NaphCare and Alabama Sued for
Grossly Inadequate System of Providing Medical Care for Women Prisoners
Montgomery, Ala. -
A
lawsuit has been filed against the Alabama Department of Corrections
(DOC) and NaphCare, Inc., and MHM Correctional Services, Inc., the
private for-profit companies that Alabama pays to provide medical and
mental health treatment to prisoners with serious health problems.
Attorneys from the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) filed an
amended complaint against the DOC and NaphCare for failing to provide
constitutionally required medical care for women prisoners in Alabama.
According to Lisa Kung, an attorney at SCHR representing the inmates,
"When the state takes away a person’s freedom- including the freedom to
go to a doctor when you are sick- the law is clear that the state must
then provide care for serious medical needs. This is not happening in
Alabama’s women’s prisons."
Medical services at the women’s prisons in Alabama are characterized
by long delays in proper diagnosis and treatment, dangerous lapses in
necessary medication, and a severe shortage of qualified medical
personnel – particularly physicians, dentists, and psychiatrists. The
dangerous and overcrowded conditions at the prison cause extremely high
levels of psychological stress and chronic sleep deprivation that lower
prisoners' threshold for illness and exacerbate symptoms of chronic
diseases such as seizure disorders, hypertension, and mental illness.
There are no more than 7 infirmary beds, many located in the hallway,
for the 1,500 female prisoners in Alabama.
The contract for medical services between the state of Alabama and
NaphCare is severely underfunded and ranks 50th out of the 50
states in spending per patient. In order to be able to turn a profit on
such a severely underfunded contract, decisions to provide diagnosis and
treatment for serious conditions are made primarily on the basis of cost
rather than the medical needs of patients. NaphCare opts for short-term,
band-aid treatment to prisoners whose medical conditions require surgery
or referrals to outside specialists for evaluation. Serious medical
problems are largely ignored until they present an emergency, and until
that point, NaphCare makes a calculation that it is more cost-effective
to delay or deny treatment than provide it.
- DEATH: Claudia Muller, a 55-year old woman with heart
problems died in the exceedingly hot cell at Birmingham Work Center
during the early morning of July 28, 2002, after screaming for help
for days. The DOC and NaphCare knew she had serious heart problems and
she had been identified on June 17 as having serious mental illness,
but she was not provided necessary prescribed medication while in
lock-up, and was not monitored by security staff at the understaffed
work release facility.
- CHRONIC ILLNESS: Defendants' treatment of chronic
conditions such as asthma, diabetes, seizure disorders, kidney
disease, HIV, Hepatitis C, and hypertension falls far below the
standards of care that are well established and widely accepted by the
medical community for the treatment of chronic illnesses, resulting in
the conditions not being adequately controlled, and putting the
prisoners at substantial risk of serious medical incidents such as
seizures, strokes, and heart attacks.
- DENTAL CARE: There is so little access to dental care that
prisoners without teeth wait years for dentures. Some prisoners,
desperate for dental care and in extreme pain have resorted to pulling
out their own teeth to alleviate the pain.
- MENTAL HEALTH: Many of the recent assaults with razors were
carried out by mentally ill women forced to live in general population
dormitories without adequate mental health treatment. The number of
psychiatrists and mental health counselors is far below the level
available to men in Alabama’s male prisons.
"It is shameful that the Alabama Department of Corrections has
allowed the medical care and consequently the health of women prisoners
to deteriorate as severely as it is has." states Tamara Serwer of SCHR,
also representing the inmates. Serwer continues, "It's disheartening
that lawsuits must be filed in order to get the state to fulfill its
constitutionally required responsibilities."
For a
copy of this complaint, click here.
For
a copy of the original complaint, click here.
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