When Sherry Richburg began a 20-month sentence for a drug offense, she was taking medication for a fungal infection in her leg, but a contractor hired to provide healthcare at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women failed to provide that treatment. When she left the prison, she was near death.
“They couldn’t find a pulse," she recalled. "It hurt so bad, and the doctor said, ‘Sherry, you’re supposed to be on this medication, and I said, ‘I told them, but they wouldn’t give it to me.’"
And her leg had to be amputated.
Inmate Shebri Dillon says dental care was so bad that she had to perform what she called Civil War Medicine on herself.
“I had a tooth pulled, and I kept telling them, ‘It still hurts. i think it's infected.' I'm still not on the appointment list. It’s starting to smell. It is killing me. I’m rocking back and forth. You could see the infection oozing out of the extraction site, so I got a bunch of Q-tips and some salt from the chow hall, and I dug out the infection with the Q-tips and packed it with the salt from the chow hall.”
And former inmate Beverly Kingley says nurses were reluctant to refer prisoners to specialists at the University of Virginia.
“I have one friend who had serious stomach problems, and they never would take her to UVA. They would just keep saying, ‘Take Pepcid,” and after two years they found out that she had colon cancer.”
Today, the state provides direct care for prisoners rather than working with for-profit contractors. Critics say dental care is better, medication is being provided on time, and the state is keeping electronic medical records on prisoners – making care more efficient. That prompted a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit, but Legal Aid Justice Center Attorney Anna Kurien says Fluvanna may still be reluctant to send prisoners out for care.
"It’s very costly for people at Fluvanna to go for an outpatient appointment and be transported, and it takes a lot of time, and there are a lot of misses in medical care when that level of coordination is needed.”
So her group reached out to UVA to see if doctors might be willing to see patients at the prison.
"They have indicated an interest in working with Fluvanna and sending providers in."
Kurien credits one doctor for changes that have already occurred – a man appointed by the court to monitor conditions at Fluvanna.
"Dr. Homer Vinters started doing regular visits to Fluvanna at least twice a year -- sometimes three times and producing reports that indicated to Fluvanna what they should do to become compliant, and then they did improve their systems."
Today, she says, mental healthcare and physical therapy are better, and there’s an expanded program for those who need medication-assisted treatment for drug addiction.
But when it comes to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and other chronic conditions, she argues, the state should be more compassionate and frugal.
"The state is spending a lot of money providing very complex medical care for people who pose no risk to other people.
And she’s encouraged by new leadership in Richmond.
"There was a TEDX talk at Fluvanna, and then Governor Spanberger visited after that, and we are hopeful that this administration sees the need to release elderly and infirm not just at Fluvanna but throughout VDOC."
Legal Aid Justice has also vowed to lobby for new policies that create additional ways for people who are not a danger to themselves or others to leave prison early.
