Weather cancellations Thursday lessened the planned audience of a group advocating for improved health care for Missouri inmates, but it did not lessen the group's determination to seek better medical care in prisons.
Justice 4 Inmates and Missouri CURE rallied Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda.
The Missouri chapter of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, or CURE, seeks to "reduce crime through reform of the so-called criminal justice system." Quality health care for offenders is one item of advocacy for the group, while it's the main focus of Justice 4 Inmates.
Justice 4 Inmates previously held a protest in December outside the Missouri Department of Corrections' offices in Jefferson City.
The group had planned to give packets of documents to the state senators who serve on the Senate's Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence committee.
Justice 4 Inmates' founder Victoria Ferguson showed the packets contained medical records of several offenders, who allegedly had not receive the medical care they needed.
With the Senate not in session Thursday because of weather, only one packet was delivered. The group said it would try to deliver the other packets next week.
Weather concerns also prevented the groups' scheduled speakers from coming, leaving the Rotunda with mostly empty chairs and an empty podium with signs placed on and around it, including "Help MO inmates get better, not bitter!!! Be kind!" "Ignored problems do not disappear. They become crises! Change is a must," and "Corizon, stop prioritizing profit$ over the lives of our loved ones."
Corizon Health is contracted with the Missouri Department of Corrections to provide medical care.
Some more specific claims that concerned advocates were inmates' medications have been switched without the authorization of the outside-facility care providers that prescribed them; offenders have been denied visits with medical staff, or doctors have not always been available; and some drugs, specifically Narcan, have been improperly administered.
DOC spokeswoman Karen Pojmann told the News Tribune, "We provide 24-hour, around-the-clock medical care on site, which most people don't have." Offenders have good access to care, she said. She also said people with specific issues can contact DOC to try to get them resolved.
She also said Corizon has won a major award for its work; in December, in response to Justice 4 Inmates' previous protest, she said, "One facility, Farmington Correctional Center, just earned a national award for excellence in health care. It was recognized as facility of the year by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care."
That award was announced in October. Corizon has been providing patient care at Farmington since 1992, according to a news release from Corizon.
DOC has a plan to close some housing units around the state - including at Farmington, as well as at Algoa Correctional Center, Tipton Correctional Center and others - to allow for vacant staff positions to no longer need to be filled and avoid facility maintenance costs.
Ferguson said she hoped that will mean inmates will be transferred closer to home, closer to their families, and while she did not expect the plan would directly help with medical issues, she expected it would help with inmates' attitudes and mental health, and staffing issues.