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Alabama
Department of Corrections
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against the state
Department of Corrections and its former medical provider, claiming
HIV-positive inmates at Limestone Correctional Facility were not given
adequate health care. The settlement, reached after several months of
negotiations mediated by Magistrate Judge John Ott,
was filed in the federal district court in Birmingham on Friday. The terms
of the settlement, set to be signed at a hearing Wednesday, were not
disclosed. David Lipman, attorney for the
four HIV-positive inmates named as plaintiffs in the suit, has argued that
prison medical provider NaphCare Inc. did not
adequately treat the inmates and ultimately hastened some inmate deaths in
2002. The Department of Corrections has since changed medical
providers. (Gainesville Sun, May 25, 2004)
September 13, 2003
State prison officials, already contemplating the early release of 20 per
cent of the inmate population to shave costs, now face a new problem: The
price for providing adequate health care to the remaining prisoners may
rise by tens of millions of dollars next year. The increased costs
became apparent as the state received bids on a new health care contract, a contract that prison officials say is better
designed to comply with court orders and recent lawsuits. The state,
along with the current health care provider -- Birmingham-based NaphCare Inc. -- has been named in lawsuits for
allegedly neglecting to provide adequate care for Alabama inmates during
the last three years. An Atlanta-based human rights group recently
sued the state, alleging that the deaths of 38 HIV-infected inmates during
a four-year period at Limestone Correctional Facility could have been
prevented with proper care. Gov. Bob Riley has proposed adding about
$16 million to the Department of Corrections' $234 million annual
budget. "When you underfund something for decades, and this
agency sees a population explosion of more than 1,000 inmates per year, you
can't put a $16 million Band-Aid on it and think it's going to solve all of
our problems," said Brian Corbett, spokesman for the Department of
Corrections. Prison officials say some of that money could help pay
for the new health care contract. But much of the increase is expected to
be eaten by the additional costs of housing prisoners out-of-state, a move
made this year to comply with a court order to relieve severe overcrowding
in state prisons. State prison officials say they have no choice but
to revise the requirements in the health care contract. Corbett said
Friday that even if the Department can pay nearly double what it did during
the last three-year term, that amount won't be nearly enough to provide all
the health care services the department would like. Bids for the next
three-year contract were submitted last week, the
lowest nearly double that of the previous three-year term. The contract is
scheduled to be awarded Oct. 6, Corbett said, after the Legislature
approves the new state budget. Seven different companies, including NaphCare, offered bids ranging from $150 million to
more than $200 million for medical anor mental
health services for the three-year period. The previous three-year
contract with NaphCare cost the state nearly $90
million. NaphCare's current bid is among the
lowest, at nearly $155 million -- though NaphCare
leaders said they could negotiate a less demanding contract for less
money. While NaphCare and the state do not
openly criticize or blame the other for any negligence, each has a
different perspective on how a new contract and an increase in funds would
affect inmate care. Corbett said the revised contract would give the
state more control over care -- something lacking during the previous three
years. "The problem is not so much with NaphCare
but with the contract itself," Corbett said. "The contract was
not in the best interest of the state, because it was not specific enough.
Staffing levels, administrative policy, standards of care, pool overages
... were not specific enough to give the department as much control as we
desired." In the old contract, Corbett said, NaphCare
"determined all administrative policies regarding delivery of the
health care. Therefore, they did not have to respond to requests as far as
developing treatment protocols and procedures." NaphCare spokesman David Davis said that an increase in
spending on inmate care was not the answer to improving inmate
health. "It's not that more money means better health,"
Davis said. "It has to do with facilities, operations, health care, everything coming together. "Any
health care provider is limited by the facilities, the environment and the
stipulations of the contract," Davis said. He would not elaborate on
what specifically could be improved at Alabama prisons. NaphCare maintains that it did not fail to do its duty
as laid out in the contract during its three-year term. (Al.com)
August 14, 2003
The
quality and quantity of medical care for prison inmates is among state services
hanging in the balance in the Sept. 9 referendum on Gov. Bob Riley's tax
proposals. Prison Commissioner Donal
Campbell has notified more than 300 medical services vendors that they have
until Sept. 10 - the day after the vote - to file written proposals for
providing medical services for inmates during the next three years.
If the tax plan fails, "We're all going to have to go back and revisit
our budgets and see where we cut and where we don't cut," said Deputy
Commissioner Terrence Jones. Jones, whose duties include overseeing
inmate medical care, said the detailed 73-page request for proposals being
sent to medical service vendors across the nation proposes more services
and controls in some areas than the present contract with Birmingham-based NaphCare Inc. Unlike the present contract, the proposed
new contract would allow the state to withhold money due to be paid to the
company if required services are not provided, or to deduct the costs of
bringing services up to standards, Jones said. The proposed contract
also would require more dental services for inmates and more inmate health
education and training, and it would provide for termination of the
contract for failure to secure or maintain personnel described in the
contract, Jones said. Campbell notified NaphCare
on May 2 that its $29.5 million-per-year contract with the state would be
canceled in 90 days, or about the first of August, but he has extended the
contract on a month-by-month basis until a new contract is signed.
Campbell told members of the state Legislature's prison oversight committee
several weeks ago that he can't sign a new medical services contract until
he gets a budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, and that won't happen
until after the referendum. Jones wouldn't say Tuesday how many of
the more than 300 vendors invited to submit proposals have done so or have
expressed interest in doing so. NaphCare,
whose services have been criticized by Chicago consultants Jacqueline Moore
and Associates and which has been named as a defendant in inmate lawsuits,
is among those vying for the new contract. "Our hope is to
continue to provide Alabama inmates health care as we do across the
country," said NaphCar spokesman David
Davis. "NaphCare is committed in providing
quality and affordable health care to the Alabama inmate population in
accordance with the stipulations in the contract with the Alabama
Department of Corrections." NaphCare
filed suit against Moore and Associates last month, contending that their
audit reports contained "numerous inaccurate and unsubstantiated
statements and conclusions" that have damaged the company's
reputation. (Al.com)
March 15, 2003
The
Birmingham company that holds the $30-million-a-year contract for providing
medical treatment in Alabama prisons faces tough questions about cost
overruns and the quality of its care. The pressure on NaphCare Inc. comes from Donal
Campbell, Gov. Bob Riley's appointee as commissioner of the Department of
Corrections. Campbell has had to ask the Legislature for $6.9 million
to cover extra prison health care costs, even as
his legal staff scrambles to defend lawsuits alleging that medical
treatment of Alabama inmates is so bad as to amount to cruel and unusual
punishment, forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. Campbell recently met
with NaphCare officials, wanting explanations for
both the overruns and an outside monitor's reports that tend to
substantiate inmates' complaints about lax care. In 2000, prison
health care in Alabama was provided by Correctional Medical Services of St.
Louis, for roughly $26 million a year. But CMS had been working on a series
of contract extensions, and because of rising costs and a growing inmate
population wanted a new contract for more money. The Department of
Corrections invited CMS and other companies to bid on the work, and offers
ranged from $38 million to $46 million. At that point, finance
officials in the administration of Gov. Don Siegelman
bypassed the DOC legal staff and hired the Mobile law firm Miller,
Hamilton, Snider & Odom. But critics immediately questioned
whether any company could make a profit and provide adequate medical care
to 27,000 inmates for such a sum. Indeed, while the $30 million contract
may seem large, it solidified Alabama's position as the state that spends
the least per inmate on health care. Florida -- whose prisons, unlike
Alabama's, are accredited by a national correctional health care board --
spends three times as much per inmate. "The average state spends
about $2,500 to $3,000 per inmate, and Alabama's spending a little over $1,000," said Ron Shanksy
of Chicago, co-founder of the Society of Correctional Physicians.
"You're off the charts." Even before the state contract was
signed in early 2001, Jefferson County officials were complaining publicly
about NaphCare's performance in county jails in
Birmingham and Bessemer. Last year, Jefferson, Morgan and Madison counties
all parted ways with NaphCare, finding new jail
health care providers amid complaints by inmates, family members and jail officials.
Last year also saw a rush of litigation against NaphCare
and the state Department of Corrections, alleging inadequate medical care
for Alabama prisoners. The Southern Center for Human Rights, an Atlanta
based nonprofit legal group, sued on behalf of inmates at Tutwiler Prison
for Women. A wrongful death suit was recently filed against NaphCare and DOC in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
The charge there is negligence in the sudden death of a 29-year-old
Tutwiler inmate, Pamela Brown, in 2001. In all these suits, NaphCare and DOC are co-defendants. One of the lawyers
representing NaphCare is Giles Perkins. That has
raised eyebrows in the legal community because Perkins, a former state
Democratic Party official, is employed by the firm Miller, Hamilton, Snider
& Odom and helped run the state prison health care contract
negotiations won by NaphCare. But reports
by Jacqueline Moore & Associates, a Chicago consulting firm hired by
the DOC to monitor NaphCare's performance, tend
to back up some complaints voiced by Alabama inmates. Perhaps most
alarming was her assertion that the death rate among HIV inmates at
Limestone was twice that of the national rate for such inmates. At
several institutions, she found high turnover and staff vacancies among medical
personnel. In her August 2000 review of Staton
Correctional Facility, which provides medical care for nearly 4,000 inmates
at four central Alabama prisons, she found that the sole physician had
recently quit and six nursing slots were unfilled. In an interview,
Harrison described Moore's reports as "inaccurate," and went on
to suggest she tried to steer Jefferson County's jail medical care contract
from NaphCare to Prison Health Services, a
Brentwood, Tenn.-based company she co-founded and for which her ex-husband
still works. She dismissed Harrison's charge that she was trying to
help PHS. "I left that company in 1990," Moore said. "My
ex-husband and I don't speak." A former NaphCare
dentist, Elcid Burkett, said medicine was hard to
come by for health care professionals working in Alabama prisons. "I
was buying my own peroxide," he said. NaphCare
is no worse or better than its predecessor CMS, according to Sam Eichold, a Mobile physician who serves on a prison
medical oversight committee. He thinks the companies have done about as
well as anyone can expect, given what Alabama pays per inmate.
"They cut corners," said Eichold, whose
committee has expressed its own concerns to DOC. "That's how they make
their profit." (Mobile Register)
February 7, 2003
MONTGOMERY Medical consultants hired to review health-care services in Alabama
prisons have reported what a lawyer for inmates calls
"serious deficiencies."
The audit reports released Thursday were ordered last year by the Siegelman administration to monitor health care
services provided to prison inmates by NaphCare,
a Birmingham-based health management contractor. Former Prison Commissioner Mike Haley and
former Gov. Don Siegelman refused repeated
requests last year to release the reports, conducted at eight Alabama
prisons between May and August.
"This is totally consistent with what the prisoners have been
telling us, that they have to wait for weeks for dental services, for
things such as abscesses which are so painful that some of the women are
pulling their own teeth," said Tamara Serwer
of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which is representing inmates in a
pending federal lawsuit. "These are serious deficiencies in health
care services for Alabama prison
inmates." (Al.com)
Hampton Roads Regional Jail
Virginia
Apr 10,
2016 richmond.com
Inspector
general report says multilevel failures led to Va. man's death in jail
The doctors
and nurses responsible for providing health care to inmates at the Hampton
Roads Regional Jail failed to properly assess Jamycheal
Mitchell before he died of “wasting syndrome” in his feces-smeared cell
last August. That’s one of the conclusions
reached by the Office of the State Inspector General in a report released
Tuesday that attempts to explain how a 24-year-old mentally ill man accused
of stealing $5 worth of snacks from a Portsmouth convenience store died
behind bars. Mitchell was supposed to be treated
for his mental illness at Eastern State Hospital near Williamsburg, but
because of a series of clerical errors, he was kept in a cell at Hampton
Roads Regional Jail for 101 days.
While
there, he lost 46 pounds and refused every opportunity he had to shower and
recreate with other inmates, jail officials said. His leg also became severely swollen with fluid, but
the jail reports for June 15 provided to the inspector general’s office
indicated that no action was taken by health care professionals. He was
taken to a clinic 15 days later and appeared “disheveled, psychotic and
uncooperative.” The report
notes that the records provided by NaphCare, the
company that contracted with the jail to provide medical and mental health
care services, were “incomplete and inconsistent.” Also, patients were
expected to “put in sick call requests” on their own. “As the individual was thought to lack capacity to
assist an attorney in his own defense, expectations that the individual
would have the ability to seek out medical treatment independently while
acutely symptomatic seems unreasonable and likely to fail,” according to
the inspector general’s report.
Even though
NaphCare has been replaced by a new contractor,
“a change in provider offers limited promise of improvement in care or
documentation in the absence of a change in oversight practices.” “Review of NaphCare
records raised significant concerns regarding the quality of assessment,
care, follow-up and documentation,” the report says. “It is those
professionals trained and licensed to provide clinical care who have a duty to provide that care, and the agency
that contracts with the provider is responsible for ensuring that care is
provided.” Still, the review didn’t fully
delve into the medical care Mitchell should have received at the jail. The
report said select information “was reviewed to identify additional areas
for future review.” NaphCare has not
returned several calls for comment in recent weeks. Lt. Col. Eugene Taylor III, an assistant
superintendent of the jail, said last week that no policies or procedures
had changed since Mitchell’s death because an internal investigation found
no wrongdoing on the part of jail employees. Taylor said the decision not to renew the contract
with NaphCare when it expired in December did not
have to do with Mitchell’s death.
The inspector
general report detailed a series of shortcomings that went beyond the
failings of medical staff. The report found fault with mental health
providers on the state and local levels as well. The recent Department of Behavioral Health and
Developmental Services audit of how the state handled Mitchell’s death
doesn’t effectively address systemic problems, and a risk of recurrence
remains, the inspector general’s report says. Mark Krudys, an attorney
representing Mitchell’s family, said the report “details multiple and
extreme failures by those charged with caring for Jamycheal.
It also notes broader systemic failures across multiple agencies that
affected Jamycheal and others suffering from
mental illness.” G. Douglas Bevelacqua, a former inspector general who investigated
mental health services, said both reports leave Virginians with unanswered
questions. “Regrettably, after reading the
OSIG Critical Incident Report and the DBHDS Investigative Report, I cannot
answer the basic question of how did corrections staff and mental health
workers allow Mitchell to waste away in plain sight for 3½ months,” Bevelacqua said. Pressure had been building for the
release of the report in the past few weeks. In a news release issued
Tuesday, State Inspector General June W. Jennings defended the length of
time it took to complete the report. “We took the time necessary to ensure
that this report addressed the issues we have the authority to
investigate,” Jennings said in the statement. “It is our belief that the
individual in question, and all those who suffer with mental illness and
encounter the justice system, are deserving of the in-depth review
conducted by our office.” Several weeks ago, Bevelacqua
and Pete Earley, a former Washington Post
reporter and prominent mental health author, questioned why the report
still hadn’t been released seven months after Mitchell’s death. Last week,
four advocacy organizations, including the National Alliance on Mental
Illness of Virginia and the Portsmouth NAACP, sent a letter to Gov. Terry
McAuliffe urging him to force the inspector general’s office to immediately
release the results of its investigation. McAuliffe said he would not
interfere with the investigation and that he would let it run its course.
The review involved the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental
Services, Eastern State Hospital, Hampton Roads Regional Jail, the
Portsmouth Department of Behavioral Healthcare Services, Portsmouth General
District Court, NaphCare Inc. and Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center. “We are glad that the OSIG has
finally, almost eight months after the tragic and unnecessary death of Jamycheal Mitchell, released their investigation
report,” said Mira Signer, executive director of the National Alliance on
Mental Illness of Virginia. “We look forward to reviewing it, and we truly
hope that it provides useful information in the ongoing quest for
accountability and system transformation in Virginia.”
Jefferson
County Downtown Jail, Beaumont, Texas
October
19, 2007 KFDM
A federal jury has ruled in favor of Jefferson County and two other
defendants in a lawsuit filed by a former inmate. 47 year old Ronnie Tejeda filed the lawsuit against the county, NaphCare, Inc., the health-care provider at the county
jail, and GEO Group, which manages the private jail downtown. Tejeda claimed a lack of medical care at the county
jail, and an attack against him at the private jail, caused medical
problems and injuries that led to the amputation of his legs. The
plaintiffs argued Tejeda's health problems led to
the amputations. County Attorney Tom Rugg tells
KFDM News he's gratified by the jury's decision. "It was the single
most significant lawsuit I've tried in 20 years in terms of the potential
impact on the county," said Rugg. "If
we'd lost, it would have cost the county multiple millions of
dollars." Rugg said it was a tragic set of
circumstances that cost Tejeda his legs, but Rugg says the plaintiffs believed all along Tejeda had been treated appropriately.
October 17, 2007 The Enterprise
Sheriff Mitch Woods, testifying Tuesday in a civil trial against
Jefferson County and its jail health-care provider, declined to give an
opinion about renewing the provider's contract. Defense testimony began
Tuesday and could conclude today in Ronnie Tejada's
civil lawsuit against the county, health care provider NaphCare
Inc. and the private corrections company GEO Group. Tejada
claims his leg amputations were required because officials ignored his
diabetes for the 10 months he was awaiting trial on aggravated
assault-family violence charges at the Jefferson County jail on U.S. 69.
The 47-year-old man was rushed to Beaumont's Christus
St Elizabeth Hospital in critical condition Oct. 5, 2005. Defense attorneys
have argued no evidence exists the defendants knew of Tejada's
deteriorating medical condition and chose to ignore it. "Every time
Mr. Tejada put in a request he was seen, we
responded to every complaint that he had," NaphCare's
health services administrator for the jail, Dyni
Brookshire, testified Tuesday. Documents shown to jurors indicate Tejada filed at least eight requests for medical
treatment. Medical experts testifying for the plaintiffs have said jail
medical officials missed or ignored signs Tejada
was suffering from uncontrolled diabetes. When Tejada
was admitted to the jail he told officials he had a history of diabetes but
was not taking medication for the condition. An economist who testified
Tuesday by deposition said lost earning capacity resulting from Tejada's amputations, combined with lifetime medical
and housing costs, amounted to between about $4 million and $5.1 million
dollars. The man's medical bills since he left the jail amount to
$1,182,558.28. Tejada's attorneys have tried to
prove the county should have known of NaphCare's
alleged shortcomings, introducing evidence of two inmates who died of
diabetic complications in the years before Tejada's
hospitalization. "When you learned of this, did you suggest against
renewing NaphCare's contract?" Tejada's attorney Jan Fox asked the sheriff, referring
to the two deaths. "No ma'am," Woods said. Woods, the only
witness called by Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Tom Rugg, said he did not learn of Tejada's
condition until he was reached by the inmate's ex-wife after guards
rebuffed her attempts to visit Tejada in the
hospital. She eventually was granted limited visitation. Under questioning
from Fox, Woods said the county did not review the circumstances leading to
Tejada's hospitalization or revise procedures to
prevent such an event from recurring. NaphCare,
the firm the county has paid about $12 million for providing jail health
care since 2002, is seeking to renew its contract with the county.
Jefferson County commissioners on Oct. 1 granted a one-month extension to
review proposals from NaphCare and other
providers. Fox appeared incredulous when Woods said he had not given
commissioners his opinion on renewing the contract. "I will have some
recommendations at a later time," Woods said. "Are you waiting to
see what these people decide?" Fox asked Woods, gesturing to the jury.
"No ma'am," the sheriff said.
Limestone Correctional Facility, Alabama
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."
May 25, 2004
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit against the state Department of
Corrections and its former medical provider, claiming HIV-positive inmates
at Limestone Correctional Facility were not given adequate health
care. The settlement, reached after several months of negotiations
mediated by Magistrate Judge John Ott, was filed
in the federal district court in Birmingham on Friday. The terms of the
settlement, set to be signed at a hearing Wednesday, were not
disclosed. David Lipman, attorney for the
four HIV-positive inmates named as plaintiffs in the suit, has argued
that prison medical provider NaphCare Inc. did
not adequately treat the inmates and ultimately hastened some inmate deaths
in 2002. The Department of Corrections has since changed medical
providers. (Gainesville Sun)
March 19, 2004
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. "More strongly than
ever, I feel the Limestone Correctional Facility is in dire need of outside
intervention and oversight," Tabet wrote
after his Feb. 23 visit to the prison, where all of Alabama's male
HIV-positive inmates, about 250 men, are housed. "Patients continue to
die because of the failure of the medical system," he wrote. The
Department of Corrections strongly disagrees with the report's conclusions,
a spokesman said. "It is important to note that this report is
written by a trial witness, hired by plaintiff lawyers," said DOC
spokesman Brian Corbett. Tabet has been
reviewing HIV Unit medical care for the Southern Center for Human Rights,
an Atlanta-based law firm representing HIV-infected prisoners in a
class-action lawsuit against the state. 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. Prisoner Nathan
Sullivan began suffering with low oxygen levels a week before he died.
"I am so sick, I can't even walk," he told a nurse who made notes
in his files. "Inmate crying, praying to God to deliver him from his
illness. Achy head to toe, nausea, headache, diarrhea after taking
meds," she wrote. Sullivan was suffocating, and died at a
Huntsville hospital. Ambulance personnel initially refused to take him from
the prison because of his oxygen level, according to the specialist's
report. One of Tabet's gravest concerns is
lack of critical medication and middle-of-the-night pill call. "The
pill line is a disaster," he wrote. Many medications were not on hand,
and patients were sent away without them, Tabet
wrote. Not all bad news: There have been some
improvements since Tabet's first report.
Before, the HIV inmates lived in a crowded, converted warehouse. Currently,
they live in cells in another building. But some of the windows are broken
and covered with plastic or blankets. The doctor called the situation
"unbearable for these immune-compromised patients." The
prison added a part-time physician to its previous staffing of one physician,
but staffing remains below the National Commission on Correctional Health
Care guideline of 110-physician hours per week for a prison with 2,200
inmates. Since Tabet's first visit, DOC has
switched medical contractors and spends more money on prisoners' care systemwide. The department hired Tennessee-based
Prison Health Services for medical care and Mental Health Management
Services for mental health care in November. The 3-year contracts are worth
$172 million. Previously, Birmingham-based Naphcare
held the contract which costs the state $135 million over three
years. Prison Health Services officials issued a written response to
the report, but declined to answer questions. Company Vice President
Larry Pomeroy described the medical care as appropriate and high
quality. "All clinical and operation policies implemented by PHS
within the ADOC system, including the Limestone facility, are in compliance
with national standards of health care delivery as established by the
National Commission of Correctional Health Care," Pomeroy wrote.
Corbett at DOC said, "... we are in the process of addressing the
complaints and resolving the issues in compliance with national health care
standards as established by the National Commission of Correctional Health
Care." Alabama's prisoner health care costs remain the lowest in
the country. The state spends about $5.50 per prisoner per day. The
national average is $7.38. Despite the new contract, much of the
Limestone medical staff has not changed since before the lawsuit was filed,
said Gretchen Rohr, an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights.
"It's key they somehow show us that the new
contract has been properly implemented," Rohr said. "We have not
seen any evidence of this implementation." The trial in the
Limestone case has been scheduled to begin May 17 before U.S. District
Judge Karon Bowdre.
(Al.com)
August 29, 2003
A health care contractor blasted for allegedly inadequate care of
HIV-infected patients at Limestone Correctional Facility plans to bid for
another statewide contract with the Department of Corrections on Sept.
10. A 125-page report released Wednesday by Dr. Stephen Tabet, hired by plaintiffs in a lawsuit, said poor
medical care and inadequate facilities caused or accelerated many
HIV-related deaths at the Capshaw prison. A
spokesman for the contractor providing the Capshaw
prison's health care, Birmingham-based NaphCare
Inc., said his company is complying with all
department requirements, but NaphCare's $29.5
million contract with the state, covering all state prisons, dictates
staffing levels. The Limestone prison houses 2,260 prisoners, about
200 with HIV. Naphcare spokesman David
Davis said his company has handled the DOC's health care only since March
2001. He said there have been only 14 HIV-related deaths at Capshaw since . Tabet discussed 38 deaths in his report, but many
occurred before 2001. "Dr. Tabet's
engaged by, employed by, and I suspect wants to be employed again by, the
plaintiff," Davis said. "Obviously the plaintiff does not
understand the contract that NaphCare operates
under with the DOC, Davis said. DOC Commissioner Donal
Campbell notified NaphCare of his intent to
terminate its contract shortly after Gov. Bob Riley appointed him to the
post. Davis said NaphCare will submit a bid
higher than its current charges because of more stringent DOC
requirements. (Decatur Daily)
Westmoreland
County Prison, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania
March
3, 2006 Tribune-Review
A federal judge has ruled against Westmoreland County and a company previously
hired to run the local jail in a lawsuit filed by the family of a Sewickley
Township man who committed suicide while behind bars in 2003. The ruling
means the lawsuit can go forward. Westmoreland County, Cornell Companies
Inc. and NaphCare Inc. had asked U.S. District
Court Judge William L. Standish to dismiss the lawsuit. The lawsuit was
filed last year by Renee L. Wright, who contends the county and prison
officials acted recklessly by not preventing the April 18, 2003, suicide of
her brother, Robert R. Steadman. Steadman, 33, hanged himself in his cell
four days after he was incarcerated for failing to make a payment as
ordered by a family court judge. Prison officials kept him in a regular
cell even though he had been put on suicide watch during a previous jail
stint four months earlier. In the lawsuit, his family contends that county
and prison officials should have placed Steadman on suicide watch in a
special unit with enhanced surveillance during his incarceration in April
because he had been deemed a suicide risk only months before. The Steadman
suicide was one of several at the county jail in recent years. The lawsuit
cites three other inmate suicides that occurred between 2000 and 2003. A
fourth inmate took his own life in 2004. In the aftermath of the Steadman
case, the county cited financial reasons for replacing Cornell, took over
management of the prison, and revised its policy regarding how it deals
with potential suicide risks.
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