Remedies for BOP Prison Medical Staff Negligence

Legal Remedies Exist for BOP Medical Malpractice

 

            As anyone who has attempted to be fairly and properly treated by the BOP’s health-care system knows, it can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience.  Administrators seem to feel that many ailments can be cured by two or three days off of work and a Tylenol tablet.  Every year, many prisoners die needlessly in BOP custody, suffering the final indignity of being shackled, per BOP regulations, for their final ride to an outside medical facility to be declared legally dead.

There are remedies for BOP medical mistreatment, as happened recently in a little noted decision by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, which found deliberate indifference in denying a BOP motion to dismiss.  The court noted that the prisoner-plaintiff had well-documented his medical history, and received a diagnosis of a latent TB illness, which went properly untreated, violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. This as we all know is not an isolated incident;  unnecessary deaths occur every day in the prison system.

In Tennessee recently almost $750,000 was awarded in a case involving the death of a newborn where the mother entered the system pregnant and failed to get the medical care that she needed.  Guards were more interested in getting their “Count” right than in rushing her to the hospital to give birth.

 Tuberculosis has been widely recognized as a serious and potentially deadly disease when introduced to the high-density environment of prison life. There are many others, including MRSA. The court rejected the BOP defense of qualified immunity, finding that, “the relevant, dispositive inquiry in determining whether a right is clearly established is whether it would be clear to a reasonable office that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted.”  Here, where BOP procedures and accepted medical practice were not followed, the prisoner lawsuit was permitted to continue.

The best way to receive appropriate medical treatment in prison is to document, document, document.  Emails regarding medical tests and treatment must be kept and responded to by medical staff.  Be persistent in your complaints, and send copies of your medical records, which you are free to request at any time, home to your family or friends.  Finally, if all else fails, contact me immediately at (847) 878-0160.  I can get you the help you need and if I can’t I will tell you who can help you, free of charge.