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| Jail medical suit dismissed |
| By The Pueblo Chieftain |
| Published: 04/11/2005 |
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A judge has dismissed a lawsuit that alleged health care for inmates at the Pueblo County jail was deplorable. The lawsuit, filed a year ago in U.S. District Court, sought a court order to have the U.S. Justice Department temporarily take over the jail's health-care services. In a six-page decision made public Monday, Judge Phillip Figa threw out the lawsuit on procedural grounds and did not rule on the merits of the allegations. He ruled that former inmate Kathleen Whittemore, who filed the lawsuit, did not show that she had exhausted her efforts to seek remedies through administrative procedures within the jail. Figa pointed out that federal law does not permit lawsuits about jail and prison conditions "until such administrative remedies as are available are exhausted." The lawsuit alleged that health care provided to inmates "fall(s) beneath standards of human decency." It sought a judge's ruling that the provided level of care violated inmates' constitutional right to be free from "cruel and unusual punishment." Sheriff Dan Corsentino denied the allegations when the lawsuit was filed. "The inmates receive better health care than the working poor," he said. The lawsuit sought class action status on behalf of current and future inmates at the jail, known as the Pueblo County Detention Center. Figa wrote that the lawsuit did not document that administrative remedies had been exhausted and failed to describe any specific administrative proceedings and their outcomes. Whittemore submitted affidavits about her efforts to seek administrative remedies. Figa said he could not consider them because they are not a substitute for the required documentation of actual administrative efforts she made. Whittemore said in a court filing she "begged every jail staff member with who (she) came into contact with that (she) needed medical attention, and that she was in pain." She also said her requests, oral and written, for medical aid were ignored. The problem with the information in her filing is that she did not include it as part of her lawsuit as the law requires, Figa wrote. Figa said he will not allow the lawsuit to be refiled because he already had allowed Whittemore to amend it once. The defendants were the sheriff, the county government and Management Team Solutions, a company which contracted to provide health care to the inmates. Management Team no longer provides health care at the jail. |
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