Montana Inmate Dies In Federal Custody

The following is an excerpt from an article

At Flor’s sentencing last April, U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell recommended that he “be designated for incarceration at a federal medical center” where Flor’s “numerous physical and mental diseases and conditions can be evaluated and treated.”

Arndorfer said that never happened, and instead Flor was for months housed at the Crossroads Correctional Facility in Shelby until a week ago, when U.S. marshals began the process of transporting him to an unknown medical facility. Arndorfer said Flor was in Las Vegas as a layover, but he did not know where his client was being taken.

“It’s incredible to me to take a man with dementia, failing kidneys, severe diabetes and unable to care for himself and incarcerate him,” Arndorfer said Thursday. “He required nursing home care, and as far as I can tell he didn’t receive any care while he was incarcerated in Shelby. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Crossroads spokesman Steven Owen, citing privacy concerns, declined to comment on the specifics of Flor’s medical conditions or any treatment he received while at the prison.

“Our dedicated, professional corrections and medical staff at Crossroads are firmly committed to the health and safety of the inmates entrusted to our care; we meet or exceed the rigorous and comprehensive standards of our government partners, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Montana Department of Corrections, as well as those of the independent American Correctional Association,” Owen said in a written statement.

Last month, Arndorfer filed a motion requesting the court release Flor pending an appeal of his sentence due to health concerns. Arndorfer’s brief supporting the motion detailed how Flor suffered from severe osteoporosis and on multiple occasions while in custody, Flor had fallen out of bed breaking his ribs, his clavicle and his cervical bones as well as injuring vertebrae in his spine. Flor also suffered from dementia, diabetes and kidney failure among other ailments, Arndorfer said.

“He is in extreme pain and still is not being given round-the-clock care as is required for someone with his medical and mental conditions,” Arndorfer wrote in his brief to the court. “It is anticipated he will not long survive general population incarceration.”

In his Aug. 7 order denying the motion, Lovell wrote that it was unfortunate the Flor had not yet been transferred to an appropriate medical facility but that the concerns detailed in the motion were “not factually or legally significant.”

Kristin Flor said her father had complained to her regularly that his kidneys and back were hurting him and that he wasn’t receiving proper medical treatment while incarcerated in Shelby.

“They didn’t give him any of the medical attention he needed, and they never took him once to a medical doctor,” Kristin Flor said. “When he broke his clavicle and shoulder blade it took him two days to get doctors to look at it.”

Arndorfer said he’s “more than interested” in the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons for the alleged mistreatment of Flor.

“He had been complaining to his family and to me about kidney pain. They knew that his VA doctors were considering putting him on dialysis prior to him being placed in Shelby and they did nothing. They ran a blood test and said he was fine,” Arndorfer said. “I don’t believe he was given any medical care at all at Shelby.”

To Read Article: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120830/NEWS01/308300001/Miles-City-medical-marijuana-provider-dies-federal-custody?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

Montana Department of Corrections and including Crossroads Correctional, owned by CCA, has a bad reputation and history of not giving appropriate medical care to inmates.  This happens all the time and for this statement…

“Our dedicated, professional corrections and medical staff at Crossroads are firmly committed to the health and safety of the inmates entrusted to our care; we meet or exceed the rigorous and comprehensive standards of our government partners, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Montana Department of Corrections, as well as those of the independent American Correctional Association,” Owen said in a written statement.

Let’s get real, you cannot have all of these court documents, news paper articles, families, friends show you differently and yet they have the very nerve to say this….these prisons are NOT giving that kind of care that they are stating.   Why don’t they just come out and tell us the truth.  Do they think we are that dumb to not realize it at this point?    We are hearing complaints from families where the medical staff is yanking inmates off cold turkey off medications.  Some of these doctors do not believe in the medical care or the diagnoses that the VA has given.  Even judges have questioned the VA’s judgement.  What?  Is the VA no longer considered credible? Is this how Montana believes? Inmates have been rushed to outside hospitals because of the negligent care given in the prisons.   Limbs have been cut off, men that have almost died.

Related Articles: 

1. http://montanacorruption.org/montana-state-prison-concentration-camp/
2. http://montanacorruption.org/testimonies-of-the-incarcerated/ronney-harriman/
3. http://montanacorruption.org/testimonies-of-the-incarcerated/colton-wilson/

This is what was stated by a released inmate and by the US DOJ about GEO which is another private prison corporation just like CCA. 

DC returning citizen LT said, “Man I wish I could say that its random about what those GEO staffers did down in Mississippi, but it ain’t. That kind of stuff goes on in prison – especially in a private prison. They’re regulated alright, but we all know there’s ways around things. When I was a hoodlum and used ways around things, I went to jail. When people on the other side of the law does it, it’s look at as a harmless mistake.”  (Does this sound familiar Montana?)

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report in March that criticized GEO’s running of Walnut Grove, an hour east of Jackson, Mississippi. Federal Judge Carlton Reeves spoke poorly of the agency and it’s management style buy saying it “allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate.” In April, GEO pulled out of its contact at Walnut Grove, and by July will not be doing any business in Mississippi. Sims wasn’t the only staffer who had sex with young inmates, beat them and gave favors to those with the same gang affiliations. Young ladies who were being housed at Walnut Grove as young as 13 said they were kept in a state of fear.

Among the conditions described in the report released last month:

• Prison staff had sex with incarcerated youth, which investigators called “among the worst that we’ve seen in any facility anywhere in the nation.”
• Poorly trained guards brutally beat youth and used excessive pepper spray as a first response.
• The prison showed “deliberate indifference” to prisoners possessing homemade knives, which were used in gang fights and inmate rapes.
• Some guards had gang affiliations — a finding confirmed to NPR last year by former inmate Justin Bowling.

All of this goes on while George C. Zoley, the CEO of GEO earned a salary of $1,145,000, got a bonus of $1,334,498 and with other compensations like stock options, the total for him is$5,734,949. On Friday, Zoley said GEO would be canceling its contract at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility because the facility had been “financially underperforming.”

DC resident Carlie Stewart said. “Prisons should not be run as a for-profit business.”

Credit: prisondivestment.wordpress.com

Glenn Fields recently sent out a letter to those in Washington,DC urging them to boycott doing business with Wells Fargo Bank.

Southeast DC resident and returning citizen Wilma Shaw said, “Businesses like Wells Fargo will ruin America. Companies like Wells Fargo are looking to find people to put into these prisons.”

To Read Article: http://www.examiner.com/article/an-open-letter-to-boycott-dc