South Carolina's disastrous 15-year experiment with prison health care privatization should be a warning to those hardheaded state leaders who plan to do it again, according to a report sponsored by Grassroots Leadership and South Carolina Fair Share. Authored by Dr. Marguerite Rosenthal, sociology professor at Salem State University in Massachusetts, Prescription For Disaster: Commercializing Prison Health Care In South Carolina details the state's failed effort at privatization from 1986 to 2000 and documents the myriad problems encountered by other states that have experimented with commercializing prison health care services. Released on April 12, 2004, the sharply critical 12-page report followed an announcement by the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) that health care services in all of the state's prisons would soon be privatized. Three companies have already submitted bids: Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis, Wexford Health Services of Pittsburgh, and Prison Health Services of Brentwood, Tennessee.


The South Carolina Experience


From 1986 to 2000, the SCDC contracted a portion of its prisoner health services to the notoriously corrupt Correctional Medical Services (CMS). Initially covering just 3 prisons, CMS was providing medical services to ten prisons when the company terminated its state contract in January 2000. Two months ...

In April, 2002, Robert Cornwall, 30, a quadriplegic, settled a lawsuit against the Washoe county jail in Nevada for $40,000. The lawsuit stemmed from Cornwall being arrested on domestic violence charges against his wife on July 25, 2000. Cornwall spent the night in the Washoe county jail. Cornwall has limited ...

A federal court in Maryland held that a federal pretrial detainee was entitled to be transferred to a hospital or infirmary for the duration of his pretrial detention due to inadequate medical care while in custody of U.S. Marshals.


Trevor Wallen, a federal pretrial detainee, had numerous medical problems including high blood pressure, depression, and the after affects of the removal of a brain tumor. He regularly required a variety of prescription medications.


During his arraignment, Wallen complained of inadequate medical care while in the Marshal's custody. The court ordered the production of Wallen's medication records, which indicated that all medications had been dispensed to Wallen at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center (MCAC). However, the Marshals confirmed that Wallen was actually housed at the University of Maryland Hospital during the time in question, "and, therefore, contrary to the MCAC medical record, he could not have received his medication at MCAC on those dates."


"With developing doubts about the veracity of the medical record keepers at MCAC (and with a derivative of concern about the quality of care being delivered by medical providers who apparently did not keep accurate medication records), the Court temporarily . . . ordered that [Wallen] be ...

A federal district court in Michigan held that issues of fact as to whether prison officials adopted a policy discouraging necessary health care precluded summary judgment.


Roscoe Young was incarcerated in a prison of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) from March 1999 until his death on November 10, 1999. He suffered from diabetes and other physical ailments. As early as June 1999, Young developed a staph infection. He was routinely deprived of the proper administration and dosage of his insulin required to control his diabetes. He was eventually transferred to a hospital where he suffered acute renal failure and sepsis.


On October 14, 1999, an urgent nephrology consult was requested. But the director of Correctional Medical Services (CMS) denied the request on October 18, 1999. The request was later approved and scheduled for November 12, 1999. On October 21, 1999, Young was transferred to another hospital where he underwent various surgical procedures and he died from a debilitating stroke on November 10, 1999.


Reverend Willie Young, Roscoe's personal representative, filed suit against the various prison officials including Bill Martin, the director of MDOC. He claimed that defendants' failure to authorize the necessary, life-saving treatment caused Roscoe's premature death.


Martin ...

A federal district court in Delaware has held, in denying a motion to dismiss, that a sexual assault during an obstetric medical exam violates the Eighth Amendment. Baylor Women's Correctional Facility prisoner Shalnessa Goode sued, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Correctional Medical Services (CMS) nurses Jacqueline A. Nixon and Barbara LeWallen, and several state department of corrections employees.


Goode, who was pregnant, began to have contractions and was called to the prison medical facility for an exam. She was told to undress by Nixon and LeWallen, and was examined without gloves. Goode was asked if she was HIV positive, was then given hugs and kissed on her face and lips. One of the nurses gave Goode her home phone number. Nixon then proceeded to get the speculum so LeWallen could do an internal exam, which caused light bleeding afterwards. Apparently, LeWallen had no license to do an internal exam. Goode stated the incident caused her high blood pressure to rise and that, in turn, caused her to go into labor four weeks early.


The Court held Goode failed to show any personal involvement by CMS and the state defendants, and granted their dismissal motion. However, the Court held that the ...

by Matthew T. Clarke


Six guards and a warden have been convicted in federal court of charges stemming from brutal beatings and subsequent cover up attempts at the 1,200 man Lea County Correctional Facility in Hoots, New Mexico, which holds state prisoners and is privately-run by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation.


The December 1998 incident started when prisoner Eric Duran refused to take his assigned seat in the dining hall and had an argument with guards Kendall Lipscomb and Lt. William Fuller. Duran was taken to "P-15 hallway" where Lipscomb and Fuller repeatedly kicked him in the head while he lay handcuffed and compliant on the floor with guards Lt. Matias Serrata, Jr. and Gary Butler close at hand. During the assault, Fuller looked up and saw other guards witnessing the beating through nearby windows. His reaction was to angrily motion the guards away from the windows. Duran lost consciousness and had to be rushed to a hospital. He still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder four years later.


In an attempt to cover up the beating, Butler created injuries by punching himself in the face and filed false assault charges against Duran at a police station. The guards then concocted the story ...

A federal court in Massachusetts held that issues of material fact concerning the extent of a prisoner's injuries precluded summary judgment. The court also held that the corrections commissioner was not entitled to qualified immunity related to the denial of a wheelchair and disabled accessible facilities to a handicapped prisoner.


In 1998 Ezequiel Navedo, a prisoner who used a wheelchair entered the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MDOC). He retained the use of his wheelchair throughout his confinement until his transfer in July 1999, to MCI Norfolk where his wheelchair was confiscated from him at the front gate because, he was told, the facility was not wheelchair accessible.


From July 1999 through April 2000, Navedo was deprived of the use of his wheelchair and his "condition . . . became progressively worse, resulting in diminished motor functioning of his lower extremities; his bladder function also appeared to be deteriorating." His repeated requests for a wheelchair were turned down, and he did not receive physical therapy at any time during his confinement at Norfolk.


On January 27, 2000, the Norfolk Classification Board voted to recommend Navedo's transfer to MCI Shirley because his medical issues could be better dealt with there. A deputy ...

An Oklahoma appellate court held that the Fair Labor Standards Act, (FLSA) does not apply to prisoners in private prisons.


Michael Washington, a prisoner of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, (ODOC), was transferred to the Great Plains Correctional Facility, (GPCF), a private prison operated by Cornell Corrections, Inc., (CCI). While there, Washington worked in a warehouse and the law library, earning approximately $32.


Washington brought an action against CCI in state court, to recover $3,468 in wages allegedly due and unpaid. He claimed he was entitled to an hourly rate of $5.15 under the FLSA, for work he performed as an "employee" at GPCF.


The trial court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment and Washington appealed. Citing the reasoning of the Tenth Circuit in Franks v. Oklahoma State Industries, 7 F.3d 971 (10th Cir. 1993), the court of appeals found that Washington's relationship with Great Plains CF did not arise out of an employer-employee relationship but by virtue of his status as a prisoner.


The appeals court affirmed, concluding that Washington's confinement in a private prison did not alter his status as a prisoner, he was not an employee and he was not entitled to FLSA protections under the "economic ...

Deficient medical care at the unit level has Texas prisons incubating a new, more virulent strain of HIV. Dr. William Obrien is one of the most noted doctors on staff with the University of Texas Medical Branch. (UTMB) Over a year ago he discovered that "patients in the Texas prison system infected with (HIV) frequently have a drug-resistant form of the virus." He links this occurrence with the "inconsistent administration of medication" at the unit level. Such inconsistent treatment produces "diminished responses to drug therapy." Obrien has determined that the source of the problem is what Texas prisoners call "the pill window."

On Texas prison units, drugs are administered in basically two ways. The preferred and most effective method is a cardboard package of pop-out pills called KOP, an abbreviation for "keep on person." The obvious advantage to KOP packs is the consistency with which medication can be taken, a consistency that is vital for the effective treatment of AIDS.

However, as with most bureaucracies, the preferred method is not necessarily the most common. A 1998 audit showed that since UTMB took over health care at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) in 1993, KOP medication was reduced from ...

After receiving an anonymous tip about billing irregularities, the Ohio State Auditor conducted a special audit of the two state prisons: the Noble Correctional Institution (NCI) at Caldwell and the Belmont Correctional Institution (BCI) in St. Clairsville.

Released in November, 2001, the auditor's report showed that NCI's private food service contractors had knowingly over-billed the state $2.08 million for meals not served while NCI, BCI and other Ohio state prisons had paid over $2.8 million for college classes that prisoners did not, or were not eligible to, attend.

Dining for Dollars

In 1998, NCI executed a two year contract with Aramark , a private, for profit food service company based in Oakbrook, Illinois. Beginning November 1, 1998, Aramark was contracted to purchase, cook and serve all daily meals to the 2,200 prisoners at NCI. The contract called for Aramark to be paid $1.24 for each breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and emergency meal served. The number of meals was to be determined by dining hall entry turnstile counts or the totals from scanners that read the prisoners' meal cards.

During the first six months of the contract, the actual counts showed an average of only 63% of NCI's prisoners attending any ...