Updated:Texas Inmates Rioted Over Bad Medical Care

The United States has terminated the contract with the private company that managed the CI Willacy County prison. In February, The U.S. Bureau of Prisons reported that two thousand inmates had seized control over part of the CI Willacy County prison located in South Texas. The inmates protested their lack of medical care and had refused to work. The inmates were incarcerated for low level offenses and for entering the United States illegally. The inmates were housed in large Kevlar tents.

The inmates were housed in large Kevlar tents. A 2014 report by the American Civil Liberties Union described the tents as “only foul, cramped and depressing, but also overcrowded.”The report emphasized that 200 inmates occupied each Kevlar tent. The inmates reported insect and spider bites in their beds, toilets repeatedly dumped sewage into the tents, there was only three feet between the beds, their clothes were washed without detergent in the same washes with mops, and some inmates were held in solitary confinement because there no space in the tents.The inmates complained about their poor medical care and that their requests for medical treatment were often ignored by the staff. The inmates had started fires and destroyed several of the Kevlar tents.

The prison was managed by a private company, Management and Training Corp, located in Utah. Private prison companies are in the prison business to make a profit. When the expenses for a private prison is maintained or reduced, the bigger the profit for the private company. Brian McGiverin, a prisoners’ rights attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, stated that he was not shocked that inadequate medical care caused a riot. He expressed that medical care was grossly underfunded in prisons, especially in ones managed by private contractors.

Throughout the United States, inmates, their lawyers, and watchdog groups, have found inadequate and/or bad medical care provided by private health care companies to inmates. The inmates are ideal patients since they do not have any other choice  except the private prison health care company and any complaints fall upon deaf ears.

By:Bradley Schwartz
Founder of prisonpath.com