Health and Medical Care

1988: The men who founded VOTE didn’t just organize for their rights and freedom at Angola. They also came together to form the nation’s first prison hospice program, devoting hours of their time to care for the elderly and terminally ill men in their community.

Because so many people in Louisiana have been sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) or "virtual life" (a term of years longer than a person's normal life expectancy), these people have been growing old, ill, and infirm while incarcerated. Nearly 12% of the current prison population is over 60 years old. The struggle for constitutional health care, through litigation and advocacy, goes back decades.

2015: A coalition of organizations, led by Promise of Justice Initiative and ACLU-LA, filed a class-action lawsuit, Lewis v. Cain, challenging Angola's unconstitutional and grossly insufficient medical care. More than 6000 incarcerated men at Angola were represented in this class action, including a man who was denied medical attention four times during a stroke, leaving him blind and paralyzed; a man who was denied access to a specialist for four years while his throat cancer advanced; and a blind man who was denied a cane for 16 years.

2015: VOTE, Dr. Anjali Niyogi, and William Vail (medical student at the time) created the Formerly Incarcerated Transitions (FIT) Clinic. This concept was built around the reality that many people had been getting substandard care for years, and need a fresh examination. Furthermore, prescriptions from the Inside were not valid because so many prison doctors work on “restricted” licences, following their own felony convictions. Dr. Niyogi has trained and guided her medical students to help bridge the gap, and help incorporate people into the Outside medical systems. on an all-volunteer basis.

2018: Trial begins in Lewis v. Cain, in Louisiana’s Federal District Court for the Middle District (Baton Rouge).

2018: FIT Clinic/VOTE hires its first community health worker, Danielle Metz. A year later, we hired a second, Haki Sekou. These two formerly incarcerated leaders had experience working with ill people on the Inside, and gained additional training as part of a community health worker network. At the FIT Clinic, they serve as liaisons between the doctors and the folks coming home.

2020: The COVID-19 pandemic hits America, and Louisiana particularly hard. Jails and prisons were closed to visitors while staff came and went without proper PPE, and incarcerated people were placed in extended lockdowns in a parody of "social distancing." VOTE demanded:

• Grant 180-days Good Time to allow everyone within 6 months of going home to get home;

• Issue medical parole for everyone with respiratory conditions, anyone who is immunocompromised, and anyone over 60 years old;

• Provide masks and gloves to all staff and incarcerated people who remain; and

• Create a jail and prison COVID-19 oversight commission under the Office of Public Health and CDC, with the power to interview sick people, enforce basic medical standards, and ensure families have a right to know about the health of their loved ones.

​First demand letter to Gov. John Bel Edwards March 26, 2020
Second demand letter March 30, 2020

VOTE increased correspondence with people on the Inside, hearing from nearly 1000 different people across the System. We put their COVID-related testimonies on our website as the COVID Corner (see below). This awareness helped inform journalists , lawyers, and families. VOTE was a vital contributor to the Governor’s Health Equity Task Force report, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s report (on the failure of the COVID “release” panel), and several litigation strategies around the state.

VOTE delivers 10,000 N95 masks to the DOC and the Orleans jail. We were turned away by the East Baton Rouge jail, who did not want this donation.

Rep. Mandie Landry introduced a bill that would stop DOC from hiring prison doctors who have restricted licenses. During the “COVID session,” the bill was converted into a study report, HCR-91, regarding the state of health care in Louisiana’s prisons.

2021: VICTORY in Lewis v. Cain. A federal judge rules that medical care at Angola is not only cruel and unusual punishment, violating the Eighth Amendment, but also violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In the ruling, the judge noted that “overwhelming deficiencies in the medical leadership and administration of health care at LSP contributes to these constitutional violations.”

VOTE partners with Prof. Ashley Wennerstrom (LSU School of Public Health) and Prof. Andrea Armstrong (Loyola Law) to create a video regarding COVID in jails and prisons. This video, embedded above, was shown across the DOC.

VOTE’s Bruce Reilly, Prof. Wennerstrom, and Prof. Armstrong present their HCR-91 report to the Louisiana Legislature’s Health and Welfare committee. The report includes four recommendations:

• Develop, implement, and/or regularly monitor standardized healthcare policies and practices across all state prisons including medication access and delivery, processes for accessing care, and availability of comprehensive physical and behavioral health services, including preventative care.

• Develop implement, and/or regularly monitor healthcare staffing plans at each facility to ensure availability of appropriate, credentialed healthcare providers to meet patient needs.

• Review and monitor the impacts of medical co-pays on access to care and DPSC budgets.

• Assess the feasibility of developing partnerships with community-based providers to deliver healthcare services to incarcerated people.

2022… And Beyond: The constitution requires prisons and jails to provide health care to all the people they detain. Given no other options to seek medical treatment, our prisons must follow the law; or else it is cruel and unusual punishment. This includes diagnostic testing and preventative care, not simply waiting until people are dying on the floor. Lewis v. Cain exposed that Louisiana is coming up far short of the bare minimum constitutional standards -- and the DOC was already on notice because they lost a similar suit like this decades ago- so now what will they do to correct it?

A few pieces of the solution may be found in bills VOTE has in the 2022 legislative session: HB 175 to end the unfair imposition of “sick call” fees; HB 517 to create a medical oversight council; and HB 728 to expand medical release criteria. Read more about all of these on our Legislative Corner. 

Experiences of Incarcerated People During the COVID Pandemic

Responses From the System

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