to eliminate or minimize the risk of exposure," according to the
lawsuit. The lawsuit also names as defendants the county freeholder board,
the county's Department of Correctional Services, the county Sheriff's
Department, Prison Health Services Inc., which provides medical care at the
jail, former warden John Tevoli and W. Stanley
Nunn, the former corrections director. In September 2004, county
freeholders suspended Tevoli for two weeks
without pay after determining he misled a Citizens Advisory Board about the
extent of the staph outbreak. Tevoli resigned in
January after two years as warden.
Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility, Santa Rosa, New Mexico
Dec 24, 2016
abqjournal.com
Inmate sues prison health care provider over injuries
An inmate at a state prison in Guadalupe County has filed a lawsuit
against two nurses and a prison health care provider alleging they provided
inadequate exams after he was attacked by fellow inmates and suffered a jaw
fracture. The delayed treatment, he says, left him permanently disfigured.
Jeffrey Campbell argues that he was assaulted in November 2013 by other
inmates at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility and was seen by
medical staff “based on obvious trauma to his head and facial area.” He
says in the lawsuit filed in state court last month that a Corizon Health
registered nurse failed to perform an adequate medical exam, despite the
fact that Campbell lost consciousness and could not remember what happened.
He had injuries to his head and face, including a cut over his right eye,
but was returned to his cell on the same night of the fight. The next day
he asked for ice in the morning and evening, but was never examined for a
concussion or a fracture. The next afternoon, he was given an
anti-inflammatory medication and sent to the local hospital’s emergency room.
When he was admitted, according to the lawsuit, he was unable to open his
jaw, had raccoon eyes and a “bleed in the left ear canal.” “It’s important
to recognize that the existence of a lawsuit is not necessarily indicative
of quality of care or any wrongdoing,” Martha Habin,
Corizon Health spokeswoman, said in a statement. “But due to patient
privacy and pending litigation, we are unable to provide information that
would provide a balanced perspective of this case.” According to the
company’s website, Corizon Health is the “leading provider of correctional
healthcare services in the United States.” Campbell says a CT scan revealed
fractures of the jaw, and he was transported to the University of New
Mexico Hospital for treatment. “As a result of the delay in treatment,
(Campbell) suffered severe infections and later required a mandible
fracture repair,” according to the lawsuit. That repair included two
surgeries and a bone graft, which left Campbell with “permanent
disfigurement.” He is seeking compensatory damages. Campbell’s attorney did
not return requests for comment. The lawsuit, which does not give his age,
says Campbell is currently an inmate in the Central New Mexico Correctional
Facility in Los Lunas. It does not give the reason for his incarceration.
Jun 29, 2016
abqjournal.com
New Mexico:
Corizon pays out $4.6M
The former
contract provider of medical care for state prison inmates has settled
claims by inmates for nearly $4.6 million, according to information
released Tuesday by a law firm representing the provider, Corizon Health. The claims against Corizon were filed by 59 inmates at two prisons
where a physician allegedly sexually assaulted some inmates during medical
examinations. Responding to an Inspection of Public Records Act request by
the Journal, the law firm of Chapman and Charlebois, representing Corizon,
released a spreadsheet showing settlement amounts for each of the claims
from inmates at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa
and the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton. The settlements
ranged from $7,130 to $192,400. There were 21 settlements of more than
$100,000 each. The law firm said it needed additional time to provide the
settlement agreements. The spreadsheet didn’t specify the nature of the
claims made by the inmates, making it impossible to know whether all the
claims were the result of alleged sexual assaults by Dr. Mark Walden, who
reportedly was known among inmates as Dr. Fingers for his inappropriate
rectal and other exams. Corizon, a national company based in Tennessee,
began providing medical care for New Mexico inmates in 2007 under a
contract with the state Corrections Department. It was recently replaced
with Centurion, based in St. Louis. Under its contract, Corizon – not the state
– had responsibility for dealing with lawsuits alleging improper medical
care. More than 75 inmates have alleged in lawsuits that they were sexually
assaulted by Walden, with at least three others claiming he provided
inadequate medical care. Walden, Corizon and The Geo Group, which operates
the Santa Rosa and Clayton prisons, denied the allegations in their court
responses to the lawsuits. Walden, whose medical license has been suspended
by the New Mexico Medical Board, lost his job after an inmate complained to
the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office in July 2012. Many of the inmate
lawsuits alleged Corizon and Geo were “willfully blind and dumb” to what
was occurring or at least should have known that Walden was abusing his
patients. The lawsuits said Walden spent longer than he should have with
inmates in the examination room. He was accused of performing twice as many
digital rectal exams per month as other doctors and using a privacy screen
with nearly every patient. Medical records allegedly showed that one inmate
went to Walden for an eye problem and got a rectal exam. One 18-year-old
inmate was allegedly ordered to have prostate exams monthly. The lawsuits
alleged civil rights violations, medical malpractice and negligence. Walden
said in court records that he never sexually abused or fondled anyone.
Walden worked at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility from 2010 to
2012. He transferred to the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility,
working there from February 2012 to July 2012. The Geo Group, based in
Florida, operates both prisons under a contract with the state Corrections
Department. Prosecutors reportedly have been building a criminal case
against Walden since early 2013.
Jan 2, 2016 abqjournal.com
15th suit filed against former prison doctor
A 15th lawsuit has been filed against a former New Mexico prison doctor
accused of sexual assault in performing unnecessary, intrusive rectal exams
on inmates at two state prisons. To date, about 78 inmates have alleged in
lawsuits that they were sexually victimized by Dr. Mark Walden, with three
others claiming he provided inadequate medical care, according to federal
court records. The latest case was filed Dec. 21 by a Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility inmate who contended he didn’t come forward earlier
partly because he was embarrassed and feared retaliation from corrections
officers, medical personnel and other inmates. The prison is near Santa
Rosa. Seven lawsuits filed since 2013 against Walden; the national medical
firm Corizon Inc., which hired him; and private prison operator, The Geo
Group Inc., have settled out of court. Some were settled within months of
being filed; at least two before the defense had formally responded to the
allegations. Walden, whose medical license has been suspended by the New
Mexico Medical Board, lost his job after an inmate complained to local law
enforcement in July 2012. Walden, Corizon and The Geo Group have denied the
lawsuits’ allegations. Albuquerque attorney Frances Carpenter, who filed
two of the earliest lawsuits against in 2013, told the Journal she hopes
the litigation underscores the need for reporting of sexual crimes in
prison. “I think these cases have created an awareness that this happens,
and we’re hoping that other inmates who suffer sexual abuse aren’t afraid
to come forward,” she said. “That’s the only way to ensure things like this
don’t happen again.” She said the amount her clients received is
confidential. Many of the lawsuits allege that Corizon and The Geo Inc.
were “willfully blind and dumb” to what was occurring, or at least should
have known that Walden was “abusing his patients.” “When made aware of
possible instances of sexual abuse and potential violations of inmate
rights, companies such as GEO and Corizon cannot simply maintain the status
quo at their facilities, but must act immediately to put a stop to such
misconduct,” Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall in a lawsuit that settled in
May 2014. “Otherwise, as happened here, over a period of a couple of years,
dozens of inmates are victimized, each being told that rectal and prostrate
exams are ‘normal’ and ‘routine’ for scrapes, allergies, sore shoulders,
sprained ankles or any conditions causing inmates to see the prison
doctor,” Hall alleged. The lawsuits contend Walden spent longer than
average time with inmates in the examination room. He performed twice as
many digital rectal exams per month as other doctors who worked at the
prison. And he used a privacy screen with virtually every patient. There
was a “sudden notable increase in volume of digital rectal exams being
performed, unindicated digital rectal exams on young inmates, refusal by
Walden to have a third party present during exams,” according to one
lawsuit. Medical records allegedly showed one inmate went to Walden for an
eye problem and got a rectal exam. Another sought medical treatment for an
asthma condition and was told to drop his pants for a rectal exam. One
18-year-old inmate was ordered to have prostate exams monthly. Federal
court records show Corizon and The Geo Group denied the allegations when
they responded to the lawsuits, which allege civil rights violations,
medical malpractice and negligence. Walden said in courts records he never
sexually abused or fondled anyone. Walden worked at the Guadalupe County
Correctional Facility from July 2010 to February 2012. He transferred to
the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton and worked there
from February 2012 to July 21, 2012. The GEO Group, based in Florida,
operates both the prisons under a contract with the state Corrections
Department, which also pays Corizon to provide medical treatment at two
facilities. Other lawsuits filed against Walden are on hold pending a
criminal investigation overseen by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors
have been building a criminal case against Walden since early 2013. Walden,
57, filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Inmates called Walden “Dr. Fingers,”
according to one lawsuit, which alleges that the physician was “serially
sexually assaulting” inmates at Guadalupe County Correctional Center, and
was “unfit to practice medicine in that environment.” Another inmate’s
lawsuit alleged that Walden’s reputation for sexual misconduct during exams
was “common knowlege” inside the prison in 2011.
Some inmates refused to go back to Walden for medical treatment after the
sexual contact. Another inmate had to continue seeing Walden because he
needed regular treatment for his diabetes. Others refused to go to
follow-up appointments that Walden requested because there was no medical
reason indicated. Several said they feared retaliation. Walden allegedly
told one inmate “he had gotten another inmate sent to segregation for
attempting to report Walden’s conduct, and threatened he would do the same
to B.H. if B.H. ever attempted to report the abuse,” one lawsuit said.
Another plaintiff, identified only as G.M., stopped the “inappropriate
digital exam” and “pulled his pants up,” his lawsuit said. Walden is
alleged to have told G.M. he would not provide further medical treatment
and would report G.M. for drug seeking if he reported the incident. The
most recent case filed by an inmate identified only as “O.F.” alleges he
went to Walden for treatment of diabetes and Walden fondled, and played
with his left testicle and penis, and used his ungloved finger to penetrate
the inmate’s rectum. Nearly two years later, the inmate filed a grievance
over the incident with prison officials. But his lawsuit said he wasn’t
told of the outcome of the internal investigation until this September,
when a Corrections Department notified him the case had been resolved and
that he could “take whatever action you deem appropriate.” The New Mexico
Medical Board investigated the sexual misconduct and other allegations
against Walden, finding in 2013 that he violated five provisions of the
state Medical Practice Act. A competency test later ordered by the board
found Walden deficient in several areas of medicine. The board in November
2014 suspended Walden’s license but left the door open to eventual
reinstatement if he completes a “full residency” program in medicine, such
as a residency at the University of New Mexico. Court records show Walden
is appealing the board’s decision to state district court.
Nov
2, 2013 abqjournal.com
A
former prison physician accused of fondling multiple inmates during medical
exams at two contract men’s prisons in New Mexico is under criminal
investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Mark Walden has also
been suspended from the practice of medicine and has filed a notice of
bankruptcy. The Justice Department’s notification to Walden that he is the
target of an inquiry into the alleged violation of inmates’ civil rights is
revealed in documents filed in three civil lawsuits now consolidated in
U.S. District Court. Documents say Walden was notified in writing that “he
is the target of a criminal investigation regarding alleged sexual abuse of
male inmates at the Northeastern New Mexico Correctional Facility in
Clayton and at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa.”
The prisons are privately operated by Corizon Inc. The civil lawsuits
against Walden, Corizon and others were filed on behalf of about three
dozen current or former inmates at the two prisons by attorneys Katie
Curry, Brad Hall and Frances Crockett Carpenter. Defendants moved the case
to federal court. Walden’s attorney in the civil lawsuit said she does not
comment on pending litigation. But in an answer she filed on behalf of
Walden in one of the civil lawsuits, he denied performing any digital
rectal exams that were not medically necessary or that were inappropriate
in length or methodology. He denies sexually abusing inmates at anytime or that any conduct on his part was
unreasonable, cruel or harmful. Walden also contends that the claims are
barred by the statute of limitations and the Prison Litigation Reform Act
and the New Mexico Tort Claims Act. The inmates have made claims in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court to protect any recovery they may receive in the civil
litigation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Torgerson stayed the civil cases in
August until the bankruptcy is resolved. Walden was entitled to an
automatic stay by virtue of his bankruptcy filing. Torgerson extended the
stay to other defendants, including Walden’s former employer The Geo Group
Inc., now called Corizon, wardens Erasmo Bravo and Timothy Hatch, and the
health services administrator. There are no details on the Justice
investigation, which has apparently been underway since before the civil
litigation began in March. According to a statement from Corizon, the
company “is unaware of any criminal proceedings being filed at this time.
We will cooperate fully with any investigations related to this matter.”
The wardens, Geo and Corizon filed answers in the civil cases in which they
have denied allegations of negligent hiring and supervisions, medical
malpractice and civil rights violations. The inmates have asked the court
to permit the litigation to go forward without revealing the names of the
plaintiffs because of the potential of greater harm and victimization. But
one of Walden’s attorneys in the civil suits has denied sexual abuse
allegations contained in the request and opposed the request for anonymity,
saying inmate lawyers are engaged in a media campaign to “impact the
pending litigation.” Walden’s attorney Nicole Charlebois said in a written
filing that the unnamed plaintiffs attacked Walden in the media before even
serving him with the complaint. Plaintiffs’ lawyers, she said in the
filing, are “manipulating the underlying litigation, tainting the public
perception and tainting the potential jury pool,” and that Walden has a
right to know his accusers, “especially in light of their aggressive media
tactics.” Suspension: The New Mexico Medical Board suspended Walden from
practice in July, after sending him notice of contemplated action and
getting input from two physicians hired as experts who reviewed available
records. The board ordered Walden to undergo a thorough psychological
evaluation arranged by the New Mexico Monitored Treatment Program, which
was to send its findings and recommendations to the board for review. The
recommendations “must demonstrate to the board’s satisfaction that (Walden)
is fit to safely practice medicine.” The board will then determine his
further licensure status. The board hired as experts a urologist with 33 years experience, including 5½ years participating in a
prison clinic, and an emergency medicine physician described as having
expertise in correctional medicine. The urologist said his review of the
evidence indicated “sexual contact with a patient” by Walden on many
occasions that were not legitimate medical procedures and constituted
sexual abuse. The second physician found that Walden had not breached the
standard of care and that his treatment of inmates was appropriate for the
patient complaints documented in medical records. That doctor questioned
the credibility of the inmates’ statements “because several of them
indicated (Walden) had examined them without gloves, which (he) found very
unlikely to have actually occurred.” Walden invoked his Fifth Amendment
right and refused to testify at the medical board hearing.
Among
over 40 pages of proposed factual findings:
•Walden
regularly performed digital rectal examinations of inmate patients in their
20s and 30s. The Clayton prison offered exams routinely for men over age 50
and for men under 50 if they had specific complaints warranting such an
exam.
•He
did twice as many rectal exams each month as any other doctor at the
Clayton facility, according to a prison nurse.
•A
40-year-old patient at the prison in Clayton asked a corrections officer as
the inmate left the medical unit in July 2012 “if (Walden) was gay, and
expressed discomfort with the examination he had received.” The officer
prepared a statement based on the inmate’s statements that the doctor had
turned him over and stroked his genitals. That was the only comment about
any presumed sexual orientation of the doctor.
•Another
patient reported on Aug. 5, 2012, that Walden had “played with” his
testicles without gloves.
•A
28-year-old inmate reported that Walden called him for medical exams for
three weeks straight on a Friday or Saturday, gave him a rectal exam and
studied his penis.
•Another
inmate filed a grievance about an Aug. 20, 2012, incident in which he said
Walden asked him to drop his pants, rubbed his genitals and asked if it
felt good.
•In
patient statements provided by the facilities in response to a subpoena by
the board, Walden diagnosed a prostate condition not confirmed by an
independent analysis.
•Inmate
patients are generally not referred out because of time, expense and safety
issues in transporting prisoners off site.
•Only
one patient at Santa Rosa filed a grievance with a nurse.
The
hearing officer noted inmates “may be manipulative and will commonly do
things for purposes of secondary gain,” such as getting strong pain
medicine, special shoes or mattresses.
Mar
17, 2013 abqjournal.com
A
New Mexico inmate claims he got an overly long and intrusive rectal exam
when he went to the prison doctor for a torn meniscus in his knee. And his
complaint isn’t the only one. Eighteen inmates in two separate civil
lawsuits claim they were fondled or given intrusive exams – even when they
weren’t needed – by Dr. Mark E. Walden, the prison physician at the time.
The claims that Walden used his position to sexually abuse inmates are
being made by men incarcerated at prisons in Santa Rosa and Clayton. Both
prisons are operated under contract with the state by the Boca Raton,
Fla.-based GEO group, a firm that operates detention and re-entry
facilities in Australia, Canada, South Africa and Britain, as well as the
U.S. Walden was an employee of Corizon, a private contractor that provides
healthcare services at over 349 correctional facilities across the country.
The company, which is based in Tennessee, has a four-year, $177.6 million
contract to provide prison medical services in New Mexico at both public
and privately run prisons. Katie Curry of the McGinn Law Firm in
Albuquerque, attorney for one group of prisoners suing Walden, GEO Group
Inc., Corizon, prison wardens Erasmo Bravo and Timothy Hatch, and health
administrator Sherry Phillips, said another attorney represents another 10
or so clients with similar complaints. “That’s who has come forward, but these
guys move around a lot (to other prisons),” Curry said. “I can imagine
there are others who are reluctant to come forward.” The lawsuit filed by
Curry alleges at least 25 known victims. The New Mexico Medical Board is
investigating Walden and, on Feb. 18, issued a notice of contemplated
action. No hearing has been scheduled, but it is likely to take place in
April or May, a board spokeswoman said. “As a matter of standing company
policy, Corizon does not comment on any litigation. However, Corizon can confirm
that Dr. Walden is no longer on staff,” said Courtney Eller of DVL Public
Relations & Advertising in Nashville, which handles media inquiries for
Corizon. GEO Group spokesman Pablo Paez said in
an email that the company, as a matter of policy, “cannot comment on
litigation related matters, but we can confirm that Mr. Bravo and Mr. Hatch
are employed by GEO and Dr. Walden is not employed by GEO.” Walden, who is
now working in a medical practice in Raton, did not return a call for
comment. He also allegedly failed to use proper hygiene and disease
prevention techniques by not using gloves when he examined inmates. Prison
administrators and Corizon didn’t ensure that a third person was present to
protect the integrity of the exams, according to at least one of the suits.
The potential for sexual abuse and sexual misconduct toward inmates by
prison employees is well-known institutional problem, the lawsuits say, and
administrators have a duty to protect the inmates. Inmates often view
reporting abuse as futile because of the humiliation and retaliation they
risk and the prospect of losing access to medical services, the complaints
say. Doctors have far greater social status than inmates, further
exacerbating the imbalance, they say. GEO and Corizon should have known
about the abuse through inmate reports and the perceptions of staffers such
as nurses, “or kept themselves willfully blind” to it, according to Curry’s
lawsuit. “Corizon and GEO did not encourage reporting or documentation of
these incidents, and enacted no discipline or retraining of … Walden,” the
lawsuit says. Curry said there was a written complaint about Walden by an
inmate in September 2011, “and apparently nothing happens, so it’s
literally like the Catholic church where they know something and transfer
him someplace else.” She said lawyers know a copy of the complaint went to
State Police and that GEO was made aware of it. Walden initially worked at
the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa and was later
transferred to the Northeastern New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton.
One of the consequences of the alleged abuse, Curry said, was that some
inmates stopped going to see Walden, even though they needed medical
treatment. The lawsuit says staff became suspicious after Walden was hired
“based on observations including a sudden notable increase in volume of
digital rectal exams being performed, unindicated digital rectal exams on
young inmates (and) refusal by defendant Walden to have a third party
present.” An inmate who went to Walden for urinary tract issues and had an
examination that was “excessive and inappropriate” and conducted without
gloves reported the incident and had a sexual assault exam performed in
Santa Fe, which revealed two anal tears, according to the lawsuit. “Corizon
and GEO did not encourage reporting or documentation of these incidents,
and enacted no discipline or retraining of … Walden.” - McGINN
LAW FIRM: A separate lawsuit filed by Frances Carpenter of Albuquerque on
behalf of nine more inmates says the abuses began in 2010 and continued
through July 2012 during both routine and “symptom specific” examinations.
They included digital anal penetration and probing and stimulation of the
genitals. One inmate who saw Walden with a request for hemorrhoid cream was
told he need to be examined first, the lawsuit says, and during the exam
was penetrated by the doctor’s “entire ungloved fist.” The inmate, who
reported the incidents to prison officials, continues to have nightmares
and anxiety related to the alleged assault. Both lawsuits, filed in 1st
Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, allege negligent hiring and retention,
civil rights violations, negligence and breach of contract. They seek
unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Meanwhile, the medical board
is expected to set a hearing this spring based on allegations that Walden,
during prostate exams on some 17 inmates, “touched or attempted to touch
these inmates in an inappropriate, sexual manner.” The board notice says
Walden was subject to a “corrective action” for incomplete medical records
that led the Union County General Hospital to terminate his privileges, and
he did not report it to the board. The notice also says Walden’s
professional medical liability insurance was canceled and that he gave
incorrect information about it on his license renewal in 2011. Inmates say
routine exams turned into horrific assaultsSee
PRISON on PAGE A9from PAGE A1Prison doctor accused of sex abuse; inmates
claim assaults”Corizon and GEO did not encourage
reporting or documentation of these incidents, and enacted no discipline or
retraining of … Walden.”<quote_attribution>McGINN LAW FIRM
Guilford
County Jail, Greensboro,
North Carolina
November 30, 2007 News &
Record
The family of a 41-year-old woman who died in the Guilford County jail has
reached a settlement with the national company that provides health care to
inmates. Neither the attorney representing the family of Judy McDaniel Woodle nor a spokeswoman with Prison Health Services
would discuss details of the settlement. Susan Morgenstern, spokeswoman for
Prison Health Services, said the settlement carries a confidentiality
clause. "The issue has been resolved pending approval by the court,
and there is no fault involved," Morgenstern said Thursday. Woodle died April 30 inside her cell from what was
determined to be a strangulated left femoral hernia. She had spent six days
in jail awaiting trial on petty theft charges and was taking anti-diarrheal
and pain medication for what was thought to be an ovarian cyst. Steve
Bowden, an attorney for Woodle's family, said the
matter was resolved this week. "I'm not allowed to reveal the terms.
I'm just happy the family was able to get this resolved," Bowden said.
No lawsuit was filed in Woodle's death, he said.
Prison Health Services, based in Brentwood, Tenn., provides care to inmates
in 180 jails and prisons across the country, according to its Web site. It
has a contract to provide medical care to the Guilford inmates through
June. The sheriff's office pays the company more than $200,000 each month
for its services. Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said in May that Woodle began complaining of symptoms a few days after
her arrest and that Prison Health Services medical personnel did not take
her for a hospital evaluation. Barnes said Thursday that he does not fault
Prison Health Services for Woodle's death,
calling the care the company provides for the inmates "more than
sufficient."
July
10, 2007 News Record
Attorneys for the family of a woman who died in jail said the hernia
that killed her should have been detected by a simple physical exam. An
autopsy report for Judy McDaniel Woodle , who died in April, showed she had a visible nodule on
her groin. That lump was caused by the strangulated femoral hernia that
killed her, according to the report. Eddie Darton , an attorney
with the firm representing Woodle's family, said
a physical exam should have easily revealed the nodule, which the report
stated was 3-1/2 inches by 1-3/4 inches by 2 inches. That discovery, in
conjunction with the fact that Woodle had been
suffering from vomiting and stomach pain, should have led to the
realization that she had a serious medical problem, Darton
said. Instead, the hernia went undiagnosed, and Woodle
died on April 30 in her cell. Attorney Steve Bowden ,
who is representing Woodle's family, said the
outcome would have been different if the problem had been detected.
"She'd be alive today," he said. Guilford Sheriff BJ Barnes said
that a doctor had looked at Woodle while she was
in the jail. Woodle had told correctional
officers when she arrived at the jail that she suffered from an ovarian
cyst, and she was receiving medication at the jail for that problem. Barnes
said the nodule might have looked like a cyst, but Darton,
who has a medical degree, said a cyst would not have had that appearance.
Bowden said the family is looking for a financial settlement, and a lawsuit
is possible. "It depends on what kind of cooperation we get," he
said. "She's got five children." If an agreement isn't reached by
the end of August, he said, the matter will move to court. Barnes said he
has not spoken with Bowden but did not rule out the possibility of a
settlement. "You never close any doors on anything," he said. Woodle, who was 41 , had been
jailed six days before her death. She had been charged with stealing $5.09
worth of fish from a Food Lion. She also faced charges of resisting a
police officer and failing to appear in court on a previous theft charge.
According to the autopsy, the hernia led to gangrene, or the death of
tissue, in the small intestine, and complications eventually caused Woodle's death. Medical care at the jail is provided by
a private company, the Tennessee-based Prison Health Services. Guilford
County pays the company more than $200,000 monthly to provide care at the
Greensboro and High Point jails and the county prison farm. No changes have
been made to the jail's medical procedures, Barnes said, but the sheriff's
office is always looking for ways to improve, he said. "This did not
end the way anyone wanted it to end," he said.
June
5, 2007 News & Record
The company that provides health care in the Guilford County jails told
the sheriff last month it will not share records that explain how its staff
makes medical decisions. Sheriff BJ Barnes requested documents from the
company after an inmate died in April on her cell floor. The News &
Record asked Barnes for some of the records mentioned in a policy manual he
has made available to the newspaper. Barnes contracts with Prison Health
Services Inc. for medical, dental and psychological care of inmates in
three county jails. The Tennessee-based company turned over some
information, including the names of jail medical staff. But in a letter dated
May 25, a lawyer representing Prison Health told the sheriff's office that
no documents would be shared, saying the records are "private,
confidential, or otherwise protected material." Barnes on Monday
declined to answer whether he believes the county has a right to records
and manuals maintained by companies that work for him. "At the present
time, I don't have a need for this information," he said. "There
may come a time when I feel there is a need. If it does, I'll come to Matt
(Mason, the sheriff's attorney) and say 'all right, let's force the
issue.'" Because Prison Health is a private company, its records are
not something the News & Record can directly receive under public
records laws. Prison Health's attorney, Steven Weaver, could not be reached
for comment late Monday. His voice mail message indicates he is out of the
office until mid-June. Barnes and his top officers have maintained that
medical staff acted properly in the days leading to the woman's death. They
said they based their conclusion on talks with Prison Health staff without
reviewing records themselves. "The medical field is not my area,"
Barnes said. "That's why we hire them. A doctor or a nurse oftentimes
knows things that I don't know." The county is paying $2.7 million
this year to Prison Health. Among the records it denied to the sheriff: l A
copy of the Utilization Management Resource Manual, a document that,
according to Prison Health's policies manual, is something medical staff
can reference when making clinical judgments. l A copy of the most recent
annual review of Prison Health's "Continuous Quality Improvement
Program." l A copy of the clinical incident report stemming from the
death of Judy McDaniel Woodle. Woodle, 41, died April 30 on the floor of her jail
cell. The state medical examiner's office found she suffered from a
strangulated hernia, where her intestines got pinched outside her abdomen
and the lack of blood killed off part of the organ. While the autopsy
report has not been completed, medical experts say that with most untreated
strangulated hernias, the bowel ruptures once it dies, spilling bacteria
into the bloodstream. Barnes said last month that Woodle
had told staff on her arrival in jail that she suffered from an ovarian
cyst. She had been taking antidiarrheal and pain medication at the time of
her death. Woodle's family has hired an attorney
to review her death. Attorney Steve Bowden was out of the office Monday and
not available for comment.
May
12, 2007 News & Record
The attorney for Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes has asked a
Tennessee-based health care contractor for internal procedural guidelines
following an inmate death in the Greensboro jail. The News & Record had
asked the sheriff's office for those documents and others after Judy
McDaniel Woodle died on April 30. The county pays
Prison Health Services more than $200,000 per month to handle inmate health
care in its jails. The letter from attorney Matt Mason said the sheriff's
office would assess the documents under public records laws and respond to
the newspaper. Among the records requested were company documents outlining
how its physicians should make clinical judgments. Sheriff's officials have
said all proper policies and procedures were followed, even though they had
not reviewed all of Prison Health's written policies. Woodle
died of a strangulated hernia, health officials have said. The letter was
addressed to Steven P. Weaver, a Greensboro lawyer who represents Prison
Health.
May
10, 2007 News & Record
Guilford County sheriff's officials have maintained for the past week
that jail medical staff followed proper procedures treating an inmate who
died last month of a strangulated hernia. They stood by their findings on
Wednesday, while acknowledging in an interview with the News & Record that
they had not reviewed all the written policies of the company contracted to
provide inmate health care. Nor had they examined the medical files of the
inmate, Judy McDaniel Woodle. Sheriff's Maj. Deb Montgomery , accompanied by sheriff's attorney Matt
Mason , said that officials discussed the death with medical staff from
Prison Health Services, a Tennessee-based company. The sheriff's office
determined no mistakes were made based on the discussions, they said. But
Prison Health has not yet provided the sheriff's office with company
documents outlining how its physicians should make clinical judgments.
Sheriff's officials would not reveal details of the talks with Prison
Health staff, citing federal health privacy laws. It is unclear why Prison
Health has not given the sheriff's office the policy documents. The county
pays it more than $200,000 a month to provide medical services to inmates
at all three county facilities. Mason met with an attorney for Prison
Health on Wednesday. He said he will brief Sheriff BJ Barnes today and it
will be the sheriff's decision how to proceed on obtaining the records. The
meeting of lawyers was called after the News & Record requested
documents that show how medical staff determine the need for hospital care.
According to Montgomery and records provided by the sheriff's office,
Prison Health is responsible for the first $25,000 of any hospital care
required for a condition that develops in the jail. If costs exceed that,
the county covers the difference. A spokeswoman for Prison Health was
unable to find answers to questions posed by the News & Record late
Wednesday afternoon, including how jail staff are trained and who had been
made aware of the inmate's complaints. As for the medical documents,
sheriff's officials said those files were sent to the State Medical
Examiner's Office, which conducted the autopsy. Woodle,
41, of Greensboro, died April 30 in her jail cell. Staff had given her pain
and antidiarrheal medication for what they believed to be an ovarian cyst. Woodle had not been taken for an ultrasound or other
body imaging tests. The mother of five told jailers upon her admission she
suffered from a cyst, and they observed that the medication appeared to be
relieving pain. Woodle's family hired a lawyer
this week and is now examining legal options. The family's attorney, Steve
Bowden, could not be reached Wednesday afternoon for comment.
May 5,
2007 News Record
The Tennessee-based company that handles medical treatment in the
Guilford County jail declined to comment Friday on why a local inmate died
under its care. A spokeswoman for Prison Health Services Inc. said she was
unaware that a Greensboro woman died until contacted by the News &
Record four days later. Prison Health handles medical care in nearly 300
jails and prisons nationwide. "We will do a thorough review of our own
files," spokeswoman Susan Morgenstern said. "We will make sure
all our policies were filed. Any time there’s a death, it’s what we
do." Judy McDaniel Woodle, 41, died Monday
night from complications of a strangulated hernia. Her intestine had been
choked by a muscle or tissue in her left upper thigh, cutting off the blood
flow. Still, officials have said all policies and procedures were followed.
But the sheriff’s office could not provide a copy Friday of the written
policies and procedures that govern medical care in the Greensboro and High
Point jails, despite the fact that it had launched an investigation into
the death early this week. Maj. Deborah Montgomery said a lawyer for the
sheriff’s office has requested that documentation from Prison Health after
the News & Record asked for it. Sheriff BJ Barnes previously said Woodle, facing charges of petty theft, told jailers
when she was arrested that she suffered from an ovarian cyst. The diarrhea
and abdominal pains she had matched those symptoms. "A lot of times,
certain things have similar symptoms," Montgomery said. "That’s
common sense." Prison Health Services last month paid a Florida woman
$1.25 million in a settlement over claims of negligence. The former inmate
sued when she gave birth over a toilet in her jail cell in 2004. The infant
died. The woman claimed medical staff ignored her complaints of labor pains
for several hours. Barnes hired Prison Health in 2005 when the county ended
its contract with another provider because of performance dissatisfaction.
Gwinnett County Detention
Center, Lawrenceville, Georgia
Gwinnett Jail
Death Lawsuit Highlights Correctional Health Care
According to a
lawsuit, Denise Forte's death in 2015 at the Gwinnett County jail could
have been prevented with adequate medical care. The daughter of an inmate
who died of pneumonia in the Gwinnett County jail is suing the sheriff,
health care employees and the private health provider in charge of her
care. According to the lawsuit, Denise Forte's death in 2015 could have
been prevented with adequate medical care. The 53-year-old had been at the
Gwinnett County jail for more than a year on drug charges. Her daughter's
lawyer, Mark Begnaud, said Forte had a history of
lung disease and was ignored as her symptoms started getting worse. He said
after an initial visit with a nurse, "they didn't even bring her up to
evaluate her. They simply told her 'No. We won't see you now. You're on the
list to be seen by a doctor this week.'" She died before that could
happen. Begnaud said jail records show the
medical director there knew Forte's condition was serious. "She should
have been admitted and immediately seen by a doctor, based on the symptoms
she was presenting at the time," he said. At the time, Gwinnett County
had a contract with Corizon Health, the country's largest private
correctional health service provider. "There have been thousands of
lawsuits,” said Maria Morris, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law
Center. She’s suing the Alabama Department of Corrections over its health
care system and has looked into the way Corizon operates in a number of
states. She said what happened to Forte fits into a larger pattern.
"If there's any way to avoid sending people out, they don't send
people out to specialists in the community," Morris said. She said
Corizon also has a record of using staff who aren't qualified for the jobs
they're performing. Gwinnett County ended its contract with Corizon last
year, though the county didn't respond when asked why. Both Fulton and
Chatham counties cut ties with the company in recent years. For now,
Corizon says it's not operating in Georgia. Morris said regardless of who
holds these contracts or how they're written, jail and prison officials
need to keep an eye on the medical care happening on the ground. "If
they're not doing it, they're violating the Constitution, and they're also
violating their contract, in most situations," she said. She said
lawsuits like Forte’s are often the only way that oversight happens. In a
statement from Corizon, the company said, “Our doctors and nurses work
every day in extremely difficult settings to provide the best possible
medical care for the patients in our care.”
July
24, 2008 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The widow of a Lawrenceville man who died after struggling with
Gwinnett deputies and being stunned with a Taser has dropped a lawsuit
against the county. The wife of Frederick Jerome Williams abandoned all
claims in the wrongful death lawsuit against Gwinnett County and several
deputies involved in the scuffle with Williams, the Sheriff's department
announced late Thursday afternoon. The federal lawsuit was dismissed with
prejudice, meaning the Williams family cannot refile it at a later date,
said Thomas Mitchell, the attorney who represented Gwinnett County.
Williams' death drew a firestorm of criticism from civil rights groups such
as the Gwinnett NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), who led three marches outside the Gwinnett County courthouse
calling for a moratorium on Taser use by law enforcement. Yanga Williams,
Frederick Williams' widow, did not return messages left on her home or
cellphone Thursday evening. A receptionist at the office of her attorney,
Keenan R.S. Nix, said he was out of the office. Yanga Williams' attorney is
going forward with the lawsuit against Taser International and the
contracted healthcare provider for the jail, Prison Health Services,
Mitchell said. The suit alleges that a nurse working at the jail gave
inadequate and lackadaisical medical care to Williams in the critical
moments after he lost consciousness. On the night of Williams' arrest in
May 2004, police were called to his Lawrenceville home to settle a domestic
dispute. Williams fought with officers before his arrest. Later at the
jail, Williams started to fight with deputies. A videotape shows deputies
shocking Williams five times with the stun gun and then placing him in a
restraint chair. He lost consciousness and died in a hospital two days
later. Williams, 31, a native of Liberia, died of brain damage from a heart
attack, according to the final autopsy report, although officials were
unable to say what caused the heart attack.
September
25, 2007 Atlanta Journal Constitution
The death of an inmate who fell ill while being held at the Gwinnett
County Jail awaiting transfer to another jurisdiction has spurred a lawsuit
against the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department and its contracted health
care provider. It is the fourth wrongful death lawsuit to be filed against
the two parties within the past four years. According to the lawsuit filed
Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, William Hargrove was suffering
from abdominal pains on March 5, 2006, when a doctor ordered that he be
sent to a hospital emergency room. However, a supervising deputy told
medical staff not to send Hargrove to the hospital and instead attempted to
transfer him to Newton County, the lawsuit states. He died two hours later,
before the transport had been arranged. An autopsy revealed the cause of
death was a perforated ulcer of the small intestine. Police had picked up
Hargrove March 4 for failing to appear in court in Newton County on a
speeding violation. Representatives from both the Sheriff's Department and
Prison Health Services declined comment. The lawsuit follows on the heels
of another filed Sept. 7 in federal court on behalf of deceased inmate
Harriett Washington. Washington died of leukemia on Oct. 17, 2005. Lawyers
for Washington have criticized Prison Health Services staffers for
repeatedly rebuffing her requests to be hospitalized during the days
leading up to her death. Both PHS and the Sheriff's Department also were
named in two Taser-related wrongful death suits. Earlier this year, county
officials agreed to pay the family of Ray Charles Austin $100,000 to
dismiss a lawsuit arising from Austin's death during a 2003 scuffle with
deputies. A lawsuit is still pending in the 2004 death of Frederick Jerome
Williams at the jail.
October
6, 2006 Gwinnett Daily Post
The president of the NAACP's Gwinnett branch wants county leaders to
reconsider their decision to bestow a multimillion dollar contract for
inmate health care services on a provider that faces multiple wrongful
death lawsuits. County commissioners voted Tuesday to award a one-year
contract to Prison Health Services for $6.15 million. John Stewart, the
local chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, on Monday plans to review six bids submitted by other
health care providers to determine if there were other viable options.
"I understand the reason why PHS won a contract again was because of
their financial stability and experience," Stewart said. "I am
going to be looking to see if the other vendors have a track record of
providing medical services and see if one of those vendors should be given
the opportunity to have the contract." Stewart views PHS as "an
enormous liability" to county residents and says negligent care is
putting the lives of more inmates at risk. The private company has provided
inmate medical, dental and mental health care in Gwinnett since 1997. It
was recommended by officials from both the sheriff's and corrections
departments who looked at cost, experience, references and financial
stability before making their decision. Prison Health Services has been
targeted in lawsuits filed by two inmates who died after struggling with
deputies at the Gwinnett County Detention Center and being stunned with a
Taser. Both inmates were black. The lawsuits claimed that medical staff at
the jail were lackadaisical in their attempts to resuscitate one inmate,
Frederick Williams, and failed to document a fear of needles in the medical
file of the other inmate, Ray Austin. A third lawsuit is pending by the
family of a black female inmate, 43-year-old Harriett Washington, who died
of leukemia on Oct. 17, 2005. An attorney for Washington's family
criticized PHS for repeatedly ignoring her requests to be hospitalized.
District 3 Commissioner Mike Beaudreau said
Tuesday he was concerned PHS had been targeted by the recent lawsuits in
Gwinnett, but "we aren't going to let lawsuits dictate how we do the
business of the people." Stewart is also scheduling a town hall
meeting for people who have been incarcerated in the Gwinnett County
Detention Center to give public testimony about their experiences with
Prison Health Services. "I am not sure if the county has all the
information available as to the inadequate services provided by this provider,"
Stewart said.
October
4, 2006 Gwinnett Daily Post
Gwinnett County commissioners have signed on with an embattled inmate
health care provider for another year. Six other companies submitted
proposals to provide health care services for the Gwinnett County
Department of Corrections and the Sheriff’s Department. However, the
current provider, Prison Health Services, was granted the $6.15 million
contract. The commissioners did not discuss the contract during Tuesday’s
public meeting, but afterward said they supported the decision of a
committee who evaluated the seven bids. PHS, a private company that has
provided inmate medical, dental and mental health care in Gwinnett since
1997, had been recommended by officials from both the sheriff’s and corrections
departments. A committee composed of officials from both departments looked
at cost, experience, references and financial stability in making its
recommendation. District 3 Commissioner Mike Beaudreau
expressed concern that PHS had been targeted by two lawsuits in Gwinnett
within the past 13 months, but said, “We aren’t going to let lawsuits
dictate how we do the business of the people.”Joan
Crumpler, one of the attorneys representing the Williams family in the
lawsuit, warned that in voting for PHS on Monday, county commissioners were
overlooking problems at the jail that could lead to more deaths. “If the
Gwinnett decision-makers limited their criteria to cost, experience,
references and financial stability, then they can easily justify
contracting with PHS, since PHS owns 25 percent of the national marketshare for outsourced inmate medical care,”
Crumpler said. “However, Gwinnett County must never ignore very real
problems at the jail, including PHS’s failure to adequately respond to
medical crises. It is this kind of problem that has resulted in unnecessary
deaths.”
October
3, 2006 Gwinnett Daily Post
Several pending lawsuits against the company contracted to provide
health care for Gwinnett County inmates has apparently done little to
influence its chances of renewing a multimillion dollar contract. Six other
companies have submitted proposals to provide health care services for the
Gwinnett County Department of Corrections and the Sheriff’s Department, but
Prison Health Services seems to be the front-runner. Its current contract
expires Oct. 31. PHS was recommended by officials from both the Sheriff’s
and Corrections departments again this year. Gwinnett County Commissioners
will consider that recommendation today while reviewing proposals in a
public meeting. If approved, the contract awarded to PHS to provide
medical, dental and mental health care for inmates would be worth more than
$6.1 million. PHS had the highest-scoring proposal of all those submitted
for consideration, according to a county memo. But not all the feedback on
PHS has been positive. The company was targeted by two lawsuits in Gwinnett
within the past 13 months. It also came under harsh criticism in January
following the release of an internal investigation by the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s
Department into the death of a terminally ill inmate. Several deputies and
inmates blasted PHS for its handling of the woman, who died of leukemia on
Oct. 17, 2005. Harriett Washington, 43, repeatedly asked to be taken to a
hospital in the days leading up to her death, but her requests were
rebuffed by staff members who instead sent her back to her cell.
Washington’s two cellmates and several deputies reported that she was sent
to the infirmary three times in a two-day period only to be returned to her
cell in the same condition — vomiting, experiencing high fevers and having
difficulty breathing. Jonathan P. Sexton, an attorney for Washington’s
family, said he plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against PHS and
Gwinnett County in the next six weeks. He was dismayed to hear that PHS’
contract may be renewed. “I hope they don’t use them again,” Sexton said
Monday.
May 2,
2006 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nearly 175 inmates and employees at the Gwinnett County Detention
Center were put on antibiotics after the weekend death of an inmate,
officials said Monday. Detainee Zachary Harris, 20, died from an infection
in his bloodstream at Gwinnett Medical Center on Saturday after being
admitted three days earlier, jail officials said. A Detention Center physician
said Harris' blood contained a bacterium that commonly causes meningitis.
Harris, who had been at the jail a year, complained of a sore throat April
18 and was taken to the hospital Thursday when his blood pressure dropped
dangerously low. He had been awaiting trial on multiple charges, including
impersonating a police officer and drug possession. Detention Center doctor
Lee Grose — who works for the jail's contract medical provider, Prison
Health Services — said the bacterium can be spread through sneezing and
coughing. Jail officials don't know how he contracted the bacterium but
discounted that a visitor could have passed it on. Medical services at the
jail have been under scrutiny since the October 2005 death of inmate
Harriet Washington, 43, who had myeloid leukemia. Washington, who died in
her jail cell, had asked to be hospitalized numerous times in the days
before her death but was turned away by the Prison Health Services staff,
internal jail reports said. At least four of the health provider's
employees were fired, resigned or were transferred as a result of
Washington's death.
April
21, 2006 Gwinnett Daily Post
After nine years, the woman tasked with supervising health care for
Gwinnett County inmates has been reassigned to another post. The departure
of Dwana Gebhardt, health system administrator
for Prison Health Services, comes four months after allegations of
inadequate health care at the Gwinnett County Detention Center surfaced
following the death of a female inmate. Prison Health Services, based in
Nashville, Tenn., is the nation’s largest private provider of correctional
health care. The company has a contract with Gwinnett to provide medical
services for both the detention center and Gwinnett County Comprehensive
Correctional Complex. Officials at the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department
say Gebhardt’s reassignment is not related to the recent hubbub over jail
health care. “I don’t think it is,” said Maj. J.J. Hogan, who was appointed
last month as the sheriff’s liaison and supervisor to Prison Health
Services. Both the Sheriff’s Department and PHS came under scrutiny
following the Oct. 17, 2005, death of a 43-year-old female inmate who was
awaiting trial on a cocaine possession charge. Harriett Washington had
previously been diagnosed with myeloid leukemia. An internal investigation
at the Sheriff’s Department revealed Washington asked several times to be
hospitalized in the days leading up to her death, but her pleadings were
rebuffed by medical staff. Washington’s cellmates and deputies who were in
the housing unit said they witnessed Washington vomiting repeatedly,
experiencing dizziness, acting delirious and having difficulty breathing.
She was taken to the jail’s medical unit at least three times in the two
days before her death, but none of her visits were documented as required,
according to the internal investigation. Each time Washington was sent back
to her cell as her health deteriorated. After Washington died, five other
inmates and a former PHS mental health counselor came forward to the
Gwinnett Daily Post with other complaints about botched medications, lapses
in medical documentation, patient neglect and staff indifference. In the
months that followed, at least four PHS employees that were on duty that
night or were in supervisory positions have been fired, resigned, retired
or transferred. PHS officials have said none of the staffing changes were a
result of Washington’s death or the subsequent complaints.
March
21, 2006 Gwinnett Daily Post
In the wake of a highly publicized inmate death and complaints about
poor health care at the Gwinnett County Detention Center, a high-ranking
deputy has been tasked with overseeing the jail’s contracted medical staff.
Maj. Jim Hogan will supervise employees of Prison Health Services, the contracted
medical provider for the jail, on a full-time basis beginning Monday.
Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway said his department pays Prison Health
Services (PHS) about $6 million a year to provide health care for inmates.
“I think we should have had a medical monitor before now,” Conway said. “I
think with the size of that contract that it’s prudent for us to have
someone on staff monitor the quality of the work.” Hogan will serve as the
primary point of contact for PHS management, monitoring medical service
issues, meeting daily with staffers, making policy recommendations,
reviewing grievances and providing regular reports to the sheriff. Hogan is
a 26-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department. He has been second in
command over jail administration since 1999. Both the Sheriff’s Department
and PHS came under scrutiny following the death of a 43-year-old female
inmate who was awaiting trial on a cocaine possession charge on Oct. 17.
Harriett Washington had previously been diagnosed with myeloid leukemia. An
internal investigation at the Sheriff’s Department revealed Washington
asked several times to be hospitalized in the days leading up to her death,
but her pleadings were rebuffed by medical staff. Washington’s cellmates
and deputies who were in the housing unit said they witnessed Washington
vomiting repeatedly, experiencing dizziness, acting delirious and having
difficulty breathing. She was taken to the jail’s medical unit at least
three times in the two days before her death, but none of her visits were
documented as required, according to the internal investigation. Each time
Washington was sent back to her cell as her health continued to
deteriorate. After Washington died, at least five other inmates and a
former PHS mental health counselor came forward with complaints about
botched medications, lapses in medical documentation, patient neglect and
staff indifference. Hogan said Monday he is up to the challenge of
overseeing PHS.
January
22, 2006 Gwinnett Daily Post
A review of the personnel files of more than 60 employees of Prison Health
Services, the contracted medical provider for the Gwinnett County Detention
Center, reveals several employees have something in common with the inmates
they treat — six have been arrested in the past. The six employees,
including the jail’s medical director, were arrested as long ago as 1981
and as recently as this year for a range of offenses. In addition, a nurse
and a certified medical assistant were accused of criminal behavior while
they were still working at the jail less than three months ago. One has
since been fired and the other resigned amid an internal investigation.
While his resume lists an impressive amount of supervisory experience in
the field, his personnel file reveals staff psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Howard
Flatlow had his medical license put on probation
by the Composite Board of Medical Examiners in 1985. The sanctions were
lifted in 1993. The reason why Flatlow was on
probation is not said, but the file does say Flatlow
was in an “impaired physician’s program” or designated as a “recovering
physician.” A pattern of supervisors tolerating mistakes also emerges from
a study of the PHS files. Employees who were found to be sleeping on the
job, providing inmates with the wrong medication, forgetting to document
patient treatments or allowing an inmate to administer their own medication
were given a verbal or written reprimand. However, some employees, such as
Kessie, racked up as many as seven written reprimands in less than two
years without losing their jobs. Kessie was finally fired in October upon
being arrested and charged with providing an inmate with a cell phone. A
high turnover of medical staff at the jail is also evident in the
documentation PHS produces. The jail is staffed with 30 full-time health
care employees and seven mental health professionals, according to Stacey
Kelley, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Detention Center. A records
request for the personnel files of staff currently employed and any staff
members who left after Sept. 1, 2005, because of resignation or termination
resulted in 63 employee files, thus 26 people left within that time frame.
Stacey Kelley, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department,
issued a statement on behalf of Sheriff Butch Conway this week saying he is
weighing his options regarding PHS’ contract with the county, which expires
this year on Oct. 31. No serious talks have occurred regarding termination
of the contract, Kelley said. “I am in the process of determining what my
options are regarding Prison Health Services,” Conway says in the
statement. “When I do, I will make a decision that is in the best interest
of the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department, the inmates and our
personnel.”
January
20, 2006 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway is trying to decide whether to fire the
county jail's medical provider. The sheriff could decide to opt out of the
county's $4.8 million annual contract with Prison Health Services. The
company's performance was called into question in a scathing internal
report on the 2005 death of a detainee. Harriet Washington, 43, who had
been in the jail since June on a cocaine possession charge, died early on
Oct. 17. She suffered from leukemia. The report states that jail deputies
and Washington's cellmates urged that she be taken to a hospital, but that
their pleas were ignored by employees of the Tennessee- based health
provider. A letter from Washington's cellmates to Conway alleged that
multiple requests that Washington be treated were ignored in the two days
before her death. Washington had not seen an outside doctor since July,
according to jail records. "Either party can opt out of the
contract" with at least 10 days' notice, Conway said Thursday. The
contract states that any violation of its provisions or stipulations is
grounds for termination. Conway said he believes it would be possible to
switch providers with a minimum of disruption, if that's what he decides to
do. The report particularly questions the actions of Brian Woodard, a licensed
practical nurse for Prison Health Services who treated Washington over a
two-day span that ended with her death. Woodard could not be reached for
comment Thursday. He has been a licensed practical nurse since at least
1994, according to state professional license information. Woodard resigned
a week after Washington's death as a result of a separate, unrelated
internal investigation into narcotics missing from the medical unit, the
report says. The company already is named in at least two federal suits
filed after Gwinnett inmates died in custody.
January
20, 2006 AP
Gwinnett County attorneys are blaming Taser International and Prison
Health Services in the death of a jail inmate, who died after being
repeatedly shocked with a stun gun. The county, which has been sued by the
family of Frederick Williams, filed a cross claim this week blaming
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taser International for providing false training
documents and not warning users that their stun guns could be lethal if
used repeatedly. Taser International and Brentwood, Tenn.-based Prison
Health Services, which provides medical care at the jail, should be held
accountable, the county says, especially if a court finds that Williams
died from the Taser or because of improper medical care.
January
19, 2006 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jail inmate Harriet Washington was the victim of a confused and clumsy
medical response when she died in front of her cellmates, concluded a
Gwinnett Sheriff's Department investigation released Wednesday. Washington,
of Norcross, died on Oct. 17. Jailed at the Gwinnett County Detention
Center since June for possession of cocaine, Washington suffered from
leukemia. She was 43. The internal affairs investigation clears Sheriff's
Department deputies of any culpability, stating they "adhered to
existing policy and acted in a manner consistent with the needs of the
situation." The report raises questions, however, about the
performance of Prison Health Services, the Tennessee-based company
contracted to care for Gwinnett inmates. Deputies had urged that Washington
be taken to the hospital, to no avail, the report states. "If the
medical staff had ordered outside treatment at Gwinnett Medical Center, as
sworn staff [deputies] had urged, instead of allowing the inmate to remain
in the housing unit, the end result very well may have been the same,"
the report's conclusion states. "Had the inmate been transferred to
the hospital, however, it would have eliminated the doubt surrounding the
appropriateness of the treatment provided." Sheriff Butch Conway
declined an interview on the report, but issued a prepared statement:
"I am in the process of determining what my options are regarding
Prison Health Services," it read. "When I do, I'll make a
decision that is in the best interest of the Gwinnett County Sheriff's
Department, the inmates and our personnel." According to the internal
affairs report, Washington was briefly taken to the medical unit at least
once the day before she died but was returned to her cell a short time later.
The report accuses the company of failing to adequately document her care.
Records even conflicted on how many times she was taken to the medical
unit. Inmate Cheryl Horstman, who was in the medical unit at the time, told
investigators that nurse Brian Woodard and Deputy Benita Smallwood seemed
"bothered" by Washington's presence. At one point, Woodard told
Washington, "only one problem per visit," according to Horstman.
In a subsequent debriefing with his superior in the medical unit, Woodard
said, "I know I [messed] up" by failing to document Washington's
treatment. Woodard submitted his resignation on Oct. 24 as a result of a
separate internal investigation into narcotics missing from the medical
unit, the report says without elaboration. Woodard could not be reached for
comment Wednesday. On Oct. 16, as Washington was trying to move from her
wheelchair to a "boat" — a plastic tub that serves as a bed in
the detention center — she passed out, the report said. The nurse and
deputy asked her why she had tried to move at all. "I don't feel
right. ... I need to go the the hospital,
something doesn't feel right," the report quoted Washington as saying.
Horstman said Smallwood then told Washington, "There isn't even a
doctor here on weekends. The whole jail is in lockdown, and you can't stay
in medical. What do you think this is, the Hyatt?" In interviews with
investigators, Smallwood denied making the comment. Washington was sent
back to her cell but apparently received no assistance from medical personnel
until midnight, when she received crackers and Pepto-Bismol during
"pill call." At 2:41 a.m. Oct. 17, the "I" pod deputy
pressed the panic button to summon help after Washington screamed in pain
and collapsed. According to the report, a nurse and a medical assistant
from the jail intake area — neither of whom was qualified as a first
responder — arrived three minutes later but could not get a response from
Washington. The report noted that no "progress notes" were kept
of her vital signs or treatment, which violated Prison Health Services
internal protocols.
December 11, 2005 Gwinnett Daily
Post
The death of a cancer patient at the Gwinnett County Detention Center has
touched off an avalanche of complaints by other inmates about substandard
health care. The allegations paint a disturbing portrait of botched
medications, patient neglect and staff indifference by the county's
contracted medical provider at the jail, Prison Health Services. Before she
died, 43-year-old Harriett Washington was known affectionately as
"Sparkles" among her fellow female inmates. In and out of prison
several times for cocaine possession, theft and forgery, friends said
Washington was nonetheless an extremely likable woman who had been
diagnosed with myeloid leukemia, a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood.
The autopsy conducted by the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's Office
shows Washington's cancer was in remission prior to being jailed in June,
but she died of leukemia in her jail cell just five months later. While she
was incarcerated, the only documented medical complaint in her file was on
Oct. 16, when she complained of knee pain, according to the autopsy.
Washington died before daybreak on Oct. 17. Her cellmates, Kimberly Holmes
and Carla Dotson, say Washington begged repeatedly to be taken to the
hospital the week before she died. There are no records of this alluded to
in the Medical Examiner's Report. Holmes and Dotson claim their pleadings
to hospitalize Washington were repeatedly rebuffed by PHS staff. A
spokeswoman for Prison Health Services would not release Washington's
medical records, citing right to privacy laws which they believe still
remain in effect despite Washington's death. One former PHS worker said she
became furious with the company over their lack of concern for inmates' well being. Diane Yociss, a
former Prison Health Services mental health counselor, was fired in
October. Yociss said her supervisors told her it
was because she had been written up for going to physical therapy
appointments for an on-the-job injury and for giving blood during work
hours. Yociss believes the real reason for her
firing was that she was becoming too vocal about lapses in health care at
the jail. Her claim couldn't be verified because Prison Health Services did
not make her personnel records available by press time. Yociss
said she couldn't discuss Washington's case or cite specific examples of
inmate health care because it would violate a code of ethics for her
profession. However, Yociss said she wasn't
surprised to hear about Washington's death. "Turnover there is
horrific," Yociss said. "A lot of times
people's follow-up care gets dropped. Other times they do the right thing
and send them out (to a hospital)." Yociss
said she confronted supervisors several times about mistakes - severely
neglected patients, medication mix-ups and poor medical documentation, but
her complaints were largely ignored. Instead, supervisors made excuses for
employee mishaps, Yociss said. "The whole
attitude toward inmates when they came in was they are either faking,
they're malingering, they want to get out of their cells, or they want
medicine," Yociss said. "In a lot of
cases, yes they are. But in other cases, no, they're not. They are
genuinely sick." In a series of jailhouse and telephone interviews
last week, several inmates talked about their encounters with nurses and
doctors employed by Prison Health Services. The following inmates' stories
couldn't be verified because PHS would not provide their medical records,
citing privacy laws as the reason for their exemption from Open Records
law. Natalie Horne, 20, in jail on a felony drug possession charge, said
she had to be hospitalized after a nurse gave her the wrong medication in
August. Horne was supposed to get medicine to treat pain in her ankle when
the nurse came into the pod for daily "pill call." Horne, who is
hearing impaired, couldn't hear the names being called, but she got in line
to receive her usual dose. The nurse was supposed to check the
identification on Horne's arm band before dispensing the appropriate
medication, but she didn't, Horne said. Instead, the nurse gave her someone
else's medication. Horne doesn't even know what it was, but it made her
cough and her lungs hurt. "I was dizzy and weak and I didn't feel like
eating for three days," Horne scribbled on a piece of paper during her
interview. When Horne told the nurse she had been given the wrong medicine,
she alleges the woman seemed indifferent and replied "Oh well, just
throw up." Tina Thompson told a similar story. Jailed in June for
allegedly violating her probation by possessing a small quantity of crack
cocaine, the 35-year-old woman said she was supposed to receive 400 mg of a
medication to treat epilepsy. Two weeks ago, Thompson said she was
accidentally given 500 mg of the drug. Thompson said the nurse also
dispensed another unknown medicine to her that she wasn't supposed to
receive, but she threw the pill away because she didn't recognize it.
"I told her it was too much, but she said 'No, no, no, you take. It's
OK," Thompson said Thursday during a jailhouse interview. Thompson
said she didn't suffer any ill effects from the overdose of epilepsy
medication, but it could have caused her to go into seizures. When she
brought the mistake to another nurse's attention, Thompson said she was
told "People make mistakes." "That mistake could've killed
me," Thompson said, shaking her head. There are also several
allegations that the record-keeping at the jail is sometimes spotty,
botched or misplaced. Georgia E. MacDonnell, 48, landed in the Gwinnett
County Detention Center earlier this year because Hall County didn't have
the medical facilities to treat her. Reached by phone Thursday at her
Gainesville home, MacDonnell said her only crime was trying to kill
herself. McDonnell said she was charged with aggravated assault for
attempting to shoot herself after hearing her fiance
had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. MacDonnell needed ongoing
treatment while at the jail because she has a colostomy bag attached to her
abdomen to collect her body's waste. She said the skin where the bag
attaches became infected when PHS staff failed to provide her with supplies
to change the bag every three days, as recommended by her doctor. She
claimed she only received the supplies to change 17 bags during her entire
five-month incarceration. MacDonnell regularly requested them at pill call,
but she was usually told to wait because more were being ordered, she said.
MacDonnell explained that the sticky bandage that the plastic bag attaches
to is useless when it gets wet, so it must be changed after each shower
just like a Band-Aid. When she wasn't supplied with the bandages, called
flanges, MacDonnell said she couldn't take showers. On one occasion,
MacDonnell said she took a mandatory shower. Afterward, she asked a deputy
for another colostomy bag, but allegedly didn't receive one until six hours
later. During that time, MacDonnell said she was forced to sit in the
medical unit with her body's waste dripping out all over her, making her
abdomen raw. On the only time she was taken to see a physician in the
medical unit, MacDonnell said yet another snafu occurred. "The doctor
had my nephew's medical records instead of mine, and they returned me to my
dorm without treating me," MacDonnell said. "I think that
Gwinnett needs to answer to a lot of things, especially the medical
care." Holmes, who has hepatitis, also alleges a poor experience with
one of PHS' doctors. She followed protocol by submitting a request to see a
doctor for pain in the area of her liver. When Holmes was transported to
the medical unit to see a physician, she claimed the doctor didn't even
know what she was doing there. Then he dismissed her complaints as
imaginary. "He never touched me or examined me," Holmes said. "He
said I was imagining it." Yociss said the
inmates experiences are not uncharacteristic with what she witnessed as a
former PHS employee. "I am not disgruntled. I am furious that people
are still being treated like this," Yociss
said. "I am furious that people have to die. I am not anybody's
guardian angel. I'm just doing this because it is the right thing to
do."
December 10, 2005 Gwinnett Daily
Post
Information in the medical files of a leukemia patient who died at the
Gwinnett County Detention Center in October conflicts with her cellmates'
allegations that the woman was repeatedly denied hospitalization, according
to autopsy records released Friday. The autopsy conducted by the Gwinnett
County Medical Examiner's Office stated 43-year-old Harriett Washington's
cancer was in remission prior to her being jailed in June. However, she
died of leukemia just five months later. The Gwinnett County Detention
Center has no record of Washington receiving any cancer treatments during
her stay there, according to the autopsy. The only documented medical
complaint in her file was on Oct. 16, when she complained of knee pain.
Washington died before dawn on the following day. "(Washington's)
roommates found her to be experiencing seizure-like activity before losing
consciousness," the autopsy said. "Responding staff members found
her lying supine on the floor with her head resting on a pillow that had
been placed there by her roommates. Staff members immediately called 911
and transported her to the clinic." Washington was taken to Gwinnett
Medical Center in full cardiac arrest, where she was pronounced dead.
Kimberly Holmes and Carla Dotson claim Washington was scheduled to see a
specialist for cancer treatment two weeks before she died, but she was
never taken. The inmates also claim Washington begged repeatedly to be
hospitalized because she realized that she was relapsing and getting
sicker.
December 9, 2005 Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Whenever a prison inmate dies in custody - especially when the death may
have been the result of inadequate medical care delivered by a for-profit
company - the public deserves to know what happened and why. Gwinnett
County Sheriff Butch Conway has promised to investigate eyewitness claims
that jail health workers largely ignored inmate Harriet Washington's
symptoms for two days and let her suffer before she died in her county jail
cell on Oct. 17. Jail officials knew Washington had leukemia. Washington's
death is the third over the last two years to raise questions about the
quality of medical services at the Gwinnett jail. The county pays Prison
Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn., $4.8 million a year to provide nursing
and physician care to inmates. The company has contracts with eight other
jail facilities in Georgia and works at 310 facilities around the country.
In September, the family of Ray Austin, who died at the Gwinnett jail in
2003, sued Prison Health Services, alleging company employees injected him
with psychotropic drugs against his will shortly before being shocked eight
times with a Taser during an altercation there. On Wednesday, the family of
Frederick Williams filed a lawsuit against Conway, Taser International,
Prison Health Services and several other defendants for another
Taser-related death at the jail in May 2004. In Alabama, the state settled
a class-action suit filed by inmates over inadequate care provided by
Prison Health Services at state prisons. And Richland County, S.C.,
officials recently terminated a contract with the company after three
inmate deaths in the county jail over the last three years. Many critics
fear that in their quest for higher profits, private companies will cut
costs through such arrangements as reducing shift workers, putting doctors
on call instead of working on site at the jail, and giving employees unchecked
decision-making power about what drugs are given to prisoners. Employees
are also answerable to their employer, the private company, and not to
those actually running the jail. Conway and Gwinnett officials need to
ensure that's not happening at the county jail. The best way to do that is
to make public as much of the investigation about Washington's death as
possible and re-examine the staffing arrangement it has with Prison Health
Services. The county may be able to contract out health care, but it can't
contract out its legal and moral obligation to those in its custody.
December 7, 2005 Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Attorneys for a man who died after a Taser-related scuffle at the Gwinnett
County jail today filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The Gwinnett State Court
suit was filed today by attorneys representing the family of Frederick
Williams, who lost consciousness and died after a May 2004 scuffle in the
jail. The handcuffed and manacled inmate was shocked multiple times with a
Taser. In the Williams lawsuit, attorneys named Sheriff Butch Conway, three
of his deputies and two Gwinnett police officers allegedly involved in the
altercation, weapon manufacturer Taser International and Prison Health
Services, a Nashville-based company that provides medical services for the
jail.
December 7, 2005 Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
A Tennessee company responsible for providing care to Gwinnett County jail
inmates has faced a litany of lawsuits in at least four states in recent
years. Already named in one Gwinnett County lawsuit linked to an inmate's
death, Prison Health Services has been cited by cellmates of a woman who
died in jail seven weeks ago. Harriet Washington, 43, of Norcross, died
Oct. 17 in her cell. Her two cellmates said their pleas that Washington
receive help went largely unheeded. The Brentwood, Tenn., company's Web
site says it provides care to about 214,000 inmates in 310 jails and
prisons in 37 states. The company says it serves eight facilities in
Georgia. This year, Gary Watts, a coroner in Richland County, S.C., led an
inquest after an inmate in the county jail hanged himself. A coroner's jury
found that Prison Health Services had not provided the mentally ill man his
prescribed medication for several days. "Horrible care," Watts
said. "Absolutely horrible care." In Alabama, the state
Department of Corrections settled a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates
over health care provided by the company. Among other things, the lawsuit
charged that inmates were not given their medication at the proper time or
in correct dosages and were examined in rat-infested rooms. "There
were some significant lapses in the system of medical care being provided
at the facility," said Joshua Lipman, a lawyer at the Atlanta-based
Southern Center for Human Rights, which represented the inmates. Added
Lipman, "Prison Health Services has problems all over the country
right now." Prison Health Services was named in a lawsuit filed by the
family of a Gwinnett inmate last September. Attorneys for Ray Austin's
family allege that Austin was shocked eight times with a Taser after
company employees injected him with psychotropic drugs during a September
2003 altercation at the jail. Austin lost consciousness and died after the
incident. Austin's attorneys allege that Prison Health Services officials
ignored a doctor's warning that Austin not be forcibly medicated. The
warning was in his jail medical file, according to the lawsuit. Medical
personnel and deputies also ignored Austin's wishes he not be medicated.
Austin had signed jail paperwork granting him the right to refuse medical
treatment, according to the lawsuit. "But for the decision on the part
of ... medical personnel to proceed with forced administration of
medication, Austin would not have resisted," the lawsuit said.
"He would not have been in the altercation ... and would not have
died." The details of Washington's death sounded familiar to David
Almeida, executive director of the South Carolina chapter of the National
Alliance on Mental Illness. Three mentally ill inmates have died at the
Richland jail, including the man who hanged himself, in the past three
years. After the third death, the Richland County Council voted to
terminate its contract with Prison Health Services. The estates of the
first two inmates who died settled lawsuits with Prison Health Services.
"It just seems to me that when it comes to Prison Health Services, you
have to be very careful," Almeida said. Watts, the coroner, said the
inquest revealed a pattern of poor record-keeping, insufficient personnel
and a failure to provide inmates with medication. Watts said that Prison
Health Services employees subpoenaed in the inquest testified that that
level of service was "almost a way of doing business: just go in, and
do what you could. If you couldn't do it, don't worry about it."
December 6, 2005 Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Gwinnett's sheriff promised a thorough investigation Monday into an
inmate's death, which prompted two cellmates to allege inadequate medical
response. Butch Conway also defended the jail's contract medical provider,
Prison Health Services, of Brentwood, Tenn. The company declined comment on
the Oct. 17 death of Harriet Washington, 43, jailed since June for
possession of cocaine. Washington, who suffered from leukemia, died on the
jailhouse floor as her two cellmates watched. Morgenstern said the company
initiates an in-house review of every patient's death. The two inmates, Kim
Holmes and Carla Dotson, said in a jail interview Monday that they can't
get the images out of their heads. They described Washington screaming in
pain and convulsing before dying. Holmes and Dotson began keeping a list of
Washington's numerous symptoms. On Sunday afternoon, they say, a medical
unit nurse came to assess her condition. Holmes and Dotson decided to risk
retaliation by writing the letter because they think a change is needed.
"The only thing I have to say is that I didn't want Harriet to die and
nothing change," Holmes said. "I just appreciate knowing that we
have a voice even though we're in here."
December 5, 2005 Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Two Gwinnett Detention Center inmates are alleging that shoddy medical treatment
contributed to the death of their cellmate. Harriet Washington, 43, died in
her cell Oct. 17 while being attended to by staff from Tennessee-based
Prison Health Services, a private firm contracted by the county to provide
medical care at the jail. In a Nov. 8 letter addressed to the medical unit
supervisor and the Sheriff's Department's internal affairs unit, inmates
Kim Holmes and Carla Dotson allege that Washington's multiple symptoms were
for the most part ignored. Representatives of Prison Health Services did
not return phone calls Sunday seeking comment. Holmes and Dotson were moved
into Washington's cell about 8:30 a.m. Oct. 15. According to their letter,
Washington was "extremely sick" and worsened as the day went on.
The medical unit and a nurse who delivers medications at "pill
call" were consulted, the letter says, but advised the women to fill
out a medical request and turn it in. On Oct. 16, Washington eventually was
sent to the medical unit, but was returned after an hour with no medications,
according to Holmes. Several hours later medical was called again, the
letter says. Washington was briefly taken back to the medical unit, the
letter says, but was returned to her cell a short time later. Holmes'
letter says she and Dotson continued to try to get medical attention for
Washington, but were told that Washington had leukemia and nothing could be
done, so she had to stay in the cell. Other times, they say, they were told
that Washington "would be fine." Holmes further states that as
Washington worsened and began to vomit continuously, she asked a deputy to
seek medical help. The deputy returned and told her the medical department
said vomiting was good for Washington. Early on Oct. 17, the letter states,
Washington began screaming in pain and could not stop. According to the
jail's Unusual Occurrence Report, a deputy notified medical at 2:10 a.m.
and was told to bring Washington to the unit. Washington could not be
moved, so the deputy pressed his "panic button" and announced a medical
emergency. As he waited in Washington's cell, the report said, Washington
"exhaled one loud breath and her eyes were open and fixated." The
Unusual Occurrence Report states that nurses arrived at the cell at 2:44
a.m., but could not get any response from Washington. At 2:53 a.m., an
ambulance was summoned. Homes' and Dotson's letter says that the medical
staff decided that the hospital was necessary after the nurse announced
that Washington had "no pulse." Holmes also alleged in her letter
that Washington was supposed to see a cancer doctor every six weeks, but
was already overdue. According to the jail's "inmate external
movements" report, Washington last went to an outside doctor on July
18.
October 7, 2005 Gwinnett Daily
Post
The nation's largest private provider of health care services to prison
inmates has faced a recent lawsuit in Gwinnett and criticism from local
officials in other states, but county commissioners have voted to extend
their contract for another year. Prison Health Systems, a Nashville-based
company, will continue providing medical, dental and mental treatment for
inmates at the Gwinnett County Detention Center and the Department of
Corrections until Oct. 31, 2006. Commissioners voted in September to extend
the contract with PHS, said Kristine Tallent,
budget division director for Gwinnett County. A lawsuit filed in September
in the U.S. District Court's Northern District in Atlanta took aim at the
company, claiming that medical personnel employed by PHS at the Gwinnett
County Detention Center should not have forced deceased inmate Ray Charles
Austin to receive an injection of an anti-psychotic drug. Prison Health
Services has been faulted for inmate deaths in other jurisdictions,
prompting some local officials to discontinue contracts with the company. A
series of articles which ran in The New York Times beginning in late
February documented cases of inmate suicide, shoddy care to children in
custody and prisoners dying after being denied treatment. Last month,
officials in Richland County, S.C., ended a contract with PHS following the
deaths of three mentally ill inmates during the past three years, saying
they were "terribly dissatisfied" with services. Nashville jail
officials also replaced PHS last month with another inmate health care
service in the wake of widespread criticism for failing to give inmates
enough medical attention. Three diabetic inmates were alleged to have
become ill there after receiving substandard care since January. Prison
Health Services has a profitable business relationship with Gwinnett County
in recent years. Last year, it was paid approximately $6.4 million, and the
company has received more than $3 million in compensation this year.
September 22, 2005 Gwinnett Daily
Post
An attorney for the children of an inmate who died after struggling with
deputies has filed a lawsuit against the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s
Department and its contracted health care provider. The lawsuit was filed
Monday in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District in Atlanta on behalf
of the son and daughter of Ray Charles Austin, who are both under the age
of 10. The suit claims that deputies and medical personnel employed by
Prison Health Services should not have forced Austin to receive an
injection of a drug to calm a psychotic outburst at the Gwinnett County
Detention Center. Austin, 25, struggled with deputies who were attempting
to restrain him so a nurse could administer the injection on Sept. 24,
2003. Brian Spears, the attorney for Austin’s family, said Austin was a
diagnosed schizophrenic and he was afraid of needles. During the struggle
deputies shocked Austin about six to eight times with a Taser stun gun,
according to the lawsuit. Austin bit off a portion of a deputy’s ear, and
several deputies used their fists, choke holds, Taser shocks and
deprivation of oxygen to retrieve the piece of flesh from Austin’s mouth.
He subsequently lost consciousness and died.
September 21, 2005 Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
The family of a man who died at the Gwinnett jail after being repeatedly
shocked with a Taser has filed a federal lawsuit against members of the
sheriff's department. The wrongful death suit was filed this week in U.S.
District Court in Atlanta by attorneys representing the family of Ray
Charles Austin. It is the first of two Taser-related lawsuits expected to
be filed by the families of inmates who have died after scuffles at the
jail. Attorneys for Frederick Williams, an inmate who died in a similar
altercation eight months after Austin, say they plan to file a lawsuit
soon. The suit names Sheriff Butch Conway, three of his deputies allegedly
involved in the altercation, and Prison Health Services, a Nashville-based
company that provides medical services for the jail. Austin's attorneys
allege in the suit that the 24-year-old man would not have died if deputies
and a jail nurse had not forced him to take medication, shocked him eight
times, beat and choked him. Gwinnett's medical examiner reported that
Austin died of a heart attack but the autopsy did not clearly determine
what caused the heart attack. Austin's attorneys allege that jail medical
officials ignored a doctor's warning that he should not be forcibly
medicated. The warning was in his jail medical file, according to the suit.
Medical personnel and deputies also ignored Austin's wishes of not being
medicated even though Austin had signed jail paperwork stating that he had
the right to refuse medical treatment, according to the suit.
Hampton
Roads Regional Jail,
Portsmouth, Virginia
June 20, 2004
Three inmates at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth who suffer from
mental illnesses say the jail's medical staff failed to prescribe drugs
that effectively treat their conditions. For months they were wracked
with feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, sleeplessness and delusional
thoughts, they say. Sometimes they even wanted to harm themselves.
The men didn't get the medicine they requested until the end of May, after
repeated calls to the press and to an advocacy group for the mentally ill.
Since then, they say they're feeling better. Hampton Roads Regional
Jail holds about 1,060 inmates from Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and
Portsmouth. Of those, about 260 inmates are treated for mental illness by
Prison Health Services, Inc., a private company that provides health care
to inmates in 400 jails and prisons in 35 states. The quality of
medical care for mentally ill inmates treated by private companies has been
the subject of investigations and lawsuits throughout the country in recent
years. In Virginia, officials are examining the quality of mental health
care at jails and prisons to see if mentally ill inmates are receiving the
proper medications. The issue boils down to this: Mental health
advocates say these private companies often care more about their bottom
lines than about the well-being of inmates. They say these companies are
reluctant to prescribe expensive drugs, even if they provide the most
effective treatment. Prison health care companies typically devise
their own pre-approved lists of drugs that often don't include more
expensive, proven drugs, said Valerie Marsh, director of the Alliance. They
can prescribe drugs not on the list, Phelps said, but they may be reluctant
to do it. (Dailypress.com)
Idaho Department of Corrections
Apr 2, 2017 idahostatejournal.com
Idaho inmates: Prison violations led to amputations, death
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho inmates are asking a federal judge to
penalize the state after saying prison officials repeatedly violated a
settlement plan in a long-running lawsuit over health care, leading to
amputations and other serious injuries and even some prisoners’ deaths. In
a series of documents filed in federal court, the inmates’ attorney
Christopher Pooser painted a bleak and often
gruesome picture of the alleged problems at the Idaho State Correctional
Institution south of Boise. The prison is the state’s oldest, with more
than 1,400 beds, including special units for chronically ill, elderly and
disabled inmates. Pooser and the inmates allege
some prisoners were forced to undergo amputations after their blisters and
bedsores went untreated and began to rot, and others with serious
disabilities were left unbathed or without water for extended periods and
given food only sporadically. The prison’s death rates outpaced the
national average as well as rates at other Idaho facilities, according to
the documents. And despite hearing evidence to the contrary, prison
officials failed to double-check the numbers when its health care
contractor, Corizon, reported being 100 percent compliant with state health
care requirements. Meanwhile, prison officials were falsifying documents to
make it look like all employees were trained in suicide prevention when
many were not, the filings said. The inmates are asking the judge to hold
the state in contempt of court and levy more than $24 million in fines
against the Idaho Department of Correction. They say the state could cover
some of the fines by recovering money paid under its contract with Corizon,
but they also want the state to feel the budget hit so prison leaders will
be motivated to make a fix. In a statement emailed to The Associated Press,
Idaho’s corrections director, Henry Atencio, said he couldn’t address the
specific claims in the motion for contempt because the allegations are now
before the court. But he said his agency has been making an “all-out effort
to bring the 36-year-old Balla case to a
successful resolution for all parties” for the past two years. Corizon
spokeswoman Martha Harbin said in an email that patient privacy laws
prevent the company from discussing specifics. But she said the existence
of a lawsuit doesn’t necessarily mean there was wrongdoing. “We strive to
provide quality care that meets the needs of our patients and makes the
best use of taxpayer resources,” Harbin wrote. The case started in 1981
when so many inmates from the Idaho State Correctional Institution began
filing lawsuits that they threatened to clog Idaho’s federal court. A judge
noted similarities between the cases and combined them into one
class-action lawsuit, which became known as the “Balla
case” after the lead plaintiff, Walter Balla. The
claims ranged from overcrowding and excessive violence to limited access to
medical care. Some have been settled, but the medical care complaints
continue at the prison. The lawsuit seemed close to a conclusion a couple
of years ago when all sides agreed to a deal in which the state would make
several improvements to medical care, and the court would oversee the
changes for two years to ensure Idaho officials followed through. Now Pooser and his clients say the state has violated the
settlement agreement more than 100 times. In their latest court filings,
they allege an inmate with pneumonia was ignored until he developed a
flesh-eating infection and died of sepsis. Another inmate was forced to
clean his own open wound surrounding an intestinal injury with tap water
and paper towels, the documents said. At one point, a doctor whose medical
license had been restricted because of sexual abuse and incompetence was
allowed to work at the facility, and was simply transferred to another
prison for a time after inmates complained. That doctor was fired after a
federal jury ruled against him in a separate lawsuit. In his statement,
Atencio said the Idaho Department of Correction disclosed the problems to a
federal judge and the plaintiffs when an internal review found compliance
issues in 2015. He said prison officials promptly created a plan to correct
the errors. “We remain committed to providing oversight of our medical
contractor, Corizon, to ensure quality health care at ISCI and throughout
all IDOC facilities, and to working with the federal court and the Balla representatives to bring this case to a close,”
Atencio wrote. Still, the inmates contend the problems have continued.
“Since 1985, IDOC has had ample opportunities to achieve compliance ... but
has repeatedly squandered those chances,” their attorney wrote. The state’s
contract with Corizon allows for a type of fine called “liquidated damages”
for failing to comply with the contract. At the low end, the fines are $464
per day, according to the inmates. They are asking for nearly $24.5 million
in compensation for the damages, based on the number of days the state
committed the 80 most serious violations listed in the case.They
also want the court to start the two-year monitoring period over and levy
additional fines to coerce the state into actually fixing the problems. The
fines could be used to hire additional medical staff, expand and modernize
facilities and take other steps to improve the health care problems at the
prison, the attorney wrote.
April 29,2013
idahobusinessreview.com
Idaho’s prison system will increase payments to its
medical and mental health care provider by hundreds of thousands of dollars
after the company demanded a raise. However, the Idaho Department of
Correction said it will only extend its $27 million annual contract with
Corizon Correctional Healthcare until January, not another 12 months as
previously announced. By then, the state Board of Correction hopes to have
a new contract in place with a provider whose price tag better fits Idaho’s
budget. During the six months starting July 1, Idaho will pay
Tennessee-based Corizon about $250,000 more than currently budgeted. The
move, approved at a Board of Correction meeting Thursday, came after
Corizon President Stuart Campbell told state prison Director Brent Reinke
he wouldn’t sign an extension for less money. On April 26, Reinke said
Corizon told him its contract with Idaho wasn’t sufficiently covering the
company’s costs and it needed more to continue providing service. “It’s
just gotten more expensive to do business, and they just couldn’t afford to
subsidize,” Reinke said, recalling Campbell’s justification for the hike.
“The contract had just become too costly.” Corizon officials in Brentwood,
Tenn., didn’t immediately comment. The rate Idaho has paid to Corizon has
already increased about 20 percent in the past three years. Idaho has had a
rocky relationship with the company in recent years, a period in which the
state has been under pressure from a decades-old federal lawsuit to improve
medical and mental health care for prisoners. The state fined Corizon
$200,000 for missing contract benchmarks, and a federally appointed expert
concluded its medical care was so bad it amounted to cruel and unusual
punishment. Corizon commissioned its own report released in May 2012,
indicating it was meeting national prison standards with the care it was
providing in Idaho. In 2012, the Department of Correction asked companies
to submit proposals on providing medical treatment to prisoners — a
preliminary step to putting the contract out for bid. Five companies
responded, and Corizon was one of two that gave price estimates. Based on
that response, Reinke now says he’s optimistic that an offer will emerge
before January that Idaho can better afford. “There are other providers
that responded that are very interested in this contract,” he said. “So we
hope it’s in a very close range of the existing budget amount.”
May
11, 2012 AP
The national prison health care company Corizon says a scathing
court-ordered report on the care provide at an Idaho prison is full of
errors and that a review they commissioned themselves proves it. But a
close review of both reports show that they largely focused on different
aspects of the health care system and that they noted some similar
problems. The medical care at the Idaho State Correctional Institution
south of Boise is a major part of a long-running lawsuit brought by inmates
against the state 30 years ago. Over the years the inmates won many of
their claims, forcing the state to make changes to operations and
procedures at the lock-up. And a federal court has continued to oversee
some aspects of the prison. Last year, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill appointed correctional health care expert Dr.
Marc Stern to review the health care at the prison in hopes of finally
bringing the lawsuit to a close. Stern's report found several problems. He
said terminal and long-term care inmates sometimes went unfed and were left
in soiled linens. The report also said nursing mistakes or failures were
likely to have resulted in some deaths and one inmate wasn't told for seven
months that he probably had cancer.
April
2, 2012 KTVB
The Idaho Department of Correction is telling a federal judge that a
scathing report about health care at a Boise-area prison isn't accurate and
doesn't reflect current conditions. Attorneys for the state filed their
response to the report late last week, saying a court-appointed health care
expert didn't do a thorough review at the Idaho State Correctional
Institution. Dr. Marc Stern was appointed by the federal court to examine
the care at the prison as part of a long running lawsuit between inmates
and the state. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill
has said he will use Stern's findings to help him decide whether to end the
lawsuit. Stern's report was damning, finding that the medical care was so
poor that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
March
20, 2012 AP
Medical care is so poor at an Idaho state prison that it amounts to neglect
and cruel and unusual punishment, according to a report that was unsealed
Monday. Correctional health care expert Dr. Marc Stern said there have been
some improvements at the Idaho State Correctional Institution south of
Boise. But terminal and long-term inmates sometimes went unfed, nursing
mistakes or failure likely resulted in some deaths, and one inmate wasn't
told for seven months that he likely had cancer, he said. The Idaho
Department of Correction and the prison health care provider, Brentwood,
Tenn.-based Corizon, said they're disappointed and are preparing a response
that will show the care delivered to inmates meets constitutional and
health care standards. Stern was appointed to study the care prison near
Boise as part of a long-running lawsuit brought by inmates. Some of the
medical problems described in the report are disturbing, including Stern's
findings that inmates who were terminal or required long-term care and who
were unable to move on their own were sometimes left in soiled linens,
given inadequate pain medication and went periods without food and water.
Stern said those conditions were ``inhumane.'' Emergency care was also
found deficient in the report, with medical staffers routinely failing to
bring parts of a basic resuscitation device — a ventilator mask for rescue
breathing — to inmates experiencing medical emergencies. Prison guards
reported to Stern that they sometimes had to call the health staffers
multiple times to get them to respond to inmate emergencies, and sometimes
the nurses only responded by phone, telling the guards to have the inmates
request care the following day. In another case described by Stern, a nurse
who found an inmate unconscious and having serious breathing problems
didn't take any other vital signs and failed to give the man oxygen. ``Such
evaluation was critically important at this point because it was highly
likely the patient was not getting enough blood to his brain and required
resuscitation,'' Stern wrote. Instead, he contends, the nurse moved the
patient to the health unit and only assessed him a few minutes later, when
he was having a heart attack. The patient died. ``It is impossible to know
if immediate application of life saving measures in the living unit would
have saved this patient,'' Stern wrote. ``However, failure to provide these
measures greatly reduced any chance for survival.'' The report focuses only
on the Idaho State Correctional Institution, though Corizon provides
medical care for all inmates in Idaho's state-run prisons. Inmates at the
Idaho State Correctional Institution, called ISCI, sued more than 30 years
ago, alleging that they were subject to violence and rape by fellow inmates,
denied adequate medical care, subjected to poor diets and forced to deal
with extreme overcrowding. Over the next three decades, they won several
rulings designed to improve conditions at the prison, and the federal court
continued to oversee operations to make sure that the state was complying
with all of its orders. But U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill
is eager to end the court's babysitting role, and the Idaho Department of
Correction hopes the lawsuit will be closed for good. The inmates, however,
said some of the rulings still aren't being complied with — particularly
the orders to improve access to medical and mental health care.
Complicating matters is that the prison has grown and changed over the
years, and the state now says it's difficult to apply the old rulings to
the facility as it now stands. Attorneys for the state argued against
releasing the report, saying the public could confuse Stern's findings with
the court's opinion. The state said the report should be sealed until both
sides had responded to the findings in court. Corizon is not named as a
defendant in the case. But in a joint statement released moments after the
report was unsealed Monday, officials from the company and the state
acknowledged a few of the allegations in the report ``may be well-founded
but unfortunate anomalies'' but most of them have been or are being
addressed.
May 22, 2005 AP
A prison healthcare company from Saint Louis, Missouri, has beaten out
the existing provider of medical care for Idaho Department of Correction
prisoners. Correctional Medical Services will take over duties at all Idaho
prisons July 11th. It offered to provide inmates with medical and dental
care for nine-dollars and 75 cents per day per prisoner. Teresa Jones, a
D-O-C spokeswoman, says that was less than the bid of Tennessee-based
Prison Health Services. Idaho has roughly 64-hundred prisoners across the state.
Department of Correction Director Tom Beauclair
is disappointed in the contractor providing medical care to prison inmates
and says his agency has launched three separate investigations into
employees of Prison Health Services. Beauclair
declined to elaborate on the investigations or complaints that precipitated
them. An official with Prison Health Services, which has a $12
million contract to provide medical care to the state´s more than 5,820
inmates, denies that Idaho prison inmates are being hampered from getting
the medical services to which they´re entitled. “We are doing a fine
job out there,” said Rod Holliman, a vice president for Prison Health
Services. However, Beauclair said that
while the company is providing the health care to inmates required by the
U.S. Constitution, the work is still not up to par. “There are
concerns,” Beauclair said. “We have
employee management issues, communication issues and accountability
issues,” Beauclair said of the company.
(Idaho Statesman, April 6, 2004)
Indiana Department of
Corrections
Mar 11, 2017
theindianalawyer.com
Corrections health firm to lay off nearly 700 Indiana employees
The health care provider for the Indiana Department of Corrections has lost
its contract with the state and plans to lay off nearly 700 employees by
the end of the month. Corizon Health, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, filed
notice of the layoffs with the state’s Department of Workforce Development
on Monday. It said that it was made aware on Feb. 22 of the decision by the
IDOC not to renew its contract. Corizon employs 699 workers in 22 locations
across the state, according to the filing. Their employment will end on
March 31. After a bidding process for the services, IDOC chose
Pittsburgh-based Wexford Health Sources Inc. for the contract, according to
department spokesman Ike Randolph. Corizon’s three-year contract was worth
nearly $300 million, according to the South Bend Tribune. Since Jan. 1,
2014, when the most recent three-year contract took effect, Corizon has
provided not only basic health care for prisoners, but also mental health,
vision, dental, pharmacy and rehabilitation services. In such a situation,
it’s not unusual for the new contractor to hire employees of the former
contractor, Corizon Human Resources Manager Christopher Heeg
wrote in the notice to the state, “although there is no guarantee that it
will do so.” Corizon, the largest correctional medical company in the
country, was the subject of an investigative series by the Tribune last
year titled “Profits over Prisoners?” It noted a spike in the number of
inmate medical complaints, questions about oversight and allegations that
profit often took priority over critical health services for inmates.
Jan
29, 2017 whig.com
Indiana prison medical chief works for private Illinois firm
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The chief medical officer for Indiana's prison
system held an overlapping position with a for-profit Illinois company that
provides health care to correctional facilities in more than a dozen
states, according to a published report. Dr. Michael Mitcheff
worked for Peoria, Illinois-based Advanced Correctional Healthcare while
also overseeing Indiana's prison health care contract with a competing
company in his $234,000 state job, the South Bend Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/2jPDwDW
). Mitcheff is listed as "corporate medical
director" on the Illinois company's website. Indiana Department of
Correction spokesman Doug Garrison acknowledged Mitcheff's
overlapping jobs. He told the newspaper that dual employment is not
prohibited and Mitcheff kept the department
informed of his work with the competing vendor. "Advanced Correctional
Healthcare (ACH) has not placed a bid for the (Indiana) inmate health care
contract and is therefore not under consideration to be awarded such a
contract," Garrison wrote in an emailed response to the newspaper's
questions. Garrison said Mitcheff is no longer
working full time for the state, having switched from full time to
intermittent employment. As of Jan. 16, Mitcheff
is now being paid by the hour, Garrison said. Mitcheff
is assisting the department in a search for a full-time medical director.
In December, Mitcheff resigned from his state
post, then weeks later rescinded that resignation for personal reasons, the
Tribune reported. Mitcheff worked in the private
correctional health care sector prior to his work in Indiana government
and, in his government position, has been overseeing a contract for a
company for which he'd worked. Indiana contracts for inmate health care
with Tennessee-based Corizon Health, Mitcheff's
employer until 2014. Under Mitcheff, Indiana
recently gave the company a three-month extension on a three-year $300
million contract. Mitcheff has been in his
Indiana government position since July 2015, the newspaper reported. Mitcheff did not respond to the newspaper's request for
comment. The newspaper reported in June that Mitcheff's
medical license was suspended in 1998 for prescribing addictive painkillers
for his personal use. After resolving his licensing issues by going through
a monitoring program that included drug screening, he became a prison
doctor. "It was a good transition back" to medicine, he told the
Tribune in June, "and it worked out well. (Addiction) has given me the
background to better understand the patient in the population I'm dealing
with as well."
Jan 8, 2017 southbendtribune.com
Questions surround Indiana's prison health care contract
Indiana officials signed a 90-day extension with Corizon Health, the Tennessee-based
private company that has long provided medical care to the state’s
prisoners, just a few days before its contract was set to expire last
weekend. State officials aren’t saying what fueled the delay in a
longer-term agreement or whether the state is still actively engaging in
discussions with other correctional medicine companies. But the three-page
extension includes substantial financial concessions not seen in previous
contract documents. Corizon was the focus of a Tribune series in June. The
company has faced mounting numbers of lawsuits across the country, and it
denies accusations that profit motives result in inadequate medical care
and unnecessary prisoner deaths. Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Mitcheff
of Osceola, Indiana’s chief medical officer since July 2015 and a longtime
Corizon employee before that, submitted his resignation with the Department
of Correction on Dec. 6, effective Jan. 3, according to a DOC spokesman.
But Mitcheff, who has ultimate state authority
over prisoner medical care, rescinded his resignation Dec. 30 “for personal
reasons.” DOC Commissioner Bruce Lemmon retired in late November. Incoming
Gov. Eric Holcomb will be sworn in on Monday, when his new DOC
commissioner, Rob Carter, also takes office. Indiana’s DOC has been
affiliated with Corizon for well over a decade, including under previous
company names. Since Jan. 1, 2014, when the most recent three-year contract
took effect, Corizon has provided not only basic health care for prisoners,
but also mental health, vision, dental, pharmacy and rehabilitation
services, for about $100 million a year. Previous contracts and amendments
spell out the DOC’s expectations, standards of care and staffing levels.
Payment is based on a daily rate for each prisoner, a “per diem.” Previous
recent contracts have called for 1.5 percent increases in the per diem rate
to account for inflation; an amendment filed in August, just before the
state began its bid-seeking process, raised the per diem rate by 2.98
percent. The recent 90-day extension raises the rate 4.6 percent more. The
pact also absolves Corizon of other financial requirements called for in
earlier pacts: * Corizon is not required to provide a surety bond during
this time. * It is not asked to reimburse savings in medical costs for
prisoners who are enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare, which use state or
federal money. * The extension states, “Corizon is relieved of its
obligation to pay the IDOC for staffing paybacks related to staffing
vacancies” after Dec. 31, when the original contract expired. “Corizon will
make best efforts to continue to staff and fill open positions.” This alone
could be a substantial amount: Corizon repaid more than $2 million for just
seven months of staffing shortages in 2014, according to a contract document.
A spokesman for the state Department of Administration, which oversees
large contracts with state agencies, sent a written response from the DOC
when asked whether the concessions could be interpreted that Indiana and
Corizon have negotiated a buyout of sorts. “Any conclusion that Corizon
does not have the opportunity to obtain a future long term contract with
the IDOC is unreasonable,” the statement said. “To our knowledge, there is
nothing stopping Corizon from participating in the current RFP which specifies
a long term contract of three years.” The Tribune series in June documented
various cases of inmates and their families accusing the state prison
system of poor health care, sometimes with fatal consequences. Amanda Cole,
a 31-year-old in the Indiana Women’s Prison, first noticed in February that
her tongue was swollen and began moving on its own. The problem grew such
that she couldn’t eat, she said, with more than 30 pounds dropping off her
small frame within five months. Other symptoms began to pile on, including
pain, migraines and forgetfulness, and blood in her urine. Then she noticed
great pain whenever she tried to use the bathroom — and finally realized
that her colon was painfully descending in a tight ball out of her rectum.
Cole said in a recent interview that guards accused her of making things up
and that she was disciplined at least five times, including being sent to
solitary confinement for four days, for screaming in pain, begging for help
and continuing to fill out health care request forms. She recalls that a
few guards said, “This isn’t right, Amanda. They’re going to let you die.”
When Cole finally did see a doctor and outside tests or specialist visits
were ordered, “They just kept telling me, ‘Oh, it’s got to get approved, it’s
got to get approved,’ “ she said. “I was praying for death,” she said,
“because I just couldn’t take it no more.” In November, Cole reached out to
The Tribune, writing in an email, “I’m scared. Please help me.” After the
Tribune contacted DOC spokesman Doug Garrison, Cole was sent to a
specialist. During emergency surgery to fix the prolapsed rectum, a
ruptured cyst that had been filling her abdomen with blood was discovered
on an ovary, according to recent tort claim documents. “If I live to make
it out of here, there is no coming back,” Cole said of the drug addictions
that led to her imprisonment. Despite the possibility of retribution for
speaking out, she said, “somebody has to continue to let people know what’s
happening here. I’ve never been so broken in my life.” Indianapolis civil
rights attorney Michael Sutherlin filed a tort claim dated Dec. 13 on
Cole’s behalf, against the DOC commissioner, the attorney general and the
superintendent of Indiana Women’s Prison. The same day, he filed a tort
claim on behalf of a prisoner in Rockville Correctional Facility, a women’s
prison near Terre Haute. That prisoner, Tiffany Smith, described in a
letter the events that began with excruciating pain, nausea, and a large
knot that emerged on the right side of her abdomen, where her skin had
turned black. The 35-year-old said even guards remarked on the lack of
medical response to what turned out to be a ruptured appendix. After a
first emergency surgery, Smith wrote, the surgeon said her body cavity was
filled with the most infection he had ever seen. After several days in an
ICU, she was dismissed back to the prison infirmary with prescriptions and
strict instructions about wound care, which she alleges were not followed.
Near death again, Smith and the tort claim allege, she was rushed back to a
hospital for emergency surgery, where “the surgeon had to remove my organs,
wash the infection off of them, and put them back.” The tort claim
describes several instances in which guards and some medical staff insisted
Smith be sent to a hospital but were overruled by a doctor — for a common
condition that “is also easy to diagnose if the proper steps are taken.”
Smith — like Cole — will have to remain in prison significantly longer
because of so much time missed in programs in which they were enrolled. DOC
and Corizon authorities have consistently declined comment on specific
cases, citing privacy concerns and policy involving litigation. “I get
depressed a lot,” Smith, a former alcoholic, wrote in an email. “I get
worried when I go over to the infirmary for anything because of what they
allowed to happen to me.”
Jun 12, 2016 southbendtribune.com
Is Indiana putting profits over prisoners when it
comes to health care?
A private company hired to provide medical treatment
to Indiana's prisoners while saving taxpayer money has come under
increasing scrutiny amid a spike in complaints, questions about oversight
and allegations that profit often takes priority over critical health
services for inmates. Corizon Health, based in Brentwood, Tenn., is the
largest correctional medical company in the country. It provides health
care services to jails and prisons in 25 states, including Indiana and
Michigan. A spokesman for Indiana's Department of Correction defended the
medical care provided to the state's approximately 26,000 prisoners,
saying, “I am confident that our clinical metrics for chronic conditions
are better than the free world.” Family of woman who died in shackles:
'Nobody wants to tell us the true story'. Rachel Wood, 24, died in an ambulance after her condition deteriorated
for weeks.
But in the last few years:
• The number of inmate medical complaints filed with
the ombudsman for Indiana's DOC has spiked, from 153 in 2010 to 509 in
2015. The number of prisoner deaths, including suicides, also rose,
reaching 86 in 2015.
• Prisoners or their families have filed at least 178 medical-related civil
rights lawsuits in federal courts in Indiana against Corizon since 2011 —
46 of those in 2015 alone. The state has settled nearly three dozen of
those cases, paying out more than $1.2 million.
The settlements range from $300 for a prisoner whose appeal relating to his
cataracts was denied, to $400,000 to the mother of a prisoner who was
murdered by a mentally ill cellmate. A spokesman for the state attorney
general's office emphasized that settlements are not admissions of guilt
but "avoid the uncertainties of further litigation where taxpayer
dollars would be at stake."
• When asked about prescription drugs for inmates,
state officials provided two different and varying sets of figures — both
of which showed odd patterns.
One showed the number of drugs prescribed to inmates staying exactly the
same for a 24-month stretch. This came despite the fact that the number of
inmates overall in the state prison system fluctuates. The second set,
meanwhile, showed an oddly consistent pattern of prescribing drugs for
inmates that persisted for years. From 2012 to 2015, the numbers of
prisoners prescribed drugs climbed steadily for the first half of the year
before dipping in the final months, the figures showed.
• A group of federal judges in Indiana, worried about
prisoners struggling without proper legal help with medical cases, have
pushed to set up a system to recruit attorneys and possibly medical experts
to help poor prisoners with those cases.
• Officials across the country, most recently in such states as Florida and
New York, have accused Corizon of cutting corners to save money, resulting
in inadequate care. Many of those states have ended their contracts with
Corizon.
Michael Sutherlin, a civil rights attorney in Indianapolis, calls Corizon's
philosophy “a profit model” rather than “a medical model.” Inmate dies
after 37 days in Indiana prison Federal appeals court grants a rare
re-hearing for the legal case of Nicholas Glisson. Sutherlin and other attorneys accuse the company of being reluctant to
prescribe certain medications or send offenders outside prison walls for
specialized testing, diagnoses or treatment as ways to cut costs. The
results, they say, are often unnecessary suffering and even deaths.
Corizon's relationship with Indiana extends back to 2005, when it first won
a contract with the state for health care under former Gov. Mitch Daniels,
who was leading a charge to privatize various state services. The company
has changed its name twice over the last several years after mergers,
formerly operating as Prisoner Health Services and Correctional Medical
Services. As it has done so, the company's contract renewals have expanded
the range of services it provides in Indiana prisons, now including
medical, mental health, rehab, dental and vision. The most recent,
three-year contract, which expires at the end of this year, was worth
nearly $300 million. As of April, 39 health care providers, including nurse
practitioners, worked in 24 state corrections facilities. Corizon operates
its own correctional pharmaceutical company and subcontracts with other
companies for some services. But information about the company, and its
work in Indiana, can be hard to find. Indiana's current deal with Corizon
includes requirements for regular reports to the DOC, including staffing
shortages and reviews of inmate deaths. But those reports are not made
public, with a DOC attorney citing the confidentiality of inmate medical
information. The Tribune was provided lists of prisons and their
consistently high scores during inspections from 2011 to 2015. But they did
not include details about the inspectors or what they may have found to be
deficient. A 2011 directive laying out rules for the DOC's quality
assurance program includes a paragraph deeming a "quality assurance
product" to be strictly confidential, including "in discovery
during lawsuits." The Human Rights Defense Center filed a lawsuit in
March against Corizon and the state of New Mexico demanding a list of
settlements in prison health care cases, after Freedom of Information Requests
had been denied. “The reality of it is that generally Americans don't
really care what's going on unless it personally and directly affects
them,” said Paul Wright, the center's executive director. Yet “every penny
(Corizon gets) is a taxpayer dollar.” Dr. Michael Mitcheff,
of Osceola, chief medical officer for Indiana's DOC and a top Corizon
official in Indiana for several years before that, agrees the company must
make a profit. But he insists that profit does not take priority over
health care for prisoners. “The question is, 'How do you make money in this
industry and provide great service?' There is a way, and we did it in
Indiana,” Mitcheff said. “That isn't by
withholding care, because typically withholding care down the road is going
to cost you more money. … The way to be cost-effective and make money in
this industry is by providing great-quality preventive care.” Gov. Mike
Pence and DOC Commissioner Bruce Lemmon declined interviews about Corizon
and prison health care, referring all questions to Mitcheff.
May 29, 2016 theindianalawyer.com
7th Circuit grants en banc hearing in Indiana
prison death suit
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals set aside its ruling affirming summary
judgment in favor of a medical services provider in an Indiana prison death
lawsuit, ordering a review by the full panel of circuit judges. The court
on Tuesday ordered en banc review of its Feb. 17
ruling in Alma Glisson, as personal representative of the estate of
Nicholas L. Glisson v. Indiana Department of Corrections, 15-1419. The estate
of Nicholas Glisson claimed his Eighth Amendment constitutional protections
against cruel and unusual punishment were violated when Corizon, also known
as Correctional Medical Services, failed to adequately treat him at the
Plainfield Correctional Facility. He died from complications of laryngeal
cancer and renal failure. The majority of a three-judge panel, Judges
William Bauer and Diane Sykes, affirmed District Judge Sarah Evans Barker’s
grant of summary judgment in favor of the Corizon defendants. The majority
held claims that Corizon failed to implement a Department of Correction
directive regarding a centralized care plan could not be proven to show
deliberate indifference without evidence of a series of incidents or
widespread practice against other inmates. Chief Judge Diane Wood
dissented, writing she would reverse and send the case to trial. She held
that “a rational jury could find that Corizon deliberately structured the
delivery of medical care in a way that lacked critical oversight. That policy
in Glisson’s case predictably had fatal results.” The order granting en banc review of the appeal said a date for oral
argument will be announced in a separate order.
Feb
1, 2014 therepublic.com
INDIANAPOLIS
— A lawyer on Tuesday blamed a culture of indifference for the death of a
severely ill woman who was passed from one Indiana prison to another so
often that the state Department of Correction lost track of her. Michael K.
Sutherlin, the Indianapolis attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Rachel
Wood's family, blames the prison agency and Corizon, the Tennessee-based
company hired to provide health care at the prison. Corizon has been
accused of providing poor care at prisons it serves in other states.
"That is just the attitude of these guys, is saving money rather than
providing health care," Sutherlin said. Wood, 26, was serving time for
a first-time drug offense when she died in April 2012, court documents
said. She had lupus and another immune system disorder, a blood clotting
disorder and depression, the lawsuit filed Jan. 21 said.
"Notwithstanding the duty of the prison medical staff to provide
adequate medical care to Rachel and to treat her very serious life
threatening conditions, prison medical staff willfully and callously disregarded
her condition, and allowed Rachel to deteriorate and die," said the
lawsuit, saying that Wood's treatment amounted to cruel and unusual
punishment. "It's just an attitude of meanness," Sutherlin said.
"They're not just insensitive, they're mean." "Our goal is
to provide quality health care to all our patients, and our teams work hard
every day to fulfill that mission," Corizon spokeswoman Susan
Morgenstern said in a prepared statement, and declined further comment.
Bryan Corbin, a spokesman for the Indiana attorney general's office, said
the office would defend the state prison agency and would address the
lawsuit in court. Wood's father, Claude Wood, 57, of Carmel, said prison
officials misled him about the severity of her illness despite his repeated
phone calls inquiring about her well-being and shuffled his calls from one
facility to another and back again. Documents claim that the Department of
Correction lost track of Wood's whereabouts at one point and declared her
an escapee while she remained in prison. "They lied. We felt they hid
her from us. Every time we got close they hid her from us," Wood said.
The lawsuit filed this month in a Marion County court alleges that Rachel
Wood was moved between prisons in Rockville and Madison and the Indiana
Women's Prison in Indianapolis, as well as several hospitals, after one of
her fellow inmates told her father she had been taken away in an ambulance,
bleeding from her eyes and mouth. "She died a horrible death and she
died alone," said her father. It isn't the first time the care Corizon
provides for prisoners has drawn fire. Last October, Corizon made headlines
when one of its nurses at an Arizona prison potentially exposed as many as
24 inmates to hepatitis and HIV by repeatedly using the same needles. Ten of
the 24 were among a group of inmates who were involved in a similar scare
at the same prison in August 2012. The same month, Corizon lost a bid to
renew its contract with the Minnesota Department of Corrections following
staff complaints of substandard care and legal action against the company.
A 2012 Star Tribune investigation found that at least nine Minnesota
inmates had died since 2000 due to denial or delay of care while Corizon
was the state's prison medical contractor. More than 20 had suffered serious
or critical injuries during that period, the newspaper's investigation
found. The state's three-year contract with Corizon sets a per diem fee of
$9.41 per prisoner, with a cap of about $293 million over the three-year
period from January 2014 through the end of 2016. Privately held Corizon,
whose website says it is the nation's largest health care provider for
prisons in the United States, was formed in 2011 by the merger of PHS
Correctional Healthcare and Correctional Medical Services, its predecessor
in Indiana. The company, based in Brentwood, Tennessee, says it provides
medical, dental, and mental health care to about 381,000 inmates in 28
states.
March 2, 2005 Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
The Department of Correction’s ombudsman should investigate the performance
of a private prison health care provider that receives $35 million annually
to provide care in Indiana’s jails. Since the late 1990s, Public Health
Services, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based organization, has provided health care
for about 24,000 inmates in Indiana. Given that the current prison health
care contract lapses at the end of July, investigating the company should
be more of an imperative for Indiana Ombudsman Bureau. The bureau, housed
in the state’s Department of Administration, has broad powers to
investigate and attempt to resolve complaints concerning the Department of
Correction. In Indiana, the company faces a lawsuit from one ex-employee,
and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union has been critical of prison health
care for a number of years. A Department of Correction spokesman would say
only that Public Health Services has met its obligation to Indiana’s
prisoners. It has not been the best week for Prison Health Services. The
company is currently battling a reputation-battering series in the New York
Times that focused on inmates who have died in New York state jails
serviced by Prison Health Services. The company characterizes the Times
investigation as a “blatantly unfair story” that contains many
“mischaracterizations, exaggerations and
oversimplifications.” However, the story details plenty of damning
evidence, including New York State Commission of Correction reports that
faulted Prison Health Service’s “policies, or mistakes and misconduct by
its employees” in 23 deaths in New York City and six other counties. Prison
Health Services continues to dispute the commission’s analysis. Although
nothing like what’s happening in New York has been documented in Indiana,
Prison Health Services and the Department of Correction have had their fair
share of trouble. In 2003, the ICLU sued on behalf of an inmate who
suffered from a hernia since 1997. Although the lawsuit has not been
settled, Prison Health Services has changed its policy on hernia
operations, the ICLU’s Ken Falk says. The ICLU receives hundreds of letters
annually from prisoners complaining about health care, Falk says. Then
there’s the case of Barbara Logan, who, in April, filed a lawsuit against
the correction department and Prison Health Services for wrongful
termination. Logan complained about inmate care.
Jackson
Health System, Miami, Florida
July 28, 2011 Miami Herald
Jackson Health System announced Thursday it is reversing course and will
not out-source inmate healthcare – ending two years of planning, hearings
and appeals involving a plan once considered a major initiative to turn
around the struggling hospital group. Executives last year were so
convinced that out-sourcing would save money that they placed the estimated
$8 million savings in the budget for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
When Jackson’s new chief executive, Carlos Migoya,
arrived in May, he reviewed the program, which covers 6,000 Miami-Dade
County inmates. After the final bids came in earlier this week – the second
set of final bids -- he decided the proposals were “notably higher” than
what his team thought it would cost Jackson to perform the same service, he
said Thursday. “There was a big difference,” he said. Chief Financial
Officer Mark Knight said the lower of the two bids was $60.5 million. Executives
now believe Jackson can provide the same services for no more than $58
million – and perhaps considerably less next year with reduced labor costs.
The decision-making was long and torturous because Jackson has been
struggling to determine its exact costs of inmate care, as it had with many
of its services at its three hospitals and four clinics, which lost $337
million the past two years and $71.7 million so far this year. The
out-sourcing quest began in the summer of 2009, when then-Chief Executive Eneida
Roldan projected huge savings if Jackson made the change. She originally
wanted the out-sourcing done within 90 days, but the county’s formal
competitive bidding system stretched the process out, ending with a battle
between two bitter rivals, Prison Health Services and Armor Correctional
Health Services. A selection committee spent months studying the bids. In
January, the committee decided PHS, now known as Corizon, had submitted the
best proposal and began negotiating final contract terms. Lobbyists for
Armor protested to county commissioners and Jackson board members that it
was unfair to allow PHS to negotiate final terms without Armor being
allowed to counter. Jackson executives agreed and reopened negotiations
with both companies. One major problem was that Jackson couldn’t determine
if an outsider would save them money if it didn’t know its own costs.
May 20, 2011 Miami Herald
In his first major step toward cost-cutting, Carlos Migoya,
Jackson Health System's chief executive for three weeks, said Thursday he
is eliminating 189 positions for an annual savings of $13.3 million. Most
of those positions are vacant. Forty-nine employees will be affected, Migoya said, but some will be able to move to other
vacancies within the system, which has lost $337 million during the past
two years. Coral Gables Migoya said the
eliminations would not change patient care. He didn't offer details on what
kinds of positions would be cut. The reductions amount to 1.7 percent of
Jackson's 11,100-member workforce. Also at Thursday's meeting of the new
Financial Recovery Board, members heard that Jackson plans to start over in
its attempt to out-source inmate healthcare — an arduous process that has
been going on for more than a year and a half in attempt to save the system
money. Former Jackson chief Eneida Roldan originally wanted the
out-sourcing to begin in October 2009. That was delayed by a formal bidding
process that attracted Miami-based Armor Correctional Health Services and a
national firm, Prison Health Services. A formal bidding council made up of
Jackson and county managers spent months studying the competing bids before
declaring PHS the winner. In January, Jackson started negotiating with PHS
to get the best possible deal. Lobbyists and attorneys for Armor complained
that Armor, too, should be allowed to talk to Jackson about improving its
bid. On Thursday, the board voted to waive the competitive bidding process
and begin negotiations anew with the two companies. Jackson's 2011 budget
projected that inmate out-sourcing would save the system $8 million this
fiscal year, but board members said Thursday they were uncertain how much
inmate care now costs Jackson and whether any money could be saved by
out-sourcing. Board Chairman Marcos Lapciuc said
he had heard that inmate care costs about $70 million a year, while board
member Joaquin del Cueto said he'd "heard it was as low as $25
million," the figure shown in some Jackson financial statements. Nine
months ago, The Miami Herald asked Jackson how much inmate healthcare cost
and has yet to receive an answer.
Jefferson
City Correctional Center
Sep
23, 2021 newstribune.com
Iberia woman indicted for allegedly having sex with JCCC
An
Iberia woman is facing multiple charges after authorities claim she had a
sexual relationship with an inmate at the Jefferson City Correctional
Center. Amy Murray, 43, is charged with one count of first-degree sexual
abuse and three counts of offender abuse. The Cole County Grand Jury
indicted Murray, finding there was enough evidence to send her case onto
the circuit courts for possible trial. A Missouri Department of Corrections
probable cause statement states Murray was employed as a nurse in September
2018; she was working through Corizon Health, a private company that
provides health care at the state's prisons. She was later fired from the
company. Authorities said Murray met and eventually had a sexual
relationship with an inmate in the unit where Murray worked. She created an
email account and began to send and receive "romantic emails"
with the inmate. She later provided the inmate with a phone number, and the
two began to allegedly engage in conversations of a romantic nature. In
late September 2018, Murray and the inmate engaged in sexual intercourse on
three different occasions and in different locations, authorities said.
Murray's last shift at JCCC was in October 2018. The two contacted each
other by phone in January 2019 and in one call, authorities alleged that
Murray and the inmate expressed their love for one another and planned to
get married. Investigators later interviewed the inmate who allegedly
admitted to having a relationship with Murray. Investigators then tried to
talk with Murray in the Miller County Jail in February 2019, but she
invoked her Miranda Rights and refused to talk. This investigation was
initiated because Murray has been charged with the murder of her husband in
December 2018 in Miller County. Murray pleaded not guilty in September 2020
to first-degree murder, armed criminal action, second-degree arson and
tampering with physical evidence, all felonies, for the death of her
husband, Joshua Murray, who died in a fire at the couple's home. Her case
is scheduled to be back in court in October, with the trial scheduled to
start in January. Joshua's body was found after the fire on Dec. 11, 2018.
The Missouri Fire Marshal's Office and the Miller County Sheriff's
Department determined the fire was a result of arson. It originated in the
master bedroom, and an accelerant had been used to start the fire. An autopsy
concluded Joshua had been dead before the fire and had died of poisoning,
with indications he had been poisoned with antifreeze. Cellphone records
indicate Murray was at the residence a half-hour before the fire was
reported to 911, according to a Miller County Sheriff's Department probable
cause statement. She later told investigators she had left the residence
with her 11-year-old son and two dogs, and drove
to McDonald's in Osage Beach. After listening to recordings of phone
conversations at the prison, investigators said they learned Murray had
told the inmate she didn't want to be around her husband and wanted to
divorce him. She later told the inmate they could get married because her
husband was dead. The two also talked about getting the inmate an attorney
so he could be released from prison early.
Kane
County Jail, Kane, Illinois
February 15, 2010 The Daily Herald
A convicted robber has filed a federal lawsuit claiming he was given the
wrong medication while incarcerated at the Kane County jail. Michael H.
Morris, 30, of North Aurora, was "unable to urinate, suffered
neuropathy in his feet and had difficulty breathing" after the jail
gave him a form of insulin that doctors had concluded was "no longer
effective" in treating his diabetes, the lawsuit says. Morris claims
he repeatedly was treated incorrectly, despite protests from himself and
his mother, during a 90-day jail sentence he served after pleading guilty
to aggravated robbery in 2007. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court
says Morris' "blood sugar levels went dangerously high, to more than
double the normal range," and also accuses jailers of acting
"willfully and wantonly, maliciously, and with a conscious disregard
and deliberate indifference to the plaintiff's rights." Kane County
Sheriff's Lt. Pat Gengler said the office does
not comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified
damages, names as defendants Sheriff Pat Perez, the county and the jail's
medical provider, Prison Health Services, as well as four unnamed guards
and the jail's health services administrator.
May 7,
2006 Kane County Chronicle
At 12:01 a.m. Saturday, a controversial correctional health-care
company took over medical services for Kane County Jail inmates.
Tennessee-based Prison Health Services Inc. has seen its share of scandal,
with New York state investigations revealing "flagrantly" and
"grossly" inadequate service in two cases of inmate death.
Lawsuits against the company allege poor care in jails in several states,
leading to deaths and, in one allegation, the amputation of a woman's legs
below the knees. In December 2005, the Kane County Board, on the advice of
the sheriff's office, approved a $1.97 million contract with Prison Health
Services, which, as of August 2005, served 310 jails and 214,000 inmates
nationwide. As of Saturday, the Kane County Jail housed 401 inmates. Since
the jail was built in 1975, it has increased from 102 beds to 399 beds. The
infirmary area, however, has not increased since 1975. It has six beds.
Kane County Sheriff Kenneth Ramsey said he was aware of some issues in
Prison Health Services' past, but that the company was the best of the four
that submitted bids last year. "[Prison Health Services] had some
problems in the past," Ramsey said. "They straightened them
out." However, Prison Health Services spokesman Pat Nolan said the
past incidents had not led to any change in company policy. "We've
just continued to do the best job that we can, and that's how we've
responded to it," Nolan said. David Fathi, a
lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project,
said the problem is not with Prison Health Services, but with the process
of subcontracting health services. "Prison Health Services is one
company. I'm not saying it's better or worse than any others. The real
problem in our view is farming out a constitutional service to the lowest
bidder," he said. "If you or I are not getting good care, we can
go somewhere else. Prisoners do not have that option."
King Pharmaceuticals, Brentwood, Tennessee
December 9, 2004 Porterville Recorder
King Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday it was restating its earnings for
2002, 2003 and the first six months of 2004 to recognize expenses related
to product returns _ a move that was not a complete surprise but could
affect the firm's takeover by Mylan Laboratories Inc. The companies
announced last July that Mylan would take over the Bristol, Tenn.-based
drug company in a deal valued at $4 billion. However, the deal has a
condition that would allow Mylan to back out if King revised its financial
statements. As a result of the restatement, net sales in 2003 are expected
to be reduced by $16.4 million while net income will be reduced by $13.9
million or 6 cents a share. The company is still determining whether the
remaining $37.6 million of net sales and $23.8 million of net income should
be reflected in 2002 or whether financial results for 2000 and 2001 should
also be restated. Last year, the SEC subpoenaed drug-pricing records and
other documents from King involving sales in 1999 and 2000 to VitaRx, a Louisiana-based national mail order pharmacy,
and Prison Health Services, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based health care company
serving jails and prisons around the country. The SEC ordered King to turn
over its "best price" lists, all documents related to the pricing
of its drug products to any Medicaid agency during 1999 and records concerning
accrual and payment of rebates on the heart drug Altace
from 2000 to early.
The top contributor to Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore’s
gubernatorial campaign is a retired Tennessee millionaire whose former
pharmaceutical company is under federal investigation over how it set
prices on drugs for government health programs. John M. Gregory, of
Bristol, Tenn., has contributed $325,000 to Kilgore through personal
donations and gifts from an investment company he owns. The reason
for Gregory’s generosity toward Kilgore is unclear, but the businessman has
a history of giving to Republicans, particularly those who have publicly
identified themselves as conservative Christians. Gregory has
credited his own religious conversion for his success in starting King Pharmaceuticals
Inc. The company thrived until last year, when the Securities and Exchange
Commission and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified
the firm that officials are looking into whether King followed federal
rules requiring it to offer its cheapest prices on drugs for the
government-operated Medicaid insurance program. Gregory also is being
sued in federal court by investors who accuse him and other former King
executives of artificially inflating sales to enrich themselves, a scheme
those stockholders say has cost them millions of dollars. King officials
notified their investors that the SEC is looking at rebates on Altace that King gave to Prison Health Services, a
Tennessee company that provides health care to prison and jail inmates.
A spokesman for Prison Health Services said he knew nothing about the
investigation. He said the company’s Virginia clients include the Virginia
Department of Corrections, the Hampton Roads Regional Jail and the
Portsmouth city jail. A contract with the Norfolk city jail ended last
month. DOC officials said the agency began doing business with the
health company in February 2001, long after Kilgore had left his previous
position as the state’s secretary of public safety. The health company provides
medical and dental services at prison clinics. Officials estimated the
annual contract at $33 million. (The Virginian-Pilot, August 2, 2004)
King Pharmaceuticals is the subject of a U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission investigation that appears to be focused on the
company's sales to two wholesale customers. The SEC has not disclosed the
underlying cause of the investigation, but King officials said Tuesday that
documents requested by subpoena seem to focus on two years
worth of King sales to VitaRx, a national
mail order pharmacy, and Prison Health Services, a Tennessee-based company
serving jails and prisons around the country. The SEC requested all
documents related to sales of Kings products to the two companies during
1999 and 2000. (Johnson City Press, March 12, 2003)
Lane County Jail, Oregon
Oct 28, 2013
registerguard.com
The guardian for a
former Lane County Jail inmate who sustained a catastrophic spinal injury
while in custody is suing the county and a private health care contractor
for $30 million. Kelly Conrad Green II is now a quadriplegic as a result of
the neck injury, according to a suit filed in U.S. District Court in
Eugene. He accuses the county and Corizon Health Inc. of negligence and
violation of his constitutional rights. Green, who evidently was mentally
ill at the time, broke his neck after lowering his head and running into a
concrete wall at the jail, the suit says. It accuses Corizon and the county
of ignoring his neck injury and leaving him naked, paralyzed and
incontinent in a jail cell for six hours before calling an ambulance.
Corizon took over the job of providing health care for inmates at the jail
last year. The Lane County Sheriff’s Office, which used to handle inmate
health care with its own medical employees, switched to a private
contractor as a money-saving move, saying it could save the cash-strapped
county as much as $650,000 a year. A Lane County spokeswoman said the
county has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. A spokesman
for Corizon did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The suit
claims the treatment of Green by the county and Corizon violated Green’s
rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which provides for
equal protection under the law for all citizens and the right to due
process in matters that could result in the loss of life or property. It
also claims the county and Corizon were negligent in caring for Green and
that Corizon is guilty of gross negligence and reckless misconduct. Other
defendants named in the suit include the national medical director, chief
mental health officer and national nursing officer for Corizon, five local
Corizon employees and three Lane County sheriff’s deputies working at the
jail. It also names 10 unidentified jail health care workers. According to
the suit, Green was booked into the jail on Feb. 11 after being arrested on
a warrant. The suit doesn’t identify the charge, but court records show the
only pending case involving Green at that time was a citation for
possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and that Green had failed
to show up for an arraignment on the charge in January. From the time he
was booked, Green showed signs of having mental health problems, the suit
says. He appeared to be experiencing paranoid schizophrenia, was talking to
himself and inanimate objects and, according to jail records cited in the
lawsuit, “barely made it through the booking process.” While being
arraigned at the jail, Green began to talk to himself, the suit says. As
described in the lawsuit, he then ran toward a concrete-block wall 8 to 10
feet away, lowered his head and hit the wall, collapsing and bleeding
heavily from his head. Corizon workers were called, and Green reportedly
told them he was paralyzed. But the suit claims they made no effort to
stabilize his neck or spine and instead loaded him on a wheelchair and took
him out of the jail courtroom with his feet dragging behind the chair. A
physician’s assistant sutured the head wound but did not do a neurological
exam, did not arrange for an exam by a physician and took no neck or spine
precautions, the lawsuit alleges. It said Green, who had lost control of
his bowels, was returned to his cell, stripped of his clothes and put on
the bed. Over the next six hours, Green allegedly told several jail workers
that he was paralyzed and unable to move and needed help. When he was
interviewed by a Corizon mental health specialist several hours later, the
suit claims the specialist said he didn’t believe Green was seriously
injured. At one point, the lawsuit claims, a Corizon employee told a deputy
who reported that Green was not moving that as long as he was breathing
there was “no immediate concern.” After about six hours, a jail worker
called an ambulance and Green was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield. He was diagnosed with a neck
fracture and spinal cord injury and underwent three hours of surgery that
evening. The suit alleges a long list of failures and shortcomings in
Green’s treatment. It claims Corizon staff failed to provide prompt or
adequate treatment, and aggravated Green’s injury by carelessly dragging
and moving his body after the injury and leaving him naked and paralyzed in
a cell for six hours. The defendants also are accused of failing to screen
mentally ill inmates, providing inadequate medical treatment and failing to
meet accepted standards for medical care. The suit accuses Corizon of gross
negligence and reckless misconduct for refusing to attend to Green and for
saying he didn’t need medical attention as long as he was breathing.
Corizon provides medical services at more than 400 facilities in 31 states
and handles health care at two other county jails in Oregon, in Clackamas
and Washington counties. Its corporate headquarters is in Brentwood, Tenn.,
and it has a regional office in Hillsboro.
Lee County Jail, Naples, Florida
Sep 22, 2018 flarecord.com
Federal court denies health care company's motion to dismiss
lack-of-care lawsuit
FORT MYERS – The U.S. District
Court for the Middle District of Florida recently denied a motion by the
health care company providing services to Lee County Jail to dismiss a
lawsuit that alleges the firm deliberately failed to provide health care
and breach of contract with the county. U.S. District Judge Sheri Chappell
issued a 16-page ruling Sept. 13 in the lawsuit filed by Anita Andrews
against Corizon Health Inc. and five other defendants. According to court
documents, "On the late evening of Nov. 6, 2012, (an election day)
until the early morning of Nov. 7, 2012, plaintiff was a passenger in a
pickup truck driven by her friend, Keith O’Bryant, undertaking
post-election clean up by removing political signs from the public roadways
and intersections." The same documents said that "around 1 a.m.,
Deputy Brandon Marshall with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) pulled
O’Bryant’s truck over for a broken headlight." Andrews refused to
provide identification, and was immediately booked into Lee County Jail,
with counts of loitering and prowling.
Feb
20, 2013 news-press.com
The
widow of a Lee County jail inmate, who died in 2009 after being repeatedly
pepper-sprayed while in custody, reached a $4 million settlement
, her attorney said Tuesday. Joyce Christie, who lives in Ohio,
settled out of court last week with Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott, Prison
Health Services Inc. and deputies and nurses at the jail. The suit claimed
those involved were guilty of assault and battery, excessive force, and
deliberate indifference to Nick Christie’s medical condition. Joyce
Christie will receive part of the $4 million, after expenses and other fees
are paid, according to her attorney, Nick DiCello.
“She’s happy she stuck with it after all these years,” he said. “The civil
system has done its job.” Nick Christie, who was in Southwest Florida to
visit his brother, was 62 when he was arrested on a disorderly intoxication
charge March 25, 2009, and March 27 on a trespassing charge. Christie was
taken to the hospital March 29 and died two days later. After Christie’s
death, the medical examiner termed it a homicide and pointed to restraint
and pepper-spraying by guards as factors. Christie’s widow told The
News-Press on Thursday that she’s glad it’s over. “There has not ever been
justice for Nick, so to speak,” she said. “Nobody was ever found guilty,
nobody was ever relieved of their job, which upsets me.” In 2010, the state
attorney’s office cleared five corrections deputies — Kurtis Calhoun,
Daniel Falzone, Monshay
Gibbs, Frank Hansen and Dathan Pyle — of criminal
wrongdoing in the case. DiCello was unable to say
how much each portion of the settlement was costing the sheriff’s office,
which Scott said comes out of a risk management fund, and Prison Health
Services, which provides health care to county inmates. Scott said the
sheriff’s office portion was paid through the Florida Sheriff’s Risk
Management Fund, a self-insurance program administered on behalf of many
agencies across the state of Florida. Prison Health Services is now known
as Corizon and is based in Tennessee. The company provides services to 283
correctional facilities , according to its
website. Courtney Eller, Corizon spokeswoman, said the company doesn’t
comment on lawsuits, especially those involving inmates. “It’s a very
sensitive area,” she said. In 2011, The News-Press reported that more than
30 lawsuits had been filed against the company in Lee, Collier and
Charlotte counties.
September
9, 2012 News-Press
A federal appeals court has upheld a $1.2 million settlement given to a
Fort Myers man after he was partially paralyzed because of inadequate care
during a stint in the Lee County Jail. On July 6, 2007, Brett Allen Fields,
30, was booked into the jail with a spider bite that became infected but
was never properly treated, according to the ruling from the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit “Like clockwork, or maybe as if by pact,
all the nurses agreed on the same approach: They did nothing,” the ruling
reads. The suit was filed against Corizon Health, formerly known as Prison
Health Services. One nurse, Betty Joyce Allen, testified it was not the
company’s policy to treat paralysis as a medical emergency that would
warrant transport to a hospital. Fields filed suit in August 2009, stating
he requested medical attention for a wound in his left arm on July 10,
2007. A nurse identified his wound as a boil caused by staphylococci and
tried to treat it. Two weeks later, Fields filled out an inmate medical
request form stating the medication didn’t work, but he claims his request
was ignored. Shortly after, Fields began to suffer from severe back pains
and weakness in his lower extremities, the lawsuit said. On Aug. 7, a nurse
examined Fields and scheduled an appointment for the next morning. On Aug.
8, he was confined to a wheelchair. The physician's assistant ordered
Tylenol and returned Fields to his cell. The next morning, Fields tried to
use the toilet by dragging himself across the floor. His intestine started
to escape from his bottom and when Allen responded she allegedly used K-Y
Jelly to shove them back in, according to the ruling. Twelve hours later, a
doctor examined Fields, who was taken to Southwest Florida Regional Medical
Center, the lawsuit said. Medical staff diagnosed Fields with MRSA
(Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and he underwent surgery to
remove an abscess compressing his spine. According to the lawsuit, Fields
suffers partial paralysis in both legs.
March
18, 2011 Naples News-Press
Brett Fields shook his head in disappointment today when he heard a jury
determined his pain and suffering from being paralyzed after a delay in
medical care at the Lee County Jail was worth $100,000. After a four-day
trial, a federal jury deliberated a little more than 3 hours before finding
in Fields’ favor in the amount of $1.2 million against Prison Health
Services, the company contracted to provide health care for the sheriff’s
jail facilities. The jury found nursing supervisor Bettie Joyce Allen and
physician’s assistant Joseph Richards Jr., both of whom treated Fields at
the jail, were not liable. Fields, 28, shook his head in frustration as the
dollar amounts were read aloud by U.S. District Judge John Steele. The jury
awarded $600,000 for lost earnings, medical bills and loss of future
earnings, $100,000 for pain and suffering and $500,000 to punish the
company for its conduct. Fields’ attorneys didn’t ask jurors for a specific
amount — they decided to allow the jury to decide, said Fields attorney
Dion Cassatta of Fort Lauderdale. They didn’t
have a dollar amount in mind, Cassatta said. “I’m
a little surprised the pain and suffering was $100,000,” said Fields’ other
attorney, Greg Lauer of Fort Lauderdale. “The pain and suffering I’ve seen
my client endure — it’s beyond computation.”
March
17, 2011 Naples Daily News
A 28-year-old North Fort Myers man broke down in tears Thursday as he
told jurors how his pleas for help as he became paralyzed at the Lee County
jail were repeatedly ignored. “I just didn’t understand why it was taking
so long ... to have someone examine me and make the call to take me to a
hospital,” Brett Allen Fields Jr. told jurors in U.S. District Court in
Fort Myers. “I just wanted help.” Fields, a once-healthy construction
worker, broke down and wiped tears as his mother, Toni Silvers, and
girlfriend, Amanda Duhamel, sobbed nearby. Judge John Steele let attorneys
Greg Lauer and Dion Cassata take a break with Fields as Silver and Duhamel
consoled him. Fields’ testimony came the third day of trial in his 2009
civil rights lawsuit against the jail’s medical provider, Tennessee-based
Prison Health Services; Joseph A. Richards Jr., its former physician’s
assistant; and nurse Bettie Joyce Allen, who retired. Today, Steele will
instruct jurors on the law, they will hear closing arguments from Lauer and
defense attorney Gregg Toomey and then begin deliberations. On Thursday,
defense medical expert Dr. Arthur Fournier, University of Miami’s associate
dean of community medicine, the only defense witness, testified Richards
and Allen provided good care. He said he was impressed with Allen’s empathy
toward Fields when she’d opted to keep him in observation the morning of
Aug. 9, 2007, until he could be seen by a doctor, rather than take him to
an emergency room, where Allen said Fields would wait for care and tie up
deputies.
December
14, 2010 News-Press
Brett Fields walked into the Lee County Jail on July 6, 2007, a healthy
25-year-old. He left a month later, paralyzed. That's according to a
pending federal lawsuit filed against two jail medical staffers and Prison
Health Services, the Tennessee-based company contracted to provide care at
the Lee County Jail. Fields, of North Fort Myers, is one of 33 inmates who
have filed federal lawsuits against Prison Health Services in Lee,
Charlotte and Collier counties, where it runs health care at the jails. The
company says its rate of lawsuits is low. But advocates say inmates are
often ignored because they have legal and financial hurdles in the way of
successfully bringing a lawsuit. "They have a constitutional
responsibility to provide minimally adequate health care," said Dion
Cassata, Fields' Fort Lauderdale attorney. "They do get sued. It
doesn't mean all of those lawsuits have merit. Some have merit and some do
not." Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott, recently dropped as a defendant
from Fields' lawsuit, said he believes Prison Health Services provides good
care, considering the clientele. "Generally speaking, they're doing a
good job. Mistakes are made. But that's anywhere," Scott said. "I
give these guys a little bit of room because of the baseline they're
dealing with." Lawsuit details Fields was arrested on charges of
criminal mischief and violating a protective injunction. According to his
lawsuit, Fields was diagnosed with a staph infection that caused a
pus-filled boil on his arm four days after he was booked. Within weeks, he
began to suffer from back pain, numbness and weakness in his lower
extremities but was ignored. Physician's assistant Joseph Richards Jr., a
defendant in the lawsuit, saw the wheelchair-bound Fields and ordered
Tylenol and a follow-up a week later. The next morning, Fields' rectal
muscles were visible outside his body and he was taken from his cell on a
sheet, the suit says. Nurse Betty Joyce Allen, another defendant, noted
Fields was in pain but didn't order a doctor's visit until 12 hours later,
when he was transferred to the hospital and diagnosed with a
methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-related abscess in his spine,
the lawsuit states. He had surgery and has undergone two years of physical
therapy, although the father of three suffers partial paralysis in his
legs, the lawsuit states. He is seeking an undisclosed amount. "There
never is any justification for a delay when an otherwise healthy person
shows signs of loss of motor skills," said Cassata, who refused a
News-Press request for an interview with his client. Carla Cesario, Prison
Health Services division vice president, said the company's policy is not
to discuss litigation.
July
1, 2010 Naples Daily News
The widow of an Ohio man killed by heavy exposure to pepper spray in the
Lee County Jail has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Lee County
Sheriff’s Office, the jail’s medical contractor and a slate of deputies and
nurses involved in the 2009 death. Twenty individuals are named in the
suit, filed in federal court in Fort Myers, including Lee County Sheriff
Mike Scott and the director of Prison Health Services, the jail medical
provider. In a 59-page complaint, Joyce Christie, of Girard, Ohio, contends
all violated her husband’s civil rights through their “acts, failures to
act, and omissions committed, and policies, procedures, and customs in
place.” The defendants used excessive force that showed “deliberate
indifference” and “callous disregard” for her husband’s welfare, the lawsuit
asserts. The lawsuit requests an unnamed amount of compensatory and
punitive damages, and it asks the court to curtail jail practices that
resulted in the death, as well as force better care of inmates from medical
contractor Prison Health Services. Nicholas Christie, 62, a retired
boilermaker, died from cardiac arrest on May 31, following his exposure to
pepper spray 10 times in 43 hours as an inmate at the jail. Arrested four
days earlier on trespassing charges, Christie was placed in an observation wing
after becoming loud. As he continued acting up, jailers sprayed him
repeatedly, fogged his cell with the chemical and eventually restrained him
in a chair. He was rushed to Gulf Coast Medical Center and died two days
later. The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide. An
investigation conducted by the Sheriff’s Office found that Nicholas
Christie had refused to tell nurses about his heart condition during
booking. It also noted that nurses checked Christie after each application
of the spray. Nurse Maria Canete told
investigators that when she warned one of the jailers, Kurtis Calhoun,
about the level of pepper spray being used, he called it “good training for
everyone,” and laughed. Another nurse, Linda Sundo,
said the spray was heavy in the observation ward and that during one check
of Christie, she didn’t get very close to him, for fear of the chemical. Canete, Calhoun and Sundo are
all named in the complaint. The State Attorney’s Office declined to
prosecute any of the individuals involved, concluding that Christie
represented a threat and that jailers didn’t show “reckless disregard” for
his life. Scott declined to review jail policies following the
investigation.
May
26, 2010 Marco Eagle
A former Marco Island man who served a sentence for drunken driving is
suing the county jail's medical provider, contending medical staff ignored
repeated pleas for medical help for his heart condition, causing him to
pass out and break his spine. Vernon Criner, 62,
who is now a quadriplegic living in Lansing, Mich., is suing physician's
assistant José Hernandez, who works in the Collier County jail, and its
contracted medical provider, Tennessee-based Prison Health Services. The
lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers on Tuesday, seeks
damages for failure to provide medical treatment, unconstitutional county
or Prison Health Services medical customs or policies, and compensation for
medical and hospital expenses and loss of income. "It is our policy at
PHS because of patient confidentiality requirements that we cannot comment
on pending litigation," said PHS Spokesman Pat Nolan. It's the second
lawsuit to be filed in less than a year against Prison Health Services by
an inmate who contends its lack of care caused paralysis. In August, Brett
Fields, 27, of Bokeelia, sued Prison Health Services and Lee County Sheriff
Mike Scott. Prison Health Services has been the target of lawsuits
nationwide involving poor medical care. Many plaintiffs obtained
confidential settlements, while others — including a Tampa woman whose baby
died after she gave birth on a toilet — won multimillion dollar jury awards
or settlements. "They just didn't want to pay for a pacemaker,"
said Criner's attorney, Paul Broschay
of Southfield, Mich., adding that Prison Health Services is paid a flat fee
and it benefits them to deny care to cut costs. "It was pretty clear
to them he had problems. He was flopping around all over the place." Broschay said Prison Health Services did send Criner to a hospital two months before his spine fractured,
but they sent him back after checking him. "The guy needed a pacemaker
and they finally gave it to him after he fell over," Broschay said.
January
13, 2010 News-Press
The widow of Nicholas Christie, who died shortly after he was released from
jail, intends to sue the Lee County Sheriff's Office, as well as the
company contracted by the county to provide medical care to inmates.
Christie, 62, of Girard, Ohio, was arrested twice last March after
traveling to the area while suffering what his wife described as a mental
breakdown when he stopped taking his medication. He died three days
following his second incarceration, during which he was pepper sprayed
eight times; another two times, his cell mate was sprayed. The medical
examiner's office ruled his death a homicide. Earlier this week, the state
attorney's office cleared the five corrections deputies - Kurtis Calhoun,
Frank Hansen, Daniel Falzone, Monshay
Gibbs and Dathan Pyle - of criminal wrongdoing in
the case, though federal investigations are ongoing. A separate internal
review of policy and protocol was not conducted, according to the sheriff's
legal director, Barry Hillmyer. In a letter sent
to the sheriff's office, attorneys for Joyce Christie allege corrections
officers "used excessive force, acted with deliberate indifference to
Nicholas Christie's need for medical care and violated his rights under
state and federal law." Last week, attorneys also sent a letter to
Prison Health Services Inc., saying the jail's medical staff did not properly
care for him while Christie was in custody. Ohio attorney Nicholas DiCello, who is working in conjunction with Tallahassee
attorneys, said a letter of intent to sue has been sent, which has to be
done in civil suits against government agencies. He expects the lawsuits
will be formally filed by April.
August
11, 2009 Naples News
A 27-year-old Bokeelia man filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Lee
County Sheriff Mike Scott and the jail’s medical provider, alleging that he
walked into the jail a healthy man and left paralyzed a month later. The
lawsuit filed by Brett Allen Fields against Scott and Tennessee-based
Prison Health Services comes just days after the U.S. Department of Justice
announced it was investigating the death of a Lee County jail inmate who
was pepper sprayed in March. Prison Health Services has been the target of
lawsuits nationwide involving poor medical care. Many plaintiffs obtained
confidential settlements, while others — including a Tampa woman whose baby
died after she gave birth on a toilet — won multimillion dollar jury awards
or settlements. John Van Mol, a spokesman for Prison Health Services, and
Tony Schall, a spokesman for Scott, said they do
not comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit gives the following account
of what occurred after Fields was booked into the jail on July 6, 2007: He
requested medical attention four days later for an infected wound on his
left arm. A nurse examined him, determined it was a boil, and prescribed an
antibiotic, Bactrim. Two weeks later, on July 24, 2007, after it hadn’t
healed, he filled out an “Inmate Medical Request Form,” but it was ignored
by the sheriff and medical staff, the lawsuit says. In early August, he
began to suffer from severe back pains, difficulty standing up, numbness
and weakness in his lower body. He pleaded with medical staff and sheriff’s
employees, asking for medical help and saying he hadn’t urinated in days,
but his pleas were ignored, according to the suit. The evening of Aug. 7,
2007, a nurse examined him and he told her of neurological problems and
physical symptoms, including numbness and weakness in his legs. She
scheduled an exam for the next morning. When he was examined by a
physician’s assistant that morning, he could no longer walk and was
confined to a wheelchair. He told the physician’s assistant how a boil had
progressed into numbness and neurological damage and the assistant
conducted a cursory examination and prescribed Tylenol. Once back in his
cell, Fields, who could no longer use his legs, dragged himself to a
mattress, where he remained until the early morning hours of Aug. 9, 2007.
When he used the toilet, he realized his insides were coming out and were
visible outside his body, a condition known as a rectal prolapse. Cellmates
alerted medical and jail staff, who pushed his insides back into his body
and removed him from the cell. “Despite the grave and critical nature of
these symptoms, PHS waited almost 12 hours to have a doctor examine
Fields,” the lawsuit alleges. At 12:30 p.m. that day, he was transferred to
Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center with almost complete paralysis in
his lower body. Hospital staff diagnosed him with Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-related abscess in his spine causing
paraplegia, and he underwent surgery. “Despite two years of intense
physical therapy, Fields still suffers partial paralysis in both legs,” the
lawsuit says. “Fields’ now-permanent spinal injury could have easily been
avoided had defendants not been deliberately indifferent to Fields’ obvious
serious medical needs during his incarceration and provided him with basic
medical care.” Jail records show Fields, who has a minor record that
includes petty theft convictions, was booked into the jail on charges he
violated a domestic violence restraining order, criminal mischief and a
probation violation, all misdemeanors. Court records show he was sentenced
to 26 days — credit for time served.
December 13, 2005 Bonita Daily
News
A former Lee County Jail inmate who miscarried less than two weeks after
first reporting medical problems cannot take her case to trial because she
didn't follow internal grievance procedures, a federal judge has ruled.
Michelle Goebert, 43, filed a civil lawsuit in
U.S. District Court in Fort Myers last year contending that she miscarried
11 days after reporting to jail medical and detention staff that she was
leaking amniotic fluid. Almost 14 months after filing suit, U.S. District
Judge John E. Steele tossed it out, saying her daily informal requests for
medical help didn't meet the jail's requirement to first exhaust the
internal grievance procedures. Goebert's
eight-count civil suit alleged that her civil rights were violated because
she suffered cruel and unusual punishment, and that sheriff's staff and
medical workers with Prison Health Services Inc. were negligent in her
care. She sued the Sheriff's Office and sheriff, Capt. Thomas P. Weaver,
Lee County, Prison Health Services Inc., EMSA Correctional Care Inc., jail
doctor David F. Brown, and jail nurse Sandee Malanoski.
Steele tossed Lee County from the suit in January. If inmates can't reach
informal resolution for complaints, they must file a request with the shift
commander, who investigates their claims and forwards the requests to the
facility commander. That commander then investigates claims' legitimacy,
Steele wrote. If deemed legitimate, requests are forwarded to the Grievance
Committee chairman, who schedules them for hearings. After the Hearing
Commission's recommendation, the facility commander may approve, deny or
modify the recommendation. If an inmate is dissatisfied, he or she may
appeal to the detention bureau commander within five days of receiving the
decision. After her miscarriage, Goebert didn't
appeal Weaver's Nov. 29 reply. Sheriff's spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi said jail staff could not provide the Daily
News on Monday with the number of grievances forwarded this year to the
Grievance Committee's chairman. Jail staff also could not provide the
number of grievances set for hearings, nor the number of cases appealed to
the detention bureau's commander. Buried in Steele's ruling, he said if Goebert's lawsuit wasn't tossed out, her claims against
Brown and Prison Health Services would have gone forward. A
"reasonable jury ... could find that Dr. Brown acted with an attitude
of deliberate indifference to Ms. Goebert's
serious medical need," Steele wrote.
September 6, 2005 News-Press
Sheriff Mike Scott plans to ask the Lee County Commission today for
nearly $1 million to pay for unexpected inmate medical expenses. Sheriff's
budget director Bill Bergquist said the $982,153 is needed because of
rising costs for inmate health coverage. The budget year ends Sept. 30, but
Bergquist said the fund is nearly depleted. The commission is obligated by
law to provide health care to county inmates. Prison Health Services is the
provider contracted with the county.
April 14, 2005 Naples Daily News
A federal judge ruled Wednesday to drop the Lee County Sheriff's Office
from a lawsuit filed against it by a former inmate who contends she
miscarried after leaking amniotic fluid while jailed. Michelle Goebert, 42, filed suit in October in U.S. District
Court in Fort Myers against the Sheriff's Office and sheriff, Capt. Thomas
P. Weaver, Lee County, Prison Health Services Inc., EMSA Correctional Care
Inc., Dr. David F. Brown, and nurse Sandee Malanoski,
saying that spanning 11 days in 2001, she leaked amniotic fluid while in
the Lee County Jail in Fort Myers. On the 11th day she was hospitalized
and, three days later, her baby died, according to the suit.
January 29, 2005 Naples Daily News
Lee County has been dropped from a federal lawsuit filed in fall by a
former Lee County Jail inmate who said unnecessary delays in medical help
there caused her to miscarry. The civil suit, filed in October in U.S.
District Court in Fort Myers, says that during 11 days in 2001, Michelle Goebert leaked amniotic fluid while jailed in Fort
Myers. On the 11th day she was hospitalized, and three days later the baby
died, according to the suit. U.S. District Judge John E. Steele ruled
Thursday that Lee County could be dismissed from the suit, saying the
county was not responsible for what Goebert
contends happened. "The sheriff, and not the defendant Lee County, has
the responsibility to operate the Lee County Jail, and funding by the
county does not affect this responsibility," Steele said in the order.
January 17, 2005 Naples Daily News
An HIV-positive prison inmate is suing the Lee County Sheriff's Office and
jail's medical care provider, saying it took too long to receive the
life-sustaining drug cocktail his doctors prescribed. And to compensate
him, he wants $10 million. Jimmy
D. Hatten, 41, was remanded into custody after a March 30, 2004. When he
was booked into the Lee County Jail, he told medical staff from Prison
Health Services he needed the medications and how to reach his doctors,
Hatten said in his suit. He said he suffered facial swelling, a fever,
bleeding and an infection because he didn't receive his medication, the
suit said.
December 12, 2004 News-Press
A Lee County sheriff's deputy arrested Ralph Scheibel on March 7 at Gulf
Coast Hospital and took him to jail, where he had a heart attack the same
day and died. His death was
followed by eight more inmate deaths — three men who committed suicide, two
who died of complications from HIV, two more heart attack victims and Byron
Black, 39, who died Nov. 27 after being pepper-sprayed and Tasered while
struggling with guards. But Sheriff-elect Mike Scott said he is concerned
about the jail — and the number of deaths — and plans to make changes when
he takes office in January. Black's cause of death may not be determined for weeks. The
District 21 Medical Examiner's Office is awaiting toxicology results before
releasing a finding. The private company that performs medical care at the
jail is Prison Health Services, which is based in Brentwood, Tenn., and is
the largest provider of inmate health care in the nation. Prison Health Services is supposed to
screen inmates entering the jail for medical conditions that need
monitoring. Scott said he will review Prison Health Services' contract. But
neither he nor Ferrante said they could find fault with the company when
they're "on the outside looking in."
November 23, 2004 Naples News
Lawyers for the state's jail medical care providers are asking a federal
judge to toss out a lawsuit brought by an Estero firefighter's father after
the man died one day after being jailed. Roger H. Barnhart Sr., of Bonita
Springs, filed suit in May against Prison Health Services, Lee County
Sheriff Rod Shoap, his department and jail
medical staff after Barnhart's 42-year-old son died the day after being
jailed on a drunken driving charge. The elder Barnhart's suit contends that
Roger H. Barnhart's death resulted from medical negligence and a violation
of his civil rights. Prison Health
Services attorney Gregg Toomey said the elder Barnhart's civil rights complaint
against the company should be dismissed because his attorneys haven't
proven his son's right to medical treatment and diagnoses was violated.
October 16, 2004 Naples News
Just three days after her 39th birthday, Michelle Goebert
lost a baby she repeatedly tried to save while imprisoned at the Lee County
jail in 2001. In a span of 14 days after her Oct. 19, 2001, arrest, Goebert asked for medical help or to visit an obstetrician
because she was leaking amniotic fluid and feared for the life of her
unborn child. Medical staff at the jail took her to a local hospital too
late, Goebert contends, and the 41-year-old Lee
County woman now seeks an unspecified amount in damages in a federal civil
rights and negligence lawsuit filed Thursday at the U.S. District
Courthouse in Fort Myers. From Nov. 19 until Nov. 30, 2001, Goebert leaked amniotic fluid and asked daily to see a
prison doctor or go to an outside hospital, according to the suit against
the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Rod Shoap,
Capt. Thomas P. Weaver, Prison Health Services Inc., EMSA Correctional Care
Inc., doctor David F. Brown, nurse Sandee Malanoski
and Lee County government. Taken to the hospital on her birthday, Nov. 30,
doctors there said the baby's chances of surviving were slim because Goebert lost so much amniotic fluid, the suit says. Her
child died Dec. 3.
September 16, 2004 News-Press
The day before Gregory Kokolakis took his own
life, he called his mother from the Lee County Stockade in agony. "He
called me crying," said his mother, Adrienne Croom. "He said,
"I am in so much pain. I can't stand it.' " Kokolakis,
21, wasn't allowed access to his methadone, an opiate used by doctors to
help addicts off painkillers. "He said 'Mom, my medication is in my
property, and they won't give it to me,' " Croom recalled Wednesday.
On Sept. 7, Kokolakis wrapped a sheet around his
neck, tied it to an air vent in the stockade barracks and attempted to hang
himself. He died five days later. Kokolakis was
the third inmate to commit suicide since July. The Lee County Jail has a
contract with Tennessee-based Prison Health Services Inc. to provide
medical treatment, including treating inmates' withdrawal from narcotics.
June 26, 2004 News-Press
A Bonita Springs man is suing Lee County sheriff's officials and the
company that provides jail medical services, claiming officials failed to
provide appropriate medical care to his son while he was in jail.
Roger Barnhart Sr.'s son, Roger Barnhart, 42, died about 10 hours after
being released from custody on a DUI charge. The lawsuit claims jail
officials failed and refused to provide appropriate medical care. Barnhart
was not "unlawfully under the influence of alcohol but rather was
suffering from an adverse reaction to prescribed medication and/or
psychiatric or medical illness," the lawsuit states.
Leon County Jail, Tallahassee,
Florida
Jul 30, 2016 wtxl.com
Leon County Sheriff's Office Sued for Inmate Death
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- The Leon County Sheriff's Office is facing a
wrongful death lawsuit. The mother of Shanike
Miller says her daughter died of liver failure from a mood stabilizer given
to her while she was an inmate. Also listed in the lawsuit are the jail,
its health provider, and a doctor at the jail. Miller was arrested on
September 30, 2013 and booked in the county jail that day. Three months
later, she died. The lawsuit claims Miller was given the wrong medication
which led to her death. According to the lawsuit, Miller suffered from
psychiatric problems and was placed under the care of Corizon Health and a
doctor at the jail. Miller was given Tegretol despite refusing the drug
several times. The lawsuit states Tegretol shouldn't be prescribed without
first getting blood tests. However, in this case, no tests were taken, but
the drug was given anyway, according to the lawsuit. A few weeks before she
died, Miller's lab results indicated she had jaundice, but rather than get
an immediate referral, corizon and the doctor
delayed it for at least a day, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit also states
Corizon Health was "negligent" in treating Miller and their
actions "were done with reckless indifference" to her rights.
WTXL has reached out to the lawyers representing Miller's estate and the
sheriff's office about this case for comment.
September 25, 2005 Tallahassee
Democrat
The family of the late Ruth Hubbs, who died at the Leon County Jail
infirmary, is being paid $350,000 by Prison Health Services, a company that
oversees inmate care at the facility. Hubbs, 39, was found dead in the
infirmary May 16, 2003, about a day after deputies reported seeing her
sitting on the floor of her jail cell and yelling incoherently to herself.
Some correctional officers later reported the jail's medical workers seemed
unconcerned about her condition. An autopsy found she had an intoxicating level
of an antidepressant in her system, but an investigation was unable to
determine whether the jail's medical workers had given her too much
medication. Last year, her parents filed a lawsuit against PHS, three of
its employees and Sheriff Larry Campbell. The PHS employees named in the
lawsuit were Susan Cole, the health-care administrator at the jail; Dr.
William Primas, the staff doctor; and another
physician who later was released from the lawsuit. According to the
lawsuit, Hubbs died because she was overmedicated. The lawsuit states she
was given increasing doses of the antidepressant Doxepin, and that PHS had
a policy of rarely using a safer but more expensive medication. "Hubbs
objected to taking the medication," the lawsuit states, "and for
at least two weeks before her death, Hubbs showed signs of being
chronically overmedicated. Her attorney, a social worker and corrections
officers made repeated complaints which were ignored by Prison Health
Services, their agents and employees." Two other inmates have died at
the jail since Hubbs was found dead. Clyde Fuller, 26, was found dead in
the infirmary June 12, 2003, after being sprayed with pepper spray, placed
in a restraint chair and injected with a sedative. According to a Sheriff's
Office report, he had been screaming and spitting at staff members. An
autopsy found cocaine in his system. Steven Tomiano,
32, died after hanging himself with a sheet in his cell Oct. 31, 2004. An
investigation determined no foul play occurred.
August 31, 2005 Tallahassee Democrat
Leon County commissioners took the following actions during their Tuesday
meeting: • Voted 5-1 to accept a report on three inmate deaths at the Leon
County Jail that occurred from May 2003 to September 2004. Ruth Hubbs died
May 16, 2003, and a subsequent investigation found she had an intoxicating
level of a psychotropic drug in her system. Investigators were unable to
determine whether she had been storing pills in her mouth or jail medical
workers had over-medicated her. Clyde Fuller died June 12, 2003, after he
became combative with correctional officers and was sprayed with pepper
spray, placed in a restraint chair and injected with a sedative by a jail
nurse. An investigation found that cocaine and marijuana in his system
might have contributed to his death. Steven Tomiano
died Oct. 31, 2004, after hanging himself in a cell with a sheet, and
investigators found no foul play occurred. Sheriff Larry Campbell said that
at the time of the deaths, he was unhappy with the service of the jail's
medical provider, Prison Health Services. But Campbell said PHS since has
made improvements and that he now is satisfied with the company's
performance. Changes in jail health care include creation of a
medical-grievance committee that takes up inmate health complaints and a
medical hot line for family members to call with concerns about inmates.
Rodney Holliman, PHS vice president of operations, said the company is
doing a "phenomenal job" in caring for inmates. Commissioner Bill
Proctor also said improvements have been made. But Commissioner Bob Rackleff, who cast the only dissenting vote, worried
that not enough is being done to prevent future tragedies.
December 14, 2004 Tallahassee Democrat
Improving the county jail. Making health insurance more affordable. Boosting
economic development. Those are the top issues for Leon County
commissioners, who met Monday for their annual priority-setting session.
Commissioners expressed concern about a variety of jail issues, from
staffing and employee pay to overcrowding and inmate health care.
Commissioners Bill Proctor and Dan Winchester said they are aware of
patients who haven't been able to get medications they needed. And
Commissioner Ed DePuy expressed "grave
concerns" over the company that provides medical care to inmates. But
commissioners, who have the authority to assume control of the jail, said
they want to continue delegating that responsibility to Sheriff Larry
Campbell. DePuy in particular emphasized a desire
to work with Campbell to make improvements. "This is to work in a
constructive fashion with the sheriff and his staff," he said. Prison Health Services, which provides
medical care to inmates at the jail, and the Sheriff's Office are being
sued by the family of a 39-year-old woman who died last year after medical
staff gave her fatal levels of antidepressant drugs.
October 29, 2004 Tallahassee Democrat
A year and a half after a mentally-ill inmate died at the Leon County Jail,
a local judge Thursday ordered that another inmate diagnosed with
schizophrenia receive his medication, lawyers said. Circuit Judge Nikki Clark ruled that the
jail psychiatrist should confer with inmate Shayne F. Huber's doctors
today, according to Assistant Public Defender Joel Remland,
who represents Huber. "We got what we
wanted," Remland said. "The jail just
needs to be more conscientious and improve their own procedures to avoid
lapses in treatment." Remland noted the case
of Ruth Hubbs, 39, who was found dead in the jail's infirmary in May 2003.
She was awaiting sentencing on a burglary charge. An autopsy revealed fatal
levels of the antidepressant jail medical staff had been giving her.
Records later revealed that corrections officers and her attorney had
complained for nearly two weeks before her death that she appeared to be overmedicated.
Medical staff largely ignored those concerns, according to reports. The jail clinic is run by Prison Health
Services, which earns $2.6 million a year for the job, records show.
September 14, 2004 Tallahassee Democrat
A lawyer for the family of Ruth Hubbs has filed a lawsuit against
Prison Health Services and the Leon County Sheriff's Office over her death
in the county jail last year. The suit alleges Hubbs was subjected to
"cruel and unusual punishment" and died as a result of negligent
health care. It is at least the second pending death-related lawsuit
against PHS in Florida. Hubbs, 39, was found dead in her cell in the jail's
infirmary in May 2003. She'd recently been acquitted of a fraud charge and
was awaiting sentencing on a burglary charge. An autopsy revealed fatal
levels of the antidepressant jail medical staff had been giving her. Records later revealed that corrections
officers and her attorney had complained for nearly two weeks before her death
that she appeared to be overmedicated. Medical staff largely ignored those
concerns, according to the reports. Also, examiners said Hubbs had to take
the lethal dosage all at once, even though she'd shown overdose symptoms
for weeks, and detectives could find no evidence she'd purposely taken the
pills.
Leon County Sheriff Larry
Campbell isn't known for his patience. So it's easy to understand his
justifiable frustration with the private company that provides medical
services to inmates at the county jail. Leon County taxpayers shell out
$2.6 million a year to Prison Health Services, a national company with a
mixed record of performance and an unenviable trail of lawsuits. Sheriff
Campbell's concern comes on the heels of an investigation by his detectives
into an inmate's suspicious death last year. The results of the sheriff's
probe into the death of Ruth Hubbs were inconclusive. Ms. Hubbs died from a
probable overdose of antidepressant medication, according to her autopsy
report, which also was inconclusive. But the company's performance in Leon
County - correctional officers and inmates' families have reported inferior
medical care - as well as the firm's record of complaints, investigations
and lawsuits elsewhere lead to inevitable questions about the wisdom of
continuing to do business with PHS. (Tallahassee Democrat, February 17,
2004)
Records from Ruth Hubbs' stay in the Leon County Jail last year raise
serious questions about the cause of her death - and point to the medical
care she received as a possible factor. For at least two weeks before she
died, Hubbs showed textbook symptoms that she was suffering from chronic
overdoses of her jail-prescribed depression medication. Corrections
officers, a social worker, her attorney and Hubbs herself made repeated
complaints that she was being overmedicated - concerns that senior
administrators of the private company that runs the jail's medical services
are accused of ignoring. After she died, an autopsy proved inconclusive but
showed the most likely cause was "doxepin intoxication" - in
other words, an overdose of the antidepressant. The infirmary recently had
been turned over to Prison Health Services, a company paid $2.6 million a
year to provide medical services. (Tallahassee Democrat, February 15, 2004)
Autopsy results show it was a massive overdose of prescription drugs that
killed a Leon County Jail inmate earlier this year - medication likely
administered by the jail's own infirmary. Ruth Hubbs, 39, was found dead in
her cell May 16, only hours after medical staff reportedly ignored complaints
from deputies that something was wrong with her. Now, detectives with the
Leon County Sheriff's Office are trying to figure out how she received a
lethal amount of the anti-depressant doxepin. A medical exam found more
than 20 times the recommended dosage in her system. It's not clear yet
whether doxepin was one of the drugs Hubbs - who was bipolar - was taking
in the medical unit. (Tallahassee Democrat, August 6, 2003 )
Inmates at the Leon County Jail get their medical treatment from a company
with a mixed health-care record and a splintered public image. Prison
Health Services took over the jail's infirmary in October. Since then,
three inmates have died, two of them while in the medical unit under the
company's care. There is no evidence to date of improper medical practices.
However, jail deputies reported that PHS staff did not respond to their
concerns about a female inmate just hours before she died. Ruth Hubbs, 39,
was found dead May 16 on the floor of her cell in the infirmary, wedged
between the bed and the wall. A search of the Lexis-Nexis database and the
Internet turned up dozens of reports of deaths and medical problems at jail
health facilities the company operates under contract. Many of them detail
allegations of understaffing, denial of medication and a general lack of
compassion. By contract, PHS has to keep a certain number of nurses,
doctors and other staff on duty at any given time. If the company falls
short, it pays back money to the Sheriff's Office. That's happened every
month since December. For example, at one point the jail had only a
part-time psychiatrist who visited from out of town. And, in some months,
the infirmary was short on nurses by as many 200 to 400 work hours.
(Tallahassee Democrat, June 30, 2003)
Limestone Correctional
Facility, Limestone County, Alabama
December 1, 2009 Huntsville Times
State prison officials today released a 795-page report showing Farron Barksdale, who killed two police officers, died from
hypothermia after being heavily medicated with anti-psychotic drugs.
Barksdale, 32, of Athens, sentenced to life without parole after pleading
guilty to capital murder in the shooting deaths of two Athens police
officers, died Aug. 20, 2007, after he was found unconscious in his prison
cell. After he was rushed to a Montgomery hospital, it was discovered he
had several large, fresh-looking, bruises around his waist, arms, legs,
elbows and knees. But Sarah Geraghty, senior attorney for the Southern Center
for Human Rights in Atlanta, said questions still remain about how
Barksdale received such extensive bruising. The report said Barksdale was
given several different drugs that could cause bruising. And they noted the
special seat belts used to transport Barksdale from the Limestone County
Jail to the Kilby Correctional Facility could also have been responsible
for some of the bruises. When a private ambulance company was summoned to
take Barkdale to the hospital after he collapsed,
according to the report, paramedic Angela Anderson said she "found
patient lying on treatment table by himself with distressed respirations,
unresponsive; no medical personnel in room; saw bruises on his body on
abdominal and pelvic area; noted they were unusual for size and location .
. . "Patient had no oxygen therapy being (administered and) there was
no medical personnel in the room (with) the patient the entire time while
on scene only DOC personnel. Patient had several bruises throughout body
major-sized bruises noted anterior on lower abdomen/pelvic area measuring
in comparison to a salad plate covering most of the area from hip joint
area to umbilicus. "Color of bruises indicate newly sustained. Patient
also had bruising to both forearms posterior area in same color as ones
noted to abdomen/pelvic area." In addition, Heath Bruner, an EMT, was
quoted in the report as noting "massive" bruising on both sides
of pelvis. He also noted there were no nurses present in the room with
Barksdale at Kilby. Barksdale's mother, Mary, earlier this year won
$750,000 in a wrongful death lawsuit against former Kilby Warden Arnold
Holt, Dr. Joseph McGinn of MHM Correctional Services in Vienna, Va., and
Dr. Arnold Holt of Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tenn. Ken Williams,
general counsel for the Corrections Department, said Tuesday that McGinn
was responsible for prescribing the drugs to Barksdale and leaving him in
an unairconditioned cell rather than transferring him to an air-conditioned
mental health unit.
August 1, 2005 New York Times
If there was ever a prison that needed help, it was Limestone Correctional
Facility. Even within the troubled Alabama penal system, this state
compound near Huntsville was notorious for cruel punishment and medical
neglect. In one drafty, rat-infested warehouse once reserved for chain
gangs, the state quarantined its male prisoners with H.I.V. and AIDS, until
the extraordinary death toll - 36 inmates from 1999 to 2002 - moved inmates
to sue and the government to promise change. Alabama's solution was to fire
the local company in charge of medical care and hire Prison Health
Services, the nation's largest commercial provider of health care behind
bars. Prison Health's solution was to recruit Dr. Valda M. Chijide, an infectious-disease specialist who arrived
last November with a lofty title: statewide coordinator of inmate H.I.V.
care. She was an unlikely candidate for the job in one sense, having never
stepped inside a prison. But it did not take her long to conclude that the
chaos was continuing, and that much of the problem was Prison Health
itself. Though the company had promised the help of other doctors, she
said, she was left alone to care for not only the 230 men in the H.I.V.
unit, but the 1,800 other prisoners, too. Nurses were so poorly trained, Dr.
Chijide said, that they neglected to hand out
life-sustaining drugs or gave the wrong ones. Medical charts were a mess,
she said, and often it was impossible to find such basic items as a
thermometer, or even soap. Dr. Chijide lasted
barely three months. After she complained in writing, Prison Health
suspended her for reasons it would not disclose, and she quit. Her short,
frantic stint - battling for drugs, hospitalizations and extra food for
skeletal inmates, she said - was not unusual in the world of Prison Health
Services, which has had a turbulent record in many of the 33 states where
it has provided jail or prison medicine. But her story, a rare firsthand
account of a doctor in charge of a prison's health care, offers an intimate
glimpse of the company's work at a moment when the need for change could
not have been more pressing, and the spotlight on Prison Health could
hardly have been more intense. Limestone is not the only hitch in Prison
Health's effort to transform a penal backwater. Two hundred miles south, at
the state's Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, another federal monitor
reported that Prison Health lacked any "organized and structured
medical program," and deplored the care given two inmates who died
last year. There is, of course, a higher authority that Prison Health must
answer to: the state official charged with making sure it lives up to its
contract. That person is Ruth Naglich, who as
associate commissioner of the Alabama Corrections Department is supposed to
review the company's work. Three years ago, Ms. Naglich
was a Prison Health executive, vice president for sales and marketing, at
the company's headquarters outside Nashville.
May 6, 2005 Birmingham News
Prison Health Services has been under the gun, and rightly so, for the
way it's provided medical care to Alabama inmates. The Tennessee-based
company was hired to improve health care in Alabama prisons, which had been
sued over services provided by a previous contractor. But the care in
prisons remains unacceptable. A recurring theme is a shortage of doctors,
nurses and other staff to tend to the inmates, with predictable
consequences. At best, the care has been inadequate. At worst, it may have
been downright deadly. The state of Alabama, which has the ultimate
responsibility (and liability) for what happens to prisoners in its
custody, has every reason to demand better from Prison Health Services. And
withholding part of the company's payment is an appropriate place to start.
The state is reducing the company's $143 million contract by $1.2 million
for staffing shortages, and may cut more if staffing levels aren't
increased. Why not? The state is paying Prison Health Services to provide a
certain number of professionals and support staff to administer inmates'
health care. If the company is not meeting the requirements of the
contract, it should not expect to be paid as if it were. Besides, what's
really at stake here is bigger than money. Too many inmates are not
receiving proper care for chronic conditions, and some are dying unnecessarily
as a result, according to doctors who monitor prison health care for the
courts. At the Tutwiler women's prison, the monitor found that three
inmates who died last year received poor or incomplete care, and two of
them may have died as a result. At Limestone Correctional Facility, which
houses HIV-positive inmates, the monitor found prisoners weren't getting
crucial medication and that a required HIV specialist was not on staff.
It's true that turnover has been a big problem. Prison Health Services has
had problems retaining doctors and other health care workers; some have
left complaining they didn't have the resources to do their jobs. But the
bottom line is that the company agreed to provide a certain level of
services, and it has been failing to do so. At the very least, the state
should adjust the payments to Prison Health Services accordingly. So the
company is losing dollars. Inmates are losing their lives.
April 29, 2005 Tuscaloosa News
Recent complaints by HIV inmates over medical attention at Limestone
prison are "misleading and inaccurate," attorneys for the prison
system and its health provider said in asking a federal judge to dismiss a
contempt motion. The attorneys' filing says the state Department of
Corrections and Prison Healthcare Services have taken adequate steps to
comply with a settlement over housing and medical care for some 240 HIV
inmates at the state prison in Limestone County. The document was in
response to a complaint filed last week by inmate attorneys at the
Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. The complaint said the
prison system and health provider have yet to show they are carrying out
any plan to correct "extensive noncompliant acts." Southern
Center attorney Gretchen Rohr said the plaintiffs have asked U.S. District
Court Judge Karon Bowdre in Birmingham to hold the state in contempt of
court for failing to follow the April 2004 settlement. Though DOC and PHS
concede that they don't have a permanent HIV specialist as required by the
settlement, they "have worked tirelessly to retain" one,
according to the court filing. They said several candidates have lost
interest in the position after learning about the highly publicized
complaints of the plaintiffs. The post opened after Dr. Valda Chijidi
resigned earlier this year. He had sent PHS several memos detailing
inadequate support and staffing at the north Alabama prison. The plaintiffs allege that inmates still have to
provide emergency care to other inmates because an adequate nursing staff
is not available - a claim denied by the prison and PHS. Rohr said she
appreciates the efforts to improve conditions at Limestone, but remains
skeptical about the plan actually being implemented. "For a long time
we've been hearing that they have a plan and voluntarily are taking action.
Not to rain on your parade, but we've heard it before," she said.
February 19, 2005 WPMI
Attorneys for 240 HIV-positive prisoners at Limestone Correctional Facility
have accused prison officials of violating an agreement to improve their
medical care. The north Alabama prison has no specialist for them and has
constant gaps in medication, the attorneys claim in a contempt motion filed
Thursday in U.S. District Court. The attorneys have asked U.S. District
Court Judge Karon Bowdre in Birmingham to hold the state in contempt of
court for failing to follow the April 2004 settlement in a lawsuit over
inmate housing and medical care. Department of Corrections attorney Kim
Thomas said Friday she couldn't comment on the motion until she has read it.
According to the motion, two physicians, hired in the last eight months as
part of the settlement, recently resigned. One of the doctor's memos
detailed dozens of medical shortcomings, including a rat in the exam room
and chaotic record-keeping. Dr. Valda Chijide
wrote of being unable to care for patients because of disorganization in
the medical unit and because prison staff has overruled her medical
decisions. Once she walked in on a heart patient with chest pains who was
trying to give himself nitroglycerin because no nurse was in sight, she
wrote. "The law of diminishing returns sets in after riding on a
skeletal staff and scanty resources for so long," Chijide
wrote in a Jan. 25 letter to supervisors at Prison Health Services, the
private prison medical company that Alabama contracts with to provide
medical care at all state prisons. Now, one physician handles care for more
than 2,200 prisoners, including the HIV Unit. A PHS supervisor in
Montgomery also has been filling in, Keldie said.
"The state is ultimately the one who is responsible for the medical
care and the state should be forcing PHS to implement the settlement
agreement that we've reached," said Joshua Lipman, a Southern Center
for Human Rights attorney. "What they've done so far is pretty appalling."
Louisville
Metro Corrections,
Louisville, Kentucky
Dec 27, 2015 wdrb.com
Metro Government to pay $50,000 to family of inmate whose death could
have been prevented
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city has agreed to pay $50,000 to the
family of a 27-year-old inmate whose 2012 death at Louisville Metro
Corrections could have been prevented with better medical care. Samantha
George, one of seven inmates who died in Metro Corrections in 2012, was
found unresponsive in her cell on August 8, 2012. Her death "would
have been prevented had she received timely and appropriate medical
care," an investigation concluded in 2013. George's family sued Metro
Corrections and Corizon, the jail’s healthcare company at the time. Corizon
provided "negligent" care and failed to follow procedures for
treating inmates undergoing narcotics withdrawal, Dr. William Smock found
in reviewing George's death. "There is compelling evidence of a
significant deviation from the standard of care and medical negligence on
the part of the medical providers," Smock, a medical examiner and
police consultant, wrote in his report. On Nov. 25, Metro Government agreed
to pay George’s estate $50,000 with the stipulation that the city and Metro
Corrections Director Mark Bolton doesn't admit it was at fault, according
to the settlement, obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act. Jessie
Halladay, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Attorney's Office, which
represented the city in the lawsuit, said the settlement "speaks for
itself." It is unclear if George's family has also settled with
Corizon. Because the company is private, any settlement would not be
available under the open records law. A call to the family's attorney, Chad
McCoy, was not immediately returned. George was one of three 2012 Metro
Corrections deaths that investigations found could have been prevented with
better care, according to records obtained by WDRB. Arrested on a felony
theft charge, George spent one night at a Bullitt County jail before being
taken to Metro Corrections shortly before 7 p.m. on August 7, 2012,
according to police and prosecutors' reports on the events leading up to
George's death. George was booked at Metro Corrections at 6:40 p.m. and
screened by a nurse shortly before 9 p.m. George was found to be a diabetic
with an antibiotic-resistant MRSA infection. The nurse "failed to
place an observation form to Inmate George which would have required her to
be monitored at more frequent times," according to a summary of the
police investigation into George's death. Alone in her jail cell, George
was vomiting and nauseated when nurse Kristen Laws checked on her around 3
a.m. George received an insulin shot to help lower her blood-sugar levels,
which Laws said were "high." George was also being monitored for
detoxification. At 6 a.m., Laws called a physician who ordered Phenergan, a
medicine meant to ease George's nausea. Medical staff gave George the
Phenergan and ice chips at around 6:20 a.m. Laws told police investigators
that she asked the doctor, whom she doesn't identify, if he wanted to send
George to an emergency room. The doctor told her that he would see George
later that day, Laws said. "I think another nurse saw her and checked
her again before she went to court, so I don't think the doctor ever saw her
that day," Laws said in a police interview. George's condition was
"slightly better" when she was checked around 8 a.m., according
to the Commonwealth's Attorney's summary of the police investigation. But
medical examiner Smock, in his review of jail cameras, noted that George
bumped against an elevator door frame and was holding her stomach when
walking into an elevator shortly before 8:30 a.m. After sitting down in
arraignment court around 8:45 a.m., George twice put a trash bag to her
mouth and bent over, and three times she leaned on or bent over a desk,
Smock observed. Jail workers, nurses and corrections officers looked into
George's cell 11 times starting at 10:35 a.m., but no one entered the cell
until 4:08 p.m., about five minutes after a corrections officer knocked on
the cell door and noticed George naked from the waist down and
unresponsive, according to Smock's report and a police interview with the
officer. Medical staff and emergency personnel responded to George's cell
and attempted to revive her, but she was taken to University Hospital and
pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m., according to a summary of the police
investigation. Smock concluded that the Corizon staff failed to start the
appropriate detox monitoring and follow the correct procedures for someone
detoxing from narcotics. But Smock found no indication that the staff of
Brentwood, Tenn.-based Corizon acted maliciously or willfully in denying
care to George. Based on those conclusions, Assistant Commonwealth's
Attorney Mark L. Miller notified police that his office won't prosecute the
case or present it to a grand jury.
Mar
9, 2014 wdrb.com
LOUISVILLE,
Ky., (WDRB) -- The family of a former Metro Corrections inmate has filed a
wrongful death lawsuit against jail employees and its former medical provider,
among others, claiming negligence was a "substantial factor" in
her 2012 death. The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court Tuesday on
behalf of LaKenya Porter, claims Corizon, the
private company that provided the jail's medical care at the time, and
Metro Corrections director Mark Bolton failed to properly train and
supervise staff, who provided Porter with inappropriate medical care.
The lawsuit comes weeks after the Louisville Metro Police's Public
Integrity Unit completed its investigation into Porter's July 24, 2012,
death, with prosecutors finding no criminal conduct but criticizing both
Corizon and Metro Corrections for their care. While the lawsuit comes after
the one-year statute of limitations on filing civil action, Brandon Lawrence,
who is representing Porter's estate, said the family didn't know about the
myriad problems with Porter's care until the police investigation was
released in January. "The jail gave them no information" on
Porter's death, he said in an interview. Bolton has said only
that Porter, 33, died of natural causes, and neither jail officials nor
Corizon have commented further on Porter's death because of the potential
of litigation. A request for comment from Corizon on Thursday was not
immediately returned. Bill Patteson, a
spokesperson for the county attorney's office, which will represent Metro
Corrections, said he could not comment on the pending litigation. The
lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as a jury
trial. In total, seven inmates died in Metro Corrections in 2012.
Criminal investigations have concluded in each of those cases, with no
charges being filed. Last year, Tennessee-based Corizon decided not to
rebid for its $5.5 million annual contract, though it had been the medical
provider at Metro Corrections for most of the past two decades. According
to the police investigation and conclusions from the Jefferson
Commonwealth's Attorney's office, Corizon medical staff recommended not
booking Porter into jail on July 21, 2012, because of her health. She had
arrived from Jewish Hospital on a stretcher, so weak she could not stand
and her legs were seeping a yellowish fluid. But Metro Corrections Deputy
Director Dwayne Clark overruled the medical staff and ordered Porter to be
booked. Clark later told investigators he was not aware of how serious
Porter's condition was. Porter died later at University Hospital following
a "negligent" lack of care during her 27 hours at Metro
Corrections, according to the records released records from Metro police.
Porter, who had been diagnosed with liver failure and congestive heart
failure, never should have been taken into jail in the first place,
investigators concluded. Officials with Corizon said Porter needed more
care than the jail could provide. And during her incarceration, Porter was
never given her medications. Dr. William Smock, a forensic examiner
who acted as a consultant for Louisville Metro Police in the investigation,
concluded that Metro Corrections' decision to overrule three medical providers,
including the jail doctor, and admit Porter to jail, "directly
compromised (Porter's) health and welfare." And he said the failure of
medical staff to provide Porter any of her prescribed medication or have a
jail physician evaluate her also "contributed to her death." At 2
a.m. on July 22, the charge nurse at Metro Corrections "again"
called the jail's doctor, identified only as Dr. Kad, about taking Porter
to the hospital emergency room, according to police records. The charge nurse
noted Porter "was not an appropriate fit for level of care at the
jail," according to the police investigation. But the jail doctor
"refused," saying Porter "would not be admitted" to the
hospital. In fact, it wasn't until the power went out in the jail 20 hours
later -- about 10 p.m. -- that Porter was taken to University Hospital. She
died there on July 24.
Sep
4, 2013 courier-journal.com
The
Tennessee company that’s provided medical treatment to inmates at Metro
Corrections for most of the past two decades is ending its ties with city
government following the death of seven sick jail prisoners last year and
subsequent lawsuits over the company’s care. Metro Corrections officials,
who have been reviewing two of the deaths for several months, said they did
not pressure Corizon to let its $5.5 million annual contract lapse by
missing a July 30 deadline to seek a renewal. Courtney Eller, a spokeswoman
for Corizon, declined to answer questions about its decision, saying only
that the company would help ensure a successful transition to the next
provider. Metro Corrections Director Mark Bolton said he was surprised by
Corizon’s decision, as it had indicated it would offer a proposal but,
without explanation, chose not to do. Bolton, who had criticized Corizon
staff’s handling of previous cases, said last week that the company had
“put a completely new management team in place over the last year ... and I
have been very, very happy with them.” A new provider would be chosen in
the next 15 days or so from six companies that made proposals, he said.
Corizon’s decision comes as three more lawsuits have been filed in recent
months over deaths of sick inmates. The lawsuits contain claims that
Corizon staff dismissed inmates’ complaints and were slow to put physicians
on the case or take inmates to a hospital. The most recent lawsuit, filed
in August in Jefferson Circuit Court, claims Samantha George was moved from
the Bullitt County jail to Metro Corrections last August on a charge of
buying a stolen computer. George told a Corizon nurse at the jail that she
was a severe diabetic, needed insulin, and was feverish and in pain from an
MRSA infection, according to the suit, filed on behalf of George’s mother.
George said she could not even keep water down and a nurse asked an on-call
jail physician whether George should be taken to the emergency room,
according to jail records that were part of a police investigation. The
doctor said he would see the prisoner the next day and that she should be
monitored, according to the records. But there was a mistake with the
paperwork for corrections staff to make regular observational checks,
according to the police investigation. George’s condition worsened and she
was refused medical treatment, the suit claims. The Corizon jail doctor
never saw her despite promises he would check on her, according to the
lawsuit, which names Corizon and Bolton as defendants. Theresa George,
Samantha George’s mother, said she called had Metro Corrections and told
them how serious her daughter’s condition was and that she had to have a
shot every hour. “They said, ‘I’m looking at her right now and she’s
fine,’” Theresa George said. “Four hours later, she was dead.” Samantha
George was found unresponsive on Aug. 8, 2012, and she was pronounced dead
a short time later at University of Louisville Hospital. An autopsy
concluded she died of complications from a severe form of diabetes,
compounded by heart disease. Problems with Corizon’s work came to light
when Metro Corrections announced in December that six unidentified Corizon
workers resigned amid an investigation by the jail that found that the
workers “may” have contributed to last year’s deaths of George and inmate
Savannah Sparks. The investigations of those deaths by the jail and
prosecutors are ongoing, and Metro Corrections officials would not talk
about specific details. Corizon officials also would not talk about
specific cases. Just weeks after George died, Kenneth Cross arrived at
Metro Corrections. An unidentified friend had been taking him to the
hospital when he was pulled over by police, according to a lawsuit filed
earlier this year on behalf of Cross’ estate. The suit claims officers
believed Cross, who was arrested on a warrant for a drug possession charge,
was faking an overdose and would get any help he needed at Metro
Corrections. A nurse at Metro Corrections documented that Cross had
“slurred speech” and fell asleep “several times during his interview,”
according to jail records. Cross told the nurse he had only one beer that
day and was fine. He was found unconscious hours later, according to jail
records in the suit. Cross was pronounced dead a short time later. “Nodding
off ... clearly should raise a red flag in the case of someone who was
arrested for drug possession,” said Gregory Belzley,
who represents Cross’ family. “Either hospitalize him or put him under very
careful observation in which he is not allowed to go to sleep.” Cross, 43,
died of a drug overdose, according to a state medical examiner. Bolton said
there was no investigation into Cross’ death because there was “no
suspicion of foul play” or other red flags. He declined to comment further
on the Cross case. The commonwealth’s attorney’s office reviewed the case
and sent it back to Louisville police. Dwight Mitchell, a police spokesman,
said no charges were filed in the Cross case. In an email to his staff in
December about the deaths, Bolton said, “Mistakes were made by Corizon
personnel and their corporation has acknowledged such missteps” in terms of
the deaths, according to records in the George lawsuit. Investigations by
police and jail officials into the deaths of George and Sparks, who died
from opiate abuse and withdrawal six days after arriving at Metro
Corrections in April 2012, are still ongoing, Bolton said. Previously he
had said he believed that Corizon medical staff took too long to have a
company doctor look at Sparks and George. A wrongful-death lawsuit was
filed in April of this year on behalf of Sparks’ grandmother, Karen May.
Filed in Jefferson Circuit Court, it claims Corizon Inc. and dozens of
Metro Corrections employees were negligent in treating Sparks, 27, while
she was in jail on a theft charge. Her attorney, Brian Cook, declined to
comment. Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine, whose office reviewed six of the
deaths, said the jail has made many improvements caring for ill inmates. A
recent audit by a correction health consultant and accreditation report by
the National Commission on Correctional Health Care both indicated
improvements, including in the handling of inmates who are detoxing or
diabetic. The new detoxification process, which includes a heightened
awareness in monitoring inmates, is a “model program which should be
presented at conferences and seminars,” according to the audit. Theresa
George said she hopes her daughter’s death and the subsequent lawsuit will
spur change. “That could be your child,” she said. “If we can change the
way they treat people when they go to jail, that’s what I hope for.” |
