The Region - News from Sept. 17, 1985

Poor medical care at the California Institution for Women at Frontera in San Bernardino County has resulted in the death of one premature baby, birth defects in another infant and an unnecessary hysterectomy, seven women inmates charged in a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The plaintiffs said the prison, which houses 1,828 women convicts, has no obstetrician or gynecologist on its medical staff, thus endangering unborn infants with inadequate medical care. Acting prison chief Annie Alexander, however, said there are four full-time physicians on the prison staff and others are called in “according to need.”