National Nurses United

Prisons:3 6/7/07 2:57 PM Page 16 SAVING PRISON NURSING FORMING CNA/NNOC'S STATEWIDE CORRECTIONAL NURSING ADVOCACY GROUP orrectional nurses used to call up Kay Mc- C magazine, Muniz reported the bleeding to doctors and effective care; and providing access to legally au- Vay, RN all the time during her years as pres- who dismissed it as "a case of nerves" and gave her thorized and competent healthcare professionals. ident of the California Nurses Association. Motrin. Five months later, thanks only to her moth- In addition, the group develops strategies to pre- The conversations were often disturbing."I once had er's calls to the prison to check on her daughter, serve the integrity of the Nursing Practice Act and a call from a correctional nurse from San Quentin Muniz was found collapsed and hemorrhaging in the correctional RN's role as patient advocate. who asked me if it was legal for her to administer a her cell. She was eventually diagnosed with cervi- In 2006, the task force issued a comprehensive lethal dose [of narcotics]," says McVay, who currently cal cancer, but the neglect and mismanagement of report. Citing the history of incarceration, the serves as CNA/NNOC's legislative liaison coordina- her illness soon led to her death. report states that prison management has existed tor. Nurses also told her about being placed in situ- Ortega provided valuable first-hand experience "almost solely for the purposes of custody since the ations where they could not advocate for their to the discussion, says Dumpel. And Ortega's ongo- 1940s," and says that security and order still take patients, about being asked to do things inside the ing activism in the name of her daughter clearly precedence over all other functions of corrections, prison system that were "exactly opposite to what resonated with CNA/NNOC's advocacy goals. including healthcare. the Nursing Practice Act allows," and about LVNs in Heidi Strupp, advocacy and litigation coordina- Soon after, the task force became an official part the system who had more authority than the RNs. tor for the group Legal Services for Prisoners with of CNA/NNOC and was renamed the CNA/NNOC Statewide Correctional Nursing Advocacy Group. McVay couldn't shake the stories she heard Children, also provided expert knowledge as a from RNs caught in the California prison system, so member of the task force. Strupp's focus is the com- Among the recent developments the group has enlisted the help of Hedy Dumpel, RN, JD and passionate release of elderly or infirm prisoners. had to evaluate is the receivership of the California De- CNA/NNOC's national chief director of nursing She coauthored a recently-published report enti- partment of Corrections and Rehabilitation's health- practice and patient advocacy to address the needs tled Dignity Denied, The Price of Imprisoning Older care system.Members range from hopeful to cautious of these nurses. What resulted was CNA/NNOC Women in California. The report examines condi- about the receiver's plans. Strupp says she feels "en- Statewide Correctional Nursing Advocacy Group. tions of confinement for older women prisoners couraged" by the long-awaited recognition of prison and critiques a system that fails to adapt to the conditions detailed by Sillen. Dumpel,who acknowl- needs of an aging population. edges Sillen's advocacy for staffing improvements The group stemmed from a 2005 public conference in Sacramento attended by a diverse array of healthcare reformers, prisoner advocates, individ- As a longtime prisoner rights advocate, Strupp is during CNA's struggle against Governor Schwarzeneg- ual RNs working in prisons, and others whose com- also well acquainted with some of the horror stories ger for mandated ratios, is also hopeful, but raises a munities had been affected, one way or another, by behind prison walls."The public doesn't think about cautioning finger."We shall see," she says. prison system abuses. lack of medical care when they think about torture McVay, Dumpel, and other members hope that Dumpel and others in the organization formed in prison," says Strupp. "But when you hear what through their group, they get word to the public a task force and embarked on a fact-finding mis- people go through, when you hear about women about what RNs and patients in the prison system sion to better understand prison healthcare condi- being kept from pain medication when they have continue to endure. Ultimately, they hope the pub- tions. Among those they met was Grace Ortega of end-stage liver disease, or have breast lumps biop- lic can envision a different system to protect and Southern California. sied that later turn out to be metastasized cancer reform society: a system in which the elderly and and the woman loses her breasts and dies unneces- infirm are not held long after they are a risk; where sarily, then I would argue that's torture." compassionate release supersedes the passion for Ortega's daughter, Gina Muniz, became a landmark case in the annals of prison neglect. In 1998, Muniz was incarcerated at the Twin Towers Correc- In the interests of educating others, the task force revenge; and where alternatives to stockpiling tional Facility at the Los Angeles County Jail, began charged itself with identifying and analyzing issues human beings in prisons can be realized. A system spotting between periods, then bleeding heavily. facing correctional nursing in California; planning not about control, but about change. According to a February 2002 report in Glamour and developing strategies to secure access to safe 16 REGISTERED NURSE W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G —erin fitzgerald M AY 2 0 0 7

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