The governor should dispatch emergency medical teams to every adult prison in Delaware to assess whether inmates are receiving appropriate medical care, a coalition of 30 churches, social service organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware said in a letter sent Friday to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and members of the General Assembly.

"The need is there. It's immediate," said Drewry Fennell, executive director of the ACLU of Delaware. "If there are people in there that need immediate medical attention, they can't wait."

"This is as much a human rights issue as a civil rights issue," Fennell said. "There are people who are in pain, and who have medical issues that need to be addressed. They don't have the luxury of time."

The letter came in response to News Journal articles published last week that examined conditions of care within the state's prisons, Fennell said. The series highlighted AIDS-related inmate deaths and suicides over the past four years; allegations by inmates of poor medical treatment for cancer, meningitis and hepatitis; and a no-bid $25.9 million contract awarded this year to St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services to manage health care in the state's prisons.

The ACLU and other signatories support efforts of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who this week asked to hold hearings and form committees to investigate conditions in the prisons, the letter states.

Lisa Blunt-Bradley, president of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, and a former senior official in the Minner administration, said she hopes lawmakers will examine problems inside the prison.

"This is a public health crisis for the broader community," Blunt-Bradley said. "We wanted to take a stand with the others that are also concerned."

Department of Correction Commissioner Stan Taylor had not seen the letter, said his spokeswoman, Beth Welch.

Minner did not return calls for comment, but her spokeswoman, Kate Bailey, said: "The ACLU letter was sent to our office very late on Friday afternoon. The governor has not yet had a chance to review the letter, but wants the community to know that the Department of Correction would welcome an opportunity to provide a briefing on the inmate health care system and to correct the many factual errors in recent news articles about the level of care being provided to Delaware."

Said David Ledford, The News Journal's executive editor: "If we made an error we will correct it. Late Friday afternoon Mr. Taylor presented us with a letter outlining issues he had with our work, although much of it was his thoughts on how the state is addressing the difficult task of providing health care to inmates behind bars. On the issue of whether one inmate should have been released from Gander Hill when he was instead placed in maximum security at Smyrna where he hanged himself, Mr. Taylor's letter -- balanced against court documents and other reporting -- raises more questions than it answers. We'll clear it up with state officials as soon as we can and let readers know."

The Reverend Ty Johnson of Churches Take a Corner and his brother, Pastor Derrick Johnson of Joshua Harvest Church, signed the letter urging Minner to take action.

"I think the governor should call for an independent commission," Ty Johnson said. "I will do everything I can do to get the governor's attention, and to demonstrate to her that her attention is warranted, but her action is needed."

Derrick Johnson became a preacher after serving a prison term in the 1970s for fatally shooting a man during a fight over a woman at a motel. He said he had a gallbladder problem that was misdiagnosed while an inmate.

"I chose to sign the letter because of my experience -- my own personal experience," he said. "I believe the Department of Correction does the best it can in subcontracting medical providers, but the providers tend to be neglectful. The governor should send in a medical team to evaluate what the providers are doing."

Lolita A. Lopez is chief executive officer of Westside Health, which provides medical care for many of Wilmington's poor.

"It is an issue that is critical," she said. "Let's not wait. Let's do something in the meantime."

Growing concern

Before Friday's letter was faxed to every lawmaker, four had already asked for independent investigations of healthcare in Delaware prisons: House Majority Leader Wayne A. Smith, R-Clair Manor; Rep. Hazel D. Plant, D-Wilmington Central; Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East; and Sen. Charles L. Copeland, R-West Farms.

U.S. Attorney for Delaware Colm F. Connolly said he has forwarded allegations of inmate abuse to the U.S. Department of Justice to review and Sen. James T. Vaughn, D-Clayton, said he is comparing contracts Maryland and Delaware have with Correctional Medical Services.

Many other lawmakers have reacted with concern to the allegations of medical mistreatment.

Sen. Patricia Blevins, D-Elsmere, said the request for emergency medical teams was "a good idea and something we ought to do."

But she said the decision ultimately rests with the Minner administration.

"It's something I would speak to them about, just as I would speak to them about any other constituent concern," Blevins said. "A lot of us, individually, have had concerns about health care over the years. But I don't think we understood the dimensions of the problem until we saw the articles in The News Journal."

Blevins said her committee, the Senate Health and Social Services Committee, might not be able to look at prison health care until December. She said she would defer to Vaughn if he chose to launch an investigation.

"Jim Vaughn's [Senate Corrections Committee] has the ability to investigate everything in corrections," she said. "My committee is more limited. ... And I think this is symptomatic of bigger problems within the Department of Corrections."

Rep. William Oberle Jr., R-Beechers Lot, said he's considered asking Attorney General Brady's office to launch a criminal probe into the 2002 death of Anthony Pierce, who died of a brain tumor that caused his head to swell to grotesque proportions.

"I know they're convicts," Oberle said. "But that is no way one human being should treat another human being."

Sen. Karen E. Peterson, D-Stanton, said she has been working behind the scenes to get an investigation going in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee, chaired by Blevins.

"When I didn't hear anything out of the governor's office or the Corrections Committee within 24 hours or by Tuesday at the latest, I thought we needed to do something," she said.

Peterson said she frequently gets complaints from inmates on health care issues but usually runs into the corrections bureaucracy when she tries to have them addressed. Because of that, she hopes Blevins is able to set hearings before lawmakers come back in January.

"It's the perfect time," she said. "I know there are problems and we shouldn't be waiting to address them."

'As a number'

But Peterson said she's not ready to cast a lot of stones at Taylor at this point.

"Right now, we don't really know if it's Stan [Taylor] or if he's not getting the information he needs," Peterson said. "Since we really don't know how it's broken, it's hard to say how to fix all of it."

However, Peterson did have harsh words for Minner's defense of the system.

"If she thinks it's that good, maybe she should use the prison health system -- not with a name but as a number," Peterson said.

Peterson said she agrees that medical teams should be sent into the prisons.

"Absolutely. I agree with that 100 percent," she said. "A lot of people will die in the prisons between now and the time an investigation is done, if we don't do something like that."

Sen. Steve Amick, R-Newark South, says that while dispatching medical teams sounds good on the surface, the issue is trickier than it first appears. Amick serves on the Senate Corrections Committee and has studied prison medical issues with the National Conference of State Legislatures, a non-partisan, Colorado-based group that advises lawmakers around the country on policy issues.

"The logistics of something like that can be problematic," Amick said. "Are these teams going to be examining records or are they going to be examining prisoners individually? When you're dealing with a prison population [individual examinations] might not be as easy as they look."

Amick said he has heard complaints from department personnel about the accuracy of the News Journal's reports and wants to hear from the department in greater detail as part of any investigation.

"I have no problem with an investigation, although some of what the Legislature can do is limited," he said. "Frankly, I'm disappointed that the governor hasn't stepped out to take a more active role in this because she has the power to make a lot of things happen."

Pastor Doug Gerdts of First & Central Presbyterian Church supports sending teams to assess the health of the state's approximately 6,600 inmates.

"It seems from the series that if the possibility exists that a substandard level of medical care is being extended to people because of their incarcerated status, it strikes me as fundamentally wrong," Gerdts said. "It seems a basic human right to have a basic level of medical care and pain management. This letter is calling for someone to get in there and assess the situation. The thoughts of the letter are well put and the tone was proper for folks that aren't trying to stir up trouble. We're only asking that medical people get sent into these institutions and take care of people who may or may not need care."

UNITED FRONT

Some of the 30 groups that signed a letter sent to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner
 

Addictions Coalition of Delaware

AIDS Delaware

American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware

Churches Take A Corner

Delaware Center for Justice

Fathers Who Care Society

First & Central Presbyterian Church

Green Party of Delaware

NAACP Prison Branch 2032

Joshua Harvest Church

Local 199

Manna Christian Fellowship Church

Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League

NAACP

Pacem In Terris

Planned Parenthood of Delaware

Praise the King Ministry

Sharon Temple SDA Church

Spirit of Life -- God Loves Me Ministries

Stand For Children Delaware

Success Center

Tabernacle Full Gospel Baptist Church

Trinity Episcopal Church

Union AME Zion Church

West Presbyterian Church

Westside Health

Youth Community Builders