Health Horror Stories
"These stories of health abuse are not independently verified by the editors of this website. However, all of the women have agreed to a HIPPA release to any qualified attorney willing to take their case, or to an investigative reporter from the media."
Your Blood Never Lies
I have always been skeptical of how much “stress” affects one’s health. Well, I’m a believer now. I have empirical evidence of my own blood lab work.
If you read the articles about how bad Lumley Unit treats its residents, you can understand the major STRESS the women are subjected to. I lived, (survived) 13 months on Taliban Bendel’s Lumley. It was sincerely the worst 13 months of my life. Two blood tests were performed during that period.
I recently compared that to the blood tests taken after I was liberated and transferred to Maria Unit. You’d think they were drawn from two different people! I used the Merck manual and a Lab Corp interpretation manual, to contrast and compare the results. Roughly 60% of the scores on the Lumley tests were either too low or high and not in the normal range. In ALL of the scores that were out, the manuals said stress was a factor. My lab work done on Maria showed a healthy person with blood scores all in the normal range!
Yep, I’m a believer.
Quick summary of Jensen v. Shinn trial
(For gavel to gavel coverage, see Jimmy Jenkins reporting for the Arizona Republic.)
Psychologists, wardens, medical workers, and the prisoners themselves, testified for a month in this health care trial. On the last day of the trial, the court heard from Centurion’s vice-president, Tom Dolan. Dolan said he advised prison officials that Centurion needed to increase staffing by 15%, and the prison did nothing. For this failure, many prisoners died preventable deaths for not getting basic medical and mental health care.
Despite YEARS of failing to live up to court-ordered standards, repeated fines, and sanctions totaling millions of dollars, Director Shinn got on the stand and had the nerve to say, “Prisoners often have greater access to care than I do as a private citizen.”. He said that under oath believe it or not! Shinn admitted that health care costs had doubled for the DOC since the privatization of services more than a decade ago. He also described the difficulties of providing prison health care as, “Almost like a battlefield.”
The ruling by Judge Silver might not take place until March
Prison nurse told to falsify report
(Read Jimmy Jenkins complete article in the Arizona Republic)
This RN with 30 years experience, worked predominantly in the DOC Alhambra unit which serves as intake for men’s prisons. In this instance in 2020, Nurse Bordan was asked to document a return from off-site even though no one had seen this inmate. She went to her computer and wrote the entry as if she’d seen him.
The next day, Bordan was thanked by the Director for ‘Saving Centurion $100,000. Then it hit her…’ I lied on a medical document. After that, she was defiant against pressure from Centurion and continued to advocate for her patients. In her time working the DOC, she alleged Providers were delivering substandard care to prisoners, specialty care denials, no follow-up treatments, and a preponderance of failing Performance Measures.
Nurse Bordan resigned from Centurion in September. She is quoted as saying, ‘If you don’t speak up, you’re as guilty as the person doing wrong.’
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I was in prison for 17years and have seen so many people die in front of me It’s traumatic and I have PTSD from it. Medical never helped me for my heart problems, never took tests, just told me I have congested heart failure and didn’t do anything for me. I saw it every day. They never helped us, made us always feel like we were lying and would send us away. Making people work in the kitchen who have scoliosis, heart problems, people who have AIDS and Hep C as well as other STDs. There’s rat poop on our kitchen food, birds all over our trays that we eat off of making us all even sicker, black mold everywhere. We can’t breathe in our cells due to all the mold and crud in our walls, vents, and coolers. They are trying to kill us – they don’t care and the money they get for us does not go to us. There is so much more.
I’ve been sexually attacked by the CO police officers twice. I have my whole life to account for in there and I’m surprised I made it out after 17years. They have medium inmates on max yards getting assaulted and they don’t care. They say it is due to no room. They also send you to max yard as punishment without ever getting tickets. It’s all retaliation. They will ruin your life if you don’t do what they want. They make up lies, yep the sergeants, if you refuse to work because you don’t feel good. I heard a Sergeant say “Oh you’re going to hurt yourself” then cuff her up and put her in isolation when the girl never said it. I’ve seen it all, believe that.
Hi Cynthia! I’m not sure if you’ll see this but I am so sorry for what you went through. Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your story. I would love to ask you questions as I am exploring ideas for my doctoral capstone and am interested in issues in the AZ Women’s Prison. Is there any way we could talk further?
That was my friend 😭 she was cool ag and funny. I feel bad I had to leave San Carlos for Cruz. But fck their medical center, the whole prison is fucked up and corrupted. I’ve been out for 8 months now and I still remember everything like yesterday especially with health care. Like can the prison do an upgrade and fix their shit or will more ppl have to die like my friend here? It’s fucked up because I knew she was having a hard time in the beginning getting her shots. We both came from the same county. She wasn’t even a criminal like person. She was fun, bright and very smart, like she could’ve went to college. She had alot planned for herself…damn I love Jowell thank for the laughs and being a loyal friend. Rest in Paradise
Yeah, she was a very cool person to know. She would hug you when she saw you with a big smile. She was always cool to everyone, no hate or anger in her heart but she probably did towards ADOC health employees
I was incarcerated for 9 years and just released March 2024. In 2019, my stomach swelled up and I looked 9 months pregnant. They told me I had impacted stool and had me drink a laxative. The pain got worse, I couldn’t breath or walk and this went on for 2 months. My family contacted the ACLU and prison and finally in February 2020 I was sent to the hospital and diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian cancer. I was in the hospital for 10 days and started chemo. I went back to the prison and was expecting chemo every 3 weeks. It took over a 3 weeks for me to get scheduled for my next chemo. In May, I had just came back from chemo and was told I was packing up and being sent to San Carlos. I had to load and unload all of my belongings after a day of chemo and was being transferred to a yard with 1300 women. I then had surgery to remove the cancer in July and once released from the hospital was sent to Maria and put in a cell, by myself with no A/C. I had to move everything by myself and carry a chair out to take a shower. I had an incision from belly button to my pubic bone. Finally after 2 weeks, I was sent back to Carlos. I was told later that I had peritoneal cancer and not ovarian, after I had had a complete hysterectomy. I never had a follow up PET scan to make sure the cancer was gone. In March of 2023, I started seeing a new oncologist, Dr. Benjamin and he finally ordered a PET scan and saw that I had cancer again in the same area of my stomach. I had surgery again in May and started six rounds of chemo. Between the medical Dr’s John and Johnson my medical treatment at the prison was horrible. They didn’t give me anything but Tylenol and Excedrin for the pain and I had to fight to get an extra mattress and extra milk for protein shakes. If I didn’t have my family to support me and stand up for me I would have died. I applied for clemency 2 times and because I wasn’t dying in 3 months, I was refused. Something needs to change with the health system and prison.