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Federal judge orders takeover of health care

Published Jul 8, 2005 11:39 PM

Branding California’s infamous prison system “terribly broken,” U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson announced June 30 that he would appoint an independent authority to oversee health care in this state’s prisons. According to Alison Hardy, an attorney with the Prison Law Office, “The judge has clearly recognized the ongoing risk of death and harm to patients is unconstitutional.”


April 2002: Protesters at Central
California Women's Facility demand
proper medical treatment for prisoners.

Henderson’s decision, after hearing two weeks of testimony and scathing reports of prison visits in the class action suit Plata v. Schwarzenegger, represents the most radical and complete takeover of a prison health-care system in U.S. history.

Henderson, who began his legal career as the first African American lawyer in the U.S. Justice Department who investigated civil rights cases, has taken bold action in other class-action lawsuits involving prisons and civil rights in this state. In 1995, Henderson ruled in favor of Security Hous ing Unit (SHU) lockdown prisoners in Pelican Bay State Prison. Henderson also tried to block implementation of Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action initiative in this state. Unfor tunately, his ruling was later overturned by a higher court.

Prisons stuffed with poor

Medical neglect and abuse are no strangers to the California prison system. For the past 20 years, civil rights attorneys, prisoner activists, human rights advocates and family members have pointed the finger at the California Department of Corrections for its inhumane treatment of prisoners.

California, with a prison population of nearly 165,000, has set a national trend in the building of mega-prisons. With the cooperation of racist sentencing laws, it has packed its prisons to double and triple capacity with poor people of color.

Ten years ago, the legal and public spotlight was on the abysmal care and medical neglect in this state’s women’s prisons. A class-action lawsuit called Shumate v. Wilson exposed needless deaths and torture of women prisoners. An unprecedented legislative hearing inside one of the women’s prisons brought forth heartrending testimony from women prisoners about their poor care.

According to Cassie Pierson, staff attorney with Legal Serv ices for Pris oners with Children and one of the litigators of the Shumate case, “Judge Hen derson’s decision validates what women prisoners have been telling us for many years and may give them hope. In 2000, women prisoners voiced their concerns before the legislature and nothing happened. Right after the hearings, eight women died and women have continued to die unnecessarily.”

Women prisoners inside the Central California Women’s Facility have told this reporter that, if anything, medical care is worse than ever.

Yvonne/Hamdiyah Cooks, Executive Director of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, worries that women prisoners, who are often “invisible” with in the predominantly male prison population, will continue to have their health care needs overlooked, even by a federal monitor.

Prisoners’ rights advocates, community activists and family members see Hender son’s decision as an important step forward. However, many emphasize that the appointment of a federal receiver is only one of several measures that should be taken to change this brutal prison system.

So much more needed

Corey Weinstein, M.D., a founder of California Prison Focus, a statewide organization fighting for the human rights of prisoners, points to the massive and unnecessary incarceration of poor people in this state, along with a legacy of prison guard brutality and murder, as equally serious problems to address.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his new ly anointed California Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation have used the excuse of prison overcrowding
to prepare the public for the building of more prisons. However, groups like Crit ical Resis tance, and the Prison Mora torium Project have made a strong case for releasing large numbers of prisoners convicted of drug-related and nonviolent crimes into community programs and treatment centers.

Battered women’s groups and Families to End California’s Three Strikes laws are calling for the expedited release of lifers who have been held years beyond their expected release dates.

Mark Smith, a recently released lifer with serious medical problems, stated, “I am thrilled with Judge Hender son’s decision to tackle this terribly troubled system. If, however, the guards’ union is allowed any influence in this much overdue undertaking, like all else they get their hands on, then we can expect a watered-down version with little long-term benefit.”

In California, prison guards with a nursing assistant license are able to dispense medications and decide whether prisoners can see a doctor. This conflict of roles for these medical technical assistants (MTAs) has had deadly consequences for prisoners with chronic and serious illnesses.

According to prisoners’ rights activists, trying to access care from an MTA is like having to go to the state police for your yearly physical. The California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association (CCPOA) is a wealthy political action committee that “contributes” to the campaign funds of most state legislators.

Geppetto Launer, formerly incarcerated in California’s Corcoran prison, is “hopeful and cynical” about the effect of the federal takeover. Living with HIV while inside prison, Launer had a great deal of experience fighting to get proper medical care. Launer fears that state and prison interference with the receiver will lead to stonewalling. “I wish the governor and other state officials were forced to spent one week in any of our state’s prisons—they would quickly change their tune!” Launer added.