It\u2019s unclear whether Centurion will be the long-term choice to run the department\u2019s troubled health care system. In October, the state extended its emergency contract with the company to Jan. 20.<\/p>\n
Centurion did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
An IDOC spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether the state plans to sign a longer-term contract with Centurion.<\/p>\n
A recurring pattern<\/p>\n
The volume of suits doesn\u2019t capture how bad the health care is for people in prison, according to Paul Wright, director of the Florida-based Human Rights Defense Center, which advocates for better prison conditions. But he said the lawsuits offer a glimpse into a larger issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a whole slew of people who are sick and die in prison, and no one is ever going to file a lawsuit for them,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
The suits have a recurring pattern: Inmates repeatedly complain about a health issue, they\u2019re ignored by correctional and medical staff members, and their condition worsens to the point of dangerous complications or death.<\/p>\n
Those conditions included: a spinal cord infection festering in a man\u2019s back until he could no longer walk; chronic hepatitis ignored until it permanently damaged a man\u2019s liver; prostate cancer ignored until it became terminal; and high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes left unmanaged until patients had heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n
Several suits also detailed failures in mental health care, including the case of a combat veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation who was left untreated and unsupervised and hanged himself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Paul Wright is director of the Florida-based Human Rights Defense Center, which advocates for better prison conditions in America.<\/p>\n Lawsuits against Centurion came from prisons and jails around the country: Indiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Mississippi, Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Vermont, Kansas and Georgia. Some came with legal representation. Others were handwritten by people in prison representing themselves.<\/p>\n They speak to the challenges of delivering and monitoring correctional health care, said Wright.<\/p>\n Centurion and other private health care companies that serve prisons are more motivated by their profit margins than the health and well-being of the incarcerated populations they\u2019re responsible for, he said.<\/p>\n Wright, who is also the editor of Prison Legal News<\/a>, has sued Centurion for access to records, and Centurion has filed retaliatory suits against his organization.<\/p>\n The companies \u201care all pretty bad,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have the same business model predicated on getting as much taxpayer money as possible and then providing as little medical care as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n In the years leading up to the 2023 contract talks between Wexford and Illinois, a federal judge had determined the health care that the company provided was so poor that it violated the U.S. Constitution. A court-appointed independent monitor published reports documenting deaths from substandard medical care.<\/p>\n The accusations against Wexford<\/a> over the years have included a man who lost vision in his left eye that medical staffers refused to treat because of Wexford\u2019s \u201cone good eye policy.<\/a>\u201d In another case, Wexford staff stopped maintenance chemotherapy for a survivor of brain cancer, and, after the cancer returned, staff members took months to schedule a surgery. By then, he was dead.<\/p>\n Issues with Wexford have come up outside of prison walls, too. Former IDOC Director Donald Snyder took $30,000 in kickbacks from a Wexford lobbyist from 1999 to 2002 to help secure one of the company\u2019s contracts with the state.<\/p>\n He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2008. Wexford kept its contract.<\/p>\n \u2018Well-documented failings\u2019<\/p>\n Virginia-based Centurion Health serves 11 state correctional systems \u2014 \u201cmore than any other company,\u201d according to the company<\/a>. Nearly 275,000 incarcerated people are under Centurion\u2019s care.<\/p>\n Centurion Health was created as a joint venture between the health care companies Mental Health Management Services and Centene Corp. in 2011 to \u201ctransform correctional medicine to modern medicine,\u201d according to the company\u2019s website. Centurion Health became its own corporation in 2023.<\/p>\n Before that change, Centene was often named as a defendant in lawsuits against Centurion. Beside suits filed by people in prison and their loved ones, a Centene shareholder filed a complaint in Delaware in 2020 against Centurion and Centene, saying it had a \u201clong history of failing to provide proper health care to the prison populations.\u201d<\/p>\n That history \u201chas forced Centurion to defend numerous lawsuits \u2014 many of which appear to have been resolved through financial settlements,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cDespite Centurion\u2019s well-documented failings, Centene has taken no steps to develop any oversight over its wholly owned subsidiaries, even as this apparent and public misconduct continues.\u201d<\/p>\n The shareholder suit also cites other lawsuits against Centurion and Centene as evidence, including two Mississippi class-action lawsuits filed in 2020.<\/p>\n Those suits represented more than 200 inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi. Known as Parchman, it\u2019s that state\u2019s only maximum-security men\u2019s prison.<\/p>\n The inmates were represented by lawyers from Team Roc, the philanthropy founded by Shawn \u201cJay-Z\u201d Carter. Their suits said Parchman\u2019s facilities were in a \u201cperpetual state of systemic failure,\u201d with unlivable conditions and chronic staff shortages. Inmates were frequently deprived of medical care, according to the complaints.<\/p>\n \u201cBroken bones, abscesses, diabetes and a host of other injuries and maladies routinely go without examination, much less medically effective treatment,\u201d according to one complaint. \u201cFor example, plaintiffs in this action insert their own catheters, treat their own stab wounds, vomit up blood, teeter on the verge of diabetic coma, and suffer through seizures without medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n The suit led to a Justice Department investigation. Its report, issued in 2022, said Parchman\u2019s conditions violated the Eighth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n Before the investigation\u2019s results came out, Centurion pulled out of its multimillion-dollar contract with the Mississippi Department of Corrections in July 2020. At the time, Team Roc said it was a \u201csignificant victory,\u201d according to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger<\/a>, which reported that Centurion\u2019s contracts with Mississippi totaled nearly $289 million over five years.<\/p>\n In the years since, the state\u2019s corrections department appeared to improve conditions at Parchman so much that Team Roc dropped its federal lawsuits in 2023, NBC News reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n VitalCore Health Strategies is the current health care provider for the state\u2019s prisons. The corrections department did not respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n \u2018An expendable population\u2019<\/p>\n Neglected health issues and medical emergencies often become preventable deaths, according to several lawsuits and reports.<\/p>\n As was the case with Othel Moore Jr., a healthy 38-year-old man incarcerated in a Missouri prison.<\/p>\n In the early hours of Dec. 8, 2023, correctional officers at the Jefferson City Correctional Center conducted a prisonwide sweep and pulled Moore from his cell, put him in a full-body restraint and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray. According to a lawsuit filed by his family, Moore did nothing to provoke the guards.<\/p>\n After he was pepper-sprayed, guards put a spit mask on his face and a large cotton cloth over his nose and mouth. Unable to move and breathe properly, Moore pleaded for help but instead was put in a cell, fully restrained and alone for 30 minutes, according to the suit.<\/p>\n When guards and Centurion medical staff members came into the cell, Moore was unresponsive. Yet the nurses did not immediately attempt lifesaving measures, according to the lawsuit. He eventually was taken from the cell and brought to the prison\u2019s emergency room, where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n The full incident and his death were captured on the prison\u2019s surveillance footage, according to the suit.<\/p>\n \u201cDefendants knew or should have known that Moore was in severe medical distress and knew they were required to provide immediate medical assistance,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cDespite their duty, they deliberately chose to do nothing, directly violating Moore\u2019s Eighth Amendment rights.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir inaction amounted to a clear denial of medical care, which exacerbated the harm inflicted upon Moore.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Othel Moore Jr. died in a Missouri prison while under Centurion Health\u2019s care. His family alleges in a lawsuit that the company was partly responsible for his death. <\/p>\n The suit is ongoing. A separate criminal investigation by the Cole County sheriff\u2019s department into Moore\u2019s death led to 10 people being fired from the prison, and four former correctional staff members were charged with second-degree murder, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the corrections department declined to comment on the Moore family\u2019s case but confirmed Centurion is still the department\u2019s contracted health care provider. <\/p>\n Andrew M. Stroth, a Chicago civil rights lawyer representing Moore\u2019s family, called for stronger accountability for Centurion.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got a private sector company making hundreds of millions of dollars, not providing ethical and real care to the inmates,\u201d Stroth said. \u201cThese individuals may be in custody, they may be in prison, but that doesn\u2019t take away their right to proper and necessary health care.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s tough, though, to generate outrage over how people are treated in prison, Wright said. And despite the performance standards built into the companies\u2019 contracts with state governments, there is little or no oversight into their practices, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cPrisoners are viewed as an expendable population in this country,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/646af78\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2667x2970+0+0\/resize\/840x935!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F29%2F72%2Fb3a2f40c4e4da1e4cd5f5c5606c9%2F001.jpg\")
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