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| Inmate sues for improved health care |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/18/2005 |
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An inmate has sued the state of Mississippi over what he claims has been inadequate medical care for his life-threatening illnesses. Raymond Winne of Gulfport filed the lawsuit last week in federal court in Jackson. He claims he has been denied medical treatment for more than a month. Winne is an inmate at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. Named as defendants are the correctional facility Superintendent Margaret Bingham and St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services Inc., which provides medical treatment for state inmates. Mississippi Department of Corrections spokeswoman Suzanne Singletary said the department's attorneys are reviewing the lawsuit. Singletary said MDOC attorneys are confident inmates are receiving proper medical treatment. The lawsuit, which presents one side of a legal argument, said Winne suffers from high iron in his blood; porphyria, a condition that causes oozing lesions to form on his skin; Raynaud's Syndrome, a disorder of the small blood vessels of the extremities; plus chronic lung disease, rheumatoid arthritis and hepatitis C. Winne is serving a felony offense of driving under the influence for the second time. He was incarcerated for violating conditions of house arrest. Winne, 46, was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to three years' probation. Since then, he has been in and out of jail four times on probation violations, the lawsuit says. One of his attorneys, Joseph R. Murray of Tupelo, said he is awaiting a hearing date on a request for a temporary restraining order that would force medical treatment for Winne. On April 27, probation officers arrested Winne and took him to the Harrison County Jail. He was moved to the Rankin County facility because of his medical condition, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit comes after an American Civil Liberties Union class-action lawsuit was filed in June on behalf of roughly 1,000 inmates in Unit 32 at the state Penitentiary in Parchman. The lawsuit's allegations include that inmates in the super-maximum security unit are subjected to inadequate medical, mental-health and dental care. In 2003, the ACLU filed a lawsuit and won improvements in Unit 32 for death row inmates. |
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