Medicaid, HRSA PIN & SUD --The Potential of MOUD in Carceral Settings To Improve Reentry Through Connectivity

Highlighted Stories

Editor's Note

This week’s first three Highlighted Stories examine the persistent underuse of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), despite overwhelming evidence of their effectiveness.

MOUD is now recognized as the standard of care in most jurisdictions, and the Department of Justice has ruled that incarcerated individuals with substance use disorder qualify for treatment under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Yet, COCHS’ experience suggests that many carceral authorities remain hesitant to provide MOUD, citing concerns about diversion and misuse.

While diversion concerns may explain some of this reluctance, we are not aware of any studies showing that medications like buprenorphine are diverted at significantly higher rates than other drugs distributed in carceral settings. Moreover, with Medicaid 1115 waivers and HRSA PIN 2024-05, which allows Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to provide care in jails and prisons 90 days prior to release, MOUD can now be part of a comprehensive treatment program spanning both incarceration and reentry.

The fourth Highlighted Story, from Corrections 1, reinforces a widely cited statistic: overdose is the leading cause of death in correctional facilities. The article highlights California’s 1115 waiver, which allows Medi-Cal to cover medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for incarcerated individuals—further underscoring the role of Medicaid in expanding access to MOUD.

The final Highlighted Story, from Inquest, examines 1115 waivers and the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2023. In the excerpt, we highlight potential changes under a Trump administration—though what those might be remains unclear. So far, there are no signs that the 1115 waiver program will be terminated (CAA is statutory), but if federal funding is reduced, the impact and effectiveness of the waivers will almost certainly be diminished. COCHS will, of course, continue to follow what Congress decides to do.

MOUD

Despite 23 years of availability in the U.S., buprenorphine remains underused, despite evidence that simply starting treatment can reduce overdose deaths by 50–80% compared to non-medication interventions. Experts point to multiple barriers: past regulations, limited funding, lack of provider familiarity, hesitancy to engage in addiction medicine, and persistent stigma. Many physicians reflexively avoid buprenorphine because it belongs to the same drug class as opioids, and its DEA oversight likely adds to their reluctance. Tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of lives could have been saved had its adoption been faster.

For nearly two decades, it has been widely recognized that individuals in jail settings have a high prevalence of opioid use disorders (OUD) and are highly susceptible to fatal overdose upon their release. This setting provides a public health opportunity to address OUD with Medication for Opioid Use Disorders (MOUDs). Yet, 56% of jails do not provide MOUD, creating a pressing need for better implementation approaches in jail and the hand-off to the community. Two successful implementation strategies, NIATx external coaching and the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) case management telementoring model, were compared to address this persistent treatment gap.

Treatment of OUD during incarceration saves lives. When initiated in a carceral setting, medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone, can significantly increase treatment engagement in the community upon release from a carceral facility and reduce opioid related mortality by over 50%. Yet studies suggest that among individuals meeting criteria for treatment, fewer than 10% ultimately receive MOUD during incarceration (Fox, 2015). Instead, even individuals receiving MOUD in the community often undergo forced opioid withdrawal upon incarceration, leading to decreased community treatment re-engagement and increased likelihood of overdose death. A new policy landscape, however, continues to require that more carceral facilities offer MOUD to those detained. Federal court rulings affirm that it is illegal to withhold MOUD upon incarceration.

Amid an epidemic of drug overdoses that’s finally showing signs of slowing in California, public health experts are improving access to drug treatment in prisons and jails, which are often awash in fentanyl and other smuggled drugs. Nationally, drug and alcohol overdose is a top cause of death in jails and the leading cause of death for those who have been recently released. Thousands of other people imprisoned in county jails may soon have access to such ‘medication assisted treatment’ in the next two years. The change is part of CalAim, a broad expansion of the state’s health care provider for low-income residents, Medi-Cal, to cover non-traditional services such as housing and care for those who are incarcerated.

Medicaid

Importantly, there is no indication so far that the Trump administration plans to terminate the waiver approvals and undo this work. However, if Republicans succeed in reducing federal funding for Medicaid, as they appear poised to do, significant drains on states could slow or interrupt efforts to roll out the reentry waivers. In addition, state changes to Medicaid eligibility or covered services could dampen the impact of the Medicaid waivers, even if implementation remains on track. In other words, support for the new Medicaid reentry waivers must go hand in hand with support for maintaining the current foundations of Medicaid itself—and advocacy toward that key goal will require all of us, not just decarceral and public health advocates.

Follow Ups

Editor's Comment: This week’s Follow Ups include articles on Wellpath’s bankruptcy and the firing of the Chief Medical Officer and Director of Health Services for the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC).

The first three Wellpath articles cover the ongoing hearings in Texas bankruptcy court, where creditors are pushing back against Wellpath’s plan to give lenders equity in the reorganized company. There has also been strong opposition to the company’s proposal to pay $4.6 million in executive bonuses while facing 1,500 personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits tied to its correctional healthcare services.

The fourth Wellpath article highlights how the company’s non-payment of bills is affecting hospitals and EMS services in rural Georgia. Subscribers may recall that in the Editor’s Note of September 24, 2024, we covered similar issues in Michigan, where hospitals and emergency services were also left in the lurch. Given the ongoing fallout, it’s safe to say Wellpath’s bankruptcy will be a regular feature in this section of the Weekly Update.

Turning to Oregon, the two articles tell the same story: the firing of ODOC’s Chief Medical Officer and Assistant Director of Health Services was long overdue. The real question is why it took so long, given the alarming reports about ODOC’s healthcare system. The second article calls out the legislature and governor’s office for their inaction.

Wellpath

A Texas bankruptcy judge has asked Wellpath Holdings to revise its proposed Chapter 11 plan disclosure statement after a lengthy hearing where creditors objected to the speed of the case. Wellpath opened back-to-back hearings spanning 11 hours, emphasizing its need to confirm a plan by March. The proposal, which grants secured lenders equity in the reorganized company and $55 million in new funding, faced strong opposition from creditors and the U.S. Trustee’s Office, as well as scrutiny from Judge Alfredo R. Perez. Wellpath is also facing 1,500 personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits related to its correctional healthcare services. After failing to attract qualified bids, it pivoted to Chapter 11 reorganization, allowing ad hoc lenders to take majority ownership and provide up to $55 million in exit financing. The U.S. Trustee and unsecured claimholders' committee objected to the disclosure statement, arguing the plan is unconfirmable due to its proposed releases. Judge Perez also heard over a dozen motions from plaintiffs seeking to lift the bankruptcy stay to continue lawsuits involving wrongful death, medical malpractice, and employment claims.

Junior creditors of troubled prison health-care provider Wellpath Holdings Inc. objected to a proposal to pay up to nearly $4.6 million in incentive bonuses to 12 executives if they meet certain performance metrics. The plan is a “proverbial ‘lay up’” measuring goals senior management has already met, a committee of unsecured claimholders said in a Feb. 7 objection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The committee called it a “disguised retention plan” rather than an incentive plan. If approved, Wellpath’s senior management would receive bonuses.

Wellpath Holdings, Inc. and its affiliated debtors have filed an amended Chapter 11 plan of reorganization in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The amended plan outlines a comprehensive restructuring strategy that includes the conversion of debt to equity, a new takeback facility, and the establishment of a liquidating trust. Under the proposed plan, first lien lenders would receive 3% of the new common equity and $124.2 million of the takeback facility. The plan also features a significant equity financing component, with new common equity representing 97% of the reorganized company being offered through an equity financing arrangement.

More than 750 medical and EMS providers in Georgia are seeking $75.6 million from Wellpath, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of the bankruptcy claims filed so far. The list includes some of the state’s largest hospitals. It also includes the EMS services in the small, rural Georgia counties where prisons are located. Those claims are for far less, but they are no less significant, hobbling governments already coping with dwindling tax bases and limited funds.

Oregon Department of Corrections

Oregon Department of Corrections Director Mike Reese seemed to strike a blow for accountability earlier this month when he fired two top health administrators in his agency and hired a consultant to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the state’s troubled prison health system. An investigation of complaints against Chief Medical Officer Dr. Warren Roberts and his boss, Joe Bugher, showed why they had to go. Attorney Jill Goldsmith, who conducted the months-long inquiry, detailed the poor health care, long delays for treatment and, at times, “unnecessarily humiliating” procedures that people in custody endured. But even considering Reese’s short tenure at the corrections department, the alarming allegations raised in the report should not have been a surprise to him or anyone with a passing interest in the corrections department, which oversees 12,000 adult offenders across 12 prisons. The only mystery is whether Reese and Gov. Tina Kotek intend to dramatically reshape the direction of the agency – or just wait out this latest crisis in standard Oregon fashion.

On Feb. 3, dismissal letters were sent to Joe Bugher, assistant director of ODOC Health Services, the highest ranking position in the Health Services Division, and to Dr. Warren Roberts, former chief of medicine. The letters followed an internal investigation of health services last year resulting in an 84-page heavily-redacted report in December, addressing inmate care at the state's 12 correctional facilities. The Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC), a nonprofit, said over the last five years, it's seen a steep decline in availability of medical care to inmates. The Director of OJRC said change isn't possible unless state legislators or the governor's office step in and demand reform to the system, including the removal of all officials in leadership roles..

Pregnancy

Approximately 47% of people in U.S. state prisons and 57% in federal prisons have children under the age of 18. Despite the staggering magnitude of parental incarceration, scant measures are in place to monitor and mitigate the effects imprisonment has on families. Consequently, expectant mothers who are incarcerated are one of the most vulnerable groups that are overlooked.

Juveniles

More adolescents might have access to Medication Assisted Treatment, or MAT, for substance use disorder thanks to a bill that passed committee on a party line vote Friday. House bill 152 would require facilities that receive state money and treat adolescents for substance use disorder to make MAT, like Suboxone or methadone, available and would provide funds for facilities to set up those programs. That would include juvenile correctional and detention facilities, as well as inpatient and outpatient youth substance use programs, and more.

Senior Healthcare

The population of our prison system has dramatically aged, and its healthcare needs have exploded. Now, with the Trump administration newly promising to radically accelerate mass incarceration through harsh measures like aggressive policing, reincarceration of people currently on home confinement, and extreme prison sentences, the question of how to ethically care for incarcerated patients within the walls of a hospital has become an even more urgent one. For the more than 2 million incarcerated people awaiting trial in jails or serving sentences in prisons in the United States, imprisonment is a major determinant of health: a person’s life expectancy declines by two years for each year in prison. And the effects of imprisonment on health are felt far beyond the walls of a jail or prison—people who have been incarcerated continue to suffer poor health outcomes and high mortality long after they are freed.

Transgender Ban

The Bureau of Prisons on Friday laid out strict new guidelines for the treatment of transgender inmates to comply with President Trump’s executive order on gender recognition, including ending special procedures for pat-down searches and barring prisoners from purchasing the underwear of their choice. The prison memo was issued on the same day that a new group of transgender women rushed to court to try to stop their transfer from all-female prisons to all-male facilities, saying that the move would place them at an elevated risk of physical and sexual violence. Already, a preliminary injunction issued Feb. 18 had blocked the transfer of three transgender women to male prisons.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Although a history of head injury is common in prisoners, little is known about its impact in relation to disability and potential associations with other health problems. This is relevant to the development of effective management and interventions targeted towards health or reducing recidivism. This study investigates effects of significant head injury (SHI) on disability, cognitive function and offending in adult male prisoners, and considers relationships with common comorbidities.

BOP

A federal judge gave an inmate at MDC Brooklyn a reduced sentence in a firebombing after jail staff ignored his lung cancer diagnosis for months — but it’s uncertain he’ll live to serve all seven years. Terrence Wise’s medical mistreatment at the notorious federal lockup reduced his chance of surviving past five years to about 41%, though that number rises slightly if he gets a year of immunotherapy treatment, according to an expert who reviewed his case for his lawyers. If the medical staff at MDC hadn’t botched his treatment and let the tumor in his lung double in size unchecked his chances at survival would have been much higher.

At least six top officials at the Federal Bureau of Prisons have announced plans to retire amid questions within the agency about its direction under President Donald Trump, according to the union representing BOP employees. The departures could gut veteran leadership at an agency that oversees the nation’s 155,000 federal inmates as it tries to implement Trump’s cuts and directives and faces what the Justice Department inspector general has called an “ongoing crisis” involving staff shortages, crumbling facilities, sexual assault and contraband in prisons.

ICE

Mayor Eric Adams of New York City announced that he would issue an executive order to allow federal immigration authorities into the Rikers Island jail complex, a significant shift in the city’s sanctuary policies. The mayor said that he would move to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the jail to assist in criminal investigations, “in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs.” The move followed a meeting earlier between Mr. Adams, a Democrat, and President Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, in Lower Manhattan. The meeting was seen as an early test of the mayor’s relationship with the Trump administration, and of the degree to which Mr. Adams might owe some fealty after the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop the corruption charges against the mayor.

President Trump and his team are looking to state and local law enforcement to help them arrest and deport foreigners who are in the country without authorization. Many of the nation’s sheriffs have responded with enthusiasm. They are thrilled to work with the Trump administration, they said, and to once again “have a seat at the table” after four years of what they have described as being ignored by the Biden administration. But the sheriffs say they need something in return: money, and lots of it, to cover the cost of what it will take to refocus scant local resources on what is inherently a federal responsibility.

Diversion

The 2024 Judicial Services report for the Hays County Commissioners Court highlighted financial savings, a reduced jail population, and a 99.99% success rate in the Pretrial Diversion Program. The Judicial Services program operates on the principle that positive relationships improve case outcomes, reduce recidivism, minimize jail populations, and enhance court efficiency. In 2024, the program assisted in the release of 588 defendants on pretrial supervision, including 232 released on personal bonds with conditions to report to Judicial Services. Those under supervision had an 89% success rate in both court appearances and remaining arrest-free. With Hays County spending $145 per day to house an inmate locally and $82.75 per day to house them elsewhere, minimizing jail time translates to significant savings. Among the 232 granted personal bonds, 116 were classified as low-risk, typically spending just one day in jail, saving the county $16,820. Additionally, a contract with BI Inc. for GPS monitoring reduced the daily cost by $8.50 per inmate, generating $41,310 in savings.

Data & Statistics

Among imprisoned men, age-specific trends in mortality have shifted across the three periods. Following the Great Recession and the push for criminal justice reforms, prisoner mortality dropped significantly and is concentrated at older ages among men during 2010–2014; the shifting pattern of mortality means that men age 30 in 2010–2014 had similar death rates as men in their early 20s during 2000–2004, representing a 7.5 year shift in age-specific mortality rates. Gains in the mortality decline were disproportionately experienced by Non-Hispanic White and Non-Hispanic Black men, with the latter experiencing the greatest gains in life-expectancy of any demographic group.

State Roundup

Arkansas

State Sen. Bryan King and a group of Arkansas River Valley residents who oppose the state’s plan to build a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County asked the Board of Corrections Wednesday to pause site developments. King pitched an alternative plan to correction officials, which includes reallocating the $470 million set aside for the prison and investing in county-level facility renovations, construction and partnerships. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the purchase of the prison site near Charleston in October, and a local group formed quickly in opposition.

Arizona

Lawyers for 25,000 people incarcerated in Arizona have asked a judge to take over health care operations in state-run prisons and appoint an official to run them, saying the state is not capable of fixing deep failures in care even though it has been required to do so over the last decade. In a filing, the attorneys said a takeover is urgently needed because the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry lacks the leadership to comply with changes ordered by a judge in a 2012 lawsuit over the quality of medical and mental health care for prisoners.

While civil rights groups urge a federal judge to remove control of Arizona’s prison health care system from the state, officials argue they’ve made reasonable progress since the 2023 ruling that found care and conditions of confinement subpar. Arizona Department of Corrections Director Ryan Thornell said the department has been meeting the necessary benchmarks, calling the request for a court-appointed expert to step in a slap in the face to that effort.

California

It’s been three months since California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, a new law that pledged to provide “mass treatment” for those facing certain drug charges. But since the law took effect on Dec. 18, some counties are scrambling to fulfill that promise. But as some counties struggle to implement the mandate without new funding or, according to people involved in enforcing the law, sufficient resources, more and more people are being charged without a clear path to the treatment that the law was supposed to offer. As of Feb. 4, nearly 30 people have been charged with the treatment-mandated felony in Yolo County. In Stanislaus County, roughly 140 people have been charged with the new felony as of Feb. 10. And in Orange County, that number has passed 500 as of Feb. 7.

Kern County is looking to improve medical and behavioral health services in local jails by adding therapists, recovery specialists and other staff to a new section within the Sheriff's Office Detention Bureau. A funding request coming before the Board of Supervisors at its weekly meeting seeks an additional $5.7 million for staff positions for a proposed Medical and Behavioral Health Section. The establishment of the section aims to add to and improve programs for mental health assessment, out-of-cell time social interaction, mental health care, programs, in-cell resources, cleanliness, reducing administrative segregation of vulnerable populations, and partnering with agencies and stakeholders for diversion and/or pre-release coordination.

Connecticut

Connecticut's attorney general has recommended paying $3.75 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by parents of a West Haven man who died after being pepper-sprayed, kicked and "pig-piled" by correction officers, according to the lawsuit and state reports. Carl Robert Talbot, 30, died on March 21, 2019, while being held at the New Haven Correctional Center on a violation of parole charge. Asthmatic, taking methadone, mentally ill and morbidly obese, Talbot was pronounced dead after officers hog-tied him and blasted him several times with a pepper spray.

Mississippi

The House passed a bill that would direct the state Department of Health to conduct a sweeping review of the medical care provided to inmates at Mississippi prisons. The legislation is necessary because the state Department of Corrections is policing its own provision of health care at prisons, where inmates are sometimes deprived of medical procedures, prevented access to medication and charged for seeking care said House Corrections Chairwoman Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven. Her bill would empower the Department of Health to investigate the quality of medical care at prisons, patient outcomes and inmate access to medical staff. But the legislation faces an uncertain future. Currie said that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves wants to hire an out-of-state firm to conduct the review instead of the Department of Health.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections budget for Fiscal Year 2026 could total more than $450.5 million dollars, if the legislation passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee becomes law. After questions ranging from the cost of aging facilities to reimbursement programs for medical expenses, the committee passed a bill that appropriates $419,769,725 and another $30,739,901 from special funds. Mississippi has one of the nation’s highest incarnation rates per capita. As of February 11, 2025, the state housed 19,174 inmates, according to MDOC. Senator Rod Hickman (D) asked about offsetting medical expenses incurred by MDOC, specifically Medicaid. Senator Scott DeLano said that during the debate on Medicaid expansion, getting inmates covered was discussed, but nothing more has come of that at this point.

In a series of interviews from prison, a former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy described for the first time how he and others in his department regularly entered homes without warrants, beat people to get information and illegally seized evidence that helped convict people of drug crimes. Christian Dedmon said deputies regularly brutalized and humiliated suspects to get them to share information during the raids. And he said they often seized evidence without a legally required warrant, raising questions about possible wrongful convictions in hundreds of narcotics cases stemming from the raids.

Missouri

Leaders of Missouri’s public defender system urged lawmakers to take action to reduce the growing number of people languishing in jails across the state who are in need of mental health treatment. As of last month, 418 people were in Missouri jails waiting to be transferred to a state mental health bed, up from around 300 at this time last year. The average wait time was 14 months, with some held longer than the maximum sentence for the crime for which they were charged. Many of the public defender’s office’s clients who are found incompetent have schizophrenia, intellectual disabilities or are on the autism spectrum. The legislature in 2023 passed a law giving the department the authority to provide treatment on an outpatient basis if the person could be safely released and wasn’t charged with a dangerous felony.

Montana

The mother of a young inmate, who was transported from Montana State Prison to Arizona, says her son has struggled with mental health issues inside the prison. She was shocked that officials gave her no notice of the transfer to Arizona. CoreCivic is the private prison company that has a contract in place with the state of Montana, and facilitated the transports, about how they decide who to transport to different facilities. According to a press release from the Department of Corrections, they are working closely with the Governor’s budget office and Montana legislators to identify a long-term solution to overcrowding in Montana prisons.

New York

It is a nightmare that plays out on the streets and subways every few months: A homeless person with a history of mental illness or violence falls through the cracks or wanders away from the system intended to help him, surfaces in a psychotic rage and attacks a random New Yorker. And as long-running arguments persist over how to balance public safety and the civil rights of mentally ill people, another outburst inevitably happens. The debate resurfaced last month when Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a package of laws to make it easier to take people in psychiatric crisis to a hospital involuntarily, easier to hold them there and harder for hospitals to push them back to the street before they fully stabilize.

Oregon

Oregon union leaders and workers said the state needs to put more safeguards in place to protect employees from harm when they work in dangerous jobs in corrections, behavioral health and others. They are backing several bills they say would help. Senate Bill 24, for example, would set minimum staffing standards for health care workers in prisons and another proposal not yet introduced would limit mandatory overtime for Oregon Department of Human Services workers in group homes. The proposals are backed up by a survey released Monday by the Oregon American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. It found that two-thirds of more than 500 AFSCME workers who responded had experienced physical violence, threats or injury in their workplace and nearly half – 49% – do not feel safe at work all the time.

Pennsylvania

After more than two years of struggling with his mental health issues while incarcerated, Matthew J. Schweichler has been moved from the Erie County Prison to a different kind of secure facility. Mathew Schweichler, 36, who is also mentally disabled, is now at Ebensburg State Center, a state-run facility for people with intellectual disabilities. The charges that had kept him in prison were dropped to allow for the transfer. Schweichler's case illustrates how the Erie County Prison has become, by default, the largest mental health facility in Erie County partly because of a lack of residential services for the mentally ill.

South Dakota

South Dakota's four-year process to address the state's correctional needs evolved into a plan to build a new men's prison on 160 acres of farmland in Lincoln County between Harrisburg and Canton, with a price tag of $825 million. That's when the drama really began. Landowners near the Lincoln County site railed against the Department of Corrections for a lack of transparency during the search process. Supporters of the plan, including Gov.Larry Rhoden and his predecessor, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, insisted that the nearly 150-year-old South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls needs to be replaced, and waiting longer will just make the project more costly.

Vermont

Michael Myers, a 51-year-old incarcerated man at the Southern State Correctional Facility died Monday morning, according to releases from the Vermont State Police and Department of Corrections. Myers’s death comes on the heels of another death at Springfield prison in late January. In 2023, 12 people died in Vermont prisons, according to the Department of Corrections.

Wisconsin

Waupun Correctional Institution could see major changes if Gov. Tony Evers and Republican lawmakers reach an agreement on prison reform. The governor’s budget proposal includes closing an aging Green Bay prison and overhauling Waupun, but only if a troubled youth facility in Irma is shut down. Lawmakers cite severe staffing shortages at Waupun and across the prison system as a key issue leading to lockdowns. The Department of Corrections says an external review is underway, with Falcon Correctional and Community Services conducting prison visits.

Marcy Correctional Facility (New York)

New York corrections officers have been charged with murder in the killing of a state prison inmate who was handcuffed while being beaten in an assault captured by officers’ body-worn cameras, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Thursday. Ms. Hochul did not say how many officers had been charged with murder or what charges others implicated in the killing of the man, Robert Brooks, might face. A special prosecutor was expected to unseal indictments. Mr. Brooks was declared dead early on Dec. 10, hours after he was assaulted at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York. The attack was filmed by body-worn cameras belonging to four officers.

After guards at the Marcy Correctional Facility in central New York beat a handcuffed prisoner to death late last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul promised immediate reforms to turn the troubled prison around. One of her first directives was to install a new leader, Bennie Thorpe, who had recently run another correctional facility and had experience with security operations and rehabilitation programs. He also had a record of being accused of rape and sexual assault by inmates at one of his former workplaces, records and interviews show.

A civil rights lawsuit has been filed in Oneida County Court of Claims against the New York State Department of Corrections & Community Services and others, alleging excessive force, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and Due Process violations. Plaintiff Eric Johnson, an inmate in the NYS Correctional Facility System, filed the suit against DOCCS, and three correctional officers, and Marcy Correctional Facility, citing violations of the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The lawsuit claims that Marcy staff planted drugs on Johnson. When Johnson left the gym, he was subjected to a pat frisk by three COs, who allegedly threw him against a wall, slammed him to the floor twice, and later punched and maced him—despite the fact that he was wearing shorts with no pockets. The COs reportedly threatened him with worse treatment if he told the nurse.

Editor's Comment: It is unfortunate that understaffing and low morale have led to a wildcat strike (see articles below), and it’s not hard to see why there is concern that Robert Brooks’ death may not be the only casualty of an inadequate workforce. COCHS previously addressed the tensions faced by frontline staff in the Editor’s Note of April 30, 2024.

A New York judge ordered state corrections officers to end their wildcat strikes at dozens of prisons as Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to ensure the penal system’s safety during the labor action. The strikes, the first widespread work stoppage in New York’s prisons since a 16-day walkout by officers in 1979, come as the state correctional system faces close scrutiny after officers fatally beat a 43-year-old inmate in December. Two weeks after Mr. Brooks’s Dec. 10 death, Ms. Hochul ordered the state corrections commissioner to suspend those implicated in the attack — 16 corrections officers and two nurses — as a step toward firing them. Two officers have resigned.

An inmate at a New York State prison was pronounced dead on Saturday after being found unresponsive in his cell, state officials said. Security and medical workers at the prison and a member of the National Guard tried to revive him but were unsuccessful, said Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the corrections department. His death comes amid mounting tension and public scrutiny of the state’s prison system. Corrections officers at dozens of facilities, including Auburn, have continued wildcat strikes for days.

Restrictions on solitary confinement in New York State prisons were suspended and visits were canceled as corrections officers continued wildcat strikes despite a judge’s order. Daniel Martuscello III, the state corrections commissioner, said in a memo that to control the situation inside the facilities he was canceling “specific elements” of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act, known as HALT. His memo, titled “Path to Restoring Workforce,” did not cite which parts of the law were being paused.

The New York state prison system is flirting with chaos as a corrections officer strike enters its sixth day. Since guards at two western New York facilities walked off the job on Monday, the wildcat action has spread across the state. Nearly all of the system’s 42 prisons are now on lockdown as National Guard troops deployed by Governor Kathy Hochul and the few officers who haven’t walked out struggle to provide incarcerated people with basic necessities.

Correctional Healthcare Vendors

This report by the Prison Policy Initiative analyzing the causes of poor healthcare in correctional settings around the country argues that prison healthcare is designed to limit costs and ward off lawsuits rather than provide adequate care for the people it is ostensibly supposed to be serving. While state and local governments are on the hook for the substantial burden of funding medical care for people in their custody, they’re blocked from receiving crucial federal subsidies to fund that care. As a result, they often look to private health care companies that look to keep costs down above all else. They do so by refusing, limiting, or altering treatments and prescriptions; denying and slow-walking care; limiting staff expenditures; and severely limiting and/or rejecting patient preferences.

YesCare

At a Florida jail, a man’s pleas for medical attention were ignored by deputies accused of occasionally offering him ibuprofen for a bullet embedded in his knee, a federal lawsuit says. Jason L. Pickles gunshot wound went untreated for weeks until he was on “the brink of death” at the Polk County Jail in late 2022, according to the lawsuit. During those weeks, his wound became infected and his condition worsened, with the infection eventually spreading to his bloodstream, and he required two “lengthy” surgeries at a hospital, an amended complaint filed in January says. Pickles is suing Polk County sheriff’s deputies, YesCare, the jail’s medical provider, and a YesCare nurse, saying his constitutional rights were violated.

NaphCare

The Pierce County Council (WA) unanimously approved a $1 million settlement offer to a former Pierce County inmate who alleged the jail and its medical provider missed signs of a severe blood clot in 2018 that resulted in the amputation of his leg. Javier Tapia sued Pierce County and Alabama-based medical provider NaphCare Inc. in 2021. The settlement approved this week was only between Tapia and the county. Tapia’s case against NaphCare is continuing toward trial in U.S. District Court.