Begin Cure of Prison Health Care

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Begin Cure of Prison Health Care

August 22, 2006

Lloyd Byron Martell

For more than two months, Free Press editorial writer and columnist Jeff Gerritt has been examining the worsening state of health care in Michigan's prisons, which costs taxpayers $190 million a year. Misdiagnoses, delayed treatment and a host of other troubles plague the system, in some cases turning prison stays into death sentences.

From a mentally ill 21-year-old who was left strapped to a table for most of four days before he died, to an inmate whose cancerous polyp was mistreated as a hemorrhoid and now, at 41, has less than a year to live, to a woman who had both lower legs amputated because doctors ignored her condition, Gerritt illuminated a health care system that has been far more punitive than the justice system itelf.

To read previous coverage, go to freep.com.

Michigan's prison health care system is dangerously dysfunctional, sometimes even deadly. An investigation by the Free Press Editorial Page shows that the state has met neither its constitutional duty to provide adequate medical care to prisoners nor its obligation to taxpayers, who spend $190 million a year on an unaccountable system.

Up to now, the Legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm have found it easy to ignore the problem. Not anymore.

Granholm on Monday ordered the Michigan Department of Corrections to have an independent review conducted of the entire prison health care system. That includes the state's $70-million contract with Correctional Medical Services Inc., a controversial Missouri-based company that provides primary care physicians and other services to Michigan's 50,000 inmates. It will encompass the additional $90 million a year the state spends to provide mental health care services in prison.

The review ought to be exhaustive and timely, run by an agency such as the U.S. Attorney's Office, a civil rights investigator or a person with expertise in health care in corrections. Ideally, it would answer to a commission that includes a representative from the Department of Corrections, at least one prisoner advocate and an inmate or former inmate.

Leaders from both parties need to make sure prison medical care does not become a partisan issue, either. Negligence and incompetence have occurred under Republican and Democratic administrations, going back to at least 1985. That's when Corrections came under a federal consent decree in a case called Hadix to improve medical care and other conditions at state prisons in Jackson. Health care has evidently gotten worse since 2000, when CMS took over the contract for primary care. One expert witness in the Hadix case described the current system as a "culture of failure," lacking leadership and unable to prevent unnecessary suffering and death.

A lot of taxpayer money goes into Michigan prisons -- $1.8 billion a year. If the system is found to be lacking in adequate care for its charges, the state will lose control to the federal courts. If basic humanitarian concerns don't inspire Michigan's elected officials to employ more oversight, the prospect of federal court action should.

Moreover, as any doctor knows, it costs less to keep people well than to treat them when they're seriously sick. Nearly all prisoners will eventually return to their communities, bringing their health care problems with them. Timely medical care also is less likely to result in costly lawsuits against the state.

Misdiagnoses, delayed or denied treatments, poor record keeping, withheld medications and inadequate accommodations for the mentally ill and people with disabilities have been well documented in hundreds of pages of court rulings. Even so, for the average citizen, sick inmates receiving such care remain nameless, faceless, voiceless.

In the last week, the Free Press has shown you three of them:

Lloyd Byron Martell, 41, sentenced to 1-4 years for fleeing a police officer, went home last week to die, after doctors failed to treat a cancerous polyp.

Timothy Joe Souders, 21, mentally ill and sentenced to 1-4 years for resisting arrest and assault, died in a segregated cell Aug. 6, after spending most of the previous four days naked and in four-point restraints.

Martinique Stoudemire, 27, serving 11-30 years for driving during several armed robberies committed by her brother, has lost both lower legs. Doctors reportedly ignored symptoms related to lupus and blood problems until amputation was necessary.

The severe suffering they endured was not handed down by a judge but executed by a prison health care system that was incompetent, indifferent and unaccountable.

Granholm and the state Legislature can no longer say they don't know. They need to make good on the promise of a truly independent review of Michigan's ailing prison health care system -- and then write a prescription to fix it.