Lawsuit alleges prison abuse

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, a physically disabled inmate at the Springfield prison contends that officials there took away his wheelchair as punishment for complaints he had lodged.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20120603/NEWS02/706039909

Published June 3, 2012 in the Rutland Herald Lawsuit alleges prison abuse Lawsuit alleges prisoner punished by solitary stint By BRENT CURTIS STAFF WRITER A Vermont inmate diagnosed with a physical disability is arguing in federal court that prison officials in Springfield punished him by taking away his wheelchair and placing him in solitary confinement for six days. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, 61-year-old Timothy Saunders contends that officials at the Springfield jail, including medical personnel employed by the private company that provides health care services at state prisons, took away his wheelchair as punishment for his complaints he’d lodged. A.J. Ruben, an attorney for Disability Rights Vermont, which is representing Saunders, wrote in the complaint that former Springfield jail superintendent Anita Carbonell and assistant superintendent Ellen McWard “were motivated by a desire to retaliate against (Saunders) for his numerous grievances and medical requests filed and to chill (Saunders’) willingness to continue filing grievances and medical requests.” Correct Care Solutions Inc., the Nashville, Tenn., based company contracted to provide medical services at Vermont’s prisons, denied those claims in a 10-page response filed earlier this month. The state Department of Corrections has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, which was filed in March. Corrections Commissioner Andrew Pallito said last week that his agency would not be directly defending itself in the lawsuit. “CCS is going to defend us on that,” he said referring to Correct Care Solutions. “DOC staff were only following directions from CCS staff.” A Burlington attorney representing CCS could not be reached for comment last week. In the complaint, Ruben said an internal DOC report shows that Saunders, who has used a wheelchair since 2007, was called to a meeting with Carbonell, McWard, and several other prison officials on Dec. 10, 2010. At the meeting, which Ruben said Saunders believed was called to talk about his medical requests, the inmate was “informed that his wheelchair was being taken as he does not have any medical reason to be in a wheelchair,” Ruben wrote quoting from a DOC facility report written by former assistant superintendent Joshua Rutherford. At the time of the meeting, Ruben said Saunders was showing signs and symptoms of peripheral neuropathy with severe edema. A month later doctors at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire confirmed Saunders need for a wheelchair, he added. But during the December 10 meeting, Saunders said he was told his wheelchair would be taken away from him and replaced with a walker. Saunders also said that if he didn’t give up his wheelchair he would be given a disciplinary rule violation and placed in segregation – or solitary confinement. When he refused to surrender his chair, Saunders was placed alone in a cell with the walker but not his wheelchair. For six days, Ruben said Saunders was forced to either lay on his bunk or crawl around the cell – actions that he said resulted in physical complications. After six days in the cell, Ruben said Saunders was returned to the general prison population and his wheelchair was returned to him. The disciplinary violation was also expunged from his record, Ruben said. Ruben wrote that he believes the decision to return the wheelchair to Saunders was based in part on “the fact that (Saunders) was physically and emotionally deteriorating while being forced to crawl around the segregation cell.” Ruben, who said during a phone interview last week that he couldn’t talk about specifics of the case, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for Saunders who remains incarcerated at the Springfield jail.