Lawsuit cites poor medical care of inmates

Jace Radke

Thursday, May 16, 2002 | 11 a.m.

A class-action lawsuit alleging that seriously ill inmates at the Clark County Detention Center are not receiving adequate medical care was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

The suit, filed on behalf of 10 current or former inmates at the jail and the American Civil Liberties Union, names the jail's medical provider, Prison Health Services Inc., clinic director Harvey Hoffman, Metro Police, Sheriff Jerry Keller and Clark County as defendants.

"Inmates are coming into the detention center with severe medical problems, and they are being denied the treatment they need," Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said. "The whole damn system is broken and the whole damn system needs to be addressed."

The suit calls for Metro's contract with Prison Health Services and Hoffman to be terminated, and asks that the plaintiffs and any other inmates who suffered because of substandard medical care be awarded compensatory and punitive damages.

The Las Vegas City Council, meanwhile, earlier Wednesday awarded a $4 million contract to Prison Health Services to provide services in city detention facilities through May 2003.

The company will have two one-year options with total costs not to exceed $13.03 million.

Peck, along with attorneys Robert Langford and John Costo, said that the decision to make the lawsuit class action was spurred by the number of complaints they get about the jail.

"Something over there is not right," Costo said. "We get calls every day from inmates who are not getting the medical care they need, and it's deliberate. Doctors are prescribing medicine for these people, and Prison Health Services is deciding not to give it to them."

The suit alleges that medications are withheld and that there is a lack of medical screening and prescribed physical therapy for inmates.

Prison Health Services has provided medical care at the jail since January 1999, when the company purchased EMSA Correctional Care, the previous provider. The Tennessee-based company and its sister company Secure Pharmacy Plus currently serve more than 400 jail and prison sites in 39 states, a total of 325,000 inmates.

Calls for comment to Prison Health Services were not immediately returned.

Metro Police spokesman Lt. Vincent Cannito said the department does not comment on pending lawsuits.

Tony Ainsworth, a plaintiff who is currently incarcerated in Carson City but was in the Clark County jail in 2001, alleges that his medications for chronic renal failure and hypertension were switched by Hoffman without consulting Ainsworth's doctor, and as a result Ainsworth suffered a stroke.

"It's important that the public hears about this and understands that this is not about people who can't get a Band-Aid or an aspirin," Langford said. "These people have pre-diagnosed medical conditions that are life-threatening in some cases, and they are suffering unnecessary pain and anguish."

Peck said that a class-action suit is being pursued in hopes that long-term changes will be made at the jail, and added that the ACLU, Langford and Costo have already filed several suits on behalf of individuals they say were denied medical treatment at the jail.

One pending suit involves Karl Robert Kurfis, who alleges that he was denied his AIDS medication while held at the jail for seven months in 2000. Kurfis is seeking $10 million in punitive damages from Hoffman and undetermined amounts from other defendants named in the suit.

"It comes down to negligence in many cases," Langford said. "It's a conscious decision made to not give a drug that is prescribed, because it costs money."