Prison Healthcare and the Age of Experimentation
When someone thinks of prison healthcare, their thoughts may turn to medical malpractice against incarcerated individuals, lobotomies, and torture, all carried out by the great US of A. Sadly, these individuals are not wrong. In fact, history reveals prisons and their long-standing, purposeful practice in exploiting a captive audience in their care, all in the name of “scientific” gain.
And money.
The major issue at hand? Prisoners cannot technically provide their consent. Especially when an entity sweetens the pot with financial incentives. There is an unspoken and insurmountable degree of pressure at all times. Doing so creates the illusion of choice, especially for the impoverished who need to send money home.
- A proposed study on the impacts of low sodium levels that would likely kill test subjects
- The infamous Project MK Ultra, where hallucinogenics were tested on incarcerated and mentally ill individuals
- Injecting HeLa cells into prisoners at the Ohio State Reformatory for cancer research
- A never-ending array of creams, tonics, and potions that had no business being rubbed on anyone
In short, the health of incarcerated individuals has never been taken seriously in the American legal system. Not even now. I never thought it would happen to someone I love.
How It Happened
This all began a few months ago, when Ryan went to have his right ear looked at. The on-staff nurse was not gentle with the otoscope. She kept trying to turn it, putting it deeper into his ear, until there was no where to move it without damaging something.
When it happened, he said he felt immediate pain. He didn’t know it until he talked to me, at which time I put two and two together: I was certain she had RUPTURED his eardrum.
The nurse told him he would have a scab; it was normal. She also stated they would recheck him later. My gut instinct is that in that moment, she knew exactly what she did. Which is why she didn’t schedule a follow-up. He also never received antibiotics.
The next day, a dried bloody glob fell out of his ear. Soon after the right side of his jaw swelled up; he had trouble eating. The medical staff at Egeler NEVER rechecked his ear as promised. He was then characterized as a “hard of hearing inmate.”
He finally received care nearly two months after the injury. The nurse Ryan saw at G. Robert Cotton called no less than five people over to look at his ear; she had never seen anything like it. Suddenly Ryan was a sideshow attraction. She said it looked like his ear had healed over with new tissue. It had healed, but not properly.
The most upsetting and idiotic part: he was assigned to push mower lawn duty the day before his appointment, with no ear protection to protect the hearing in his now one good ear.
Michigan DOC’s Outsourced Care
Michigan Department of Corrections has long utilized contractors for medical care. In 2021, they issued a lucrative contract to handle that care:
Shockingly, Michigan DOC awarded this contract even with a slew of complaints and issues already on the record against Grand Prairie Health Care Services. The financial incentive to outsource care and the structural insulation from accountability create exactly the conditions in which what happened to Ryan can happen, go unreported, and go unaddressed.
Case Law
What’s Next: Continue Exposing the Truth of Michigan’s Misdeeds
It is important, now more than ever, to bring the continued atrocities and malpractice to light. If the majority of Americans believe that people are created in God’s image, that we are all loved by God, we need to stop allowing mistreatment and torture.
If we have reached a point where American society can be completely ok with medical malpractice, I’m not sure how much more I can take.
