sat, october 30, 1999
california probing prisons
medical neglect, sex abuse focus
By Mark Arax
Los Angeles Times
CHOWCHILLA, Calif. - Side side, the two largest women's prisons in the world rise out of the almond fields and light up the night sky crime for miles, an eerie shrine to and punishment whose darker impulses are now under scrutiny again.
For years, inmates at the Central California Women's Facility have claimed that medical care was shoddy and inhumane, that curable diseases sometimes became: death sentences. After a class-action"' prisoner lawsuit was filed in 1995, state corrections officials pledged reform.
But 'despite improvements medical. staffing and day-to-day health care, inmates and prison watchdog groups allege that serious medical problems continue and that a Handful of guards and medical staffers are sexually assaulting inmates. The problems, they say, have spread to Valley State Prison just across the road.
Cal Terhune director of the state Department of Corrections, "said Thursday that he has launched an, investigation at all four of California's.-women's prison after learning of some of the allegations from lawyers and prisoner advocates.
Terhune said the investigation on who may have engaged in improper sexual relations with inmates He defended, however, the quality of medical care, say saying that the department as taken considerbale steps to improve medical care for inmates statewide.
But 13 females have died: at the Central California Women's Facility in the past year After enduring some form of medical neglect, according to a San Francisco legal group that negotiated the settlement of the 1995 lawsuit and monitors medical conditions. Long delays in cancer diagnosis, severe dehydration and inmates forced to lie for hours in their excrement are a part; of everyday life, the group alleged.
At least one former inmate has told attorneys that her child was fathered behind bars by a prison staffer. Several other inmates say that they spent their sentences fending off sexual advances from guards and work crew supervisors.
One male nurse at the Central California Women's Facility assigned to care for inmates with serious and terminal illnesses admitted in. a deposition that he sexually abused three patients 1996, said Ellen Barry, director of legal services for Prisoners With Children in San Francisco. At least one victim was so weak that she could not move enough to defend herself, Barry said.
Two weeks ago, the head medical officer at Valley State Prison was reassigned to a desk job in Sacramento after explaining to a network news program why his staff was giving pelvic exams to inmates complaining of headaches. He said the women enjoyed the procedure because "it's the only male contact they get."
Terhune said some of the steps taken to improve medical care include hiring more doctors and nurses and increasing access to medications.
The biggest challenge, he said, is finding and keeping good doctors, nurses and mental health staff 'willing to work in penitentiaries.
"We've done abetter job lately of recruiting medical staff, but I'm still not satisfied," Terhune said.
As for the allegations of sexual abuse, Terhune said the department is in the midst of a months-long internal investigation.
don't know at this point if the problem is widespread or not," he said. "That's what we're in the process of trying to determine."
The department is also reviewing 4dtwork on every pelvic examnotion done at Valley State Prison over. the past few years to determine Whether there is a pattern of unnecessary exams.
Dr. Anthony DiDomenico, the medical director at Valley State since 1995, told ABCs Ted Koppel in an Oct. 5 interview, "I've heard inmates tell me that they would deliberately like to be examined. It's the only male contact they get."
The 71-year-old doctor said it was not uncommon for women to complain of being ill when a pelvic exam "is what they want."
A prison official, however, said that two-thirds of such exams are performed by female nurse practitioners.
The doctor's comments will air during a six-part Nightline series on both Chowchilla prisons.