Manfred Dehe: Corizon's deliberate indifference keeps killing...

Yes, Parsons v Ryan has been settled. 

                                    No, the prisoners havent stopped suffering yet.

--------from AZFAMILY.COM---------

Family claims prison health care killed father

by Brandon Lee

Posted on February 19, 2015 at 6:58 AM

Updated February 20 at 8:34 AM


PHOENIX -- The company that provides health care to Arizona inmates is Corizon. Its website states, in part, the company provides "high quality healthcare (sic)... that will improve the health and safety of our patients. Our people, practices and commitment to success through evidence-based medicine enable us to consistently meet and exceed client expectations."

But several nurses who currently work for Corizon Health tell 3TV that's not true.

What's more, one family says their father died because Corizon failed to live up to its promise.

"He was always in great shape," Mark Dehe said of his father, Manfred. "He walked all the time. He actually walked quite quickly."

Dehe said he spent as much time as he could with his father, but that changed when Manfred was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Dehe knew his dad would serve time but would eventually be released. The family would be reunited.

Dehe had no idea what three years inside an Arizona prison would do to his father.

"Infuriating," he said. "Infuriating."

Soon after Manfred went to prison, he complained to his family that he was in severe pain.

Dehe ignored him at first.

"I thought he was overreacting," Dehe explained. "I told him, 'Dad, this isn't the Ritz.' I told him it's prison you might just have to wait a little bit longer."

Medical records show that a prison doctor recommended surgery for a hernia on Feb. 21, 2012. It was categorized as an urgent priority.

On March 13, another medical professional recommended Manfred be seen by a doctor outside the prison, again for hernia-related issues.

One week later, medical staff again recommended outside treatment. It was again listed as "priority urgent."

I sat down with Dehe to talk about his claims that Corizon failed to provide proper care for his father.

Health care for violent criminal offenders is not at the top of most people's minds.

"I'm a little embarrassed to say I understand," Dehe confessed. "Prior to my father going to prison ... I didn't give it much thought. [M]y thoughts were 'Well if they didn't do anything wrong, then they wouldn't be in that position to begin with.

"But I also assumed that they were receiving and given adequate health care," he continued. "It may not have been the best. You may have had to wait a little bit, but I thought it met their needs. I was very ignorant."

3TV obtained hand-written notes from Manfred to prison staff. He seemed to be begging for help.

"I'm 77 years old. I don't feel right. I'd like to have a doctor fully examine me."

"To urinate is extremely painful. My hernias are also hurting."

"I'm not receiving any more meds for my urinary tract infection."

When Manfred was finally seen by doctors outside of the prison, lab tests came back with devastating results.

"Prostate cancer. Terminal prostate cancer. Stage 4," Dehe said.

Manfred's health deteriorated fast.

His family says he was supposed to receive monthly injections to slow the cancer. Medical records show that injections were sometimes missed because the medicine was not available, according to one doctor's notes.

Manfred continued to cry out for help. He wrote letters to management, saying, "I FEEL LIKE I AM BEING NEGLECTED. I NEED TO SEE A QUALIFIED DOCTOR AND GO TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!!!"

"From that time until he was finally seen for an exam, August 2013, 15 months had passed," Dehe said. "By that time, it was too late. He never left the bed. He never saw outside. He was never moved from one side to another and after two weeks he had severe bedsores. They would eventually get so bad you could see through to the bone."

Manfred's story is not unique. The state of Arizona has a contract with a private health care company, Corizon, to provide care for inmates. A report by medical experts hired by the ACLU to inspect and review the conditions at Arizona prisons found "almost half of the people who died natural deaths received grossly deficient medical care. And that the poor care clearly caused or hastened their death."

We even spoke to a current prison nurse who confirmed that inmates are dying because of poor care.

The prison nurse we talked with spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"People with ongoing diagnosis like leukemia, diabetes, or complications to some serious illnesses are being delayed care. Absolutely."

Nurses and doctors caring for Manfred tried to get him proper care.

"It is my medical judgement that this patient requires hospitalization," one doctor who saw him wrote to prison management.

One nurse even wrote a note that reads, "Department of Corrections short staffed and unable to provide security for ambulance transport. Consult Cancelled."

Dehe believes his father was sentenced to death because of poor health care.

"He was ridiculed by the staff," he said. "They didn't want to bathe him because quite frankly he smelled. One of the people even joked and said, 'Why don't you throw a sheet over him,' insinuating he smells like he's dead. He must be dead so cover him up."

Corizon recently settled a major class action lawsuit, promising it will make changes to provide better care to inmates. The case settled on Oct. 14, the same day Manfred lost his battle with cancer.

Manfred walked into prison at age 75. Three years later, he was dead.

"Do I think anything is going to change? Not a bit. Not a bit," Dehe said. "I have to assume that they act on the fact that there is no oversight, and therefore they can do whatever they want. If there's nobody watching me, I can do whatever I want. Who's going to complain? The inmate? Who's going to believe the inmate?"

Corizon declined an on-camera interview for this story. A spokesman did, however, respond with a statement.

"The oncological care provided Inmate Dehe from the time Corizon Health began serving the Arizona prison system met the standard of care and was appropriate to his condition. Federal and state privacy laws prohibit public discussion of details of patient conditions or courses of treatment."

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Corizon and the Arizona Department of Corrections have three years to make changes that will improve the health care provided to inmates.

Corizon Deaths in Custody: Suicide of John Kahler, 51.

Another suicide, this one at ASPC-Tucson/Cimarron (a pretty rough yard, by all accounts). All I can tell you about John Kahler is that while he was being held in the county jail, pending trial, he was deemed incompetent to aid in his defense ( I suspect he was symptomatic when he committed his crime, and should maybe not even have been prosecuted...). Within days of being found competent, he pled guilty to get the hell out of the Maricopa County jail - and got placed on mental health probation. It appears he planned to do his four years in Montana, but he apparently violated his probation within a short period of time, pleading guilty during a "group advisement" - he was immediately sent to prison by Commissioner J. Justin McGuire, it appears, no discussion. 

How sad they couldn't give him another chance. That 5 year prison stint became a death sentence, as John was only in the custody of the AZ DOC less than 2 months before killing himself...and based on all the mail and calls I get about Corizon's poor mental health care, I'd bet they weren't treating his mental illness appropriately. He must have felt terribly alone, if his family was back in Montana.

Condolences to John's loved ones. If anyone knows anything more about his life or death, please contact me. I am Peggy Plews at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com

john kahler, 51

ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

1601 W. JEFFERSON PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85007 (602) 542-3133 www.azcorrections.gov

JANICE K. BREWER GOVERNOR

CHARLES L. RYAN DIRECTOR

NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release

For more information contact: Doug Nick dnick@azcorrections.gov Bill Lamoreaux blamorea@azcorrections.gov

Friday, September 05, 2014

Inmate Death Notification

TUCSON (Friday, September 05, 2014) – An inmate at the Tucson prison complex has died as the result of an apparent suicide.

51 year-old John Kahler, ADC# 292841, was found unresponsive in his housing location at approximately 8:50 AM.  Officers immediately responded and began lifesaving measures which were continued by paramedics.  Kahler was later pronounced deceased at a local hospital.

Kahler was serving a five year sentence out of Maricopa County on a conviction for arson of an occupied structure, and had been in ADC custody since July, 2014.

All deaths are investigated in consultation with the county medical examiner’s office.

Parsons v Ryan: AZ AG/DOC seeks settlement talks, as CORIZON treats cancer with antacids.

Condolences to the family of Glen Huggins and every other AZ DOC prisoner who has died from the violence of deliberate indifference under this governorship. May we soon see an end to the drug war, and the beginning of the end to our legislature giving blessings to those who would maximize profit by stealing public resources from the sick and dying. The prisoners, the ACLU-AZ and the Prison Law Office, among others, are doing their part to fight the parasites our state does business with, having filed Parsons v Ryan (which goes to trial in October, unless it's settled first). Please do your part as well, and honor Glen's dying wish that no more prisoners have to suffer as he did: hold all these people accountable. Demand that your legislators launch an investigation into the DOC's ineffective leadership, high number of unnecessary prisoner deaths, and poor oversight of contract agencies. You can find them here:

http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp

Arizona State Legislature
Capitol Complex
1700 West Washington
Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890

Also call on Governor Brewer's office to sack AZ Department of Corrections' Director Charles Ryan for this mess, and insist that a new director improve health care as a top priority - Ryan's DOC has only sought to grow prisons and the profits of folks like Corizon. 

Her contact info is here:

http://www.azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

The Honorable Janice K. Brewer
Arizona Governor
Executive Tower
1700 West Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007
(602) 542-4331

 

Thank you to CH 12/KPNX and Wendy Halloran, from the prisoners and the family members I've spoken to about Corizon and the AZ DOC's complicity in depriving state prisoners of the most basic things they need to survive - which begins with recognizing their humanity, as well as our own.

If you are the loved one of a prisoner of the AZ DOC who is suffering without care, contact Arizona Prison Watch. I will provide what resources I can to help - including a list of attorneys who have sued the state prison system and don't give me kickbacks for referrals (likewise, if you know of any good lawyers who may help other families, please let me know). I can be reached at:arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com or 480-580-6807

Here are a couple of other blog posts that give concrete info about fighting the AZ DOC on medical issues.

http://azprisonsurvivors.blogspot.com/2013/03/corizon-and-az-doc-prisoners-families.html

http://www.arizonaprisonwatch.org/2013/05/corizons-deliberate-indifference.html

Please also contact KPNX/AZ Republic's parent company, to tell them we need more stories like the one below, because prisoners' lives matter. Cut and paste this email to reach them at connect@ad.gannett.com

 

-------------from CH12/KPNX-----------

Costs up, no improvement in prison healthcare quality

Wendy Halloran, 12 News | azcentral.com 

 10:50 p.m. MST August 1, 2014

First they refused to admit there's a dire problem. Now, after a 12 News investigation, the Arizona Department of Corrections is offering to settle up with inmates in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2012.

We first brought you the story of inmates not getting proper healthcare, even though taxpayers are footing the bill, in May. Our reporting revealed there were at least 16,000 delays in medical care to Arizona inmates in 2013.

So far, the only action taken has been imposing fines on Corizon, the company contracted to provide healthcare for inmates in the state.

HEALTHCARE RATE INCREASE 

The state has paid Corizon $130 million a year to provide healthcare for inmates. Arizona taxpayers have paid, on average, $348,000 per day.

In July, a rate increase went into effect, from $10.10 per inmate per day to $10.42, due to changes made by ADC. According to Corizon's contract, the increase is to pay for 34 more staff positions to hand out medications. This followed an ADC policy change regarding what medications inmates were allowed to self-administer after multiple suicides and overdoses.

So costs have gone up, but newly released records obtained by 12 News show the problems inside the state's prisons are getting worse.

ADC-employed monitors routinely document Corizon's performance in monthly reports known as MGARs. In our review of the new batch of reports covering November of last year through April, we found numerous cases of delay, lack of treatment, noncompliance with the terms of the contract, ADC monitors noting staff shortages, and lack of medication and psychiatric care for mentally ill prisoners.


THE STORY OF INMATE GLEN HUGGINS

On December 15, 2013, Glen Huggins had 72 hours left to live.

Huggins was serving a 12-year prison sentence on drug convictions at the state prison in Tucson. He had already served eight years when he suddenly became gravely ill.

In August of 2013 Huggins complained to prison staff in Tucson about abdominal pain. He filled out what is known as an HNR, a Health Needs Requests inmates are required to fill out to get medical care. He complained he had not been able to swallow his food and keep it down since June, and had been losing weight.

More than a week later, a nurse saw Huggins. His symptoms were documented but his case was deemed "not urgent."

At the end of August, a nurse practitioner saw Huggins and, thinking the pain was due to Hepatitis C and acid reflux, gave him an antacid.

"That wasn't doing anything," Huggins' son, Cody, told us. "Meanwhile he's still losing weight, he can't swallow."

Huggins' family provided 12 News his medical records, which show he had a family history of cancer.

We asked Dr. Palav Babaria, a primary-care physician in Oakland, California to review the documents and give her opinion on whether the family's allegations of delays in care were accurate.

Dr. Babaria has done work for the Prison Law Office, one of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against the Department of Corrections.

"For someone like Mr. Huggins, who had the medical history that he had, any complaints of not being able to swallow accompanied by profound weight loss he was talking about, I think any competent physician would have worried about cancer until proven otherwise," said Dr. Babaria.

On September 17, Huggins wrote in an HNR the antacids he was taking weren't working and his condition was getting worse.

In an October request, Huggins wrote a nurse had seen him eight times and an abdominal X-ray was normal, but still no doctor was assigned to examine him.

He filed more HNRs complaining of continued difficulty swallowing food and keeping food down. He wrote that the antacids were not helping with his pain.

Dr. Babaria says an abdominal X-ray was not an appropriate test.

"The two easiest ways of doing that are getting X-rays called a barium swallow, and see if liquid that shows up on the X-ray is passing or not, or just doing an endoscopy, going down with a camera to get a really good look and do biopsies," she said.

Dr. Babaria says, in Huggins' case, it seems that none of that was done when he first complained of the symptoms. Instead he was treated as if he only had acid reflux.

According to records obtained by 12 News, Huggins was just one of several inmates at the Tucson prison who suffered from a lack of medical care.

The Department of Corrections' own monitors documented long delays for inmates to be seen by outside specialists. Only nine patients out of 33 received urgent consultations in a timely manner. The requirement is that urgent consultations are done within 30 days, which goal Corizon met only 27% of the time.

A SON'S STRUGGLE 

Reading his father's HNRs was upsetting for Cody Huggins.

"You see a man that is just pleading for help and asking for help practically begging for help there at the end," he said.

According to Huggins' prison records, on October 23, 2013 a possible diagnosis of cancer is noted after a mass extending from Huggins' chest to his navel was discovered. This was made by the Corizon nurse practitioner.

Only then did Corizon approve sending Huggins to an outside hospital. The first time Huggins was seen by a doctor was when he arrived in the emergency room. According to Huggins' medical records, within an hour, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer.

The cancer spread from his esophagus to other parts of his body. The doctors could not put a stint in to open up his esophagus because of the size of the tumor. Instead, they inserted a feeding tube in his stomach so he could get some nourishment.

His medical records show he lost almost 40 pounds in the months he kept requesting treatment and reporting problems.

On December 5, 2013 the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency recommended his sentence be commuted due to "imminent danger of death."

Gov. Jan Brewer signed a clemency order on December 11. Huggins was medically paroled the next day. His family took him home to die.

Huggins died on December 18, less than a week after his release.

Cody Huggins called it inhumane and hopes this doesn't happen to any other inmates or their families.

Dr. Babaria says the degree of suffering was preventable.

Now, Huggins' family plans to file suit against Corizon, accusing the healthcare provider of denying Huggins adequate and competent care.

Corizon denies any wrongdoing in Huggins' death. The company issued this statement:

"State and federal privacy laws forbid disclosure by Corizon of any identifiable patient medical information, let alone argument of factual claims regarding patient care in the news media. We can state that the allegations made by Ms. Halloran related to the patient's access to nursing staff and medical providers are not supported by the medical record. The inmate patient received timely, appropriate and professional care. The onset and advance of the patient's condition were unfortunately rapid and aggressive, just as they are often so among other similarly stricken patients. Allegations to the contrary are misleading and untruthful."

Cody Huggins struggles with his father's death. He thought his dad would be released from prison for the last time and they could rebuild their relationship and start a new one with Cody's young daughter.

Over the last two quarters, Corizon has been sanctioned by the state for a total of $71,000 based on its performance. An ADC spokesman emailed us this statement:

"The MGAR reports are valuable tools to document compliance with identified performance measures. Corrective action plans are implemented to hold Corizon accountable for those measures. ADC has imposed financial sanctions on Corizon as part of the company's contract with the state.

"As with any such contract, Corizon's agreement is subject to the state Procurement Code as well as adherence to the Department of Corrections Department Order 302, Contracts and Procurement, to ensure transparent, fair and equitable practices and has the approval of the Attorney General's Office and State Procurement Officer."

Meanwhile, the class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Arizona, ACLU National Prison Project, and the Prison Law Office is scheduled to go to trial this October in Phoenix. It accuses the Department of Corrections of providing inadequate medical care, mental healthcare and dental care that has led to deaths.
Defending against the suit is private law firm Struck, Wieneke & Love PLC of Chandler. So far, billing records reveal taxpayers have paid this firm approximately $3.4 million to defend the Arizona Department of Corrections against the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Prison Law Office has confirmed via email that settlement talks are underway to avoid a trial, issuing the following statement:

"The AG's office filed a request seeking a settlement conference, and after preliminary discussions with the AG's office we agreed to that request. A court-supervised settlement conference is scheduled for August 5."

ASPC-Eyman Suicide in Custody: Mark Moore, 57.

Sad to report there's been another suicide in the AZ DOC's supermax prison, ASPC-Eyman; that prison is a death trap for people prone to self-destruction. This one isn't the usual prisoner suicide, though - which has been male, young and facing life, on death row, or just about to be free, for the most part these past 5 years. This fellow had been at the AZ DOC since 1986, had a decent job, was only medium custody (which meant he had more privileges and programming opportunities then most guys I hear from have), and he apparently hadn't had any disciplinary write-ups in over a year. Yeah, he was in for life, but he'd made some kind of life in there and adapted to it...look at his work record.

Latest Supermax suicide victim, 

Mark Moore, 57

The only clue to something changing I can see on his AIMS, which is public info on the DOC website, is that he had just been re-classed a week ago, likely to a lower  custody level. Based on letters I've gotten from other prisoners who were old-timers being re-classed, its possible he was told he'd be moved to another General Population yard, despite his apprehensions about being there given his history as a sex offender. But, given his history as a sex offender, I doubt the DOC would put him back in GP. I think they would be prohibited from it, in fact....except that that's not what he was doing time for, this time around. So they may well have told him he was not getting protective custody and would have to make it in GP. That probably kills more guys than any other single thing at the AZ DOC.

Given the possibility that he was already in Protective Custody and remaining there, though,  I wondered what else might have been going on to cause him to take his life. He didn't appear to be severely mentally ill, based on his steady employment history as a barber (they don't like giving the SMI guys scissors). Maybe he got a terminal diagnosis he couldn't deal with, or was sexually assaulted and the DOC didn't appropriately counsel him (all too often the case, the victim is put in the hole while the perpetrator remains free on the yard. The victim is then repeatedly humiliated by officers, especially those victims who are known to be gay, and moved from GP yard to GP Yard while begging to be placed in protective custody....). Both Jesse Cabonias and Duron Cunningham committed suicide in the wake of no or poor institutional response to their sexual victimization - those are just the two I know about, anyway.

The standard psychiatric evaluations offered to Eyman prisoners by Corizon leave a lot to be desired, as you can see here. Basically, the medium security folks are rounded up, chained to each other, and transported to a maximum security yard where they are then herded into a room together to have their telephonic appointment with the shrink. Reports from prisoners are that these meetings have been held while they were  still chained to other prisoners - the DOC flatly denies this. In any case, the prisoners only get a few minutes of doctor time and the experience they have to endure for the sake of it has discouraged many from seeking psychiatric care or continuing with treatment.

In order to maximize profits - which is what the legislature wanted DOC to hire them to do, to make a profit at taxpayer and prisoner expense -  Corizon has slashed staff time available to ill prisoners, and discontinued many psychiatric medications switching prisoners who were functioning well on one drug to older, less effective meds with more severe side effect profiles, which many prisoners understandably no longer wish to take. These are the drugs that pharmaceutical companies typically sell extremely cheap in developing countries for institutionalized people, because hardly anyone in the US uses them anymore due to the side effect profiles - some - even at low doses, can cause high rates of Tardive Dyskinesia, a serious neurological syndrome. Here, in fact, is another letter of concern from Donna Hamm to the DOC Director, Chuck Ryan, about psychiatric and health care at Eyman under Corizon.

Similarly, to save money, Corizon discontinued a good many prisoners, if not all, from their pain management medications when they took over the medical care contract. Even many of those who managed to get their doctor to start them on another medication found they were ineffective for the diabetic neuropathy, or back pain, or bone cancer they were dealing with, and felt compelled to resort to heroin for pain management instead - far easier to get on a prison yard these days than a single tablet of Tylenol 3. Some, facing unbearable pain, day in and day out, with no compassion or relief from medical providers who would just as soon let them die in agony, might even choose to end their lives themselves, the one thing they have ultimate control over when all else is controlled by the state.

Not all DOC medical staff are heartless or gutless, though - at least Teresa Short walked away and came forward about the ethical dilemmas she experienced at Corizon over the past year, working in the intensive care unit at Tucson prison. And some legislators wonder why there's a class action suit complaining about the "free" medical care prisoners are so lucky to get - they think the ACLU has nothing better to do. The legislature's willingness to turn a blind eye is a large part of the problem at the AZ DOC

Anyway, my condolences go out to anyone who cared about this man - as well as to the survivors of his murder victim, for whom his suicide will bring up a lot of feelings, I would imagine. If anyone has any hard info about how and why he killed himself, I'm Peggy Plews - contact me at 480-580-6807 / arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com or PO box 20494 PHX 85036.

Corizon and the deliberate indifference and ignorance of AZ Rep. John Kavanagh.

This piece was done in December 2013 - good job, Al Jazeera. And SHAME on Fountain Hills Representative John Kavanagh for suggesting that prisoners are making up stories of medical neglect and abuse. Kavanagh's denial and ignorance is the very reason so many state prisoners and their families are suffering now. He should speak to the Corizon and AZ department of Corrections whistleblowers that I've heard from over the past year - but he would no doubt come up with some excuse to accuse them of lying as well.

Or maybe he's really well-informed and deliberately throwing up a smoke screen to cover for Corizon's failure to deliver as promised on their contract to provide prison health care. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out someday that man has been taking kickbacks from more than one prison profiteer. How else can one explain why he'd try to outright GIVE AWAY $900,000 to GEO Group for doing absolutely nothing - his reasoning for that? From the AZ Republic:

Kavanagh said Monday that GEO had done the state a "big favor" by providing emergency private-prison beds at a discount rate during the Great Recession, and the company wanted to be financially restored. "I didn't see a problem in giving them a small increase," Kavanagh said. "If you don't treat people fairly they won't treat you fairly in the future." 

(Thank goodness he's such a fair man! These poor, mistreated "people" he wants to help at GEO Group claimed over $115 million in profits in 2013. )

Oh, and there's this as well, from the same Republic article: "State campaign finance records show that six GEO executives, including CEO George Zoley, gave Kavanagh's campaign committee a combined $2,544 in 2012." That's just the payoff that's on the books: imagine what he would have gotten from the nice $900,000 gift back to those guys it if had gone through.  

I find it very disturbing to know that man is a director with the criminal justice program at Scottsdale Community College - which leads me to suspect that anyone who graduates from that program is also either deluded about the real world of crime and punishment, or predisposed to corruption.

Privatizing prison health care and undercutting prisoner claims of abuse is not all that Kavanagh is behind, though. Here's his brilliant defense of SB 1062 on CNN, the "religious freedom" bill that Jan Brewer vetoed so Arizona's economy wouldn't tank from a nationwide boycott of transphobic legislation. Here's a short and sweet editorial about his opposition to expanding Medicaid coverage in AZ: note that life is so precious to him in the womb, but quite disposable if the baby is born poor. I think his "concern" for life of the unborn is really a charade to cover for his desire to control women's sexual and reproductive activity.

Too bad the voters of Fountain Hills and Scottsdale lack integrity themselves, or they'd recall that man for his many crimes against the most oppressed people of this state. Unfortunately, they seem to be as invested in their own hate, fear and self-interest (at everyone else's expense) as their elected representative is, since they keep sending him back to the AZ Legislature to torment the rest of us. For his critical role in assuring that Corizon and the AZ DOC can continue to neglect their patients without any legislative oversight, John Kavanagh's name should be at the top of every wrongful death prison lawsuit in the state.

Thanks to Abby Leonard and Adam May at Al Jazeera's America Tonight for this...

--------------

Arizona's privatized prison health care under fire after deaths

by Abigail Leonard , Adam May
December 2, 2013 Al Jazeera (America Tonight)

SAFFORD, Ariz. — Rylan is a healthy and hungry 5-month-old baby girl who now lives with her grandmother Jodi and the rest of her family in a small Arizona farming town.

It's a world away from where she was born: the state prison complex near Phoenix, where her mother, Regan Clarine, is still locked up.

“She's very fun-loving. Very hyper, fun to be around, kind of always the leader,” Jodi Clarine, Regan’s mother, said about her daughter. “Regan was the one that I knew would be sneaking out the window by the time she was 3 years old. I would say, ‘You know, she's going to be our problem.”

Two years ago, when Regan was 18, she was arrested for having prescription painkillers illegally and charged with possessing a narcotic for sale. The court sent her to drug rehab, where she met and started dating Rylan's father. She found out she was pregnant just two days before a judge sentenced her to two and a half years behind bars.

“She holds her emotions very well but once she's talking to me alone, it's complete devastation,” Jodi said.
Regan was transferred from county jail to Perryville State Prison, where Jodi said she was denied prenatal care.

Jodi showed a note from Regan, saying she was advised by a doctor to get an ultrasound to check for any possible problems with her pregnancy.

“She did not get that ultrasound,” Jodi said. “I believe had they done the ultrasound they would have known they had the wrong date.”

Jodi said she believes the prison medical staff induced Regan early, which might explain why Rylan was born small.

“It just infuriates me,” Jodi said.

After 48 hours in labor, Regan had to have a C-section. Jodi said the medical staff didn't stitch the wound shut. Instead, they dressed it with butterfly bandages.

“They sent her back to the prison and for the first two days things are going OK,” Jodi said. “But by about day three she's noticing it's oozing. It's not looking right, it's looking infected.”

Jodi said doctors refused to see Regan – and it got worse from there.

“Regan woke up one night and something just told her to get up,” Jodi said. Her daughter was covered in blood. "Her clothes were soaked. So she was terrified and she just screamed for you know a guard to come help her. And they came took her to see a nurse. And you know, the nurse said, ‘Well, come back at 10.’”
Regan was sent back to her cell instead of going to the hospital.

“She would cry because it scared her so much to be able to look inside her body was just freaking her out,” Jodi said.

After two weeks of living with an open wound, Regan was sent to the prison hospital.

“I truly believe I could have lost my daughter had they not given her antibiotics” before her delivery, Jodi said.

Regan spent five weeks in the hospital and, slowly, the wound healed. But her ordeal was not over.

“They decided she had been there long enough, that she could go back to her yard,” Jodi said. “But it was still open a little bit. And so they decided that the best thing to do for this would be to pack it with kitchen sugar … we're talking sugar that you get from, because they donate it from McDonald's from Burger King, you know? They're standing there ripping open these little packs of sugar and filling that wound.

“I called my brother who is a doctor and I said ‘Sean, they're talking about pouring sugar into Regan and have you ever heard of this?’ And he said no way are they putting sugar in her wound. He said it's just got to be some medical term like maybe it's medicine with glucose in it. He said, ‘it's probably just a nickname of something. Nobody would pour sugar in a wound. So don't worry about it.’”

Sugar was used to treat wounds before the advent of antibiotics in the early 1900s, but it's no longer accepted medical practice. America Tonight asked the Arizona Department of Corrections to comment on Regan’s care, but they declined.

While we were talking to Jodi, Regan called from prison and described her ordeal living with the fist-sized opening in her abdomen.

“It was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life,” Regan said.

When she did get care, she described seeing medical staff putting sugar in that wound.

“They were taking the kitchen sugar and pouring it inside and putting wet gauze over it and taping it,” she said.

We asked Regan if she actually saw prison officials opening up McDonald’s sugar packets and pouring the sugar inside her wound. “Yeah,” she said, adding that she was worried if it was sanitary.

“I was scared,” she said. “You know, it’s prison, maybe these packets are old, if there's something spilled on them and it dries, you know.”

Spending less on health care

Regan is not the only inmate alleging mistreatment. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Corrections in March 2012, alleging that prisoners are at serious risk of "pain, amputation, disfigurement and death."

It cites examples of prisoners being told to pray to be cured or drink energy shakes to treat cancer symptoms.

The ACLU says the treatment amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and that it violates prisoners' constitutional rights.

“People are often sent to prison for two-year, three-year sentences that have turned into death sentences because of the absence of the basic minimal care,” said Dan Pochoda, legal director for the ACLU in Arizona. He says in his forty year career, he’s never seen a worse prison healthcare system.

A year and a half ago, the state handed over prison healthcare to a private, for-profit company. Legislators who supported the privatization promised that it would save taxpayers money, while maintaining adequate levels of care for inmates. At least 27 other states have also privatized prison health care, rewarding private companies for keeping costs down.

But there are studies showing prisoners could be suffering as a result. An October report from the American Friends Services Committee in Arizona found that since the state privatized its prison health care, medical spending in prisons dropped by $30 million and staffing levels plummeted. It also found a sharp spike in the number of inmate deaths. In the first eight months of 2013, 50 people died in Arizona Department of Corrections custody, compared with 37 deaths in the previous two years combined.

Tony's story

After his cancer, inmate Tony Brown's pain medication was switched from morphine to less-powerful Lortab.

America Tonight

One of the inmates who died since the state privatized care was Tony Brown, who was serving a 10-year sentence for aggravated assault and was due to be released in September.

“They were supposed to come down for Thanksgiving this year,” his daughter Jenna Jumper said. “He never got to meet my husband and he wasn't there when I got married, so they were going to come visit.”

Brown had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, but his medical records show it was in remission. He had been prescribed morphine for the pain. But in October 2012, the prison ran out of morphine. The medical staff switched him to Lortab, a weaker painkiller.

In a video taken by prison guards and obtained by America Tonight, Brown is seen just after he was put on the new medication writhing in pain while handcuffed to a gurney. His medical records show that guards told nurses his condition was worsening and that he "needed to be checked out." But there is no record of medical staff visiting his cell. In another video, a prison chaplain checks on Brown at his wife Jami Brown’s request.

“Inmate Brown, I spoke with your wife earlier today,” the chaplain is heard saying. “Can you communicate with me please? I’d like to speak with your wife later on. Is there something I can tell her?”

Brown, face down on a bunk, barely moves and doesn’t respond. A guard can be heard saying, “Is it me or does this just not feel right to anybody else?”

Two days after Brown first started complaining of pain, medical staff had still not visited him, so the guards intervened and started CPR. Nurses came to assist, but 40 minutes passed before they realized no one had called an ambulance.

Eventually, an ambulance came and took Brown to a hospital. A day later, he died. Two days after his death, his widow Jami said she finally received a call back from the private prison health care company, Wexford.

“My husband passed away on Monday and I got a call from Wexford Medical on Wednesday wanting more information so that they can make sure he's seen,” she said. “I was pretty upset because I was like, ‘What are you talking about? He's dead.’”

“He may have been a prison inmate, but my dad was no different than the governor or the guy that you interviewed or you or me,” his daughter said. “My biggest thing is that if people would stop to realize that he did have family and that he did have a child and he did have a wife and he had plans.”

The official cause of death was listed as complications from cancer. But Brown's family is suing Wexford, claiming he died from lack of adequate medical care. An attorney for Wexford issued a statement to America Tonight on the matter.

"Due to federal health care privacy laws and the pending legal claim, we are very limited in what we can say about the circumstances surrounding this inmate’s tragic death," Ed Hochuli said in the statement. "Based on the limited information we have at this time, though, I am very confident Wexford Health and its employees acted appropriately, and further investigation of this claim will demonstrate and prove the lack of any wrongdoing or negligence by Wexford Health.”

Privatization proponent

State Rep. John Kavanagh

America Tonight

State Rep. John Kavanagh wrote the legislation that privatized Arizona's prison health care. We asked him whether he thought it had put inmates in danger.

“I mean, people die in prisons,” he said. “I receive a lot of handwritten notes from prisoners. I receive emails from prison families with all sorts of allegations of crazy behavior. And then, you call the prison people up and they usually have a reasonable explanation for it.”

Kavanagh said Regan’s story didn’t sound like a “true allegation,” adding that it “sounds ridiculous.”

“You know prisoners have 24/7 to think up allegations and write letters,” he said. “I'm not saying that some of them can't have a basis in fact. But you got to take them with a grain of salt or in the case of the hospital, with maybe a grain of sugar.”

We asked Kavanagh who would listen to prisoners’ concerns over their medical care.

“There's no shortage of prison advocacy groups and ACLU attorneys who at the drop of a dime will file a lawsuit,” he said. “I think most people who get into [class-action lawsuits] wind up with nothing and the lawyers walk away in limousines with their trunks full of cash.”

There are signs though, that Wexford, the private health company that was providing care at the time of Brown's death, was aware of the problems. America Tonight obtained a copy of a PowerPoint presentation written by top Wexford executives for a meeting with the Arizona governor's office in November 2012 – four months after the company started providing care in the state. It warned that the care it and the Department of Corrections were providing was "not compliant with … constitutional requirements" and that "the current class action lawsuits are accurate." It recommended an overall operational cleanup, staffing reassessment and the appointment of a governor’s office liaison.

The PowerPoint presentation also says that the department's "transparency" policy with the media could "encourage negative press."

Wexford was already in the spotlight for another incident just two months earlier. At a prison west of Phoenix, more than 100 inmates may have been exposed to hepatitis C. According to the Department of Corrections, a contractor nurse used dirty needles to deliver medication. Four months later, Arizona severed ties with Wexford and awarded the three-year, $369 million contract to another private healthcare company: Corizon, the largest prison healthcare company in the country. Corizon has similar contracts in 29 states, but it has faced problems in many of them. In fact, in the last five years, Corizon has been sued for malpractice 660 times.

Corizon’s no-bid contract

Arizona Democratic House minority Leader Chad Campbell said the Legislature didn't properly vet Corizon before signing the contract.

“I think the most concerning to us was the previous company when they started to lose that contract, the current company that got the contract didn't even have to go through a public process of any kind to get this contract,” he said. “No bid. Nothing. It was deemed an emergency situation by Department of Corrections so they didn't have to go through the normal process. But more interesting than that was this company that got the contract had just hired the former head of the Department of Corrections who was the mentor of the current head of Department of Corrections.”

Campbell said that is not the only tie that members of Arizona’s state government have to private prisons. Charles Coughlin, the former campaign strategist for Ariz. Gov. Jan Brewer, runs a lobbying firm called HighGround Public Affairs Consultants, which represented one of the country’s largest private prison companies. HighGround donated $5,000 to Jan PAC, Brewer's super PAC.

The governor's office declined America Tonight’s request for an interview and referred us to Kavanagh, who said the allegations that Brewer accepted bids because of personal relationships were “baseless.”

“I think they're propaganda,” he said. “I mean, people say to me I've gotten campaign contributions from private-prison people. Well, yeah. I got from a lobbyist who represents them but that lobbyist also represents 40 other clients in different industries. It's smoke and mirrors. It's a façade.”

Campbell said that multiple people and corporations are profiting from the privatization of prison health care.
“They're profiting on taxpayer dollars and to me, if I'm going to hand out money to a private entity, I want to make sure it's being spent wisely,” he said. Campbell is now calling for an investigation.

Corizon defended its level of care. "These patients receive care that meets their health care needs and satisfies constitutional requirements," it said in a statement to America Tonight, adding that it has a rigorous quality control program to make sure its health care meets federal and Arizona Department of Corrections guidelines. "In addition, the ADC maintains a dedicated internal audit team of over 30 health care professionals whose sole purpose is to monitor Corizon’s delivery of care," the company added. (Read Corizon's full statement here.)

In the meantime, allegations of wrongdoing continue to mount. According to the American Friends Service Committee report, an inmate at the Whetstone Unit of the Arizona State Prison Complex tested positive for tuberculosis in August. But Corizon did not test other prisoners, even those who were doing community service outside the complex.

Hoping to survive prison

Regan Clarine

America Tonight

As for Regan, she still has six months left on her sentence. The separation has been tough on the family, but what's worse is their fear that prison health care could be a death sentence.

As their allotted time for a phone call wound down, Regan asked her mother if she would be making the four-hour drive that weekend.

“I'm gonna lose you. I love you honey,” Jodi said. “I'm coming on Saturday with Rylan. And you don't…”
An automated message cut her off when their time limit was up.

“Oh, that's so frustrating when you can't finish talking,” Jodi said. “It's even tougher leaving. Her first visit with [her baby], my husband held Rylan up and she could just see Rylan's big blue eyes and she just started running and grabbed her and held her as tight as she could. It's very been hard. We all miss her very much.”

Estrella women on hunger strike over Arpaio's moldy, sickening food.

"Indict Arpaio"

Veterans' Day Parade (Phoenix 2012)

Those folks familiar with Joe Arpaio's jails know that the food is notoriously bad. About six weeks ago, however, I began hearing that the food isn't just tasteless or bad-tasting, there is at least one highly suspect, horrifically tragic case of food poisoning as a result. Hopefully mainstream media will be investigating and reporting on that soon - I'm really troubled about the things I've been hearing ever since Graves v Arpaio wrapped up and the judge let him slide without a monitor to stay o top of the fixes he did. In any case, it came as no surprise today to hear that some of the prisoners are complaining to loved ones about their food being spoiled and moldy, not just bland or bad-tasting.

The really remarkable thing about what I heard today, however,  is that the women are organizing resistance in the form of a hunger strike - today was day two. Specifically, the women on Estrella's Cell Block C100 are refusing their meals until they no longer receive moldy, disgusting, dangerous food. They are demanding to be treated like human beings. YOU ALL ROCK!!!

(NOTE: This is what happens, Sheriff Arpaio, when you don't let prisoners file grievances and deal with constitutional violations "appropriately"...)

By the time this hits the rest of the media, it may have been broken up. Already they've apparently placed Rebekah Mellon in administrative segregation (solitary confinement) for "instigating" this collective act of defiance and courage. That woman is already facing serious charges for the murder of the man she says was her abuser - she's not about to sit down for rotten food now, I guess. GOOD FOR YOU!!! Hooray for all of the women who are fighting back now, however they are showing their resistance.

It's so under-reported when woman in prison and jail organize against their keepers and the conditions of their confinement, so anyone with direct info about this action, PLEASE contact me, no matter how far after this occurs it is - especially if you participated. My name is Peggy Plews; call me at 480-580-6807 or email me at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com. Also, send postcards to loved ones with my address on it: AZ Prison Watch PO Box 20494 PHOENIX AZ 85036.

For more about the history of women's resistance to the oppressions of incarceration, read some of Vikki Law's work - she wrote the book. If you have a loved one in Estrella or Perryville Prison, please order the book for them - the women need to know that history!

Corizon's latest Lewis Health Scare: Middle Ground memo.

As a follow up to the recent exposure of up to 24 diabetic prisoners at ASPC-Lewis to infectious diseases, Middle Ground Prison Reform has issued the following memo to the decision-makers indicated below (thank you Donna Hamm!):

Parsons v Ryan: deliberate indifference finally killed Benny Joe.

I got an email last night letting me know that Benny Joe Roseland passed away yesterday. The DOC hasn't had a chance to post the notice yet; I'll just link to it when they do. I never did hear back from Benny a second time; I think he was already pretty sick when he narrated his story to his fellow prisoner.

 Let's honor Benny Joe's dying wish that his story is used to help his fellow prisoners; that his own suffering isn't in vain. To those of you who missed it, the American Friends Service Committee in Tucson (AFSC-Tucson) just released a report about the deliberate indifference and gross neglect prisoners like Benny Joe have endured at the hands of the AZ DOC. Please download DEATH YARDS, then send it to your legislator with a request that they take responsibility for this mess, since they're the ones who ordered DOC to privatize the health care in the first place, instead of ordering Ryan to improve it. Parsons v Ryan and the cruel cost-cutting measures we've seen with Corizon are as much their fault as anyone else's.

Thanks for thinking of your fellow human beings on your way out, Benny Joe. May you finally rest in peace.

AZ LEG Leader Chad Campbell: Time for DOC Director Ryan's resignation.

Central Office, AZ Department of Corrections (PHOENIX. November 2010)

  chalk art by Margaret J Plews                                                          photo: PJ STARR

(updated 2:46pm 7/23/2013) 

I don't necessarily expect Jan Brewer to care what the House Democrats think or to fire Good Old Boy Chuck Ryan, but the rest of the legislature should really be looking seriously at how badly he's mismanaged the AZ DOC - that's a billion dollars a year of state money he handles, after all - not to mention the public trust. 

of course, this isn't the first time anyone has questioned Chuck Ryan's leadership....

Resign, Director Ryan: Former Deputy Warden breaks the silence.

Brewer: Please sack Chuck Ryan.

The prisons of Chuck Ryan: Arizona's other death row.

Rep Campbell calls for DOC Oversight hearings; former DW Toersbijns weighs in

#CHUCKCHUCK #DARTHryan #DarkSideRyan  #FireChuckRyan" 

#DELIBERATEindifferenceKILLS

Still, the governor should care as well, though, since these are all her ghosts..

 The Ghosts of Jan Brewer

AZ State Capitol, Phoenix (April 3, 2013)

  and don't forget all the race riots and other disturbances, not mentioned below...

In any case, this is the day - the whole week - that the families of prisoners should be contacting their legislators, and the legislators responsible for the prisons your loved ones are in. Watch KPNX / CHannel 12 PHX tonight at 6 and 10pm. Then tomorrow please contact your legislators or those of the prison your loved one is in tomorrow with your own story. Forward that email to KPNX CH 12 news at connect@ad.gannett.com with your thank you to them for their coverage.

If you don't mind forwarding a copy to me as well, I'm at arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com

Find your own AZ legislators here.

Find the prisoners'  AZ legislators here.

 

----From the website of the AZ House Democrats---------

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Campbell calls for immediate resignation of Arizona DOC Director Charles Ryan

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX –

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix (District 24), is calling for the immediate resignation of Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan.

“Director Ryan has exhibited a pattern of mismanagement and a lack of leadership resulting in an unsafe corrections system in our state,” Campbell said. “Under his direction, our corrections system has wasted tax dollars, jeopardized people’s lives and damaged the state’s credibility.”

Campbell’s action follows the recent death of an inmate in a Buckeye prison.  Suicide and homicide rates occurring within Arizona prisons have earned the facilities negative attention in the past.

“We’ve seen reports that Arizona’s prison suicide rate was 60 percent higher than the national average between the years of 2010 and 2012,” Campbell said. “In addition to this, the attempt to cover up what happened to an inmate allowed to bleed to death in front of prison guards is a gruesome consequence of Ryan’s negligence.”

Campbell said he believes Ryan has failed to properly supervise private prison contracts. He points to the inmate escape from Kingman as an example.

“In 2010, three inmates convicted of violent crimes including murder and armed robbery, escaped a privately operated state prison in Kingman,” Campbell said. “Following this incident, Ryan admitted that the DOC didn’t properly monitor this facility. This is a community safety issue.”

Campbell said private prisons cost more than state-run prisons and that the DOC has failed to hold the private prison companies accountable for the terms of their contracts with the state. He also said the state awards contracts in a manner that is not transparent and seems indicative of cronyism. An example of this occurred earlier this year, when the DOC terminated a contract with Wexford Health Sources, a private company that provided healthcare for inmates statewide.

“The Department of Corrections contracted with a company that has a controversial record of service. In fact, one of Wexford’s employees exposed more than 100 people to hepatitis C in a prison in Buckeye,” Campbell said. “The DOC terminates that contract and replaces Wexford with Corizon, another company surrounded by controversy that also happens to have ties to people who are close to the governor. This situation reeks of patronage.”

Campbell thinks using tax dollars on mismanaged facilities is unacceptable.

“We are wasting taxpayer money on mismanaged facilities,” Campbell said. “That is especially true with the for-profit, private prisons. They are not saving the state money.”

Last year, Republicans repealed a state law in the budget requiring a comparison of state and private prisons every two years to ensure that private prisons were providing the same quality of services as state prisons at a lower cost. Department of Corrections Per Capita Cost Reports compiled over five years consistently show that the state is losing money on private prisons, and security audits show serious safety flaws in all of Arizona’s for-profit prisons, including malfunctioning cameras and alarm systems.

 “For years, Ryan has showed that he is incapable of properly handling his position. Arizonans deserve better. He should resign immediately,” Campbell said.

Reasons to call for Director Ryan’s resignation

1.       Security failures. A recent audit by the State Auditor General found disturbing security violations at state prisons, including broken perimeter alarm systems that staff ignored and a failure to keep an inventory of keys.

2.       Personnel problems.  News reports have indicated that there is low morale at state prisons and that employee turnover is very high. The Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association submitted a letter of “no confidence” regarding Director Charles Ryan.

3.       Criminal behavior.  The Arizona Department of Corrections Inspector General has documented hundreds of acts of criminal conduct by DOC employees, including DUI and domestic violence.

4.       Pattern of mismanagement and lack of leadership. One examples of mismanagement is the awarding of the medical care contract to Wexford, then rescinding that contract and re-awarding it to Corizon. Both companies have faced controversy and accusations of poor medical services.

5.       Conflict of interest.  The Department of Corrections has close ties to the private prison industry as well as private health care providers.  One example is Chuck Coughlin’s relationship with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which has a contract with the state to provide private prisons. Coughlin has a well-known relationship with the governor, who appointed Director Ryan to his position. Another example is Director Ryan’s ties to Terry Stewart who works with Advanced Correctional Management, which lobbies for private prison expansion, as well as Stewart’s work with Corizon, which was eventually awarded the statewide contract to provide health care to inmates.

6.       High suicide rates. Suicide rates at state prisons were 60 percent higher than the national average between 2010 and 2012.

7.       Poor medical care. Inmate medical care has been severely neglected. Egregious examples of inmates being given grossly inadequate health care have been outlined in the class action lawsuit against DOC.

8.       Abuse and neglect of inmates. There has been a pattern of abuse and neglect of inmates, including Marcia Powell who died after being left outside in the sun for many hours and Tony Lester who was allowed to bleed to death in prison while correctional officers watched and did nothing to help him.

9.       Private prison problems.  In addition to the conflict of interest noted above, Director Ryan has also failed to properly manage private prison contracts and supervise the private prisons.  The inmates escaping from Kingman is one example of his failure to oversee the private prisons. Additionally, private prisons often cost more than state-run prisons, and DOC has failed to hold the private prison companies accountable for the terms of their contracts with the state.