Mississippi prison inmates forced to mix raw cleaning products without protective equipment, federal lawsuit claims
JACKSON, Miss. — Inmates at a Mississippi prison were forced to mix raw cleaning products without protective equipment, alleging the inmate later developed terminal cancer and was denied timely medical care. a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday alleged.
Susan Balfour, 62, was incarcerated at the Central Mississippi Penitentiary for 33 years before being released in December 2021. According to Balfour's lawsuit, inmates were required to clean the facility without protective equipment and using chemicals that can cause cancer.
Ms. Balfour had terminal breast cancer, but prison medical personnel failed to identify the disease years ago because they saved money by not requiring necessary medical examinations and treatment. claims the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Mississippi.
“I feel betrayed by our system that failed to provide me with timely medical care. I feel hopeless, I feel angry, I feel bitter. I am preparing to be released (from prison). I'm shocked and in disbelief that something like this is happening while I'm at work,” Balfour said in an interview Tuesday. “It's so hard to accept that this is happening to me.”
According to the complaint, the companies contracted to provide medical care to inmates at the facility – Wexford Health Sources, Centurion Health and Vitalcore – were recommended by the prison's doctors. It is said that follow-up cancer tests for Baflor were delayed or missed.
All three companies did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Corrections said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.
The lawsuit, which seeks compensatory damages to be determined at trial, says at least 15 unidentified people in the prison have cancer and are not receiving life-saving treatment.
One of Ms. Balfour's attorneys, Drew Tominello, said in an interview that her attorneys have not proven with certainty that chemical exposure caused Ms. Balfour's cancer. But the lawsuit focuses on significant delays and denials of treatment that could have detected her cancer earlier.
Incentives included in the companies' contracts with the state Department of Corrections promoted cost savings by reducing outpatient referrals and inhibiting physicians' independent clinical judgment, according to the complaint.
Balfour was originally convicted of killing a police officer and sentenced to death, but his conviction was reversed in 1992 after the Mississippi Supreme Court found that his constitutional rights had been violated during his trial. Ta. Tominello said she later agreed to a plea deal in which her charges were less severe.
Ms Balfour's lawyer says her cancer could have been detected more than a decade ago. After she was released from prison in 2021, an outpatient doctor performed a mammogram and discovered she had stage 4 breast cancer, according to the lawsuit.
Pauline Rogers, co-founder of the Wreck Foundation, an organization that supports ex-prisoners, said the alleged prison cleaning procedures were a “clear violation of fundamental human rights”.
“These are people who deserve a second chance at life,” Rogers said. “Instead, these companies withhold care in order to profit from women who get sick and die.”
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Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him at @mikergoldberg.
