Hundreds of prison inmates in Virginia file grievances each year over the health care they get or don’t get behind bars. Now, the state has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of 1,200 prisoners.
It’s been more than three years since Abigail Turner, an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center, filed a class action suit in federal district court, claiming inadequate care had caused prisoners’ health to deteriorate at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. She said some - like 47-year-old Darlene White - had died.
“She was a severe diabetic, and on December the 20th, 2011 her blood sugar levels were very, very high. A number of the women prisoners could see her, and kept asking for help, and they reported that later a nurse tried to insert an IV tube, and at that point Miss White was unresponsive. The nurse did not call for any emergency help.”
Another patient, Jeanna Wright, complained to the prison nurse about intense abdominal pain and rectal bleeding for a full year before having a thorough exam.
“She was finally referred to the University of Virginia. There she was diagnosed with stage four abdominal cancer, and she died in April of 2012.”
Turner claimed at least ten deaths could have been prevented at Fluvanna over a period of three years if medical care had been adequate, but because the Department of Corrections had hired a for-profit service to care for prisoners, they were being short-changed.
Now, the state says it will change the way it does business. Legal Aid’s Brenda Casteneda says the Department of Corrections will issue formal guidelines to address problems women at Fluvanna have faced.
“Not being able to get medications, not being able to go and see specialists, going to see specialists but then having orders be disregarded, not being able to get accommodations if they have disabilities, not being able to get sufficient pain control.”
And the state has agreed to be monitored by the former director of health care services for Pennsylvania’s prisons. Casteneda says the agreement could have implications for other prisons in Virginia that might adopt the guidelines issued for Fluvanna to avoid lawsuits by other inmates.
Meanwhile, for profit prison healthcare companies continue to court business from the state. One has contributed $38,500 over the last eight years to political campaigns here, and another employs two lobbyists to meet with and entertain state lawmakers.
