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       Inmates at the Ely State Maximum Security prison are being systematically denied medical care even to the point of death alleges the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit filed in Federal Court Friday.
    The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit today against the director of Nevada’s Department of Corrections and other top governmental officials in Nevada for failing to rectify a pervasive pattern of grossly inadequate medical care at the Ely State Prison that creates a substantial risk of serious medical harm for each of the prison’s 1,000 inmates. The lawsuit charges that the prison lacks the most basic elements of an adequate prison health care system and deprives prisoners of the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities.
    “The state just hasn’t shown a sense of urgency in addressing the crisis at Ely,” said Amy Fettig, staff counsel with the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “They assured us that they were going to carry out far-reaching reforms to address the problems we brought to their attention, but that was months ago and they’ve made only halfhearted gestures to fix their broken system. We had hoped to avoid litigation but we can’t in good conscience wait any longer, with the men at Ely still at such risk.”
    Nevada State Prison officials responded with a press release of their own
    “In response to the class action complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) upon the Department of Corrections, for inadequate medical treatment of inmates housed at the Ely State Prison, officials make the following statements:
     “We are shocked by this development. On March 5, 2008 Director Howard Skolnik sent a proposal to ACLU representatives suggesting that the Nevada State Medical Association be consulted to identify a group of physicians that can objectively review our operations in an impartial manner.” 
     “The Director firmly believes that the medical care at Ely state prison is more than adequate.”
     “The department has been acting in good faith with the ACLU to acquire a neutral medical expert and we are very disappointed at these latest developments. We have been making every effort to avoid a potentially lengthy litigation which will become a burden on the State of Nevada tax payer.”
     “We are very disappointed that the ACLU chose to discuss their intentions with the media prior to advising the department.”
    According to Nevada ACLU Director Lee Rowland the state organization first began receiving prisoner complaints two years ago and last May launched a full scale inquiry last May in conjunction with the National ACLU.
    At the center of the lawsuit is a medical report written by Dr. William Noel a retired Doctor of Osteopathy from Boise, Idaho.
    According to the reports introduction Noel worked in Ely from 1991 to 1994. He is certified by American Board of Osteopathic Family Physicians and has been called as an expert witness in both federal and state courts.
    Noel’s report is chilling if true. The former Ely doctor cites 35 separate cases of inmates being denied even the minimal medical care even to the point of death from diabetes related gangrene.
    According to Noel’s report ESP inmate Patrick Cavanaugh literally rotted to death after contracting gangrene when his diabetes was untreated for at least two years at ESP.
    Noel does report that Cavanaugh refused treatment and as extremely violent. The Idaho D.O.. also acknowledges the now dead man had to be forcibly removed from cell to cell because the deceased inmate spread urine and feces on the walls.
    The actions of Cavanaugh or the the other inmates notwithstanding the lawsuit contends that Ely State Prison officials violated their legal and moral obligations to provide medical care.
    The lawsuit charges that the prison lacks the most basic elements of an adequate prison health care system and deprives prisoners of the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities.
    The filing of the lawsuit comes nearly three months after the release of a medical report that documented how gravely ill prisoners at Ely are routinely denied treatment for excruciatingly painful and potentially fatal medical conditions.
    On the heels of Noel’s report release last December, ACLU attorneys proposed in a consent decree a series of basic reforms that would have dramatically improved prison health care at Ely, including complying with nationally recognized standards for correctional health care. The proposed consent decree was rejected by Nevada’s Board of State Prison Commissioners.
    “Prisoners at the Ely State Prison have written to us in desperate need of help, in desperate need of quality medical treatment,” said Lee Rowland, staff attorney with the ACLU of Nevada. “It is unfortunate that this action was necessary to prompt corrections officials to uphold their constitutional obligation of providing a basic level of medical care to the inmates in their care, but quality care is an immediate need that cannot be delayed any longer.”
    The lawsuit, filed on behalf of all of Ely’s prisoners – more than 60 of whom are currently sitting on death row – contains six named plaintiffs, including 36-year-old David Riker who, according to the lawsuit, suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia that cause debilitating chronic pain. The lawsuit alleges that Riker has never received prescribed medications and x-rays ordered by an outside physician and was told by Ely medical staff that treating chronic pain is against the policy of the prison.
    In his report, Noel calls Riker’s untreated protopathic nerve pain “a living hell” and says he finds it “simply unimaginable” that a medical professional would refuse to treat such severe, chronic pain.
    The ACLU names as defendants in its lawsuit Nevada Governor James Gibbons, Secretary of State Ross Miller, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, Howard Skolnik, director of the Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC), Robert Bannister, NDOC’s medical director, and E.K. McDaniel, the warden of Ely State Prison.
    “The level of medical care provided at Ely is as horrific as any we have ever seen at any of the prison systems that we track across the country,” said Margaret Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “We have been stunned at the amount of human suffering that is allowed to go on there. And while we had hoped that working collaboratively with the Department of Corrections and the governor’s office would lead to the resolution of some of the most pressing issues at Ely, it simply has not.”
    Other named plaintiffs in the lawsuit include 42-year-old Roger Libby, whose requests for surgery to repair his softball-sized hernia have been denied, 46-year-old Rickey Sechrest, whose chronic intermittent Herpetic Iritis of his right eye has gone untreated and could cause blindness and who has not received treatment for his Hepatitis C, 36-year-old Terrence Brothers who has suffered from untreated open sores on his scalp for more than 10 years, 36-year-old Jeffrey Hosmer whose chronic severe back and neck pain and numbness on his left side have gone untreated despite his living in the prison’s infirmary and whose medication for bi-polar disorder is often interrupted, and 47-year-old Mark Whittington, who has suffered continual problems with arbitrarily discontinued medications and dosages of prescribed medications running out for his serious medical conditions.
    “We recognize that some of these inmates have committed terrible crimes,” Rowland said. “But our society has obligation to provide prisoners no matter what they have done with adequate medical care.”

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