This article brings a lot to light that maybe a lot of people do not know about. It brings up that some of our prisons are very understaffed and doing illegal things to not get dinged. This is a significant concern whether you are a prisoner, a family member of a prisoner, or a taxpayer. According to Jose Vallejo he was a police officer, a corrections officer, and a correctional nurse. He is now a whistleblower on how bad things have gotten in the Arizona State Prison Complex- Eyman in Florence. He worked there for two years before he was escorted out because he was going to go on strike because he would no longer distribute medicine until the prison was adequately staff. I think this is kind of a dumb thing because even though the inmates were getting terrible care, he was just putting them at even more of a risk because not they were going completely without medication. Jose talks about horror stories from when he was working at the prison. He talks about how they were giving expired medication to inmates, improperly distributing medicine, and not even being able to see all of the patients. This is a terrible thing that needs correction. They need to be staffed appropriately and given the resources they need to continue giving inmates proper care. You would think that when auditors would come to check up on the prison, they would find all of this and see how badly they needed the money and manpower, but they did not. They did not find these issues because according to Vallejo they were told to lie and forge documents. They were supposed to go fill in logs and charts that are supposed to be done at the beginning and the end of each shift. They were not being filled out at these times so whenever they found out auditors were coming to visit, they would find the nearest person and have them fill out the charts. So not only were they improperly staffed, improperly giving medical care to inmates, and not doing anything about it, they were lying about it. They were hiding expired medications as well. They were only worried about getting a fine instead of maybe someone finding out and having that person telling the right people to get the resources to the prison and taking the fine because it might be helpful in future. Jose Vallejo is not the only person though to blow the whistle on stuff similar to these situations. This is crazy that people have spoken out against this same thing and another person has to come out because it should have been fixed the first time and it was not. This is a big issue. There is no professionalism in this workplace at all. They are doing very immoral things that are putting everyone that works there at risk because of prisoners acting out, and all of the inmates that are locked away because they are not getting the care that they need. -Legion001
I agree this is something you should be concerned with if you were a taxpayer, prisoner, or a family member of a prisoner. This is not something that they would want to see considering they are associated with it. I also agree with you that there is no professionalism in this workplace. With professionalism comes honesty, and there is none of that in this. -lilbaby001
This is a very sad reality and I agree that there is no professionalism in this institution. The fact that things have been brought up to the supervisors and state corrections officials and nothings has changed is very sad and makes you wonder what the citizens tax dollars are really going toward. -Blues001
I agree that the professionalism in this facility was non-existent and things needed to be changed. The fact that this prison was getting away with so much because of the forged documents and how they were breaking the law is unbelievable and terribly sad. Like you said, these things not only effected the inmates(which is reason enough to fix this), but also the families of inmates, and even just taxpayers in general. -Reid001
First off, this article really opened my eyes about what really happens in the prison health care systems. This is all the stuff you hear about behind closed doors, but I never thought it would come to the point of it being that bad. It is crazy that Vallejo’s supervisors told him that there would be consequences if he opened his mouth about what was happening behind the doors, and obviously there were. Also, it is not like he was anyone new to this system and didn’t know what was going on. He was an experienced correctional nurse for Corizon Health, so he knew the ins and outs of what he and others were doing. In this article, he said that he works 12 hour shifts 4 to 5 days a week. To me, this is crazy, An 8 hour shift is pretty exhausting for me as it is, so I couldn’t even imagine his 12 hour shifts especially with the job he is working. He says it is exhausting mentally, physically, and emotionally and I can see why especially when you see the worst of the worst. Also, he said when he started working he only got two days of training and then got thrown into night shifts when they promised him two weeks of training. This would irritate me profusely considering it is such a demanding job. I feel like this would go against some sort of regulations, but then again it is a private prison so they can basically do whatever they want. Luckily, he said he had previous experience so it wasn’t so bad, but for other nurses that didn’t have previous experience it was obviously challenging for them. This hurts the prison health care system because they will not have experienced workers, but then again like said in the article they do not care as long as they have the nurse numbers. He makes a good point by saying that they are putting people’s lives on the line because they truly are. These nurses are giving prisoners the wrong or expired medicine which obviously could lead to death. If I was a prisoner and found out that these nurses were giving me the wrong or expired medication, I would be furious. Medicine shouldn’t be anybody should be playing around with, especially “professionals” like these. He also mentioned, pertaining to the lack of workers, that sometimes there would be one correctional officer responsible for several hundred inmates. If you put one regular person in charge of several hundred children, it would be hard let alone this. I think it is funny that the prisoners set the prison on fire because they weren’t giving them the right medication. Well, obviously it is unfortunate but if I was in there shoes I would be looking to do something to get back at them too but not to that extent. Once I look at this article as a whole, I think it was very brave of Vallejo’s to speak up and let people know the real truth. It is the right thing to do, even though he knew in the back of his mind he could lose his job over it. -lilbaby001
I agree that it was the right thing for Jose Vallejo to speak out despite the threat of job loss. I would also admit that it was funny when it talked about how in the article it says the prisoners set the place on fire. It is sad people got hurt, but at the same time It showed just how angry and done the prisoners were. -Legion001
This article brings a lot of thought to the mistreatment and under staffing issues that many correctional facilities are facing today. What Vallejo has done by speaking to the media may cause for a large reform in Arizona State Corrections and potentially many other agencies across the nation. This article really shed some light on the amount of mistreatment that inmates are receiving due to a lack of staffing and corrupt practices that the prisons are doing in order to stay out of trouble. Seeing that the medication is not being looked after and accounted for properly is definitely a pretty scary thing, especially for the inmates who require it in order to live. For the prison supervisors to be giving orders to the nurses to fill out the medical charts illegally is not only wrong but it is immoral. They are putting their reputations above a human beings life just so they do not have to face the consequences of being understaffed. Vallejo saying that many of the registered nurses who staffed the prison he worked at were book smart but had no real life scenario knowledge due to a lack of training would also worry me as an inmate. They do not know how to start an IV or use oxygen tanks, and when an emergency occurred and the staff needed oxygen they had to go to the other side of the complex to retrieve some. Time can mean everything when it comes to saving an inmates life and having to run across a prison to get the needed equipment is just outrageous. Another issue I have is that Vallejo said sometimes he had to watch over an entire wing of over 150 inmates which shows the sad amount of under staffing, under staffing can increase the risk of a disaster to break out due to not having control over the inmates and the medical care to watch over those who are mentally ill. A strong example of what I am referring too is when the inmates at Vallejo's prison had set the building on fire as rebellion for not receiving proper care. Under staffed facilities can cause a risk of safety to other inmates and staff and also and under staffed medical department being instructed by corrupt supervisors just causes the margin of error to increase drastically as time goes on. This does not show any "professionalism" in corrections but more or less shows a lack of that due to illegally filling out paper work and managing a facility in such way that it can barely operate with the little resources provided. I think the professionalism that I picked up on in this article is how Vallejo handled this situation. He went to the public about how their tax dollars are being spent and what is going on that no one else sees or hears unless people like Vallejo risk their job to inform families of these inmates and the public about the sad treatment of their members who are locked up in this facility. -Blues001
This article definitely gives more insight as to how the correctional system is doing in the way of healthcare and staff. Even the staff that are working within the prison have to deal with illegal practices given to them by their superiors. It's good that people like Vallejo are telling people about what really goes on and not what people just assume is happening.
This article definitely gives more insight as to how the correctional system is doing in the way of healthcare and staff. Even the staff that are working within the prison have to deal with illegal practices given to them by their superiors. It's good that people like Vallejo are telling people about what really goes on and not what people just assume is happening. -Ram001
The article starts off by describing what Jose Vallejo had seen and heard during his time when he worked in prison as a nurse. When you think of what prison may be like often times people would assume that the conditions are not great. But as to what extent the conditions go are beyond our knowledge. Such as what prison health care is like as described in this article. Vallejo has had much experience and time working in the correctional world. When he first started he had to work almost immediately. He was promised 2 weeks of training but instead only got two days. If I were someone who only got a portion of training for his job I would be clueless as to what I need to do. Being thrown in the same scenarios as Vallejo was would be scary. One of the biggest problems in the prison health care system was the lack of training that the nurses were given. There were staff don't know how to start IVs or able to handle oxygen tanks, and there are even some with no form of training, according to Vallejo. Along with that there is a problem with recruiting new nurses so the only staff they have is being stretched too thin. Vallejo says that licensed vocational nurses are being forced to make decisions that should be made by those with more experience. A registered nurse should be working at the prison complex at all times but often there was no one with that certification. This has led to dangerous situations. There are a lot of people's lives on the line. Most of this has to do with giving prisoner's the wrong type of medications. Inmates with diabetes weren't getting their insulin on time due to the lack of staff. Not only was the health care staff suffering shortages but the correctional staff as well. At times there is only one correctional officer watching over a wing of a few hundred inmates. So the inmates are not receiving 24/7 supervision. One night the inmates had set fire to the building. The reason for the fire was that inmates were rebelling over not getting their medication. Several patients and corrections staff were injured as a result. Even with short staff, the nurses were expected to perform the work for a full roster. Corizon supervisors have told Vallejo and his colleagues to improperly distribute medicine. Without the proper number of workers it is impossible for a team to complete their work. With the environment that these nurses have to work in they have to have the necessary training or else everything will become disorganized. There have been patients with severe conditions that the medical staff at the prison were not equipped for. Empty oxygen tanks, broken EKG machines, and improperly maintained emergency bags were another major problem when dealing with an emergency situation. The medical staff requires equipment to help these patients. The patients can die if they don't receive help on time. The supervisors had told Vallejo to hide expired medication so auditors wouldn't see them. For so long the supervisors that ran the prison have hidden many flaws with their techniques and their practices. The people's knowledge about what goes on inside prison walls is being deceived by people like the Corizon supervisors. Hopefully articles like this will open people's eyes. Inmates have a right to proper healthcare. -Ram001
This article was most certainly eye opening in the least. I think that, as a society, we know how terrible working conditions are in our prisons, we just turn the other way feeling helpless. The fact is that without education, what can anyone outside of the prisons really do to help? We need to be learning about these things so we can, in turn, do something to help create change. psych001
I think this is a good article describing in great detail what really goes on behind closed doors in reference to inmates healthcare. Reading that Jose Vallejo was working double the hours for a standard full time is shocking. Being a nurse in general takes a lot of time and patience but, working with mentally ill patience takes even more patience and time. Even though these are prisoners they are still humans and they have a right to health care regardless of being in prison. Vallejo stated that some of the RN’s didn't know how to start a an IV or, they didnt know how to operate the oxygen tank. That is something they teach you in nursing school and you have to pass the test and practical showing you know how do what is being asked. To me that is saying that they are hiring just anybody to fulfil the staffing needs. Once it was determined that those specific nurses could do the basic functions of a nurse they should have been let go, at that point you are really playing with people’s life. Also giving the inmates the wrong medications by accident and giving them medication later than is expected is also a big risk. Especially when you are giving out insulin and not letting it fully do its job before turning around a few hours later and giving them insulin again. I think it is horrible purposely giving somebody expired medications, it's not even considered effective anymore, it's better off not giving the expired medicine at all, then giving something that isn't effective and make that person sick. I really feel bad for Vallejo and the other nurses who were just doing their job and didn't want to be fired. I think they did the right thing by saying something and, letting it be known that they will not continue to give out the medications without the proper staffing. For doing what is right it cost Vallejo his job, it shouldn't have gotten that far to begin with if the administrators actually listened to what was being said and did was right. -21Aries001
I totally agree on not given the inmates any meds at all if its not gonna help them in general because of the expiration on it. It also doesn't help that they are not consistent on when they give the meds to them, which can have a worse effect on them. taco001
This article talks about the experiences of Jose Vallejo, a former worker for Corizon Health in the Arizona Department of Corrections. Vallejo highlights the many issues with Corizon Health and how many corners were being cut. According to Vallejo, the prison he was working at was severely understaffed. There were times when employees were being stretched paper thin, resulting in their need to break the law in order to attempt to get medication out to their patients in the prison. It is not legal for one nurse to fill prescriptions while another runs the medications to their rightful owners because there is a lot of room for error and an inmate could very easily be given the wrong medication, which could prove to be fatal. I would personally hate to be in that position where I would possibly be giving someone "poison" because it wasn't the medicine they needed simply because of something I could not control, like the issue of being understaffed. This article also talks about how less qualified nurses were being forced to make calls that medical professionals with much more experience should have been making. This is very dangerous and these prisoners are still human. They deserve to be taken care of and not be put in danger because those in authority are turning a blind eye to the shoddy practices that were taking place, or, in some cases, those in charge were even enabling them in the first place. Vallejo also exposed Corizon Health because they were keeping expired medicines and using them when the fresh medications ran out. When it came time to inspections, nurses would be ordered to transport the expired medications to another location and bring them back once the coast was clear. There are expiration dates for a reason. If someone is in need of medicine and they are given some that has expired, it will not work as well, if at all. This is unacceptable and seriously blows my mind. I'm glad Vallejo took a stand although it cost him his job, and I am glad he has spoken out against the malpractices of Corizon Health so the patients can get the care that they need and deserve. It also shocked me that most of the staff only received a couple of days' training opposed to the two weeks of training that Vallejo was allegedly promised. With only two days of training, no one would be ready to handle the situations those nurses were expected to. In the cases where an inmate's life was on the line, that is completely unacceptable and scary, even. It's no wonder the inmates staged a protest in which they set the building on fire. I can't even say I blame them to be completely honest. I think anyone in their situation would be tempted to do the same. Reform was necessary and they did the only thing they could to bring attention to the poor conditions in which they were paying the price. I'm so glad another health agency took over and Corizon Health was finally put in their place. -Reid001
I completely agree with what you had said. I also find it interesting that they had set fire in protest. I wonder what kind of repercussions they faced in lue of the protest even though it was needed to bring attention to the problem Jackrabbit001
This is a very interesting article. It explores the problems that have occurred with an Arizona State Prison. It talks about how a medical provider, Corizon, neglected many responsibilities. This article talks how a man, Vallejo, attempted to expose the truth and lost his job over the matter. He goes into detail many of the different instances that Corizon had neglected their work. He talks about how that many times him and his coworkers were required to hide expired medicine and fill in dates so they would not be written up. He talks about how that many times he had gone to Corizon management but to no avail. I find this interesting that even when he when to the DOT officials he had gotten no where. I assume that the state and Corizon had a very good deal going on where Corizon was a very small fee so the state would save money. That would be the only reason I could see even after going to get help from the DOT officials that they would not have even reported the incidents by Vallejo. This is a big issue in our criminal justice system. I had no idea that the health providers were private businesses. I had always assumed that they would be through the state or that is how it should be in my mind. You could make a great arguement for private prisons with this article. Obviously the state has no money to pay for healthcare or even the prison alone. I can see how private prisons would feast off of horror stories in public prisons like these. Not helping prisoners with their medical problems can be very dangerous, and I am surprised I had not heard about this before as I would have figured it would explode over head lines. Playing with people's lives in no joke and should be taken seriously no matter what job position you hold in a prison. I am also surprised there was no actual reports of injuries or even deaths by the mistreatment of the prisoners. It makes me wonder even if there was the state would have hidden it in fear of the public gaining the knowledge and losing funding and interest in public prisons. All in all, this article exposes many of the problems I believe to be more common than most people would like to believe. I hope that this case can be taken into account and looked back on for something to improve on. If problems like this continue we will be losing lives. Thankfully there will always be people like Vallejo to do the right action and step up for human rights. I do not like how he lost his job really for no reason listed and being labeled a "whistleblower ." Jackrabbit001
I like what you had to say. I thought it was crazy how they kept the medicine that was out dated and still used it on the inmates once they ran out of the newer medicine. I agree you could definitely make a great argument about private prisons with this article. It is sad to see that Corizon was so understaffed and just heartless and careless when it came to these inmates lives. Even though they had done wrong in the past that doesn't mean that they are not human beings. They still need to be properly taken care of and receive the correct medication. -Anchorman001
t is just plain crazy to know about all the terrible things that go on behind doors. The things that we do know about may not even be everything. What about all the mistreatment that occurs behind his back. For someone like him who has been in more areas in law enforcement and corrections than most. Then moving to a nurse for the prison and receiving very minimal training on how to properly care for inmates who do need medical attention. But he was still able to have enough common sense to do his best and reconize that some of the care provided is not enough and that there is neglect inside the prison. He was also one of the few that realizes that they are not animals in a zoo but that are people who have made a mistake somewhere in their life. That not only shows respect to them but respect to the families that do have loved ones in the prison system and can have a little piece of mind that somebody does care, even if he was instructed to give minimal care to inmates. It’s even harder to be in a position where you are threatened with your job to not talk about the neglect that occurs, along with being under equipped with the proper tools to do their job. Along with being so under staffed that one of the nurses has to look over a wing of 150 prisoners, and put themselves in an extremely dangerous situation. It is unfortunate that he did lose his job for speaking his mind and trying to hopefully better the place then forever being labeled a " Whistleblower" -Purdue001
I find it very upsetting that we pay all this money as taxpayers, so that inmates don’t get the proper care they need. I kind of makes me wonder where is all that money going towards if it isn’t for the wellbeing of the inmates. The article explain the different situations that Vallejo would go through as a private health provider in the prison. Not only did they ignore the fact that they were understaffed for the other employees not to do most of the work. They also would provide expired medication to inmates that seriously have a medication condition. It seems very heartless to me to able to do such a thing to human beings. Yes, they are probably violent criminal that deserve to be in prison or much worse, but they are still human. They have rights as inmates as well to speak out about being treated unfairly, but they don’t listen probably for the same reasons as of why they are there in the first place. They have dignity and should be treated with respect either way. I find it incredible that even for a state job, they would over work people and won’t listen about what they have to say. As for it being professional as a government job, it’s terrible what happens there according to Vallejo. He mentioned, that there isn’t proper training for nurses when they arrive. That it’s dangerous because someone's life is at risk. Not only that the nurses don’t know what they are doing but also the correctional officers there. They are so understaffed that there is 1 officer watching over a whole unit. Which not only is that putting the officers life at risk if a riot breaks out. Also, the inmates can be hurt if anything occurs. The main problem with this is that there should be more properly trained staff which is pretty clear. Also, another problem is that if there isn’t staff to correctly function the prison accordingly then there isn’t any type of rehab for the inmates. There important reasons for a prison or jail, is so that inmates serve their time for a crime and be able to rehabilitate from it to return to society. Unfortunately, that isn't the case here because they aren't given their meds so that they can focus on other important things. If anything, i think it creates a bigger problem between the inmates that can begin violence or someone hurting themselves. It’s scary to think that this really happens to people that are incarcerated and that they feel like they don’t have to right to speak out on it. taco001
Starting a new job is stressful for anyone. With every new job comes learning how to behave in that environment, learning new routines and a lot of times being trained comes along with that. In some areas of work only a few hours, or a couple days, of training or preparation, is necessary. In Vallejo’s case though, he was told he would get two weeks of training before being tossed into the practice of prison health care. Instead, he was given a couple days to train and prepare before he was expected to hit the ground running as a nurse working for Corizon Health in Arizona State Corrections. Not a single memory Vallejo had of his time working in the prison was positive. He recalled coworkers crying on breaks, the hissing sounds that escaped emptying oxygen tanks, running fearfully to stabbings, and the inevitable deaths. It wasn’t until someone else had said something about the working conditions in the Arizona correctional facility that a U.S District Judge Roslyn Silver appointed an independent expert to review the health care system within this Arizona Prison. Vallejo caught wind of this and was so displeased with what was being said that went back to KJZZ to tell his own story. He believed that his concerns had previously fallen on deaf ears within Corizon Health, and took his chance with KJZZ to feel redeemed. Before working in prisons as a nurse, Vallejo had been a cop, a correctional officer, and a correctional nurse. So, in turn he was no stranger to the environment within a prison, and did have some idea of what he was getting himself into. He spent a lot of his time as a vocational nurse working in a unit known as SMU-1, where many of the prison populations mentally ill were housed. An hourly worker, Vallejo was bringing in 12 hour shifts 4-5 days a week. He had many responsibilities while working which included providing health care for thousands of inmates as well as distributing medication. Vallejo admitted that the job was, “mentally exhausting — emotionally — physically,” he further stated that, “We have to stop what we’re doing to respond to emergencies. We have inmate stabbings, inmate hangings. It takes a toll. It really does.” As you could probably assume, by how much this man was working, prisons tend to be grossly understaffed in the health care area. Corizon is under a contract that guarantees a 90% staffing fulfillment though Vallejo claims that during his time there his unit was only about 50% staffed a majority of the time. The fact of the matter is that our prison workers need not be so incredibly overworked, and they need to be properly trained for the job they are pursuing within said prison. If a minimum wage worker is given the proper equipment and trained well for their jobs, shouldn’t a health care worker in one of America’s biggest corporations be too? Psych001
The article was very interesting! It was insane to hear about what Corizon Health was getting away with and how misleading and careless they were when it came to the health of the prisoners. In this article, they get an inside view of what it was like on an average day to day scale by interviewing one of the workers at Corizon Health. The person who was interviewed was a man named Vallejo. In the beginning of the article it stated how many hours a week he had to work to make sure that the facility was being ran properly. It amazed me when he said that he was one of the only ones that had the proper experience and knowledge to run the place correctly, but most of the other RN’s who worked with him had no idea what they were doing. I do not understand how a prison complex could get away with not giving the newbees the proper training. Just because they have the right degrees for the jobs does not mean that they all have the hard working physical time put in to completely know how to operate everything. The fact that there were also a lack of staff members does not help the situation either. Since there were not enough registered nurses staffed, often times dangerous situations would occur because less experienced nurses who were not educated in certain areas had to make certain decisions that they should not have had to call. I think it is crazy that because of Corizon Health being understaffed, it led to some inmates would sometimes receive wrong types of medication which could easily put them at risk depending on the drug that they are taking. It shocked me when Vallejo mentioned that even inmates who had diabetes were not receiving their insulin when they needed it at certain times of the day. That can be extremely dangerous in some cases. Not only are there not enough registered nurses, but there is also nowhere near enough correctional officers. If there were ever any situations that called for backup, the officer who is on duty may be in a bit of trouble. Along with being poorly staffed, another problem that was mentioned in the article was that the facility did not have the proper equipment to help many of the patients. It is crazy to think that if someone were to need oxygen immediately, at Corizon’s facility they often times did not even have their oxygen takes properly filled. They would just have empty oxygen tanks sitting around. On top of that, another problem that Vallejo faced was the fact that he was ordered by the people that he worked for, to illegally sign off on narcotic books when they were not properly signed off when they did the last count of narcotic medications. Vallejo also stated in the interview that him and all the other nurses would be instructed to use old, expired medication on the inmates. This is illegal and the out of date medicine should have been discarded immediately. After reading this article, I was able to almost picture completely what it was like at Corizon Health facility. This facility should never have been able to stay open as long as it did. It at least should have been handled properly and they should have had the proper staff always on the clock. -Anchorman001
I agree that the facility should of never stayed open for as long as it did. The practices going on in the facility were not only illegal but inhumane. The people responsible for letting these practices go on should not be allowed to supervise a prison system again because they obviously can not be trusted. -Celtics001
This article tells a story about Jose Vallejo and his time at the Arizona Department of Corrections. Jose worked as a nurse for the Arizona corrections facility and was fired for making complaints about the health care violations that the prison was making. He worked there for two years and said that they were violating state regulations, and even misleading state auditors. Jose said that some of the nurses he worked with were book smart, but had no field smarts and couldn’t even start an IV or operate an oxygen tank. This is shocking to me because it means that the training and evaluations for these nurses must be slim to none. Later in the article it talks about how short staffed the prison was and how they had nurses making decisions that they shouldn’t of been making. This put a lot of patients lives at risk. He said that the inmates with chronic illnesses suffered the most because they weren’t given their medication at the right times and sometimes the medication wasn’t even the right kind. With the nurses being this inexperienced it’s easy for there to be medical errors that more experienced nurses wouldn’t make. Also there was some rebellion from the inmates because they weren’t receiving their medication on time or at all. Jose said that several members of the inmates and the staff at the prison were injured. Jose was told by his supervisors to incorrectly sign narcotics books and to cover up other improper things done in the prison. They also told Jose to hide the expired medications from the auditors when they came. Once the auditors would leave, the meds were taken back out and used on the inmates. These supervisors should be fired and given criminal charges because this sounds like it could have been resolved much sooner. Instead, the supervisors just continued to cover up all of their mistakes and make it harder for the prisoners and the staff. This resulted in the inmates setting the compound on fire as a form of rebellion. I don’t blame the inmates for doing this, because they were treated so poorly and probably felt this was the only way to get the staff’s attention. Overall this sounds like a chaotic situation within that prison. He said that nurses were crying in the middle of their shifts and there were constant emergencies that couldn’t be solved properly. I think that the government should really look into cases like this because if this one was swept under the rug for so long then there are probably more out there. These are bad for everyone because the people working there are stressed beyond measure and the inmates aren’t being taken care of properly. The worst part is that Jose tried to tell people about the conduct going on inside this prison and no one really listened. He said that all of his complaints fell on deaf ears which is completely unacceptable, especially when the complaints are of this magnitude. Celtics001
It's pretty crazy to think that the inmates set fire to the facilities due to poor treatment. In a strange way you can certainly sympathize for the prisoners as they were treated so poorly. In this sense it almost seemed if the inmates had more control of the situation then the medical staff that was trying to help. Rock001
After reading this article I clearly see that Jose Vallejo has seen a lot. After working as a nurse in the Arizona department of Corrections, he has recently come out whistle blowing about serious behind-the-scenes issues going on in the corrections facilities. Vallejo claims that not only were the inmates having serious problems but so was the staff. Many in-house nurses had not nearly enough training or were severely understaffed, often both in many cases. This lead to Vallejo spending well over 100 hours in a two week period at work just to attempt to make things better and clean up the overall act. He also claims that amongst the staff, the equipment and machines he worked with and used were ill-fated; from broken EKG machines to oxygen tanks. After reading this I felt like these certainly large but the fact of the matter is that equipment can be relatively easily replaced or fixed, however the medication side was a whole other story. Vallejo claimed that he witnessed and even took part in terrible acts. Including but not limited to using outdated medication that the inmates were required to have, but on top of that, he claims that many supervisors would force the nurses to lock up and hide any outdated medication were inspectors would come in. This really angered me to hear because this is clearly a matter of these people just not caring too much about the status of their facilities or the inmates they house. It pains me to see that these people care far too much about financial issues going on rather than real ethical issues that are happening. Inmates may be convicted of crimes that are terrible and even un-human like, but at the end of the day they are still human. This means that they are entitled to their essential needs and basic rights, both of which are seemingly being stripped from them. I can only imagine how frustrating this was for Vallejo to witness on top of the other medical emergencies he had to go on that he couldn't properly address. With that being said, this makes me wonder if this is just a problem for Arizona's correctional facilities or if this truly is happening all over the country, because if so, actions will need to be taken immediately because inmates are still coming by the thousands. If people still allow this malpractice to continue then it will never change in an effort to save money and cut corners. Just because you work for the law does not mean that you are above it, everyone needs to do their part. Hopefully. more whistle blowers come out of the shadows like Jose Vallejo because strength in numbers will only help get the ball rolling on serious reform that needs to happen. Rock001
I also wonder if this is a problem around the rest of the country. It seems like it would be a common issue, with prisons trying to save money and cut more of their costs. If nothing is done, then these inmates will continue to suffer subpar care and the clinics will continue to be understaffed. -Stark001
Jose Vallejo has saw a lot during his short career working with the Arizona department of corrections. He blew the whistle on Corizon Health, saying that they are violating state regulations and putting people's lives at risk. He worked long hours in a very stressful environment, and started with only two days of training instead of the two weeks that was promised. He saw even worse, with nurses not even trained in basic operations like starting an IV or working with an oxygen tank. Corizon doesn’t provide enough training for their nurses and that’s setting them up for failure, causing turnover and recruitment to be a constant issue. There are supposed to be registered nurses on every shift, but there isn’t one there often, this leads to people who are less qualified being forced to make important decisions. Medication errors can also happen due to the staffing issue, causing patients to receive the wrong medications or to receive them at the wrong time. Lack of resources has also lead to issues, with patients not getting the treatment that they require. The Arizona department of corrections set up a bureau to monitor the treatment of inmates, but Vallejo says that they purposely tried to deceive the bureaus to avoid fines. Narcotics that are supposed to be tracked usually weren’t. Whenever an auditor did show up, word was quickly spread and everything would be done correctly for a short time. Expired medication was hidden from state auditors, they would be used once the clinic started running low on other medications. Vallejo decided to save emails from his superiors showing that they were aware of some of the problems and the impacts that they have on patient care. Despite going to the Arizona department of corrections, Vallejo was unable to make any progress with his findings, even getting as desperate as asking inmates to start writing in complaints. In November, he told his supervisors that he and fellow nurses would not administer medication to patients until there was sufficient staff, this lead to him being escorted off of the property. Nothing is still being done, and this is a serious problem that requires a serious solution before more lives are lost. -Stark001
Jose Vallejo was a man who worked for as a nurse for Corizon Health in an Arizona Prison. He was later fired for complaining about the poor conditions and health violations within the prison system. After being fired, he is ultimately speaking on his experience of his 2 years working here. In the article “Private Health Provider Endangered Arizona Inmates: Whistleblower”, he states that Corizon had originally purposefully mislead auditors, violated state regulations, and put patient lives at risk. It’s funny he was fired, and that this health agency was replaced. Later in the article, it is states that Vallejo is no stranger to the correctional world. He has worked as a police officer and a correctional officer, so there is no bias. He is familiar with how these conditions should be for prisoners. First off, a correctional nurse is no easy job. In improper terms, some inmates are literally psycho. You get some of the scariest people in the world in there, both physically and mentally. Many inmates have undergone trauma or troubles, and that is a burden to hear about itself. Not to mention, you witness stabbings and hangings. On top of this, Vallejo claimed that in his experience he was promised two weeks of training, received two days, and was thrown into night shift by himself. This results in book smart nurses with no hands on experience, which gives nurses a low chance of succeeding. While Corizon had promised the state 90% staff fill-up, healthcare wise they were only about 50%, which resulted in exhausted nurses. The prisons continually stayed understaffed. Oftentimes there was no RN present at the prison. An RN is critical with medication hand out and such issues. Corizon supervisors had encouraged improper medication protocol, knowingly. On top of all of this, faulty equipment and lack of treatment is a major issue. There are cancer patients being overlooked and getting no cancer treatment. That is inhumane. Vallejo is not the only Corizon employee who realized these problems and made accusations against the company. Other Doctors and employees claimed to see things like jaundiced men, men who were so bloated they looked pregnant. People needed better care that they could not provide, according to Vallejo. Vallejo also asked administrators for help with a patient, and after a year they agreed and found he had cancer. On top of all of this, there were often non-working EKG machines and inmates were ran all the way to the other side of the prison. Also, there were many times oxygen times were all empty. Vallejo claims he had to sign things he didn’t agree with, on order of supervisors. Vallejo said that in addition to falsely signing forms and confirming patient visits that didn’t occur, Corizon supervisors ordered nurses to hide expired medicines from auditors. Basically, Vallejo says they’d hide expired and discontinued medication in a locked room until the auditors left, then they’d be brought right back out for usage. Vallejo expressed all of his concerns to all of his higher ups with no return of concern. Vallejo concludes that if nothing is done, then more will die. And that is the ultimate conclusion for anyone reading this. They’re prisoners, and an average person would not be trying to protect them unless they genuinely felt the situation was that bad and it was needed. -freckles001
This article really opened my eyes about what really goes on in the prison health care systems These are all the things that you hear about behind closed doors. What Vallejo has done by speaking to the media may open some eyes about whats really going on. This article really put a light on the amount of mistreatment that inmates are receiving due to a lack of staffing and corrupt practices that the prisons are doing. When I was reading about the medication, the meds are not being looked after and used properly which is really dangerous, especially inmates who have major medical issues such as cancer, diabetes.. etc. For the supervisors to give out orders to nurses to fill out the medical charts illegally is wrong. When the inmates are put in there and need medical help, their lives are in their hands. The supervisors that's making the nurses do illegal things with the medication, basically playing with the inmates lives. When I read about Vallejo improperly signing several of the narcotic books under order from his supervisor, that's when he should've took the chance to step up. And the bad thing about it is they had to sign it or else they end up getting some sort of retaliation. Some inmates life might be on the line, and it is the nurses job to make sure they have proper care. And for the supervisors to be giving out expired meds, wrong meds, random meds, isn't right and illegal, because you can easily lose an inmate just that quick. I don't think its wrong that Vallejo tried to step up and make a change and have proper care for inmates. Once inmates start dying back to back because of improper care, hopefully the supervisors will finally open their eyes and see. It's sad to see that Vallejo had to lose his job for trying to make a good change. -DJay001
This article is very interesting to me. While reading it I couldn't help but question what our system is doing. Vallejo is one of the good corrections workers. We hear about bad ones but how about this guy who lost his job fighting for the locked up inmates that just wanted to be healthy or simply live a bit longer then expected. In my opinion, organizations such as the one the article describes is sickening. They cut corners and are allowed to slip through cracks way too much. They take the easy routes because of how convenient it is for them and they have no regard for the prisoners and/or the patients. They made Vallejo forge forms and sign off on false information just so the state would give them the a-ok and they could continue. Too many cracks and holes are in our current system that organizations like these are abusing. I think it is even worse when the supervisors ordered the under-trained nurses to administer expired medicine and/or the wrong medicine. That will kill people and that's a possible huge lawsuit against them. Respect to Vallejo for sacrificing his job in order to pull these demons into light. -Lobster001
This article brings a lot to light that maybe a lot of people do not know about. It brings up that some of our prisons are very understaffed and doing illegal things to not get dinged. This is a significant concern whether you are a prisoner, a family member of a prisoner, or a taxpayer. According to Jose Vallejo he was a police officer, a corrections officer, and a correctional nurse. He is now a whistleblower on how bad things have gotten in the Arizona State Prison Complex- Eyman in Florence. He worked there for two years before he was escorted out because he was going to go on strike because he would no longer distribute medicine until the prison was adequately staff. I think this is kind of a dumb thing because even though the inmates were getting terrible care, he was just putting them at even more of a risk because not they were going completely without medication. Jose talks about horror stories from when he was working at the prison. He talks about how they were giving expired medication to inmates, improperly distributing medicine, and not even being able to see all of the patients. This is a terrible thing that needs correction. They need to be staffed appropriately and given the resources they need to continue giving inmates proper care. You would think that when auditors would come to check up on the prison, they would find all of this and see how badly they needed the money and manpower, but they did not. They did not find these issues because according to Vallejo they were told to lie and forge documents. They were supposed to go fill in logs and charts that are supposed to be done at the beginning and the end of each shift. They were not being filled out at these times so whenever they found out auditors were coming to visit, they would find the nearest person and have them fill out the charts. So not only were they improperly staffed, improperly giving medical care to inmates, and not doing anything about it, they were lying about it. They were hiding expired medications as well. They were only worried about getting a fine instead of maybe someone finding out and having that person telling the right people to get the resources to the prison and taking the fine because it might be helpful in future. Jose Vallejo is not the only person though to blow the whistle on stuff similar to these situations. This is crazy that people have spoken out against this same thing and another person has to come out because it should have been fixed the first time and it was not. This is a big issue. There is no professionalism in this workplace at all. They are doing very immoral things that are putting everyone that works there at risk because of prisoners acting out, and all of the inmates that are locked away because they are not getting the care that they need. -Legion001
ReplyDeleteI agree this is something you should be concerned with if you were a taxpayer, prisoner, or a family member of a prisoner. This is not something that they would want to see considering they are associated with it. I also agree with you that there is no professionalism in this workplace. With professionalism comes honesty, and there is none of that in this. -lilbaby001
DeleteThis is a very sad reality and I agree that there is no professionalism in this institution. The fact that things have been brought up to the supervisors and state corrections officials and nothings has changed is very sad and makes you wonder what the citizens tax dollars are really going toward.
Delete-Blues001
I agree that the professionalism in this facility was non-existent and things needed to be changed. The fact that this prison was getting away with so much because of the forged documents and how they were breaking the law is unbelievable and terribly sad. Like you said, these things not only effected the inmates(which is reason enough to fix this), but also the families of inmates, and even just taxpayers in general.
Delete-Reid001
First off, this article really opened my eyes about what really happens in the prison health care systems. This is all the stuff you hear about behind closed doors, but I never thought it would come to the point of it being that bad. It is crazy that Vallejo’s supervisors told him that there would be consequences if he opened his mouth about what was happening behind the doors, and obviously there were. Also, it is not like he was anyone new to this system and didn’t know what was going on. He was an experienced correctional nurse for Corizon Health, so he knew the ins and outs of what he and others were doing. In this article, he said that he works 12 hour shifts 4 to 5 days a week. To me, this is crazy, An 8 hour shift is pretty exhausting for me as it is, so I couldn’t even imagine his 12 hour shifts especially with the job he is working. He says it is exhausting mentally, physically, and emotionally and I can see why especially when you see the worst of the worst. Also, he said when he started working he only got two days of training and then got thrown into night shifts when they promised him two weeks of training. This would irritate me profusely considering it is such a demanding job. I feel like this would go against some sort of regulations, but then again it is a private prison so they can basically do whatever they want. Luckily, he said he had previous experience so it wasn’t so bad, but for other nurses that didn’t have previous experience it was obviously challenging for them. This hurts the prison health care system because they will not have experienced workers, but then again like said in the article they do not care as long as they have the nurse numbers. He makes a good point by saying that they are putting people’s lives on the line because they truly are. These nurses are giving prisoners the wrong or expired medicine which obviously could lead to death. If I was a prisoner and found out that these nurses were giving me the wrong or expired medication, I would be furious. Medicine shouldn’t be anybody should be playing around with, especially “professionals” like these. He also mentioned, pertaining to the lack of workers, that sometimes there would be one correctional officer responsible for several hundred inmates. If you put one regular person in charge of several hundred children, it would be hard let alone this. I think it is funny that the prisoners set the prison on fire because they weren’t giving them the right medication. Well, obviously it is unfortunate but if I was in there shoes I would be looking to do something to get back at them too but not to that extent. Once I look at this article as a whole, I think it was very brave of Vallejo’s to speak up and let people know the real truth. It is the right thing to do, even though he knew in the back of his mind he could lose his job over it. -lilbaby001
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was the right thing for Jose Vallejo to speak out despite the threat of job loss. I would also admit that it was funny when it talked about how in the article it says the prisoners set the place on fire. It is sad people got hurt, but at the same time It showed just how angry and done the prisoners were. -Legion001
ReplyDeleteThis article brings a lot of thought to the mistreatment and under staffing issues that many correctional facilities are facing today. What Vallejo has done by speaking to the media may cause for a large reform in Arizona State Corrections and potentially many other agencies across the nation. This article really shed some light on the amount of mistreatment that inmates are receiving due to a lack of staffing and corrupt practices that the prisons are doing in order to stay out of trouble. Seeing that the medication is not being looked after and accounted for properly is definitely a pretty scary thing, especially for the inmates who require it in order to live. For the prison supervisors to be giving orders to the nurses to fill out the medical charts illegally is not only wrong but it is immoral. They are putting their reputations above a human beings life just so they do not have to face the consequences of being understaffed. Vallejo saying that many of the registered nurses who staffed the prison he worked at were book smart but had no real life scenario knowledge due to a lack of training would also worry me as an inmate. They do not know how to start an IV or use oxygen tanks, and when an emergency occurred and the staff needed oxygen they had to go to the other side of the complex to retrieve some. Time can mean everything when it comes to saving an inmates life and having to run across a prison to get the needed equipment is just outrageous. Another issue I have is that Vallejo said sometimes he had to watch over an entire wing of over 150 inmates which shows the sad amount of under staffing, under staffing can increase the risk of a disaster to break out due to not having control over the inmates and the medical care to watch over those who are mentally ill. A strong example of what I am referring too is when the inmates at Vallejo's prison had set the building on fire as rebellion for not receiving proper care. Under staffed facilities can cause a risk of safety to other inmates and staff and also and under staffed medical department being instructed by corrupt supervisors just causes the margin of error to increase drastically as time goes on. This does not show any "professionalism" in corrections but more or less shows a lack of that due to illegally filling out paper work and managing a facility in such way that it can barely operate with the little resources provided. I think the professionalism that I picked up on in this article is how Vallejo handled this situation. He went to the public about how their tax dollars are being spent and what is going on that no one else sees or hears unless people like Vallejo risk their job to inform families of these inmates and the public about the sad treatment of their members who are locked up in this facility.
ReplyDelete-Blues001
This article definitely gives more insight as to how the correctional system is doing in the way of healthcare and staff. Even the staff that are working within the prison have to deal with illegal practices given to them by their superiors. It's good that people like Vallejo are telling people about what really goes on and not what people just assume is happening.
DeleteThis article definitely gives more insight as to how the correctional system is doing in the way of healthcare and staff. Even the staff that are working within the prison have to deal with illegal practices given to them by their superiors. It's good that people like Vallejo are telling people about what really goes on and not what people just assume is happening.
Delete-Ram001
The article starts off by describing what Jose Vallejo had seen and heard during his time when he worked in prison as a nurse. When you think of what prison may be like often times people would assume that the conditions are not great. But as to what extent the conditions go are beyond our knowledge. Such as what prison health care is like as described in this article. Vallejo has had much experience and time working in the correctional world. When he first started he had to work almost immediately. He was promised 2 weeks of training but instead only got two days. If I were someone who only got a portion of training for his job I would be clueless as to what I need to do. Being thrown in the same scenarios as Vallejo was would be scary. One of the biggest problems in the prison health care system was the lack of training that the nurses were given. There were staff don't know how to start IVs or able to handle oxygen tanks, and there are even some with no form of training, according to Vallejo. Along with that there is a problem with recruiting new nurses so the only staff they have is being stretched too thin. Vallejo says that licensed vocational nurses are being forced to make decisions that should be made by those with more experience. A registered nurse should be working at the prison complex at all times but often there was no one with that certification. This has led to dangerous situations. There are a lot of people's lives on the line. Most of this has to do with giving prisoner's the wrong type of medications. Inmates with diabetes weren't getting their insulin on time due to the lack of staff. Not only was the health care staff suffering shortages but the correctional staff as well. At times there is only one correctional officer watching over a wing of a few hundred inmates. So the inmates are not receiving 24/7 supervision. One night the inmates had set fire to the building. The reason for the fire was that inmates were rebelling over not getting their medication. Several patients and corrections staff were injured as a result. Even with short staff, the nurses were expected to perform the work for a full roster. Corizon supervisors have told Vallejo and his colleagues to improperly distribute medicine. Without the proper number of workers it is impossible for a team to complete their work. With the environment that these nurses have to work in they have to have the necessary training or else everything will become disorganized. There have been patients with severe conditions that the medical staff at the prison were not equipped for. Empty oxygen tanks, broken EKG machines, and improperly maintained emergency bags were another major problem when dealing with an emergency situation. The medical staff requires equipment to help these patients. The patients can die if they don't receive help on time. The supervisors had told Vallejo to hide expired medication so auditors wouldn't see them. For so long the supervisors that ran the prison have hidden many flaws with their techniques and their practices. The people's knowledge about what goes on inside prison walls is being deceived by people like the Corizon supervisors. Hopefully articles like this will open people's eyes. Inmates have a right to proper healthcare.
ReplyDelete-Ram001
This article was most certainly eye opening in the least. I think that, as a society, we know how terrible working conditions are in our prisons, we just turn the other way feeling helpless. The fact is that without education, what can anyone outside of the prisons really do to help? We need to be learning about these things so we can, in turn, do something to help create change.
Deletepsych001
I think this is a good article describing in great detail what really goes on behind closed doors in reference to inmates healthcare. Reading that Jose Vallejo was working double the hours for a standard full time is shocking. Being a nurse in general takes a lot of time and patience but, working with mentally ill patience takes even more patience and time. Even though these are prisoners they are still humans and they have a right to health care regardless of being in prison. Vallejo stated that some of the RN’s didn't know how to start a an IV or, they didnt know how to operate the oxygen tank. That is something they teach you in nursing school and you have to pass the test and practical showing you know how do what is being asked. To me that is saying that they are hiring just anybody to fulfil the staffing needs. Once it was determined that those specific nurses could do the basic functions of a nurse they should have been let go, at that point you are really playing with people’s life. Also giving the inmates the wrong medications by accident and giving them medication later than is expected is also a big risk. Especially when you are giving out insulin and not letting it fully do its job before turning around a few hours later and giving them insulin again. I think it is horrible purposely giving somebody expired medications, it's not even considered effective anymore, it's better off not giving the expired medicine at all, then giving something that isn't effective and make that person sick. I really feel bad for Vallejo and the other nurses who were just doing their job and didn't want to be fired. I think they did the right thing by saying something and, letting it be known that they will not continue to give out the medications without the proper staffing. For doing what is right it cost Vallejo his job, it shouldn't have gotten that far to begin with if the administrators actually listened to what was being said and did was right.
ReplyDelete-21Aries001
I totally agree on not given the inmates any meds at all if its not gonna help them in general because of the expiration on it. It also doesn't help that they are not consistent on when they give the meds to them, which can have a worse effect on them. taco001
DeleteThis article talks about the experiences of Jose Vallejo, a former worker for Corizon Health in the Arizona Department of Corrections. Vallejo highlights the many issues with Corizon Health and how many corners were being cut. According to Vallejo, the prison he was working at was severely understaffed. There were times when employees were being stretched paper thin, resulting in their need to break the law in order to attempt to get medication out to their patients in the prison. It is not legal for one nurse to fill prescriptions while another runs the medications to their rightful owners because there is a lot of room for error and an inmate could very easily be given the wrong medication, which could prove to be fatal. I would personally hate to be in that position where I would possibly be giving someone "poison" because it wasn't the medicine they needed simply because of something I could not control, like the issue of being understaffed. This article also talks about how less qualified nurses were being forced to make calls that medical professionals with much more experience should have been making. This is very dangerous and these prisoners are still human. They deserve to be taken care of and not be put in danger because those in authority are turning a blind eye to the shoddy practices that were taking place, or, in some cases, those in charge were even enabling them in the first place. Vallejo also exposed Corizon Health because they were keeping expired medicines and using them when the fresh medications ran out. When it came time to inspections, nurses would be ordered to transport the expired medications to another location and bring them back once the coast was clear. There are expiration dates for a reason. If someone is in need of medicine and they are given some that has expired, it will not work as well, if at all. This is unacceptable and seriously blows my mind. I'm glad Vallejo took a stand although it cost him his job, and I am glad he has spoken out against the malpractices of Corizon Health so the patients can get the care that they need and deserve. It also shocked me that most of the staff only received a couple of days' training opposed to the two weeks of training that Vallejo was allegedly promised. With only two days of training, no one would be ready to handle the situations those nurses were expected to. In the cases where an inmate's life was on the line, that is completely unacceptable and scary, even. It's no wonder the inmates staged a protest in which they set the building on fire. I can't even say I blame them to be completely honest. I think anyone in their situation would be tempted to do the same. Reform was necessary and they did the only thing they could to bring attention to the poor conditions in which they were paying the price. I'm so glad another health agency took over and Corizon Health was finally put in their place.
ReplyDelete-Reid001
I completely agree with what you had said. I also find it interesting that they had set fire in protest. I wonder what kind of repercussions they faced in lue of the protest even though it was needed to bring attention to the problem
DeleteJackrabbit001
This is a very interesting article. It explores the problems that have occurred with an Arizona State Prison. It talks about how a medical provider, Corizon, neglected many responsibilities. This article talks how a man, Vallejo, attempted to expose the truth and lost his job over the matter. He goes into detail many of the different instances that Corizon had neglected their work. He talks about how that many times him and his coworkers were required to hide expired medicine and fill in dates so they would not be written up. He talks about how that many times he had gone to Corizon management but to no avail. I find this interesting that even when he when to the DOT officials he had gotten no where. I assume that the state and Corizon had a very good deal going on where Corizon was a very small fee so the state would save money. That would be the only reason I could see even after going to get help from the DOT officials that they would not have even reported the incidents by Vallejo. This is a big issue in our criminal justice system. I had no idea that the health providers were private businesses. I had always assumed that they would be through the state or that is how it should be in my mind. You could make a great arguement for private prisons with this article. Obviously the state has no money to pay for healthcare or even the prison alone. I can see how private prisons would feast off of horror stories in public prisons like these. Not helping prisoners with their medical problems can be very dangerous, and I am surprised I had not heard about this before as I would have figured it would explode over head lines. Playing with people's lives in no joke and should be taken seriously no matter what job position you hold in a prison. I am also surprised there was no actual reports of injuries or even deaths by the mistreatment of the prisoners. It makes me wonder even if there was the state would have hidden it in fear of the public gaining the knowledge and losing funding and interest in public prisons. All in all, this article exposes many of the problems I believe to be more common than most people would like to believe. I hope that this case can be taken into account and looked back on for something to improve on. If problems like this continue we will be losing lives. Thankfully there will always be people like Vallejo to do the right action and step up for human rights. I do not like how he lost his job really for no reason listed and being labeled a "whistleblower ."
ReplyDeleteJackrabbit001
I like what you had to say. I thought it was crazy how they kept the medicine that was out dated and still used it on the inmates once they ran out of the newer medicine. I agree you could definitely make a great argument about private prisons with this article. It is sad to see that Corizon was so understaffed and just heartless and careless when it came to these inmates lives. Even though they had done wrong in the past that doesn't mean that they are not human beings. They still need to be properly taken care of and receive the correct medication. -Anchorman001
Deletet is just plain crazy to know about all the terrible things that go on behind doors. The things that we do know about may not even be everything. What about all the mistreatment that occurs behind his back. For someone like him who has been in more areas in law enforcement and corrections than most. Then moving to a nurse for the prison and receiving very minimal training on how to properly care for inmates who do need medical attention. But he was still able to have enough common sense to do his best and reconize that some of the care provided is not enough and that there is neglect inside the prison. He was also one of the few that realizes that they are not animals in a zoo but that are people who have made a mistake somewhere in their life. That not only shows respect to them but respect to the families that do have loved ones in the prison system and can have a little piece of mind that somebody does care, even if he was instructed to give minimal care to inmates. It’s even harder to be in a position where you are threatened with your job to not talk about the neglect that occurs, along with being under equipped with the proper tools to do their job. Along with being so under staffed that one of the nurses has to look over a wing of 150 prisoners, and put themselves in an extremely dangerous situation. It is unfortunate that he did lose his job for speaking his mind and trying to hopefully better the place then forever being labeled a " Whistleblower" -Purdue001
ReplyDeleteI find it very upsetting that we pay all this money as taxpayers, so that inmates don’t get the proper care they need. I kind of makes me wonder where is all that money going towards if it isn’t for the wellbeing of the inmates. The article explain the different situations that Vallejo would go through as a private health provider in the prison. Not only did they ignore the fact that they were understaffed for the other employees not to do most of the work. They also would provide expired medication to inmates that seriously have a medication condition. It seems very heartless to me to able to do such a thing to human beings. Yes, they are probably violent criminal that deserve to be in prison or much worse, but they are still human. They have rights as inmates as well to speak out about being treated unfairly, but they don’t listen probably for the same reasons as of why they are there in the first place. They have dignity and should be treated with respect either way. I find it incredible that even for a state job, they would over work people and won’t listen about what they have to say. As for it being professional as a government job, it’s terrible what happens there according to Vallejo. He mentioned, that there isn’t proper training for nurses when they arrive. That it’s dangerous because someone's life is at risk. Not only that the nurses don’t know what they are doing but also the correctional officers there. They are so understaffed that there is 1 officer watching over a whole unit. Which not only is that putting the officers life at risk if a riot breaks out. Also, the inmates can be hurt if anything occurs. The main problem with this is that there should be more properly trained staff which is pretty clear. Also, another problem is that if there isn’t staff to correctly function the prison accordingly then there isn’t any type of rehab for the inmates. There important reasons for a prison or jail, is so that inmates serve their time for a crime and be able to rehabilitate from it to return to society. Unfortunately, that isn't the case here because they aren't given their meds so that they can focus on other important things. If anything, i think it creates a bigger problem between the inmates that can begin violence or someone hurting themselves. It’s scary to think that this really happens to people that are incarcerated and that they feel like they don’t have to right to speak out on it. taco001
ReplyDeleteStarting a new job is stressful for anyone. With every new job comes learning how to behave in that environment, learning new routines and a lot of times being trained comes along with that. In some areas of work only a few hours, or a couple days, of training or preparation, is necessary. In Vallejo’s case though, he was told he would get two weeks of training before being tossed into the practice of prison health care. Instead, he was given a couple days to train and prepare before he was expected to hit the ground running as a nurse working for Corizon Health in Arizona State Corrections. Not a single memory Vallejo had of his time working in the prison was positive. He recalled coworkers crying on breaks, the hissing sounds that escaped emptying oxygen tanks, running fearfully to stabbings, and the inevitable deaths. It wasn’t until someone else had said something about the working conditions in the Arizona correctional facility that a U.S District Judge Roslyn Silver appointed an independent expert to review the health care system within this Arizona Prison. Vallejo caught wind of this and was so displeased with what was being said that went back to KJZZ to tell his own story. He believed that his concerns had previously fallen on deaf ears within Corizon Health, and took his chance with KJZZ to feel redeemed. Before working in prisons as a nurse, Vallejo had been a cop, a correctional officer, and a correctional nurse. So, in turn he was no stranger to the environment within a prison, and did have some idea of what he was getting himself into. He spent a lot of his time as a vocational nurse working in a unit known as SMU-1, where many of the prison populations mentally ill were housed. An hourly worker, Vallejo was bringing in 12 hour shifts 4-5 days a week. He had many responsibilities while working which included providing health care for thousands of inmates as well as distributing medication. Vallejo admitted that the job was, “mentally exhausting — emotionally — physically,” he further stated that, “We have to stop what we’re doing to respond to emergencies. We have inmate stabbings, inmate hangings. It takes a toll. It really does.” As you could probably assume, by how much this man was working, prisons tend to be grossly understaffed in the health care area. Corizon is under a contract that guarantees a 90% staffing fulfillment though Vallejo claims that during his time there his unit was only about 50% staffed a majority of the time. The fact of the matter is that our prison workers need not be so incredibly overworked, and they need to be properly trained for the job they are pursuing within said prison. If a minimum wage worker is given the proper equipment and trained well for their jobs, shouldn’t a health care worker in one of America’s biggest corporations be too?
ReplyDeletePsych001
The article was very interesting! It was insane to hear about what Corizon Health was getting away with and how misleading and careless they were when it came to the health of the prisoners. In this article, they get an inside view of what it was like on an average day to day scale by interviewing one of the workers at Corizon Health. The person who was interviewed was a man named Vallejo. In the beginning of the article it stated how many hours a week he had to work to make sure that the facility was being ran properly. It amazed me when he said that he was one of the only ones that had the proper experience and knowledge to run the place correctly, but most of the other RN’s who worked with him had no idea what they were doing. I do not understand how a prison complex could get away with not giving the newbees the proper training. Just because they have the right degrees for the jobs does not mean that they all have the hard working physical time put in to completely know how to operate everything. The fact that there were also a lack of staff members does not help the situation either. Since there were not enough registered nurses staffed, often times dangerous situations would occur because less experienced nurses who were not educated in certain areas had to make certain decisions that they should not have had to call. I think it is crazy that because of Corizon Health being understaffed, it led to some inmates would sometimes receive wrong types of medication which could easily put them at risk depending on the drug that they are taking. It shocked me when Vallejo mentioned that even inmates who had diabetes were not receiving their insulin when they needed it at certain times of the day. That can be extremely dangerous in some cases. Not only are there not enough registered nurses, but there is also nowhere near enough correctional officers. If there were ever any situations that called for backup, the officer who is on duty may be in a bit of trouble. Along with being poorly staffed, another problem that was mentioned in the article was that the facility did not have the proper equipment to help many of the patients. It is crazy to think that if someone were to need oxygen immediately, at Corizon’s facility they often times did not even have their oxygen takes properly filled. They would just have empty oxygen tanks sitting around. On top of that, another problem that Vallejo faced was the fact that he was ordered by the people that he worked for, to illegally sign off on narcotic books when they were not properly signed off when they did the last count of narcotic medications. Vallejo also stated in the interview that him and all the other nurses would be instructed to use old, expired medication on the inmates. This is illegal and the out of date medicine should have been discarded immediately. After reading this article, I was able to almost picture completely what it was like at Corizon Health facility. This facility should never have been able to stay open as long as it did. It at least should have been handled properly and they should have had the proper staff always on the clock. -Anchorman001
ReplyDeleteI agree that the facility should of never stayed open for as long as it did. The practices going on in the facility were not only illegal but inhumane. The people responsible for letting these practices go on should not be allowed to supervise a prison system again because they obviously can not be trusted. -Celtics001
DeleteThis article tells a story about Jose Vallejo and his time at the Arizona Department of Corrections. Jose worked as a nurse for the Arizona corrections facility and was fired for making complaints about the health care violations that the prison was making. He worked there for two years and said that they were violating state regulations, and even misleading state auditors. Jose said that some of the nurses he worked with were book smart, but had no field smarts and couldn’t even start an IV or operate an oxygen tank. This is shocking to me because it means that the training and evaluations for these nurses must be slim to none. Later in the article it talks about how short staffed the prison was and how they had nurses making decisions that they shouldn’t of been making. This put a lot of patients lives at risk. He said that the inmates with chronic illnesses suffered the most because they weren’t given their medication at the right times and sometimes the medication wasn’t even the right kind. With the nurses being this inexperienced it’s easy for there to be medical errors that more experienced nurses wouldn’t make. Also there was some rebellion from the inmates because they weren’t receiving their medication on time or at all. Jose said that several members of the inmates and the staff at the prison were injured. Jose was told by his supervisors to incorrectly sign narcotics books and to cover up other improper things done in the prison. They also told Jose to hide the expired medications from the auditors when they came. Once the auditors would leave, the meds were taken back out and used on the inmates. These supervisors should be fired and given criminal charges because this sounds like it could have been resolved much sooner. Instead, the supervisors just continued to cover up all of their mistakes and make it harder for the prisoners and the staff. This resulted in the inmates setting the compound on fire as a form of rebellion. I don’t blame the inmates for doing this, because they were treated so poorly and probably felt this was the only way to get the staff’s attention. Overall this sounds like a chaotic situation within that prison. He said that nurses were crying in the middle of their shifts and there were constant emergencies that couldn’t be solved properly. I think that the government should really look into cases like this because if this one was swept under the rug for so long then there are probably more out there. These are bad for everyone because the people working there are stressed beyond measure and the inmates aren’t being taken care of properly. The worst part is that Jose tried to tell people about the conduct going on inside this prison and no one really listened. He said that all of his complaints fell on deaf ears which is completely unacceptable, especially when the complaints are of this magnitude. Celtics001
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty crazy to think that the inmates set fire to the facilities due to poor treatment. In a strange way you can certainly sympathize for the prisoners as they were treated so poorly. In this sense it almost seemed if the inmates had more control of the situation then the medical staff that was trying to help. Rock001
DeleteAfter reading this article I clearly see that Jose Vallejo has seen a lot. After working as a nurse in the Arizona department of Corrections, he has recently come out whistle blowing about serious behind-the-scenes issues going on in the corrections facilities. Vallejo claims that not only were the inmates having serious problems but so was the staff. Many in-house nurses had not nearly enough training or were severely understaffed, often both in many cases. This lead to Vallejo spending well over 100 hours in a two week period at work just to attempt to make things better and clean up the overall act. He also claims that amongst the staff, the equipment and machines he worked with and used were ill-fated; from broken EKG machines to oxygen tanks. After reading this I felt like these certainly large but the fact of the matter is that equipment can be relatively easily replaced or fixed, however the medication side was a whole other story. Vallejo claimed that he witnessed and even took part in terrible acts. Including but not limited to using outdated medication that the inmates were required to have, but on top of that, he claims that many supervisors would force the nurses to lock up and hide any outdated medication were inspectors would come in. This really angered me to hear because this is clearly a matter of these people just not caring too much about the status of their facilities or the inmates they house. It pains me to see that these people care far too much about financial issues going on rather than real ethical issues that are happening. Inmates may be convicted of crimes that are terrible and even un-human like, but at the end of the day they are still human. This means that they are entitled to their essential needs and basic rights, both of which are seemingly being stripped from them. I can only imagine how frustrating this was for Vallejo to witness on top of the other medical emergencies he had to go on that he couldn't properly address. With that being said, this makes me wonder if this is just a problem for Arizona's correctional facilities or if this truly is happening all over the country, because if so, actions will need to be taken immediately because inmates are still coming by the thousands. If people still allow this malpractice to continue then it will never change in an effort to save money and cut corners. Just because you work for the law does not mean that you are above it, everyone needs to do their part. Hopefully. more whistle blowers come out of the shadows like Jose Vallejo because strength in numbers will only help get the ball rolling on serious reform that needs to happen. Rock001
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if this is a problem around the rest of the country. It seems like it would be a common issue, with prisons trying to save money and cut more of their costs. If nothing is done, then these inmates will continue to suffer subpar care and the clinics will continue to be understaffed. -Stark001
DeleteJose Vallejo has saw a lot during his short career working with the Arizona department of corrections. He blew the whistle on Corizon Health, saying that they are violating state regulations and putting people's lives at risk. He worked long hours in a very stressful environment, and started with only two days of training instead of the two weeks that was promised. He saw even worse, with nurses not even trained in basic operations like starting an IV or working with an oxygen tank. Corizon doesn’t provide enough training for their nurses and that’s setting them up for failure, causing turnover and recruitment to be a constant issue. There are supposed to be registered nurses on every shift, but there isn’t one there often, this leads to people who are less qualified being forced to make important decisions. Medication errors can also happen due to the staffing issue, causing patients to receive the wrong medications or to receive them at the wrong time. Lack of resources has also lead to issues, with patients not getting the treatment that they require. The Arizona department of corrections set up a bureau to monitor the treatment of inmates, but Vallejo says that they purposely tried to deceive the bureaus to avoid fines. Narcotics that are supposed to be tracked usually weren’t. Whenever an auditor did show up, word was quickly spread and everything would be done correctly for a short time. Expired medication was hidden from state auditors, they would be used once the clinic started running low on other medications. Vallejo decided to save emails from his superiors showing that they were aware of some of the problems and the impacts that they have on patient care. Despite going to the Arizona department of corrections, Vallejo was unable to make any progress with his findings, even getting as desperate as asking inmates to start writing in complaints. In November, he told his supervisors that he and fellow nurses would not administer medication to patients until there was sufficient staff, this lead to him being escorted off of the property. Nothing is still being done, and this is a serious problem that requires a serious solution before more lives are lost. -Stark001
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ReplyDeleteJose Vallejo was a man who worked for as a nurse for Corizon Health in an Arizona Prison. He was later fired for complaining about the poor conditions and health violations within the prison system. After being fired, he is ultimately speaking on his experience of his 2 years working here. In the article “Private Health Provider Endangered Arizona Inmates: Whistleblower”, he states that Corizon had originally purposefully mislead auditors, violated state regulations, and put patient lives at risk. It’s funny he was fired, and that this health agency was replaced. Later in the article, it is states that Vallejo is no stranger to the correctional world. He has worked as a police officer and a correctional officer, so there is no bias. He is familiar with how these conditions should be for prisoners. First off, a correctional nurse is no easy job. In improper terms, some inmates are literally psycho. You get some of the scariest people in the world in there, both physically and mentally. Many inmates have undergone trauma or troubles, and that is a burden to hear about itself. Not to mention, you witness stabbings and hangings. On top of this, Vallejo claimed that in his experience he was promised two weeks of training, received two days, and was thrown into night shift by himself. This results in book smart nurses with no hands on experience, which gives nurses a low chance of succeeding. While Corizon had promised the state 90% staff fill-up, healthcare wise they were only about 50%, which resulted in exhausted nurses. The prisons continually stayed understaffed. Oftentimes there was no RN present at the prison. An RN is critical with medication hand out and such issues. Corizon supervisors had encouraged improper medication protocol, knowingly. On top of all of this, faulty equipment and lack of treatment is a major issue. There are cancer patients being overlooked and getting no cancer treatment. That is inhumane. Vallejo is not the only Corizon employee who realized these problems and made accusations against the company. Other Doctors and employees claimed to see things like jaundiced men, men who were so bloated they looked pregnant. People needed better care that they could not provide, according to Vallejo. Vallejo also asked administrators for help with a patient, and after a year they agreed and found he had cancer. On top of all of this, there were often non-working EKG machines and inmates were ran all the way to the other side of the prison. Also, there were many times oxygen times were all empty. Vallejo claims he had to sign things he didn’t agree with, on order of supervisors.
Vallejo said that in addition to falsely signing forms and confirming patient visits that didn’t occur, Corizon supervisors ordered nurses to hide expired medicines from auditors. Basically, Vallejo says they’d hide expired and discontinued medication in a locked room until the auditors left, then they’d be brought right back out for usage. Vallejo expressed all of his concerns to all of his higher ups with no return of concern. Vallejo concludes that if nothing is done, then more will die. And that is the ultimate conclusion for anyone reading this. They’re prisoners, and an average person would not be trying to protect them unless they genuinely felt the situation was that bad and it was needed. -freckles001
This article really opened my eyes about what really goes on in the prison health care systems These are all the things that you hear about behind closed doors. What Vallejo has done by speaking to the media may open some eyes about whats really going on. This article really put a light on the amount of mistreatment that inmates are receiving due to a lack of staffing and corrupt practices that the prisons are doing. When I was reading about the medication, the meds are not being looked after and used properly which is really dangerous, especially inmates who have major medical issues such as cancer, diabetes.. etc. For the supervisors to give out orders to nurses to fill out the medical charts illegally is wrong. When the inmates are put in there and need medical help, their lives are in their hands. The supervisors that's making the nurses do illegal things with the medication, basically playing with the inmates lives. When I read about Vallejo improperly signing several of the narcotic books under order from his supervisor, that's when he should've took the chance to step up. And the bad thing about it is they had to sign it or else they end up getting some sort of retaliation. Some inmates life might be on the line, and it is the nurses job to make sure they have proper care. And for the supervisors to be giving out expired meds, wrong meds, random meds, isn't right and illegal, because you can easily lose an inmate just that quick. I don't think its wrong that Vallejo tried to step up and make a change and have proper care for inmates. Once inmates start dying back to back because of improper care, hopefully the supervisors will finally open their eyes and see. It's sad to see that Vallejo had to lose his job for trying to make a good change. -DJay001
ReplyDeleteThis article is very interesting to me. While reading it I couldn't help but question what our system is doing. Vallejo is one of the good corrections workers. We hear about bad ones but how about this guy who lost his job fighting for the locked up inmates that just wanted to be healthy or simply live a bit longer then expected. In my opinion, organizations such as the one the article describes is sickening. They cut corners and are allowed to slip through cracks way too much. They take the easy routes because of how convenient it is for them and they have no regard for the prisoners and/or the patients. They made Vallejo forge forms and sign off on false information just so the state would give them the a-ok and they could continue. Too many cracks and holes are in our current system that organizations like these are abusing. I think it is even worse when the supervisors ordered the under-trained nurses to administer expired medicine and/or the wrong medicine. That will kill people and that's a possible huge lawsuit against them. Respect to Vallejo for sacrificing his job in order to pull these demons into light. -Lobster001
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