James Deak No-Med from p 17 People in the jails pointed this out as well. Some provided numbers and time- stamps of grievances to New Times docu- menting their experiences. People in custody describe filling out these requests, putting them in a black dropbox, then waiting for days or weeks for any response — if they get one at all. Consales, the man incarcerated on drug charges, said it took medical staff four months to schedule an ultrasound to check for blood clots, which he is supposed to receive regularly. Kassie Garcia, 30, currently serving time at Estrella Jail for a probation violation, said she was left with a severe, untreated infection for two months after medical staff ignored her multiple requests for a sexually transmitted infec- tion test. “It was horrible,” Garcia said of her experience. “All this time, I’ve been sitting with this.” These delays raise several issues, the consultants noted. For the county jails to maintain their accreditation, they must address all medical grievances in 24 hours. And, “more importantly,” consultants wrote, this was needed “to reduce risk of possible medical harm coming to a patient.” The report offered approximately 75 recommendations to the county to fix these issues, which Bohn says the county is now implementing. They included: “universally applied process” for reporting missed or delayed medication passes; improved pay for correctional health staff; and restructured leadership of the depart- ment. Missed medication, the consultants said, should be brought to the attention of the director within 24 hours of any missed pass. Kizer, the former Pinal County health director, agreed with the recommendation regarding missed doses. “The medical doctors who oversee the operation would be most aware of the acute cases where there could be troubling consequences of a missed dose,” she said. “CHS’s entire executive team has been 18 engaged in the implementation of these recommendations and progress has been Maricopa County’s Estrella Jail. reported to staff,” Bohn said. She provided an email that she says she sent to staff in April, providing an update on actions the county had taken, including a new employee recognition program and improvement in the “backlog of grievances.” Kizer was skeptical of other suggestions in the report, however, including one suggesting that doctors take patients off their meds — a “medication holiday” — whenever possible, to improve efficiency of medication distribution. “I can’t imagine this being a policy solution that would be applicable to the entire population on one or two days a week,” she said. The county says it has rejected this recommendation. “CHS has declined the ‘medication holiday’ concept as not recom- mended for our patient population,” Bohn said. In the time since the consultants began digging into the issues at CHS, the agency has gotten a new director: Lisa Struble, who was appointed interim director in December, after Lynch departed. In April, Struble was given the permanent position. Struble declined an interview request for this story. A spokesperson for the county, Fields Moseley, explained that while Struble “is familiar with the report and the recommendations,” an interview would “put her in a position of answering for her predecessor’s decisions.” Throughout her comments to New Times, though, Bohn emphasized that Correctional Health Services has turned things around in the few short months since the release of the report. By her telling, county leadership was unaware of the medication issues until October, and has since worked tirelessly to right the ship. If this is true, it’s not yet reflected in accounts from people inside. Garcia said she had not witnessed such improvements in her months in jail this spring. She described a half dozen requests and grievances being left unanswered. All that jail staff could tell her, she said, was that they just couldn’t keep up. “That’s all they tell us,” she said. “’Medical is behind.’” JUNE 2ND– JUNE 8TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
