United States: miscarriages, a baby born in a cell, inadequate services for disabilities

Women miscarrying due to a lack of proper health care, a woman giving birth alone in a cell, and deaf inmates not getting interpretation services during doctor visits.

These instances and numerous others were detailed in more than 200 letters lawyers sent to Arizona Department of Corrections officials over the past four months.

The Prison Law Office and the ACLU have now submitted the letters to the court as part of the Parsons v. Ryan lawsuit over how the state is providing health care, mental health care and dental care to inmates.

The state contracts with Corizon Health to provide care to inmates. A new company, Centurion, takes over in July.

The letters highlight visits lawyers and medical experts made since December 2018 to the Florence, Tucson, Phoenix, Eyman and Perryville prisons.

This latest court filing comes after a judge said the state is failing at providing adequate care to inmates and ordered the department to comply with several measures. The state is appealing the order.

Lack of mental health support¶

In a letter sent earlier this month, ACLU alleged the mental health of an inmate at the Florence prison was evaluated within only a few minutes.

“There were numerous cases in which a patient was moved to a lower level of suicide watch, or removed from watch entirely, after encounters that lasted five minutes or less,” ACLU National Prison Project Director David C. Fathi wrote.

In a February letter, the Prison Law Office described how its members said medication was being administered in the Tucson prison during a January tour. According to the letter, the nurse informed them that because of low staffing levels, she was not able to administer medication at the proper time.

“Medications are prescribed to be taken at particular intervals for a reason, and disregarding the prescriber’s instructions in this manner can create a risk of injury or death to the patient,” Prison Law Office attorney Corene Kendrick wrote.

In a March response letter, Department of Corrections attorney Timothy J. Bojanowski wrote, “Continued education of medical staff and communication efforts with the officers are being made to maintain the best functionality for the administration of medications, even when there are disruptions to the normal routine.”

Miscarriages, giving birth alone¶

The letters describe issues at the state’s women prison.

During a visit with pregnant inmates at Perryville, the Prison Law Office wrote, the women told them the only additional food they received was an extra peanut butter sandwich and carton of milk each day.

“The women we interviewed who had miscarried or delivered in recent months reported Corizon did not provide adequate hygiene supplies to address post-partum bleeding, and that at most they were given only the thin panty liners provided to other women,” Kendrick wrote.The women claimed they were housed in cells without air conditioning.

One woman reported she miscarried in her second trimester, according to a letter. She saw an OB/GYN at the prison when she was 10 weeks along and told the doctor she had used heroin before she was incarcerated.

However, the doctor did not submit for her to be consulted at the methadone clinic, according to the letter. A month later, the same doctor documented he could not find a fetal heartbeat but did not send her to a hospital.

Two days later, the doctor submitted a request for her to have a routine ultrasound. The woman had a telepsychiatry appointment later in the day. During her telepsychiatry appointment, she complained of abdominal pain and bleeding, according to the letter. That doctor recommended she be taken to the hospital.

“The nurse documented that officers shackled her to the gurney for transport to the emergency room,” the letter said.

Hospital staff confirmed she had a stillborn birth, according to the letter.

Another woman gave birth to her child alone in her cell three days after she reported her water broke. When she reported her water broke, she was seen by medical staff but sent back to her cell, according to the letter.

The woman was admitted into the Department of Corrections at seven months pregnant and diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“She told us that she started screaming and banging on her cell door, in hopes of getting the night officer’s attention, and that other women in cells around her started similarly screaming and banging on their doors to help her,” according to the letter.

According to the letter, the woman sat on the toilet and delivered the baby into her hands. Witnesses told the Prison Law Office it took an officer 10 to 15 minutes to come to the cell. She was sent to the hospital, and she and the baby were reported healthy.

The site medical director at the prison said a new plan would be put into place to help create preventative measures after the incident, according to a Prison Law Office letter.

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