In a series of cases widely covered by the media, one facility’s atrocious medical care services resulted in exorbitant fiscal and physical cost—the former picked up by New Mexico taxpayers via New Mexico Medicaid, the latter suffered by the inmates. Specifically, we are referring to a group of inmates housed at one correctional facility between…
New Mexico Injury Attorney Blog
Prison Diabetes Emergencies Treated as Disciplinary Matters
Hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia both have symptoms that can lead to devastating and rather cruel misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose. The misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose a diabetic episode is often driven by prejudicial assumptions that the symptoms suggest misconduct on the part of the inmate rather than the medical emergency that it is. These assumptions…
Shocking National Data Pale by Comparison to Prison Diabetes Data
National Statistics on Diabetes The national statistics on diabetes are shocking: According to the National Center for Health Statistics, among adults 20 years and over the percent with diabetes (physician-diagnosed or undiagnosed) stood at 12.6% (2011-2014) of the population. This breaks down to 9.6% with physician-diagnosed diabetes and 3% undiagnosed. Diabetes is currently the number…
Untreated and Negligently Treated Diabetes in New Mexico Prisons
Something we should all be concerned about Most folks don’t give prison healthcare much thought. They should. The costs of poor prison healthcare as remote as it sounds, affects all of us and our communities. Prisoners have all the same health issues as the rest of us. However, the health issues that prisoners have quickly…
Understaffing in New Mexico Prisons Contributes to Inmate Suicides
Prison Suicide Prevention Standards, Policies and Procedures New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) policies for the prevention of suicide presumably follow the policies and standards set forth by the American Corrections Association (ACA) and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC). It is not clear from at all from a review of NMCD ACA and…
Investigation and Reporting of New Mexico Prison Suicides
Reporting of Inmate Deaths to Family The New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) provides policies regarding what is to happen when an inmate dies, is injured or becomes seriously ill while in custody. Those policies may be referenced on the NMCD web-site under the health services policy section, CD-172100 Notification of Serious Illness, Injury or Death…
New Mexico Prison Osteomyelitis Epidemic Spells Medical Negligence
Many people look at a topic such the medical care of prison inmates with measured indifference or outright disdain. The underlying subtext reads, “they deserve what they get”. This broad social indifference to the health of inmates offers a bad guide for policy with dire repercussions in a broader social context. An article in the…
How in the World Did New Mexico Corrections Department Lose Accreditation from These Folks?
The New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) Central New Mexico Correctional Facility (CNMCF) lost American Correctional Association (ACA) accreditation from 2016 to January 14, 2019. This is remarkable considering the makeup of the ACA’s Executive Committee and Board of Governors. ACA’s Executive Committee current membership is made up entirely of correctional professionals that have spent their…
New Mexico Prison Guards and Inmates Locked Away and Forgotten
Most of the discussion surrounding our broken prison system revolves around the abuse of the rights of inmates. Collins & Collins, P.C. has commented on these matters numerous times. More often than not, what is lost in the discussion is the systemic neglect, abuse and harm suffered by guards as a result of that same…
FMCSA Interventions for Unsafe Trucking and Bus Carriers
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is charged with the regulation of motor carriers (trucks and buses) safety. To meet its safety objectives, the FMCSA created its “Safety Measurement System” (SMS). The SMS is in turn implemented through the “Compliance, Safety, Accountability” (CSA) system. The CSA system uses roadside inspections and crash data to…