Luke Thornhill and his mom, Nancy Richardson, in an undated picture.
Nancy Richardson
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Nancy Richardson
Luke Thornhill is scheduled to be launched from an Oregon prison in 4 years.
He’s terrified he may die earlier than then.
He has household ready for him in Idaho, “And I’m scared I’m never gonna see them again,” Thornhill mentioned throughout a number of calls with NPR from prison.
He’s scared as a result of he is been affected by severe medical points — together with extreme stomach pains, bloody bowel actions and a swollen stomach — since a minimum of 2022, when he was incarcerated in a distinct facility. And he says he has not been capable of get the therapy that he wants.
“If you looked at my stomach, it bulges out on the right side, like the size of a grapefruit. And it just hurts all the time,” Thornhill says.
Now, he feels worse than ever, he says. Constant ache makes it tough even to sleep by the evening.
“If I’m not careful with what I eat or drink or careful of how I move then I’m in worse pain and bleeding even worse.”
Thornhill was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison on drug charges in March 2023.
In 2022, whereas incarcerated in Idaho, he underwent a colonoscopy, throughout which two polyps had been eliminated.
After Idaho, Thornhill was moved to SeaTac, the federal prison in Seattle, and earlier this 12 months was moved to the federal facility in Sheridan, Ore.
Since he left Idaho, Thornhill says, he hasn’t reviewed the biopsy outcomes with any docs at both SeaTac or Sheridan — and nothing about his state of affairs has modified.
“We’re talking about something that I’ve been dealing with for a year now. I’ve been literally suffering for the last year. And I’ve been begging them to give me treatment for this,” he says. “Nobody can tell me there isn’t something wrong with me.”
The federal Bureau of Prisons mentioned in response to particular questions on Thornhill’s complaints that “For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss any individuals’ conditions of confinement, to include health status or medical treatment plans.”
Problems with prison well being care are nicely documented
Delays or substandard well being look after prisoners in the U.S. carceral system are usually not unusual. In 2023, NPR published a report exhibiting that almost 5,000 federal prisoners died over the previous decade from treatable circumstances after not getting well timed diagnoses or therapy whereas incarcerated.
Lawmakers have begun to place the U.S. federal prison system below extra scrutiny. In late July, President Biden signed the Federal Prison Oversight Act into law, which mandates routine inspections of all federal Bureau of Prison’s services and the creation of an ombudsman to research the welfare and security of inmates and employees.
The prison at Sheridan, in explicit, has been criticized lately for medical delays, and on the finish of 2023, investigators with the Justice Department launched an unannounced inspection of the ability.
In May 2024, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General released a report that concluded staffing points at Sheridan contributed to greater than 100 missed inmate medical appointments between January and November 2023 and a backlog of a whole bunch of lab assessments and pending X-ray orders — resulting in medical circumstances doubtlessly going undiagnosed.
In response, the federal Bureau of Prisons mentioned it made a number of modifications for the reason that inspection — together with hiring extra employees and making a considerable dent in the variety of missed appointments and the testing backlog.
As of May 2024, the backlog of laboratory orders dropped to 44 from 725 and the backlog of pending X-ray orders was 84, down from 274, according to the inspection report. The BOP reported that 89 of 101 appointments had been accomplished for the reason that OIG inspection.
But Thornhill and a minimum of two different Sheridan inmates that reached out to NPR say they’re still in dire want of medical care. Their repeated requests to see a health care provider are usually not being addressed, they are saying. Thornhill says Sheridan’s claims that officers addressed the key backlog of lab assessments and X-rays is flat-out unsuitable.
“The BOP is definitely broken,” Thornhill says.
An outdoors view of the federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., from 2018. In May, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General issued a report criticizing the prison’s backlog of medical requests.
Andrew Selsky/AP
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Andrew Selsky/AP
During the reporting of this story, NPR reviewed medical information and a number of requests for medical care that Thornhill despatched to prison officers in Idaho and Seattle.
He mentioned that for months he wasn’t capable of make copies of paperwork or entry his medical file and requests at Sheridan. Late this month, he reported lastly getting copies of these information.
And, he instructed NPR, that regardless of submitting quite a few requests for medical care at Sheridan, he found lately that officers there solely have one in all his requests for medical assistance on file.
Regarding Thornhill’s complaints about entry to his medical information, the Bureau of Prisons mentioned inmate medical information are “available for review upon request by any incarcerated person” who makes use of the right request procedures. The requests ought to be processed inside 30 days, the BOP mentioned.
“All requests and the issuance of records are documented in the individual’s medical record. Currently, FCI Sheridan has no request for medical records older than 10 days, before fulfilment,” the BOP instructed NPR in an announcement.
But Thornhill says that in the previous, he has made a number of requests that weren’t honored.
BOP says it is made modifications
The OIG and the federal Bureau of Prisons have pointed to extreme staffing shortages as a major contributing issue to ongoing issues with the federally run prison system.
The BOP “has been transparent that staffing across the agency remains a challenge, as the FBOP is faced with the same worker shortage experienced by employers throughout the country,” the company mentioned in an announcement to NPR. “The work to address these challenges is ongoing and includes a robust national recruitment strategy with the assistance of an external contract consultant.”
The company instructed NPR in July that roughly 70% of positions in Sheridan’s Health Services Department are crammed. Correctional companies positions, resembling guards, are roughly 87% crammed.
Competing claims on check backlogs
One of the procedures Thornhill wished to have finished was an X-ray.
After the OIG report, Sheridan mentioned X-ray order backlogs had been being addressed. But Thornhill says that is not the case.
After the Sheridan report was revealed, Thornhill says he and about 100 different inmates had been referred to as to be taken to obtain X-rays. Instead, he alleges that corrections employees repeatedly pressured him and different inmates — even some with damaged bones — to signal varieties refusing these X-rays.
Thornhill claims that officers on the prison made the expertise as uncomfortable as doable — handcuffing every prisoner tightly across the wrists, placing them in cramped rooms and buses, serving them frozen meals with out warming them up — to discourage them from eager to endure the method once more. Thornhill believes the explanation was to get the official variety of X-ray requests down. He says he by no means signed the varieties, however after a few months, still has not acquired an X-ray.
He says that of the couple dozen males who remained to get X-rays, solely six or so had been capable of get the process finished earlier than employees mentioned the machine was damaged.
In response to those claims, the BOP mentioned, “For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss any individuals’ conditions of confinement, but as noted above, policy requires medical treatment which meets community standards and staff misconduct is not tolerated.”
It’s uncommon for prisoners to see an precise physician, Thornhill says
Thornhill’s makes an attempt to see a health care provider for his medical points return to his time at SeaTac. Incarcerated there in 2023, he says he submitted a number of requests for follow-up medical therapy after his 2022 colonoscopy and as his signs appeared to worsen.
While at SeaTac, he was a part of a bunch of inmates who spoke to the Seattle Times in an article published in February of this 12 months about severe delays in medical care at that prison.
It was after this story revealed that Thornhill was moved to Sheridan.
He says he believes the transfer was punishment for talking out about circumstances at SeaTac.
In response to questions on Thornhill’s claims, the BOP mentioned, “We cannot speak to this particular case, but FBOP does not tolerate staff misconduct, including retaliation. Consistent with national policy, all allegations of employee misconduct are referred to the FBOP’s Office of Internal Affairs” which are additionally reviewed by the Office of the Inspector General.
“Allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action is taken if such allegations are sustained, including the possibility of referral for criminal prosecution when appropriate,” the BOP mentioned.
Thornhill says his signs have continued to worsen whereas at Sheridan, and that nothing has occurred after his quite a few requests to see a health care provider and produce other assessments finished.
Requests to be seen by a nurse, physician or dentist are a multistep course of. In order to see medical employees at Sheridan, Thornhill says, inmates submit requests by the prison pc system. Inmates additionally submit a paper “cop out” or a bodily request to be seen by medical employees.
After placing in the requests, inmates go down for sick-call, held 4 days every week
The Sheridan Admission and Orientation Handbook states that is “the most efficient way to obtain an examination by a physician or an outside specialist.” Inmates clarify the “problem to the P.A. or nurse, and they will refer you to a physician, if your condition warrants it.”
For months, Thornhill says, “No matter how many times I put in to see a doctor, they call me down there and I end up seeing another nurse and she basically tells me she doesn’t know what’s going on with me and that she’ll put me in to see the doctor.” He provides that it is not simply him, it is uncommon for anybody to see an precise physician and once they do “it’s for basic stuff” like an ingrown nail.
It’s such an issue that Thornhill alleges inmates are turning to one another to get fundamental medication for blood stress or antibiotics — a not unusual follow in prison.
In response, a BOP spokesman mentioned the company “does not comment on the conditions of confinement for any individual or group of individuals in our custody. Nor do we comment on anecdotal allegations.”
The BOP mentioned it “takes pride in protecting and securing individuals entrusted in our custody” and makes “every effort to ensure the physical, medical, and mental safety” of these people.
Sheridan employs two medical docs and one mid-level supplier in the prison’s Health Services Department for its 1,539 inmates, based on the company.
The BOP mentioned in its assertion to NPR that “Sheridan provides onsite medical provider coverage 14-hours per day, including weekends and holidays. The FBOP and FCI Sheridan provides essential medical, dental, and mental health services in a manner consistent with accepted community standards for a correctional environment.”
“All incarcerated individuals have daily access to medical care and appointments, and medical staff conduct daily rounds throughout each facility,” the company continued.
“Each patient is independently treated on a case-by-case basis, and treatment is provided as clinically indicated.”
Only after NPR contacted representatives of Sheridan and the Bureau of Prisons about Thornhill’s state of affairs did Thornhill report back to us in mid-July that he lastly noticed a health care provider and a heart specialist, who each agreed “something was wrong and ordered more tests,” he wrote in a letter to his mom shared with NPR.
This growth offers Thornhill little confidence.
“I’m trying to be optimistic about it but it’s hard when I’m still in the same position I was. Hopefully they actually get me to the hospital to do these tests! I am going to pray about it and hope for the best,” he wrote to NPR in July.
Luke Thornhill in an outdated, undated picture. Thornhill is at the moment incarcerated in a federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., the place he says prison officers are usually not addressing his and different inmates’ dire medical wants.
Nancy Richardson
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Nancy Richardson
Thornhill is below lockdown
In late July, Thornhill instructed NPR that Sheridan was below lockdown. The BOP confirmed that the prison was on “modified operations” however declined to offer particular particulars “for safety and security reasons.”
As of this week, the BOP confirmed to NPR that, apart from one unit, the prison has returned to regular operations.
For weeks, prison officers severely curtailed communications and stored inmates in their cells many of the day. Though the lockdown has since been adjusted, Thornhill studies inmates are still solely allowed to depart their cells for about 40 minutes a day.
Thornhill’s mom, Nancy Richardson, contacted NPR and lawmakers on his behalf as he is struggled with medical points since being incarcerated. She says she was solely capable of converse with him for 5 minutes each few days throughout the lockdown.
She’s 69 and lives in Idaho and hasn’t been capable of go to her son since he is been in federal custody. The lockdown made her extra fearful for her son and his well being.
“He’s sick and he’s needing medical care, and it’s just disheartening to not be able to do one thing about it,” she says. “I think people need to know what’s going on here.”
At the start of August, Thornhill was taken to an emergency room outdoors the prison by way of ambulance because of extraordinarily hypertension. He has since returned to Sheridan, he and his mom confirmed.
There, he says, he lastly acquired an X-ray of his chest.
