NEGLECT IN CUSTODY: Fix prison health care now, judge says

[RestoreGore]

What kind of MONSTERS do we have working in our prison system? What an outrage that this happens in our own prisons and no one even blinks an eye. Thank you to Detriot Free Press and to Judge Enslen for their work. Abu Ghraib isn't just a prison in Baghdad. We have them right here in America, and it is time to pay attention! NO ONE deserves to be treated as this young man who died was, and unfortunately in this country he is not the only one to meet this fate in an American Prison. Where is the moral conscience of America? We are allowing torture of our own people in our own prisons!
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http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/NEWS06/611140385/1001/NEWS

Published: November 14. 2006 3:00AM
Michigan
NEGLECT IN CUSTODY: Fix prison health care now, judge says
He rips some state workers for deaths

November 14, 2006

Email this Print this BY DAVID ASHENFELTER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Timothy Joe Souders

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The fatal case

November 2005: Timothy Joe Souders, 21, of Adrian begins prison term for assault.

July 31, 2006: Souders put in isolation for disobeying staff.

Aug. 2: Souders strapped to his concrete bed for flooding his sink and kept there for most of the next five days.

Aug. 6: Taken to his cell, he collapses. Later, he is pronounced dead at a hospital.

A federal judge on Monday ordered sweeping mental health care changes for Michigan's prisons in Jackson to prevent the mistreatment and death of inmates.U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen suggested a prayer be said for those who have already died in custody. "Any earthly help comes far too late for them," he said in a scathing opinion in which he chastised health-care providers in the prison for collecting their pay while ignoring the needs of those in their care.

"Here is the basic message: You are valuable providers of life-saving services and medicines. You are not coatracks who collect government paychecks while your work is taken to the sexton for burial," he wrote. Enslen banned the use of nonmedical punishment restraints at correctional facilities in Jackson following a series of Free Press articles that examined the worsening state of care in Michigan's prisons, including the death of a mentally ill 21-year-old who had been left strapped naked to a concrete bed for most of five days without medical or mental health care before he died.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it was the first time a judge anywhere in the nation had banned such restraints. Enslen also ordered state prison officials to develop a staffing plan to ensure there are enough psychiatrists and psychologists to care for prisoners with mental disabilities at the four Jackson prisons. From his Kalamazoo court, Enslen said psychiatrists and psychologists must begin to make daily rounds in isolation units to ensure that prisoners receive adequate care.

Enslen also ordered corrections officials to develop a plan to improve coordination between mental health and medical staff at the prisons and to provide better training for employees.Referring to Timothy Joe Souders, the 21-year-old who died in August in an isolated cell in Jackson as "T.S.," the judge wrote: "God bless T.S. and the others." Their lives "were short, but their legacies may be long."

More at the link.

[sweetheart]

1. End the drugs war and end prison overcrowding in 1 fell swoop

Then a tiny fraction of today's budget will treat all prisoners, and another healthy
amount to pay universal medical care for all persons, with still money left over.

The drugs war is so expensive, if you saw all the real costs added up across all
areas of society, from prisons, to law enforcement, to catastrauphic medical costs,
and social decay and economic decay, to simply end the war balances the budget and
sorts out these problems neatly.

[RestoreGore]

2. That and Privatization of Prison Healthcare...

Both killers.

[William Bloode]

3. In my state the care was very good.

We had a good nurse and or a P.A. on site. Urgent matters were taken care of by decent doctors. Access to many meds. The only meds not prescribed were opiates for obvious reasons.

Now that being said. During my tenure due to over crowding i was sent out of state to a privately owned prison in Texas. This place was horrid! Bad food, bad supervision, bad care. We actually had a riot because the let one of our boys get a serious infection. His hand was busted, and they did not give him any medical assistance other than some damned Ibuprofen. His hand looked awful! Our state rep happened to come by and check on us, we complained. He tried to make them send our boy to the doctor. Sadly they ignored him, and we went the hell off. We tore their new prison to shreds, our part anyway. It got results, our boy went to the doctor, we went to the hole.

The best thing to come out of this was after this incident our state decided that outsourcing of prisoners was a bad idea. They brought us back first, then slowly brought back all the inmates from other states such as Oklahoma, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and of course Texas.

Prison for profit is a terrible idea. As with anything for profit the ultimate goal is to make money. Money takes precedent even over human suffering. Thats a sad, sad situation. At least in the state you have some over sight, and regular visits from relatives, and friends who can help by making hay of bad situations. Not to mention potential political ramifications that politicians face due to abuse. When you're a thousand plus miles away you have no such protections.

[RestoreGore]

4. Glad you made it out in one piece n/t