Families of Prisoners Support Group
This community is dedicated to families that have been disrupted by prison. Having a loved one incarcerated or having been incarcerated comes with its own unique challenges that require support and understanding. Join the group to find others who know what you're going through, and to seek advice or share your experience.
I know the families and loved ones of those in prison are always concerned about their health and well-being.
Having been in prison and working in prison reform, one of the biggest abuses of inmates are from the medical facilities, which offer an inmate poor medical treatment. These abuses are in the form of abject neglect and are not confined to any particular state. Medical treatment in prison has reached the deplorable stage.
A fellow advocate sent me this link, which I thought I would share with everyone.
The question the article poses is this----“Does Bad Health Care Constitute Cruel and Unusual Punishment?” I think it does. I have seen the most egregious examples of inmate neglect and malpractice regarding inmates and medical treatment. Having been in the medical profession, these actions shocked and disgusted me.
“In 2010, the court of the Northern District of Illinois received a handwritten complaint from Don Lippert, a diabetic inmate at Stateville Correctional Center outside of this city, claiming he was being denied his twice-daily dose of insulin. In the roughly six years since, that case has snowballed into a lawsuit filed on behalf of every prisoner in Illinois.
“Lippert v. Baldwin argues that health care inside the Illinois Department of Corrections systematically puts inmates “at risk of pain, injury, and death.” By failing to address fundamental needs, it alleges, Illinois is not meeting its constitutional mandate to protect against cruel and unusual punishment. “If someone has a broken arm and you let them suffer, that’s really no different than putting them on the rack and stretching them,” said Alan Mills, one of the lead attorneys on the suit. “If conditions cause treatable pain and there is a failure to treat the causes of that pain, then that’s punishment for no good penological reason.
“Prisons and jails are difficult settings for the delivery of medical care, between high illness rates among offenders and worries about safety. Inmates also don’t have a right to the country’s best health resources—no American does. But they do, uniquely, have a right to care that prevents needless suffering.”
You may be thinking, "But this is in Illinois and does not apply to my guy." That is true for now, but reform in one state often leads to reform in other states. A win is a win and we need a few victories. If nothing else, a decision in our favor would be a precedent for other legal decisions.
My opinion is that we need to stop incarcerating people for long periods of time for piddly crimes IF we cannot take care of their needs as human beings, which includes standard medical treatment.
We should only incarcerated those offenders we are truly afraid of and not the ones we are just mad at for breaking a law. The majority of offenders in prison could just as easily be handled on the street through probation or parole, but the politicization of our criminal justice system and penal system calls for mass incarceration.
Reform through advocacy is a tough road to sell to the politicians, who are usually a member of the “tough on crime” crowd. We need law suits and court decisions in our favor to take the prison procedures out of the politicians’ hands and into the hands of the courts.
Inmates, regardless of their crime or circumstances, still have rights and constitutional protections against abuse.
I have never forgotten my time in prison and the fellow inmates I served with. Hopefully, this article will remind us that others are looking out for inmates also.
rewdiazepam
I hope that gentleman wins his lawsuit! It's ridiculous that yes they're guilty of a crime but they still are humans with feelings/emotions!
Thanks Rew for all you do for our loved ones :) :)
It is imperative that the family call and send emails if their loved one is not receiving proper medical care. The inmate can complain, but an inmate complaint is often thrown in the trash and ineffective.
But if the prison system knows the inmate has a family or someone who loves him on the outside, they often get on the ball and provide better treatment.
When you call, be polite but firm. Cussing and shouting will not help your cause. If there is a problem, contact the medical staff at the prison directly; talking to the case manager is a waste of time. If that is not successful, contact the Warden of the prison. If that does not result in some action, contact the state DOC headquarters and talk to the top official overseeing medical care in prison.
Document all your communication with these folks. Keep all the emails and their replies.
You want to complain in an adult manner. I cannot stress that enough. Losing your temper or venting your frustrations will only result in a delay.
In an extreme example, when nothing else works and you are at the end of your rope, you can find out the names of the physicians and nurses at the medical department and report them to the state medical and nurse’s board. I have only seen that done in a handful of cases over the years, but medical people don’t like their medical licenses placed in jeopardy, so sometimes this works.
Do not be afraid to complain to the prison staff about a medical issue for fear that they will take their anger out on your loved one. Complaining about “prison politics” such as the living conditions---if there is no a/c, for example----or prison procedures are issues that you cannot successfully address, but a medical problem is different. Medical issues are human rights issues. Prisons don’t like inmates, but they hate civil suits for neglect even more.
Actually, emailing them is more effective in the beginning than calling. With an email, you have documented your concern and you have their answer. You do not have that in a phone call. Use the email system in the beginning and then use the calling if the email does not bring results.
I emphasize, you have to stay after them, calling them once or twice a week. If you don’t, they will not prioritize your loved one’s medical problem and just blow you off.
rewdiazepam
Have you read "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson? Although the focus is mostly in Alabama, the statistics listed are very informative.