State of Wisconsin settles suit over poor prison health care

[Bozita]

Seeing as how the prison system is America's new mental health system, this settlement is quite timely.


http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/state-and-regional/wi/article_e6cc2296-ab52-11df-8f37-001cc4c03286.html

State settles suit over poor prison health care

By TODD RICHMOND | The Associated Press winonadailynews.com | Posted: Thursday, August 19, 2010 12:30 am


MADISON — State prison officials have agreed to meet new health care standards at Wisconsin’s largest women’s prison and pay nearly $1 million to resolve a federal lawsuit.

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The ACLU, with the help of Chicago law firm Jenner & Block, filed a class-action lawsuit in 2006 alleging medical, mental and dental care at Taycheedah was grossly deficient, causing inmates great physical pain and mental anguish. The ACLU won a victory in the lawsuit last year when U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa ordered the prison to use nurses to dispense prisoner medication rather than guards, whom the ACLU argued handed out incorrect drugs and didn’t properly document doses.

The settlement calls for Taycheedah to attain accreditation by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. The prison also must hire a new associate medical director to oversee all clinical care, help develop quality improvements and evaluate clinical staff.

The deal also lays out standards of care, including giving inmates a daily opportunity to ask for health care; ensuring proper follow-up care; providing 24-hour emergency medical services and health screening for all incoming prisoners; and providing medications on time according to Corrections policy.

Corrections also must complete construction of a women’s ward at the Wisconsin Resource Center, a mental health treatment center in Winnebago, and start accepting Taycheedah prisoners there by June 1, 2012. The ward is expected to be completed by next summer, but ACLU spokesman Will Matthews says the settlement creates a means to legally enforce an opening date.

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