Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Agenda of the Monthly Meeting Agenda for July 29th

MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA

For July 29, 2015 : 6:30 PM PST

Location:
Law Office of Gallian, Welker & Beckstrom, LC
Conference Room
540 E. St. Louis Ave.
Las Vegas, NV  89104

Tel. 702.347.1731

Website: Nevadacure.org

Conference Call Number and Code:

712-432-0926

Code: 493815#

The following is the Agenda for NV-CURE Monthly Meeting:

1. Identification of Members and Guests present at meeting and introduction of new members/guests.

2. Approval of Agenda.

3. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting.

4.  Open comments by members and guests.

5.   Issues to be discussed at meeting:

  a. Report by Craig on Videos (Craig)

  b. Report by Richard on Advertisers (Richard)

  c. Report by Chris on Release Info Booklet (Chris)

  d. Report by John on Hep C litigation (John)

  e. Report by Diana on Mail Scannng (Diana)

  f.  Report by Sharnel on Complaint Logging (Sharnel)

6.   Suggestions and recommendations for acts to be performed before next meeting.

7.   Set date, time and place for next meeting. (Next Meeting August 26, 2015)

8.  Adjourn meeting.

We welcome the participation of all Nevada CURE Members/Supporters and invite all to attend any monthly NV-CURE meetings that may be scheduled.  We want all members to participate in the process.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Is Poor Medical Care Killing Nevada's Prison Inmates?

This comes from Nevada Public Radio, and was transmitted on tuesday 7/7/15. John Witherow, director of Nevada-Cure, is one of the people who were interviewed.

knpr

Is Poor Medical Care Killing Nevada's Prison Inmates?

prison.jpg

jail cell
The number of inmate deaths at Nevada prisons is raising questions.
In Nevada’s state prisons, four inmates die every month, on average.
But in May and June of this year, 12 inmates died. And in the last year, the number who died in Nevada prisons is just under 50.
That compares to an average of 31 deaths per year in Nevada prisons from 2001 to 2012, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Nevada’s prisons aren’t places we hear much about. Media access is severely restricted. Family members don’t always want to talk about a brother or father in prison. And, frankly, many Nevadans don’t care - out of sight, out of mind.
But some states, such as Ohio, are being sued for substandard prison medical care. And it’s no secret that many Nevada inmates die from medical conditions.
Between 2001 and 2012, 80 percent of 379 prison deaths were due to medical problems.
John Witherow knows firsthand how difficult it is to get medical care in Nevada prisons. He spent 26 years in prisons across the state, after being convicted of attempted robbery in Reno. His sentence included a habitual criminal enhancement, which adds years to the sentence of people who have been convicted of another crime.
“Getting medical care within the NDOC is an extremely difficult job,” Witherow told KNPR’s State of Nevada, “The few instances I had with the medical department were terrible.”
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Read the rest here.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

NDOC: Forty Five (45) Prisoner Deaths in One (1) Year

On Tuesday, July 7 at 9 am. NV-CURE President John Witherow will be interviewed on Nevada Public Radio 88.9 FM on this subject. 
This comes from our Informational Bulletin nr 12, 2015:

Forty five people have died in custody in Nevada’s prison facilities since August, 2014. Four committed suicide.

One was shot by a prison guard. One died of cardiovascular disease and the rest are either deaths caused, according to NDOC, by “medical condition”, unknown”, “natural”, or “prolonged illness”. We want to know the causes of death and whether any of these deaths are attributable to the Hepatitis C virus.

This information was provided to NV-CURE by an NPR Senior Producer Joe Schoenmann and former Correctional Officer Mark Clarke, whom we thank for their time and efforts regarding this matter.  We hope that further investigation will reveal the facts regarding each of these
deaths.

Not one noted death is from hepatitis C, even though we know that the prevalence of that disease is much higher than in the population at large and we know that NDOC gives very little treatment for this very treatable disease. Allegedly, many of these deaths are “under investigation”, and NV-CURE finally has volunteers willing to keep track of each death, order the coroner’s report, which is a matter of public record, if necessary, and log the deaths on a spreadsheet, making sure that the media, legislators and the US DOJ are made aware of the high number of deaths due to disease. It is estimated that 12-35% of prisoners nationwide are infected with the Hep C virus. We will never know exactly how many prisoners are infected with the disease, until we have testing, which the Nevada legislature and the NDOC refuse to provide.

NDOC claims that they are investigating the potential of providing hospice care, but we have seen no action yet on that claim.

On Tuesday, July 7 at 9 am. NV-CURE President John Witherow will be interviewed on Nevada Public Radio 88.9 FM on this subject. A recording of the program will be posted on our website, Nevaacure.org.  Thank you for your attention to this problem.

Summer Information Bulletin out now!

This is nr 12, June 2015:

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Word-format

Nevada-Cure News and Articles

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