On Jan. 1, 2011, the Onondaga County legislature will turn over the county-operated medical care for inmates of county institutions to Correctional Medical Care, a private, for-profit company based in Rochester, N.Y. The contract is for $24.6 million over three years and includes all adult and juvenile facilities.
 Chuniece Patterson: murdered by medical neglect |
The decision, which affects hundreds of working and poor incarcerated people in Syracuse city and Onondaga County, has been made almost entirely behind closed doors.
A Nov. 1 Post-Standard article erroneously reported that the move is expected to save taxpayers $1.5 million. In reality, the privatization is cost-neutral. The amount of the contract is exactly the same amount that was previously budgeted for paying county employees.
What will the privatization of the medical and mental health care of county jails do?
Most of all, Onondaga County is counting on a for-profit corporation to find more ways to cut the services provided to the prisoners. Already receiving inadequate medical care, privatization is likely to make the quality of medical services even more deplorable. CMC has begun interviewing current employees to see if they want to keep working after the corporate takeover.
County workers, represented by the New York State Nurses Association and Civil Service Employees Association, have refused to accept the privatization. The unions will file suit with the Public Employees Relations Board to block the action. Their current contract grants them exclusive coverage for these jobs until 2012.
It is likely that the unions will be granted an injunction. The privatization process, however, is likely to have started by that time. This would leave the health of incarcerated adults and children in further disarray.
Breaking an already broken system
There have been several incidents of medical neglect of inmates in Onondaga County this past year. Last November, 21-year-old Chuniece Patterson bled to death in her cell for several hours from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Records prove that a jail nurse and deputy made several visits to her cell during that time.
Another inmate, Maparo Ramadhan, a refugee from Burundi, had his arm broken by jail deputies as they were transporting him to court. Although his bone was sticking out of his skin, videotape of the incident shows the nurse placing a bandage on Ramadhan’s arm. Deputies then proceeded to transport him to court.
Everyone, except Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh, agrees that there are serious problems with the health care in the jail. Privatization, however, by introducing the profit-motive into the equation, will only exacerbate these problems.
CMC, like all corporations, exists for the sole purpose of maximizing profits for the owners. Its increased profits in this instance will come from reducing benefits paid to workers and providing inmates with deficient care. A review of CMC shows reports of inadequate staffing, delaying and denying the prescription of medications and failing to keep medical records.
CMC has been sued 42 times in federal courts in the last nine years. A recent lawsuit, filed in Albany, N.Y., charges that CMC caused an inmate’s death by failing to place him under suicide watch, despite the results of his suicide assessment screening.
The PSL stands in solidarity with all victims of the racist prison-industrial complex. Justice for Chuniece Patterson! Justice for Maparo Ramadhan! Our health is not for sale!
