Jul 8, 2008 12:02 pm US/Pacific
Prisoners With Hepatitis C Sue CA. Prisons
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
California prisoners infected with hepatitis C aren't getting the health care they need while they're behind bars, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
The filing estimates that as many as 40 percent of the state's 190,000 inmates are infected. About 30,000 are expected to report difficulty getting adequate care, which is why the suit seeks class-action status, said Shawn Khorrami, the prisoners' lawyer.
"This is a nasty, nasty disease," said Khorrami. "We don't allow this kind of punishment in America, where someone has a disease and we have them suffer from it and have all kinds of problems going forward in their lives just because they've committed a crime."
Lead plaintiff Kevin Jackson is an inmate in California State Prison at Solano. The filing says despite a 2007 diagnosis of an advanced stage of the disease, he was repeatedly refused treatment.
Hepatitis C is a chronic, blood-borne infection which can be life-threatening if not treated. It is often linked to infected drug needles, prison tattoos or body piercing with non-sterile equipment.
About 20 percent of people who get hepatitis C clear it out of their system naturally. Without treatment, one in four will suffer liver failure or develop liver cancer.
Luis Patino, a spokesman for the federal receiver in charge of health care in California's prisons, said the filing is redundant to the previous lawsuits.
"The receivership is already working on an initiative to mitigate and to work with hepatitis C," said Patino. "Already, the corrections are being done, the receiver is putting together funding for seven facilities with 1,500 beds each to improve health care, along with many realated health initiatives."
To date, the federal receiver has had trouble getting state support to secure the funding necessary to expand health care facilities in California's prisons.
Khorrami said that, despite the federal receiver's efforts, the problem has persisted.
"To the extent that we're in no better shape now than we were several years ago, there's no redundancy in this filing," Khorrami said. "Nothing has happened."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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