Mont. Prison Fares Well in Medical Review

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By Associated Press

Published: 08/06/2003

The Montana State Prison has made significant improvement in its medical care of inmates and appears on the verge of complying with the 1994 settlement of a lawsuit attacking the system as inadequate, corrections officials were advised this week.
Dr. Ron Shansky of Chicago, an expert in correctional health care, gave that assessment after his latest visit to the Deer Lodge prison to review its medical operations.
'It's reasonable to expect substantial compliance can be achieved by the time of the next visit,' he said.
'You're close enough that, barring something unforeseen, that could happen. At that point, you will have created a very, very solid program.'
Shansky's review is the 10th such checkup required in the settlement of federal court suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in late 1993.
Eric Balaban, a lawyer with the ACLU's National Prison Project in Washington, D.C., was cautiously optimistic after listening to Shansky's report to top prison officials and health-care staff.
He recalled similar findings in the past were followed by setbacks in the next review.
'We have been here before,' he said, adding that the most recent accomplishments must be maintained.
'I am hopeful we will continue to see progress when we come out here again in eight to nine months,' he said. 'We look forward to coming back here and seeing verified improvements.'
Warden Mike Mahoney said if Shansky and the ACLU find 'substantial compliance' in the next visit in March or April, they would have to return a last time six months later to ensure that the improvement was sustained.
After that, with approval of a judge, the suit could be resolved and the state would no longer be under scrutiny of the courts, he said.
'It's the end of a decade-long process ... to ensure a quality health-care system,' Mahoney said.
The developments were the latest in the state's 12-year response to various lawsuits filed in the aftermath of the September 1991 prison riot.
The state corrections system spends about $8 million a year on inmate health care, and 77 percent of that is spent at the men's prison, with 1,300 inmates. Shansky said the medical program's record-keeping is much better since the staff abandoned efforts for now to launch an automated system.
Perfecting the manual paper system for tracking inmate's medical files will put the prison in good position to change over to a computerized system later, he said.
Shansky said the only flaw in staffing is a shortage of nurses, but that's not unusual. There's a widespread lack of nurses and finding ones willing to work in a prison is even more difficult, he said.
Inmates needing attention for health concerns are being seen more promptly and nurses are following established procedures for processing the patients, he said. Most inmates on sick call are being seen within 24-48 hours, but the staff should try to further reduce that delay, Shansky said.
Nurses are more timely in referring patients to the prison doctor or the two physician assistants, but Shansky warned that those three staffers are barely enough to handle the load.
The program for treating inmates with chronic health problems is 'working quite well' and the prison is doing a better job than most institutions in getting patients to specialists when necessary, he said.

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