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Pritzker criticized for worsened medical and mental health care in prisons

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* Sun-Times op-ed by Harold Hirshman, the lead counsel in the Rasho v. Jeffreys mental health class action lawsuit against IDOC and lead trial counsel in the Lippert v. Jeffreys health care class action lawsuit…

The state committed itself to change by entering into a consent decree in the Lippert vs. Jeffreys class action lawsuit on prison medical care in 2018, but an acceptable plan to provide such care has never been submitted to the court. This plan was due three years ago, and a federal court has now held them in contempt for failing to create the plan. The IDOC can’t even begin to fix its health care system without it.

In Rasho vs. Jeffreys, the mental health class action lawsuit, the results are even more troubling. After years of operating under an approved settlement agreement, the IDOC’s lawyers have now repudiated the agreement. The parties are now preparing for a trial, because defendants never did what they committed to do under the settlement agreement. […]

Stewart , the mental health monitor, wrote report after report, year after year, detailing the deficiencies of care. These deficiencies have continued during Pritzker’s term. In February, a federal judge held that some of the patients most in need of mental health treatment —those housed at Pontiac Correctional Center’s residential treatment unit — were not getting intensive treatment detailed in IDOC’s own mental health manuals. Instead, they were confined to their cells for 23 to 24 hours a day.

Why did this happen? IDOC says they don’t have enough guards at Pontiac, so prisoners have to remain locked in their cells. But IDOC has known since 2014 that they didn’t have enough mental health or security staff. The problem persists eight years later. Wexford, the private company that provides the mental and physical health care, has never delivered the number of employees called for in its contract. Yet the contract, remarkably, calls for Wexford to be paid in advance for all workers, despite the company never having met the contractual staffing requirements.

There are other persistent problems, too. The IDOC health care system still does not have electronic medical records, a basic feature, in 2022, of a functioning medical care system. The IDOC promised in the Lippert settlement that they would have electronic records by now, but there is still no date for such a system to be implemented. […]

Pritzker has been a leader in many areas, but not on prison medical and mental health care. Nothing has changed in Illinois prisons in the last three and a half years — if anything, things have gotten worse.

There’s more.

…Adding… From the governor’s office…

The Department of Corrections has prevailed on numerous motions in the Rasho litigation, including findings that the Department’s efforts are appropriate and not a violation of its Constitutional obligations. Plaintiffs’ recent motions seeking a preliminary injunction and seeking contempt have all been denied and the prior injunction against the Department was vacated in full by the 7th Circuit. As a result of these rulings, the District Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion to extend the already multi-year consent decree, finding the agreement could no longer be enforced against the Department. The Department recently opened the first ever state of the art inpatient facility this summer and remains committed to ensuring appropriate mental health care and treatment for all individuals in its custody.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 11:07 am

Comments

Nice hit peace this dude wrote. First, DOC just opened up a first of its kind mental health hospital. I guess that count’s for nothing.
Secondly, the general assembly has chose to underfund IDOC for the past twenty years.
Thirdly, why has IDOC become a treatment center for the mentally ill anyway?
Thirdly, my favorite, AFSCME does not want to help where this is concerned. They put a road block up wherever they can and would prefer to go back in time to the lock um up and throw away the key days. Makes for a much easier job.

Comment by Pete Mitchell Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 11:32 am
Whatever… op-eds are just that, opinions not based on entirety of facts.

Comment by Alice Childress Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 11:46 am
Ninety-nine % of these mis/maltreated prisoners will return to our streets…do remember.

Comment by Dotnonymous Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 11:58 am
The current political environment emphasis on crime, and the botched criminal justice reforms by large (mostly Dem) district attorneys across the country (San Francisco, Cook County) this op-ed is essentially yelling into the abyss.

Comment by Almost the Weekend Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 12:11 pm
While I don’t see this and the ongoing DCFS debacle having much if any impact on the election (the folks who care about prisoner and/or foster child welfare are unlikely to be Bailey voters and, unfortunately, too small of a group that not turning out will make a difference), man, JB’s really got to start addressing these issues once reelected. Especially if he’s got national ambitions.

Comment by /s Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 12:29 pm
Whether or not the op-ed’s author is screaming into the void, the State had an opportunity to craft (and implement) a solution to provide exactly what it is obligated to provide: constitutionally adequate mental health and medical care within IDOC. Any State-devised solution would (and did) take into consideration budgetary, procurement and personnel challenges to providing adequate care. Presumably, therefore, the State-devised solution sought to provide basic necessities to offenders while also safeguarding public funds. Said solution is better than having the Court, with direct input from Plaintiffs and the monitor, impose a gold standard which, inevitably, exceeds any constitutional minimum and will be infinitely more expensive/onerous to achieve than the constitutional minimum. Its a shame that the State (under not just the current administration) squandered this chance.

Comment by In the Know Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 1:25 pm
Is there any state where the Department of Corrections isn’t a mess?

Uninformed citizens think prisoners are “coddled” and deserve poor conditions as part of their sentence. On the “This is Good for All of Us” scale, prison reform comes near the bottom.

But I can’t see that a change in governors would change that situation.

Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 1:28 pm
Not Presidential, Governor.

Comment by Radical Candor Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 1:34 pm
I sure he gets this fixed quick before all of his fellow elected Democrats check in.

Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 1:40 pm
Wexford does not have the best reputation in inmate health care. remember the story about the inmate going blind but Wexford only worked on one eye because “that’s enough to get by on in prison”, or some-such logic?

Mental health caregiving in a prison context has to be a really tough and stressful job, and it should pay commensurately. IDOC/ Wexford isn’t paying for the needed level of care, thus not getting job applicants. I have to wonder if there isn’t another way to get this done than what Wexford is (barely) doing.

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 1:45 pm
There probably is no more difficult environment to provide healthcare than in a prison. That’s not just in Illinois. To make it worse, no one wants to pay for it. How does it ever get better? I don’t see a champion able to make enough people care to make meaningful change. Not in today’s world. It’s sad.

Comment by Lincoln Lad Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 4:15 pm
Yes, individuals in prison need treatment. So do students in grades
K- 12. If only each school had a nurse on staff Monday - Friday during school hours.
Many students are not seen regularly by physicians and nurses are a valuable resource to screen for vision, nutrition, and social- emotional needs. Would rather know that limited resources are directed to school-age children.

Comment by Rudy’s teeth Thursday, Aug 18, 22 @ 4:44 pm