Comments on: The (Lack of) Medical Treatment Received By ICE Detainees

By: Woman Jailed for Becoming Pregnant, Then Died From Lack of Medical Treatment — The Curvature

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:09:30 +0000

[...] have to wait to see if all of the allegations pan out, but the fact is that they are not even remotely unusual. Claims of medical treatment being denied while in detention are extraordinarily common. Our [...]

By: City Councilman Promoted Violent Anti-Immigrant Video Game at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:13:07 +0000

[...] it’s impossible to divorce the violent anti-immigrant sentiments of public officials from the actual violent and abusive treatment that undocumented immigrants face at the hands of our government. From what I [...]

By: City Councilman Promoted Violent Anti-Immigrant Video Game : The Curvature

City Councilman Promoted Violent Anti-Immigrant Video Game : The Curvature — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:02:53 +0000

By: Cara

Cara — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:16:15 +0000

Hey BFP, thanks for stopping by. I very much appreciate it, but no need for thanks. I wanted to say that I’m really glad you seem to be back to blogging; as I’m sure you know, you’ve been greatly missed.

By: bfp

bfp — Sat, 24 May 2008 00:58:22 +0000

plus, he’s not the only one that they’ve done this to. they regularly do this to people from Iraq/Afghanistan that have not been tried in a court of law and often times where there is NO evidence at all of their involvement in “terrorism”. They do it when they are transporting them from their native countries out to Guantanamo or to other holding cells that are outside the prisoner’s country of origin(an act that in and of itself is illegal, in my opinion–if you commit a “crime” in one country you should *stay* in that country to serve your time).

Pumping people up full of drugs is a *regular* thing–these are not isolated incidences. It is an invasion or penetration of body–a rape, IMO, and I don’t say that lightly. I think it’s also important to think about the connection between psychiatrists/psychologists and this practice–these drugs were created to treat “mental” problems and are now being used as a tool of control by the government. Are the drugs also being used to control patients in ways that are just as unethical and grossly violent? Which leads to the question–if these drugs are being used to control patients–which patients are being controlled?

on a side note–cara, I want to say thank you for how you are covering immigration lately–You’re getting some really important information out there and I really appreciate it.

By: Cara

Cara — Fri, 23 May 2008 23:29:05 +0000

Yeah, it’d be totally justified if there weren’t any other methods in existence for restraining people who are being violent. There are. Lots of them. If he was being physically aggressive or trying to harm himself, they should have tried other methods of restraining him physically. They transport prisoners all the time — including dangerous and violent ones — and all over the world without drugging them. Pumping serious drugs into a person’s system without their consent should always be a method of last resort. And in other circumstances, it’s quite frankly just plain violence.

By: sara

sara — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:35:33 +0000

I dont think the newspaper is lying, I think its likely that they dont have enough information to judge the situation, and that openly declaring that there was no “medical reason” is jumping to conclusions without enough facts at hand.

Medical records tend to be very scant anyways, its HIGHLY unlikley that there’s a detailed description about what happened. I agree that they should have documented better if thats the case.

If the guy was simply angry but otherwise posed no physical threat to himself or others, then obviously they were in the wrong to administer haldol (most likely drug of choice).

If, on the other hand, he was angry and ALSO banging his head against the wall, or being physically aggressive towards the staff, then they were absolutely justified in administering haldol.

By: Cara

Cara — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:54:57 +0000

Sara, WaPo acknowledges that there are cases where this would be appropriate, and that the rule is that there has to be a medical condition or the person has to be “so aggressive that they imperil themselves or people around them.” That isn’t what happened here. The nurse’s file said that they drugged him because he was angry, and a guard taunted him. If he was being violent, his file should have stated so. So there are three possibilities: 1. that there was no medical reason, 2. that there was a medical reason and it simply wasn’t noted in his file, which is still horrible and negligent and therefore deserves our criticism all the same and 3. that WaPo is simply lying about what is in the file. I find 3 to be pretty far fetched, and I’m leaning towards 1.

By: sara

sara — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:51:03 +0000

doctors and nurses must get permission from the agency’s headquarters before treating patients. Except in emergencies or for the most routine care, they must send written requests to Washington, where, for the entire system of 33,000 detainees across the country, four managed-care nurses in a downtown office building decide what treatments to allow.

These care managers rule on what are known in the bureaucratic lexicon as treatment authorization requests, or TARs. In a recent month, they had to rule on 3,000 requests. They work five days a week, not on weekends, and are unavailable to handle requests that come in later than 4 p.m. Washington time, even though many large detention centers are in other time zones.

The agency touts this as an efficient form of managed care, similar to health plans familiar to patients in the outside world. But a 36-page manual that describes the “detainee covered services package” underscores how unusual it is, with rules designed to prevent people from getting too much help.

This part is particularly outrageous. No disrespect to nurses, but they have no business deciding which medications a patient gets or what kind of procedures are medically necessary. Thats a doctors judgment call.

Its true that HMOs use a scheme thats similar in some respects, however they always have doctors on staff to appeal decisions to if there’s a disagreement over patient care.

RNs dont have the authority to write prescriptions, so this government system is set up to have them guilty of practicing medicine without a license, since they are obviously deciding which meds patients get and/or what kind of procedures they get too.

By: sara

sara — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:46:14 +0000

This is a great article. I will disagree with some of the smaller details while agreeing with the larger concept that this system is unethical and totally unacceptable.

Such episodes are among more than 250 cases The Washington Post has identified in which the government has, without medical reason, given drugs meant to treat serious psychiatric disorders to people it has shipped out of the United States since 2003

This snippet from the article was in reference to a detainee who was forced down and given an injection of some psychotropic substance. I disagree with the article that this was “without medical reason.” If the inmate was in fact severely agitated and harming himself or someone else, then its ABSOLUTELY appropriate to give them an injection of haldol or some other antipscyhotic to calm them down. We dont have enough details in the article to know for sure what happened, but on its face I cant fault the health workers decision in that particular instance.