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June 23, 2005
ACLU Sues CMS over health care of people incarcerated in Mississippi
SHELIA BYRD, Associated Press
Posted on Wed, Jun. 22, 2005 http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11958260.htm
JACKSON, Miss. - The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the St. Louis-based health care provider for inmates at Mississippi's Parchman prison, alleging prisoners have been misdiagnosed and received inadequate treatment.
The federal lawsuit against Correctional Medical Services, Inc., one of the nation's largest for-profit medical providers for prisoners, was filed Wednesday on behalf of 1,000 inmates at Parchman's Unit 32.
Other defendants are Chris Epps, the commissioner of the Mississippi
Department of Corrections, deputy commissioner Emmitt Sparkman and other agency officials. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Greenville.
"We're hoping that the lawsuit is going to make a big difference in
conditions in Unit 32, which we really do think are so grossly inhumane as to amount to torture," said Margaret Winter, associate director of the National Prison Project of the ACLU.
Ken Fields, a spokesman for CMS, said the company, which holds contracts in 24 states, is still reviewing the complaint.
"A review of the facts will show that the quality of care provided to
inmate patients in Mississippi prisons is excellent. The care inmates
receive meets the standards of care in society," Fields said Wednesday.
Leonard Vincent, an attorney with MDOC, said the agency was expecting
the lawsuit and would fight it. "We feel like they're absolutely
incorrect in what they say," Vincent said.
Since 2003, CMS has provided medical, dental and mental health care to prisoners at the Mississippi Delta prison. The lawsuit, which gives only ne side of the legal argument, alleges CMS employees routinely ignore inmates' health complaints.
"Many prisoners who have been requesting medical attention for weeks
wind up being taken away from Unit 32 by ambulance, after their
condition has become so urgent and life-threatening that it can no
longer be ignored by prison staff," the lawsuit states.
Winter said Mississippi should have monitored the work of CMS doctors.
"They're responsible for knowing what CMS is doing and taking the
contract away if they don't do right," Winter said.
The lawsuit gives several examples of alleged neglect. The ACLU said a misdiagnosis of Jeffery Presley, 24, resulted in him losing a section of his leg. Presley had contracted a serious "staph" infection while in Unit 32, but a CMS doctor diagnosed it as a spider bite.
Other conditions in Unit 32 include isolation, pervasive filth,
malfunctioning plumbing, exposure to human excrement, extreme heat and uncontrolled infestations of mosquitoes, spiders and other insects, the ACLU said in the complaint.
The prison unit is housed adjacent to Parchman's death row.
Last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court
ruling that conditions on death row were unconstitutional. Winter said that ruling affected 60 inmates, and the same conditions apply to the 1,000 in the latest lawsuit .
"No one would sentence a prisoner to conditions like that, no matter
what their crime," Winter said.
Posted by lois at June 23, 2005 10:12 PM