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| Justice Department to look into care at Mo. women's prison |
| By The Kansas City Star |
| Published: 08/21/2003 |
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A special team from the Department of Justice will interview inmates this week about conditions at the women's prison in Vandalia, Mo. It will be at least the second visit from the department's special litigation unit to the eastern Missouri prison, where two Kansas City area women died earlier this year. Family members of those women question whether their relatives received adequate medical treatment at Vandalia. The family of a third inmate, from Kansas -- who died hours after being released on a medical parole -- has filed a medical malpractice and wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court. The Justice Department officials are to meet with current inmates in the prison's visiting area. They have been refused broader access by the Missouri Department of Corrections. Tim Kniest, spokesman for the corrections department, said the state denied a request by federal officials to walk through the prison unaccompanied because of safety and security concerns. The Justice Department is investigating medical and other conditions at the prison under the authority of the federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. The American Civil Liberties Union of St. Louis also is investigating medical conditions at the prison. A nun who coordinates prison ministries for the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City is critical of conditions at the prison and has been working with the ACLU and federal investigators. Medical care at the prison is provided by the private company Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis, which contracts with Missouri to operate in all of its correctional institutions. The company is paid a fixed rate per prisoner per day. It operates in more than 20 other states. Ken Fields, spokesman for the medical services company, said Friday that the care the company provided was reviewed by the Missouri Department of Corrections and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. The company's contract with Missouri was renewed in December for five years. Kniest said a review was conducted each time an inmate died in a state prison. In late July, the federal team interviewed 70 inmates at Vandalia, according to Kniest. The team also interviewed family members of some Vandalia inmates who had died. |
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