State Denies Health Care to Women Inmates, Suit Says

In the latest legal broadside to hit California’s beleaguered prison system, a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday charges corrections officials with “deliberately indifferent failure” to provide proper medical care to most women inmates.

The suit, filed in federal court in Sacramento by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys, presents a litany of medical horrors allegedly suffered by inmates at the Frontera and Chowchilla penitentiaries, where more than 6,000 women are incarcerated.

Department of Corrections officials said they had not examined the lawsuit, but contended that prisoners receive the same or better medical care as non-inmates.

“The department ensures that all prison inmates have adequate medical care that is consistent with community standards,” said Tip Kindel, assistant director of corrections. “Sometimes inmates have better access to medical care than people who are not in prison.”

The suit charges that women inmates are subjected to dangerous delays in treatment because complaints are screened by medical technical assistants who are not qualified to make such decisions.

In one case alleged in the suit, an inmate at the Chowchilla prison in the Central Valley died of cancer several months after a medical technician initially denied the woman permission to see a doctor despite excessive menstrual bleeding.

Another inmate at Frontera was allegedly not provided with a special medical diet although she had a history of uterine, stomach and esophageal cancer.

In another case, a Chowchilla inmate infected with HIV was allegedly denied necessary special care for the virus. In addition, medical personnel allegedly failed to diagnose and treat her for meningitis until she fell into a coma.

The lawsuit also alleges that terminally ill patients are denied proper care.

Ellen Barry, a lawyer with Legal Services for Prisoners With Children, a San Francisco prison reform organization that joined in the suit, said the legal action was taken after months of “intense investigation” into complaints by inmates at the two facilities where nearly 80% of the state’s women inmates are held.

The Department of Corrections has been reeling over the last decade with overcrowding and expensive lawsuits as the prison population mushrooms and outstrips cell space despite a multibillion-dollar building program.