Advocates: Health care in Michigan prisons in disarray

11/16/2006, 6:48 p.m. ET By DAVID EGGERT The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The mother of a 21-year-old mentally ill inmate who died in a Michigan prison lashed out Thursday against the state government and said her son's death was not an isolated incident.

"It's time Michigan realizes that torture and cruel and unusual treatment of the mentally and physically ill needs to be stopped," said Theresa Vaughn, who spoke at a news conference designed to bring attention to problems in the state's prison health care system.

Vaughn was joined by prisoner advocates and a former inmate who is dying of colon cancer that he says was missed by a prison doctor. The advocates accused state lawmakers of not overseeing Correctional Medical Services Inc., which provides Michigan prisons' doctors but not mental health services.

Vaughn's son, Timothy Joe Souders, of Adrian, spent most of his last four days naked inside an isolation cell at the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson, his arms and legs bound in shackles and sometimes lying in his own urine. He died Aug. 6, two hours after jail staff removed his restraints.

U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen on Monday ordered the state to stop using the kind of restraints used on Souders and also reopened federal monitoring of Michigan's mental health care of inmates. An autopsy on Souders hasn't been completed.

Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan defended against allegations that the department is indifferent to prisoners' health.

"Our first priority is to protect the health and well-being of both prisoners and corrections officers," Marlan said Thursday, adding that the state can't talk about the health treatment of individual prisoners due to privacy restrictions.

"Are there mistakes made in the health care system within prisons? Certainly," he said. "Are there mistakes made within the health care system for the general public? Certainly."

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has called for an independent review of health care in prisons — something Marlan said should be "very telling" about the quality of the health care system.

Patricia Streeter, an attorney for prisoners in a long-running class-action lawsuit involving state prisons in Jackson, said there are many more cases where inmates have received inadequate health care. She said prisons "are not being called to account."

Advocates said lawmakers should make unannounced visits to segregation units in prisons, particularly those in the Upper Peninsula; reopen the corrections ombudsman's Office, which closed in 2003, to hear prisoners' complaints; establish a medical grievance process; and review spending by CMS.

The St. Louis, Mo.-based company issued a statement Thursday saying that despite shortages in health workers around the country, it and the state have significantly increased staffing levels in Michigan from levels in the 1990s. CMS also said it has increased the amount and level of care inside prisons while reducing security risks and the expense of taking inmates off-site.

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David Eggert can be reached at deggert(at)ap.org

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On the Net:

American Friends Service Committee: http://www.prisoneradvocacy.org

Prison Legal Services of Michigan Inc.: http://www.plsminc.org

Michigan Department of Corrections: http://www.michigan.gov/corrections

Correctional Medical Services Inc.: http://www.cmsstl.com