March 15, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CONTACT:
media@aclu.org
Women Prisoners in Wisconsin Are Subjected to Worse Mental Health Care Than
Men, According to the ACLU
MILWAUKEE — The American Civil Liberties
Union announced today that a federal judge has ruled that claims of grossly
deficient medical and mental health care for Wisconsin’s women prisoners must be
heard. Judge Rudolph Randa denied efforts by prison officials to dismiss
these claims of inadequate health care at Taycheedah Correctional Institution
(TCI), Wisconsin’s largest women’s prison.
“Prison officials tried
to argue that they were not given proper notice of the incredibly poor health
care they were providing to Taycheedah prisoners” said Gouri Bhat, a staff
attorney for the ACLU National Prison Project, and lead counsel for the women
prisoners. “The argument is absurd and the judge rightly rejected
it. Prison officials have known for years that the care at TCI is
dangerously deficient, but they have done almost nothing to improve
it.”
The decision came in a class action lawsuit brought by the
ACLU seeking reforms to the state prison system. Prisoners at Taycheedah
Correctional Institution experience long delays before receiving treatment for
diagnosed illnesses, according to the ACLU. Prisoners reported to the ACLU
that they are subjected to potentially fatal lapses in their medication because
it is not renewed on time. Some medical problems are simply ignored.
Debbie Ramos, one of the plaintiffs in this case, arrived in custody in 1992 and
immediately reported that she had endometriosis —a condition that was diagnosed
in 1980. Despite the fact that she reported her condition upon her
entrance to the facility, and regularly complained of severe vaginal bleeding,
she was not seen by a gynecologist for seven years. When she was finally
seen in 1999, she was forced to have a hysterectomy, which might have been
avoided had she received medical care sooner.
“Now that the judge
has given us the green light, we are anxious to push forward with this case,”
said Larry Dupuis, Legal Director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, who also represents
the women prisoners. “The women at Taycheedah are still enduring horrible
medical and mental health care. Some of them have waited years for their
claims to be heard.”
According to the ACLU, the health care
provided at Taycheedah Correctional Institution meets the standard of cruel and
unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment. In addition, women
imprisoned at Taycheedah Correctional Institution receive mental health care
that is inferior to care received by male prisoners in Wisconsin, which violates
the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal
protection.
Taycheedah Correctional Institution prisoners are
represented by Bhat, Dupuis, David Fathi and lawyers at Jenner and Block in
Chicago.
More information on the case is online at:
www.aclu.org/prison/women/25405prs20060502.html
