To:
CHARLES RYAN
Cc:
"chcampbell@azleg.gov" , atovar@azleg.gov,
Governor Brewer , "abiggs@azleg.gov"
, "dgowan@azleg.gov" ,
Daniel Pochoda , Caroline Isaacs
, Peri Jude Radecic
, Richard Pratt
, Donna Leone Hamm
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Charles Ryan, Director
Arizona Department of Corrections
1601 W. Jefferson St
Phoenix, AZ 85007
April 29, 2014
Director Ryan:
I'm
writing with grave concern about the welfare of both the patients and
medical staff of ASPC-Tucson/Rincon's Intensive Care Unit. I've heard
complaints from a former Corizon employee that there's a serious,
ongoing outbreak of blood sucking parasites (scabies) among both the
patients
and employees there needing immediate intervention. The public health
department wont take any action, but I do expect you to.
Apparently the physician in charge is in deep denial about this
infestation, and is thus refusing to properly treat the sick and dying
people who have been infected with scabies. At least 7
Corizon employees have been infected by scabies as well, but have been
denied time off to treat their own conditions because there are no other
staff to cover their shifts. Thus, they risk spreading the parasites to
other patients, many of whom are elderly or have compromised immune
systems already - which is why this outbreak is an urgent matter to
attend to, whether or not there are any prisoner grievances. Patients
who are too
far gone may not even know that they've been infested with these
parasites to file a
complaint - they just lie there and suffer.
That's not all that's going in in that unit, though. The
DOC is complicit in the neglect by ignoring staffing needs in the ICU -
my source tells me she worries that some of the sick and dying may not
even be getting fed regularly or having their soiled sheets changed
enough because the place is so drastically understaffed. Many of those
patients who need help eating and toileting don't have the voice to
complain or the coherence to know they missed lunch or wet the bed. You
have a special duty to look out for them when you hear that the people
you hired to do so are not.
The former employee I spoke to also alleges that at least one
prisoner has died recently due to negligence on Corizon's part, a death
which was reported as being from "natural causes". Thus, each one of
those ICU patients should have a through medical
evaluation done by someone not affiliated with Corizon to prevent
another wrongful death. And really, all the health
units with seriously disabled and non-verbal patients should have extra
oversight from the DOC. The worst abuses always happen to those who can
be
expected to remain silent.
On other yards I know that Corizon abruptly
stopped pain medication regardless of how severe the patients condition
was, and only transitioned those prisoners to alternative meds for
relief if they fought for it, which few prisoners know how to even do. Unfortunately, the demented and
brain-injured patients you imprison who will never be able to advocate for themselves effectively or "exhaust
administrative remedies" so they can sue you all, making them
easy prey for profiteers like Corizon. Those people just look for the most vulnerable
and ignored population to cut their corners with. That's where you need to be looking, too.
From
what my source has told me about the overall situation in Rincon's ICU,
patient records and staff logs should be immediately seized and
inspected so they can't be tampered with, while interviews are conducted
with staff about evidence of criminal wrongdoing in regards to those
patients by Corizon. I frankly think what Corizon is doing amounts to
stealing resources from both the patients and the state, and defrauding
us all by not delivering what they have been paid for and have
promised. The consequences of such a violation of that contract has no
doubt been deadly to more than one of their imprisoned patients.
Please assure me that you will send a health care team
into Rincon ICU immediately
to deal with this situation and evaluate those patients and their
records, and make sure that all receive the necessary treatment for
their ailments, be it scabies, Alzheimers, or cancer. If your DOC
employee monitoring Corizon at
Rincon was doing their job thus far, you wouldn't be getting this
letter from me, so I wouldn't count on them to do the job right now -
they would just have incentive to downplay everything so they don't look
like a fool. Please evaluate whether your Corizon contract monitoring
staff are just oblivious,
deliberately indifferent, or actually complicit in hiding Corizon's
crimes against the people of this state.
I'll have public records requests pertinent to this email in to your
legal department by the morning. I'll also pass your contact information
on to the former Corizon employee I spoke to, who may be willing to
speak to DOC investigators if you plan to take this seriously. Just let me know who she should contact.
Sincerely,
Margaret Plews
--
Margaret J. Plews, Editor
Arizona Prison Watch
P.O. Box 20494
Phoenix, AZ 85036
480-580-6807
"Our
strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it.
To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our
music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our
sheer relentlessness, and our ability to tell our own stories..."
- Arundhati Roy
Arizona Prison Watch
arizonaprisonwatch.org
Survivors of Prison Violence - AZ
azprisonsurvivors.blogspot.com
Jailhouse Lawyers' Auxiliary Guild - AZ
jailhouselawauxiliaryaz.blogspot.com
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