The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Prison hospitals" ...
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Captive Care
“The story is about third-world conditions in the prisoner care facilities operated by the Tarrant County public hospital, John Peter Smith, and the efforts of the hospital’s new CEO and COO to fix the problems”.
Tags: health care; medicine; medical services; patients; poor; equipment
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Taking the Cuffs off at Carswell
Fort Worth Weekly reporter Betty Brink has been covering medical and sexual abuse of female inmates at Carswell Federal Medical Center, in Texas, since 1999. As a result of her coverage, and his own investigation, a retired judge, Ross Sears is asking for a Congressional investihgation into the deadly conditions at "the only prison hospital in the country for mentally or chronicallly ill or dying women who have been convicted of a federal crime."
Tags: medical negligence; sexual abuse; Carswell Federal Mediacal Center; medical records; Bureau of Prisons; FOI requests; U.S. Office of Special Counsel; Dr. Roger Guthrie; Ross Sears; retaliation; compassionate release; John Peter Smith Hospital; Tarrant County Medical Examiner; autopsies; prison deaths; women inmates; femaile prisoners; Baylor Regional Transplant Institute; Huguley Memorial Medical Center; brain damage; whistleblower complaints; medical malpractice; sentinel event; rape;
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The Wexford Files
To save money on its contract with the New Mexico state corrections department, Wexford Health Sources cut costs and provided poor health care to inmates. In the wake of Wexford's cost-cutting, "chronically sick inmates were routinely refused off-site specialty visits. Other inmates waited for days, even weeks, to receive critical prescription drug renewals. Still other inmates were forced to lie in their own feces because basic supplies, like bed sheets, were in such short order." In addition, staffing was a problem in prison medical units due to Wexford not filling vacant positions as yet another means of cost-cutting. In the end, people ranging from "Wexford's top medical officers in New Mexico to nurses and administrative employees" resigned as a result of the effect of the company's belt-tightening on their ability to help patients.
Tags: Prison hospitals; Wexford Health Souces; poor health care; New Mexico prison system
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Sexually Violent Predators
The Sacramento Bee investigates as a decade after the state of California adopted the nation's toughest laws regarding sexually violent predators, enforcement has fallen short of expectations. Those deemed to have the highest risk of being repeat offenders "were sent to Atascadero State Mental Hospital following their prison terms." But of 54 molesters released from the mental hospital, "none had gone through the full treatment regimen designed for them" and worse, "more than two-thirds underwent no treatment at all." In addition, "those who refused treatment had been released to society with fewer restrictions and less monitoring than the four who had completed the five-stage program."
Tags: Atascadero State Mental Hospital; California sex-offender laws; sexual predators; child molesters
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"Cancer Cell"; "Hospital of Horrors"
This investigation focuses on the health care -- or lack thereof -- provided for female prisoners at the Carswell Federal Medical Center near Fort Worth, TX, the only prison hospital in the country for mentally and chronically ill or dying women who have been convicted of a federal crime. These stories feature two women in their 40s whose cases were the most egregious. They cover the womens' lives and medical histories in and out of prison, the trail of contradictory documents and misleading statements released by the prison, and the families' struggles to save the womens' lives and find out the truth about the medical care system at Carswell.
Tags: prison; jail; federal government; women prisoners; patients; prisoner abuse; hospitals; doctors; medical malpractice; medical ethics
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Tarrant County Jail health care
Autrey examined medical care at Tarrant County jails, tracking each of the 10 deaths at the jail during 2004. She relates the extensive problems she found with medical care at the jail. Hospital administrators responsible for jail care overlooked the signs of crisis, spoke of political retribution for the sheriff when he complained and proclaimed the problems solved several times, although they were not.
Tags: Tarrant County; jail; prison; health care
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Case Closed: The medical examiner concluded Tyrone McCollough Jr. hung himself at the City Workhouse. The doctor who treated him wasn't so sure. Neither is his family.
The Riverfront Times tells the story of Tyrone McCollough Jr., a 17-year-old St. Louis resident who apparently hung himself in his jail cell and later died at St. Louis University Hospital. An emergency room doctor and a sheriff's deputy guarding McCollough's hospital both told his family that he may not have committed suicide. McCollough's family thinks he may have been beaten, however, authorities say the case is closed.
Tags: Tyrone McCollough; St. Louis; Missouri; police; death; murder; prison
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Locked in Suffering
Many inmates in Kentucky's county jail are not receiving care for mental illnesses, leaving them to suffer or even die. At least 17 people killed themselves during a 30 month period from Jan. 1, 1999, and June 30, 2001. Less than six ever saw a mental health professional. These mentally ill inmates have limited access to hospital beds and employees in the prisons have little to no training with the mentally ill.
Tags: prisons; corrections; mentally ill; health care; state custody; suicides
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How California Failed Kevin Evans
The story of Kevin Evans, a prisoner at Twin Towers jail. The Medical Services Building is Twin Towers' hospital, the largest mental-health housing facility in the nation, because 2,300 people there are mentally ill.
Tags: prisons; mental health; LA County
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How California Failed Kevin Evans
The Los Angeles Times Magazine investigates the death of Kevin Evans, a mentally ill African-American who died of alleged cardiac arrest in Twin Towers' jail, "the largest mental-health housing facility in the nation." The story reveals that Evans' medical records have been falsified, and that he was subject to violence by the hospital staff before his death occurred. The article reports on the wrongful death claims submitted by Evans' sisters and the resulting $600,000 award in settlement. A major finding is that L.A. county has provided no safety net for mentally-ill homeless people, who "at least for the present, are the responsibility of the sheriff." The reporter also looks at the "acute problems" that have persisted in Twin Towers for many years.
Tags: police abuse; violence; African-American; blacks; poverty; minorities; race; crime; hospitals; nurses; inmates; prisons