Viral Exposure Inside Prisons Impact our Communities Too !!!

Viral Exposure a "laissez-faire" event in Arizona’s

Culture of Death Prisons

Information provided by Craig Harris, reporter at the azcentral.com website and press release provided by Arizona Department of Corrections via Channel 12, Wendy Halloran, the investigative reporter who disclosed this matter and contacted the ADOC for information.  If it were not for this request, it is highly doubtful that the ADOC would have revealed and released a news release on this matter based on their historic pattern of behavior to minimize and not report such events in the past via the news media to alert family and constituents of possible bio-hazards in our community.

The media reports “At least 100 inmates at the [ASPC Lewis Complex] state prison west of Phoenix may have been exposed to Hepatitis C because medication was administered with a dirty needle.” The story goes on to indicate that the Department of Corrections did not release or report this incident as required by public health statutes and quickly stated in a press release that the matter has been dealt with and under investigation.”

“Officials with the state and Maricopa County health departments, who confirmed to The Arizona Republic on Tuesday that they had not been informed by Wexford Health Sources Inc. of the problem, said they will launch investigations into the incident.”

The state Department of Corrections says a contracted nurse violated the basic infection-control protocols. In a press release they stated:

“On August 27, 2012, a potential exposure event occurred at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Lewis while administering medication. A vial of medication, which may have been compromised with a previously used syringe, was subsequently used to treat additional inmates.

Review of this event determined the potential exposure to Hepatitis C and involved up to 105 inmates. As a result, these inmates were notified and are currently being screened for infectious diseases as per protocol in such an exposure event. An independent laboratory, under contract with Wexford, will provide continued medical monitoring and testing of these potentially exposed inmates over the next several months. All patients will be informed of the results of the testing.

The medical protocols related to this potential exposure have been reviewed to ensure that subsequent events do not occur. The initial event remains under review by Wexford Health, the contracted provider responsible for inmate health care.

The nurse who violated the basic infection control protocols is an employee of a staffing agency under contract with Wexford Health. Wexford has banned the nurse from working under any of its contracts and has also requested that the individual be referred to the State Board of Nursing for investigation.

An independent laboratory will provide continued medical monitoring and testing of these potentially exposed inmates over the next several months.” Released by Bill Lamoreaux, public information officer for the Arizona Department of Corrections ~ dated 9/04/2012

However, they failed to mention that these tests may be moot to some degree as this viral condition may in fact lay dormant inside the liver and show up 20 years from now. Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver transplants and causes liver cancer. Seventy-five to 85 percent of people with hepatitis C develop a chronic infection, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
Shoana Anderson, head of the state Office of Infectious Disease Services, said one of the biggest dangers for those infected with hepatitis C is "it sits in the liver quietly, and 20 years later, a person can develop severe liver disease."

Wexford, which has previously lost contracts for poor service in other jurisdictions, this spring won a $349 million, three-year contract to provide health care for Arizona inmates. The company began providing services for nearly 40,000 Arizona inmates on July 1.

These news outlets and the DOC fail to mention the global impact of such a mistake. They fail to mention how the DOC [through lack of oversight] and Wexford failed our community as they allowed a viral exposure and contamination to occur that may impact our families sometime in the future as these prisoners will eventually be released into the community and exposed to our children, our relatives, close friends and neighbors..

This event isn’t just about a bad “mistake” with a needle exposure into a vial, its about neglecting to consider the impact of such gross neglect on our -  community and families – our employees working the prisons – general community health safeguards –

It is time the governor and the legislative body recognize the fact that whatever happens inside a prison will eventually spill over into our homes and families that live in our communities and deserve better protection and safeguards than what has been demonstrated by this “la flair” attitude by the DOC and Wexford.

 

 

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/kodiakbears/171220

A Tribute to a Man with Uncommon Values

Being a man with a common background and uncommon talents, this man was labeled to be a transformational leader by a former Senate leader and the non-elected governor of the state. It was clear they chose this man for his uncommon values and his eagerness to bid their wishes in the manner best suited for greedy and ambitious businessmen and ranch owners back in the Wild Wild West.  It was these qualities along with many more that attracted the nomination and selection of the man with eight tentacles that reached far beyond any distance some visionary leaders might have thought they would through his persistence, tenacity and absolute power methods.

Implementing those viewpoints of those who selected him as well as his own, this man became a cultural and ideological radical in the way he shaped Arizona’s prison system pleasing those who embrace “mass incarceration” methods to bring heavy-handed righteousness to the criminal justice system. He was most certainly enabled to do this as his goals and vision were carried on the shoulders of greedy and often proliferating prosecutors that piled us a record number of convictions within a very short period of time to fill up our prisons.

It was from the beginning when he spoke convincingly and smoothly to his agency’s employees that he was on their side when he obscured his real “hang men” intentions about changing the prison system in Arizona. Promising fair and ethical hiring, promotional and assignment practices he turned instead to his primary goal. Once the dust settled, it was clear he was hired to increase prison beds and procure additional private prison beds from the corrections corporatists hired by the governor’s staff to embellish the profit sharing methods of privatizing prisons. In the end he made it clear which side he was really working for when hired on to run the Arizona prison system.

A former Abu Ghraib administrator and acting as a hired gun for the politicians, his tentacles reach far and cover the state from east to west and north to south. His justification for doing what he does best, intimidate, control, impose fear and add prison beds, is based on greed and profit making by those who call the shots in the governor’s office and legislative body. He has pleased them well and is assured longevity that will go down in record as one of the longest sitting agency directors in Arizona prison history.

It was oh so clear whose side he was on. He has decimated staff morale and working numbers in the rank and file. He has divided and conquered every aspect of political power or individualism as well as creativity within the agency and instilled fear and intimidation among the troops to ensure silence and complete power as well as dominance.  His radical management style practices deceit, cover ups, malpractice and unconventional politics atop of pure sadistic and mean spirited policy making for both worker and prisoner. How has this man reached out and changed the culture and found global support along the way one must ask. Within a short two year span he reshaped Arizona prison policy to attain complete control over his agency and environment.

His historic achievements include:

1. Reducing staffing to an all time low with the pretense of streamlining the agency to be more efficient and cost saving to the state resulting in an increase of staff assaults, prison homicides and suicides and “natural deaths” assisting those in power through advocating for more prison related money and future spending.
2. Eliminated or revised prison work programs to increase idleness and reduce productive achievements in general educational programs, treatment and rehabilitation efforts thereby ensuring a “revolving door” to maintain the growth of the prison system within the state.
3. Dismantle and replace the state medical and mental health provider systems and replaced with a private contractor to carry out arbitrary medical provisions and requirements related to health care and mental health treatment by mainly eliminating or reducing the number of patients eligible or identified to be provided basic treatment, medication and other expensive costs to reduce the state’s burden on providing medical care and treatment through unaccounted medical practices provided by law.
4. Expanded the use of private prison beds and added more “medium custody” needs for future acquisitions up to 2016 while ignoring his internal state owned physical plant maintenance repairs creating hazardous and dilapidated physical plan and housing unit structures throughout the state.
5. Changed the entire scope, size, and impact of agency policies and procedures to ensure complete and arbitrary control of all practices and due process guidelines for both staff and prisoners.
6. Divided and conquered organized labor unions or groups to ensure complete and unilateral control of negotiations, mediation and resolution conflict management.
7. Implemented and maintained a close circle of executives at the top of his administration that carry out his vision, his directives and priorities without resistance or question whether it is legal, practical or even a sound correctional practice. These “circles of friends” are comprised of former wardens and administrators from the past who served him well when he was the second in command under Terry Stewart.
8. Established complete media control over prison related stories, demonized the plight of the prisoners to justify the use of his policies and ignored public sentiment, protests or outcry on future prison expansion and growth causing a tremendous tax burden on Arizona taxpayers at the tune of $ 1.1 billion dollars plus.