Post by skyloom on Apr 12, 2006 7:50:11 GMT -5
Senator Vaughn buries bills that he and his ultra-regressive constituency don't like, and they don't like prisoners at all. He's refused to let a bill out of committee that would set up a commission to examine the administration of the death penalty in Delaware (as well as one that would extend equal rights in employment to people who are homosexual). He should know that people are watching him.
Senator James T. Vaughn
Legislative Hall
P.O. Box 1401
Dover, DE 19903
The News Journal
04/12/2006
DOVER -- All inmates in Delaware prisons would be tested for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis and guards would be trained as medical caregivers -- including for emergency childbirth -- under a bill unveiled Tuesday by a coalition of state lawmakers, prison guards and clergy.
The sweeping reform bill, which has the support of minority and majority leaders in the Senate, also would require the Department of Correction's medical service provider to deliver records of inmate deaths within three days to the Medical Society of Delaware's Prison Health Committee for review and make other records available to the state for audit. Inmate medical grievances must be sent to the Department of Correction.
Failure by the medical service provider, currently St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services, to produce the information required or to perform the services mandated, would be a breach of contract and the company would be subject to damages.
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"It's sad we have to introduce legislation to make treatment humane," said Senate Bill 291 co-sponsor Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton. Peterson said she receives an average of three letters per day from inmates complaining about health care, correspondence she forwards to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Problems with prison medical care were the subject of a recent series by The News Journal, which highlighted high rates of inmate deaths due to AIDS and suicide. After the series was published, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into medical care inside Delaware prisons, which is ongoing and could take months or years.
"I believed when the federal government came, the prison had shaped up," Peterson said. "Evidently not."
About 20 states mandate HIV testing for prisoners -- some before they enter the institution, some before they get out. Twenty-four states have laws obliging sex offenders to be tested at the request of the victim, prosecutor or court, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
S.B. 291, introduced by Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, has a raft of provisions listed on its 12 pages, including family planning and entitling inmates to "appropriate medical treatment to cure any cancer diagnosed while they are incarcerated whether or not they can pay for the treatment."
"We could not in good stance be elected officials and not respond to this," Henry said about prison health care in Delaware. "We needed to get something on the table."
Mike Lenigan, secretary of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, said his members helped draft S.B. 291. "We're proud to be part of helping with the solution."
Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said she had not had an opportunity to review Henry's bill, adding that the administration has taken steps to increase its oversight on medical issues in the prisons.
"I can't say much about it because I haven't had a chance to read it yet," Minner said. "But I look forward to talking with Sen. Henry about it."
Christine Whitehead, who began writing the bill for the corrections officer's union last fall, likened their role in prison health care to that of a receptionist in a doctor's office.
"If they have more information, they can offer more," she said. "A lot of them are very caring human beings who are concerned about people."
At a press conference in the Senate hearing room Tuesday, Sen. Charles Copeland, R-West Farms, who co-sponsored S.B. 291, said he was disturbed by a News Journal story published Sunday about former inmate Kimwayna Allen, who gave birth to premature twins in a bathroom at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution last month.
Copeland said he was "stunned, shocked and dismayed that another woman had trouble with her delivery. These were babies who never committed a crime."
He holds Correction Commissioner Stan Taylor personally accountable.
"How can you not have put a procedure in place on how to handle pregnancies? It's not like they're faking," Copeland said. "Maybe it's time for Stan Taylor to step down."
Taylor did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
The bill is also co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harris B. McDowell III, D-Wilmington North.
Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr., D-Bridgeville, assigned the bill to Sen. James Vaughn's Senate Corrections Committee.
"I think things are being made out to be worse than they actually are, but if there are problems I'm convinced Stan is a good man, who cares about the inmates, and will work to correct them," Adams said.
'An expensive bill'
Vaughn, D-Clayton, said he had seen drafts of the bill but had not seen the measure in its final form.
If the bill came to Vaughn, he has the power to kill it without holding a hearing on the measure. Vaughn said he will review the measure during the General Assembly's two-week spring break before deciding what to do.
"From what I saw early on, it will be an expensive bill," he said. "I'll want to see the fiscal note and review the details before I decide anything."
Senate Minority Whip Liane Sorenson, R-Hockessin, said the bill is needed and hopes it will come before the Senate for debate.
"If we had some of this in place, we might not have had the federal problems we have now," Sorenson said. "I sat in on the House hearings, and while that was only one side of the story, it's clear we have a problem that needs to be addressed."
Pregnancy concerns
After learning Allen delivered twins in a prison bathroom, the lawmakers said they wanted strong provisions included in the bill to protect pregnant inmates.
S.B. 291 requires guards to be informed when an inmate is pregnant, and it requires the pregnancy to be a factor in all decisions concerning the mother's "activity, medication, medical attention and nutrition made by correctional staff."
The bill requires that pregnant inmates receive vitamin and mineral supplements according to obstetrical directions immediately upon diagnosis, and if an inmate suffers labor pains, and a medical staff person is not present, the bill requires the prison staff to take the inmate to a hospital.
If the mother has not arranged for adoption, the bill specifies that the mother shall be entitled to keep her baby for at least eight weeks after the birth.
Family reaction
Francine Wright, whose son, Darnell Anderson, died of AIDS in January 2005, was encouraged the bill was introduced. "Hopefully it will pass."
Wright's son was serving a four-year drug sentence when he was taken to Wilmington's St. Francis Hospital on Dec. 16, 2004. During his hospitalization, doctors learned Anderson had pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, an AIDS-related infection that is preventable and treatable when caught early.
Victoria Trice, whose brother, Bernard Coston, died of AIDS while at Gander Hill prison in March 2002, had some reservations about the bill.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Trice said about training prison guards to be medical responders. "They've had guards there, and they've allowed things to happen. ... I think they need to get people from the outside to come in and monitor that stuff."
The Rev. Christopher Bullock, who with Copeland founded the Delaware Coalition for Prison Reform and Justice, supports the bill because "Delaware has a constitutional and a moral responsibility to do the right thing."
If the bill passes, Bullock hopes Minner signs it into law.
"She will do the right thing for the families, the correction officers and the inmates," Bullock said. "I encourage the families to keep the faith and keep praying. Help is on the way."
More info at:
www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060412/NEWS/604120375/1006
Senator James T. Vaughn
Legislative Hall
P.O. Box 1401
Dover, DE 19903
The News Journal
04/12/2006
DOVER -- All inmates in Delaware prisons would be tested for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis and guards would be trained as medical caregivers -- including for emergency childbirth -- under a bill unveiled Tuesday by a coalition of state lawmakers, prison guards and clergy.
The sweeping reform bill, which has the support of minority and majority leaders in the Senate, also would require the Department of Correction's medical service provider to deliver records of inmate deaths within three days to the Medical Society of Delaware's Prison Health Committee for review and make other records available to the state for audit. Inmate medical grievances must be sent to the Department of Correction.
Failure by the medical service provider, currently St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services, to produce the information required or to perform the services mandated, would be a breach of contract and the company would be subject to damages.
Advertisement
"It's sad we have to introduce legislation to make treatment humane," said Senate Bill 291 co-sponsor Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton. Peterson said she receives an average of three letters per day from inmates complaining about health care, correspondence she forwards to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Problems with prison medical care were the subject of a recent series by The News Journal, which highlighted high rates of inmate deaths due to AIDS and suicide. After the series was published, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into medical care inside Delaware prisons, which is ongoing and could take months or years.
"I believed when the federal government came, the prison had shaped up," Peterson said. "Evidently not."
About 20 states mandate HIV testing for prisoners -- some before they enter the institution, some before they get out. Twenty-four states have laws obliging sex offenders to be tested at the request of the victim, prosecutor or court, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
S.B. 291, introduced by Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, has a raft of provisions listed on its 12 pages, including family planning and entitling inmates to "appropriate medical treatment to cure any cancer diagnosed while they are incarcerated whether or not they can pay for the treatment."
"We could not in good stance be elected officials and not respond to this," Henry said about prison health care in Delaware. "We needed to get something on the table."
Mike Lenigan, secretary of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, said his members helped draft S.B. 291. "We're proud to be part of helping with the solution."
Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said she had not had an opportunity to review Henry's bill, adding that the administration has taken steps to increase its oversight on medical issues in the prisons.
"I can't say much about it because I haven't had a chance to read it yet," Minner said. "But I look forward to talking with Sen. Henry about it."
Christine Whitehead, who began writing the bill for the corrections officer's union last fall, likened their role in prison health care to that of a receptionist in a doctor's office.
"If they have more information, they can offer more," she said. "A lot of them are very caring human beings who are concerned about people."
At a press conference in the Senate hearing room Tuesday, Sen. Charles Copeland, R-West Farms, who co-sponsored S.B. 291, said he was disturbed by a News Journal story published Sunday about former inmate Kimwayna Allen, who gave birth to premature twins in a bathroom at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution last month.
Copeland said he was "stunned, shocked and dismayed that another woman had trouble with her delivery. These were babies who never committed a crime."
He holds Correction Commissioner Stan Taylor personally accountable.
"How can you not have put a procedure in place on how to handle pregnancies? It's not like they're faking," Copeland said. "Maybe it's time for Stan Taylor to step down."
Taylor did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
The bill is also co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harris B. McDowell III, D-Wilmington North.
Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr., D-Bridgeville, assigned the bill to Sen. James Vaughn's Senate Corrections Committee.
"I think things are being made out to be worse than they actually are, but if there are problems I'm convinced Stan is a good man, who cares about the inmates, and will work to correct them," Adams said.
'An expensive bill'
Vaughn, D-Clayton, said he had seen drafts of the bill but had not seen the measure in its final form.
If the bill came to Vaughn, he has the power to kill it without holding a hearing on the measure. Vaughn said he will review the measure during the General Assembly's two-week spring break before deciding what to do.
"From what I saw early on, it will be an expensive bill," he said. "I'll want to see the fiscal note and review the details before I decide anything."
Senate Minority Whip Liane Sorenson, R-Hockessin, said the bill is needed and hopes it will come before the Senate for debate.
"If we had some of this in place, we might not have had the federal problems we have now," Sorenson said. "I sat in on the House hearings, and while that was only one side of the story, it's clear we have a problem that needs to be addressed."
Pregnancy concerns
After learning Allen delivered twins in a prison bathroom, the lawmakers said they wanted strong provisions included in the bill to protect pregnant inmates.
S.B. 291 requires guards to be informed when an inmate is pregnant, and it requires the pregnancy to be a factor in all decisions concerning the mother's "activity, medication, medical attention and nutrition made by correctional staff."
The bill requires that pregnant inmates receive vitamin and mineral supplements according to obstetrical directions immediately upon diagnosis, and if an inmate suffers labor pains, and a medical staff person is not present, the bill requires the prison staff to take the inmate to a hospital.
If the mother has not arranged for adoption, the bill specifies that the mother shall be entitled to keep her baby for at least eight weeks after the birth.
Family reaction
Francine Wright, whose son, Darnell Anderson, died of AIDS in January 2005, was encouraged the bill was introduced. "Hopefully it will pass."
Wright's son was serving a four-year drug sentence when he was taken to Wilmington's St. Francis Hospital on Dec. 16, 2004. During his hospitalization, doctors learned Anderson had pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, an AIDS-related infection that is preventable and treatable when caught early.
Victoria Trice, whose brother, Bernard Coston, died of AIDS while at Gander Hill prison in March 2002, had some reservations about the bill.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Trice said about training prison guards to be medical responders. "They've had guards there, and they've allowed things to happen. ... I think they need to get people from the outside to come in and monitor that stuff."
The Rev. Christopher Bullock, who with Copeland founded the Delaware Coalition for Prison Reform and Justice, supports the bill because "Delaware has a constitutional and a moral responsibility to do the right thing."
If the bill passes, Bullock hopes Minner signs it into law.
"She will do the right thing for the families, the correction officers and the inmates," Bullock said. "I encourage the families to keep the faith and keep praying. Help is on the way."
More info at:
www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060412/NEWS/604120375/1006