TITLE: A Prison Medical Company Faced Lawsuits From Incarcerated People. Then It Went ‘Bankrupt.’
EXCERPT: In 2020, Jonathan Arther sued a dozen state officials and employees of the Arizona prison where, he says, his medical care was bungled so badly that he went blind in one eye. He also sued Corizon Health Inc., the private, for-profit medical contractor that the state had hired to provide care in the prison where Arther was serving time for a DUI conviction. A few weeks ago, his wife got an email offering the couple $5,000 to settle the lawsuit — an offer she found insulting. The email said there was likely not enough money to cover all the legal claims against Corizon, and the couple could take the small lump sum instead of continuing to fight in court.
There are more than 100 people like Arther, who argue the medical care they received from Corizon while they were incarcerated was negligent, or worse, and are now dealing with the fallout of the company’s complicated bankruptcy. Attorneys last month announced they had reached a tentative settlement deal in the bankruptcy and expected to bring the terms to the court next week, but the details won’t become public until that happens. Until then, the people who sued Corizon are left to wonder what compensation they’ll receive, if any.
That’s because Corizon, a company that provided healthcare in prisons and jails across the country, moved most of its debts to a new company called Tehum Care Services that then declared bankruptcy, in a controversial corporate restructuring known as a “Texas Two-Step.” Then, Corizon executives created another company to do business under a new name — YesCare — a move that critics say could allow Corizon to minimize its liability. In fact, YesCare inked a contract worth more than $1 billion in Alabama, even as Corizon’s creditors may be left empty-handed.
Tehum, the bankrupt new company created in the maneuver, owes more than $82 million to over 1,000 creditors, including former patients who were injured or neglected, former employees who were hurt on the job, hospitals, doctors’ offices, cities and states. Almost all of Corizon’s assets — worth more than $170 million, according to court papers — went to YesCare, which continues to provide healthcare at prisons and jails.
“These guys are playing hide-and-go-seek with all the money,” said Michael Crawford, the attorney for the wife of a man who died in Arizona prisons when, his family says, he was left unattended by Corizon medical staff in bed for so long that he developed bed sores that became infected by his feces. He ultimately died of septic shock. His family also got an offer of $5,000 to settle its suit.
TITLE: Advocacy Group Says Inmates Eat Toothpaste, Toilet Paper, Salt to Dull Hunger
EXCERPT: Food conditions and nutritional standards as well as recent violations of kitchen sanitary practices within the Nevada Department of Corrections were discussed during Wednesday’s meeting of the Nevada Board of Prison Commissioners, which includes Gov. Joe Lombardo, Attorney General Aaron Ford and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar. Aguilar was absent from the meeting.
Several members of the prison advocacy group Return Strong, which has repeatedly brought up concerns about the lack of food given to those incarcerated, once again questioned the department’s food standards.
“One of our incarcerated members at Ely State Prison said, ‘I have eaten toothpaste and tums antacids or even salt for hunger pains. It helps for a little bit,’” said Pamela Browning, one of the members of the group. “Another said, ‘I eat toilet paper and hot water.’ Please tell me how this is humane?”
Along with lacking food, the group brought up story after story of people having to choose between not eating enough or eating contaminated food that makes them sick.
“I have heard many times that the food was rotten and moldy,” Browning said. “An incarcerated member said they have gotten sick from eating meat that was either undercooked or bad.”
The board also heard results of recent health inspections conducted at High Desert State Prison, Southern Desert Correctional Center and Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center, which all had several violations for kitchen equipment not being sanitized.
Southern Desert Correctional Center had the most violations, which included handwashing sinks not stocked with soap or paper towels, high temperature dish machines in disrepair and “live roaches were observed throughout the culinary operations.”
It’s not the first time facilities had similar sanitation violations.
TITLE: Texas' lockdown of its overheated state prisons is worsening an already volatile situation
EXCERPT: Citing a rise in drug-related homicides at its facilities, TDCJ officials said they implemented the lockdown to search for illicit drugs and homemade weapons. The sweep restricted the movement of 129,000 incarcerated people, leaving most locked in their cells 24 hours day, according to advocates.
"It's harder to get access to water, or ice, or the various initiatives that [TDCJ] has instituted," Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, said of lockdown conditions. "[The cells] are concrete boxes. So you can imagine just how extraordinarily uncomfortable it can be in these settings."
Amid one of the hottest summers in Texas history, families of state prisoners have testified that their loved ones are soaking their bedsheets in toilet water, sleeping on the floor, and intentionally getting sent to solitary confinement to escape their un-air conditioned cells. Fewer than a third of Texas' state prisons are air-conditioned, according to the Associated Press.
While some prisons have slowly resumed normal operations, at press time Monday, most Texas inmates remained locked in their cells, and TDCJ hasn't said how long it expects the crackdown to last. The opening days of the sweep occurred while temperatures across the state were still regularly cresting over 100 degrees.
"A lot of sentences are turning into death sentences," Deitch said. "That's something no civilized society should tolerate."
Indeed, at least 41 prisoners are suspected to have died in state prisons of heat-related causes this summer alone, according to an analysis by Texas Tribune. Even so, TDCJ officials maintain that there hasn't been a heat-related death in a Texas prison since 2012.
"Specifically, it would be inaccurate to classify any death this year as a heat-related death as a lot of these are still under investigation and pending final autopsies," TDCJ spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez said in an emailed statement.
However, experts and advocates said there's overwhelming evidence that Texas prisoners are being cooked alive.
"A lot of these deaths that we're seeing are young people in their 30s and 40s, who otherwise have no known health conditions," Deitch said. "So, common sense tells us that a lot of these deaths may be due to heat-related causes.