Infrastructure Nightmares
Introduction to this Topic by the Editor
I need to give you a little background on Perryville so this will be more understandable. This prison was built in the early
Explaining the Shower Picture
This is an accurate sketch of a real shower in “B” yard, Santa Cruz unit. Do you see the loose wires hanging in the lower door jamb? I was told they were “live” because this shower light is still on. I won’t test this theory! I’ve tried to portray all the standing water in front of those wires. All the shower units have standing water because the drains are all plugged.
Standing water = black mold we see everywhere
When inmates complained about the condition of this shower, they just took off the door and left it open. In the shower next to this one (not pictured) is the same filth.
The regulators (hot and cold) will not engage so moving the handle from Hot to Cold does nothing. The temperature the DOC sets is what you get. In the winter the water is cold and in the summer, it’s hot. The water pressure would increase dramatically if they would soak the shower heads in Lime-aWay to remove 50 years of accumulated minerals.
“Drink More Water”…Yeah, Get Cancer Quicker!
We had a rare interview with a staff member at Televerde. He/She shared: “Televerde has a contract with a water filtration company. That contract comes with monthly inspections of equipment and a lab analysis of the water. I tagged along with the technician and learned much.
For instance: Goodyear has one of the top cities with HEAVY METAL-infused tap water. I learned that this company puts 4 filters on the water coming into Televerde offices. FOUR! The technician did the lab analysis right in front of me, and it came up with 590 ppm of heavy metals (sometimes called forever chemicals). The EPA’s legal limit is 580. “
What can you extrapolate from that as to how dangerous the tap water is WITHOUT any filters? Like in Perryville. And as some reports say, inmates here have 10 times the cancer diagnosis as the public outside these walls.
Dr. Thornell, are you listening???
Chronic Punishment: AZDOC’s Deplorable Health Care For Elderly And Infirm
Instead of “rehabilitating” people in prison (physically, mentally, or otherwise), they are kept in a constant state of illness and despair. The Bureau of Justice statistics show a huge proportion of inmates are impacted by disease, disability, and mental illness.
What we want to focus on in this piece is the special needs of the elderly and infirm in Perryville. Instead of asking, “Should cancer prevalence be higher or lower in prison?” a better question is “Why should a 70-year-old with cancer and heart disease be locked up at all?”
The For-Profit healthcare vendors the DOC hires are designed to treat acute problems rather than to prevent chronic disease in the first place. Rates of medical problems are much higher for older people. For elderly inmates, the percentage of hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease is an astounding 78%!
The prison environment makes it difficult for people to pursue a lifestyle and diet that staves off these problems. Prison diets hardly promote public health. Incarcerated people are forced to eat what the public has been told for years to avoid. There is the famous “shmeat” served to Perryville women as “heart healthy protein. We know it’s chicken BY PRODUCTS…. PET FOOD is what it was intended to be. Look on your dogs’ chow bag right now and look at the first ingredient, I bet it’s Chicken By Products!
When we are sentenced to prison, why don’t they also add, ” And you will get NO fresh fruits or vegetables for the entire time you’re there.” 60% of the ladies here have disabilities. 78% for those over 65. Perryville is a makeshift nursing home!!
This is Arizona’s most wasteful, morally bankrupt policy to date. Our solution? Accelerate medical parole. Expand parole eligibility for those above 65 years old. This is known as geriatric parole. These reforms should go hand in hand with other decarceration efforts, like expanding earned good time credits.
Corizon Does Texas 2 Step To Avoid Paying Fines And Court Awards
Corizon Health, Inc. has engaged in legal maneuvers to weasel out of over $38 million to staff and vendors, as well as plaintiffs who won lawsuits for deplorable medical care.
Corizon converted to a Texas corporation for the sole reason of performing a divisional merger, which divides the company into multiple corporations. Texas allows this under TeX.Bus.Orgs code 10.001. Then Corizon declares bankruptcy to avoid paying their legal obligations.
As previously reported, Arizona DOC contracted with Corizon between 2012 and 2019. In that time 31 lawsuits by prisoners and their survivors were lodged against the company for inadequate health care. It’s possible that the state prison system may have to pay all those awards. AND the court ordered fines of 2 million dollars imposed by Judge Silver for substandard prison health care.
Good luck collecting that!
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