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Four years after a federal court ordered a major overhaul of
health care in Illinois prisons, a monitor surveyed the
conditions at several Illinois prisons. According to the
monitor’s report filed in April in federal court, health care in
Illinois prisons continues to be abysmal, especially for those
who are elderly or living with mental illness.
“This staffing shortage is critical and results in patients not
receiving adequate care,” the monitor concluded.
Camille Bennett with the ACLU of Illinois said Wexford Health
Services, which provided prison health care, promised to provide
adequate staffing but did not.
“Eight-one percent of the physician positions were not filled,”
Bennett said. “These are all positions for which Wexford is
responsible. The report states that this threatens the safety of
inmates.”
More than 60 inmates died in Illinois Department of Corrections
custody last year.
In two of the deaths explained, the monitor found that medical
staff prescribed medications that “contributed to a preventable
death.” In another case, a 63-year-old man who suffered from
liver cancer spent the last day of his life lying on the floor
in his own excrement.
During the hearing, state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City,
said the state of prison health care in Illinois has been dismal
for years, and wondered why Wexford’s contract wasn’t canceled.
“I’m curious as to why Wexford’s contract wasn’t terminated when
they got fired in Florida for some of the same issues that’s
going on in Illinois,” Jones said.
The company’s 10-year contract has expired and the state is
taking bids for a new contractor.
“The private corporate model of providing health care in the
Department of Corrections has simply failed and has failed for
so long I don’t think it is fixable,” said Alan Mills, executive
director of Uptown People’s Law Center, a civil rights law firm
involved in the class action lawsuit that led to the consent
decree.
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