美国国家公共电台 NPR Angola Prison Lawsuit Poses Question: What Kind Of Medical Care Do Inmates Deserve?

 

DON GONYEA, HOST:

Louisiana State Penitentiary¹, or Angola Prison, is known for extremes. It's an enormous, maximum-security prison. And it's so remote most of the medical needs of the prisoners are met right at the prison. But according to some inmates³ and former inmates, that health care has become as harsh as the long sentences. Amanda Aronczyk of member station WNYC brings us this story.

AMANDA ARONCZYK, BYLINE⁴: According to Francis Brauner, this is what happened. He was serving a 20-year prison sentence for a rape⁵ charge that he denies. He was at Dixon Correctional Institute in Louisiana, where part of his punishment was hard labor⁶.

FRANCIS BRAUNER: I was working in the field.

ARONCZYK: He was cutting grass with a hoe.

BRAUNER: And my back was hurting me real bad to the point where if I'd breathe, it was hurting.

ARONCZYK: He went to see the prison doctor. Doctor says, you need to go back out into the fields, but you don't have to cut the grass. Just walk.

BRAUNER: I mean, you walking miles and miles every day and up hills - they bring you up hills and down hills, rocky places, you know, to make it uncomfortable for you.

ARONCZYK: He could sit down. But when he stood back up, something snapped.

BRAUNER: Made my whole body jump. Felt like I was hit by a bolt of lightning or something. I mean, the pain just shot from my head to my toes.

ARONCZYK: Something had gone wrong. He seemed to be paralyzed from the waist down. That prison couldn't handle his medical needs, so he ended up being transferred to Angola Prison. But he says when he got there, he was left in a bed for 30 days, largely unattended. His infections got so bad they nearly killed him.

BRAUNER: My wounds got severe, and it actually - you know, my muscle tissue and that - and left gaping⁷, open wounds.

ARONCZYK: At this point, Brauner, who's in his early 50s with a tidy beard and thoughtful glasses, pauses. He picks up his phone, and then he thumbs through the photos...

BRAUNER: And...

ARONCZYK: ...To show me one of a wound on his backside.

Oh, my God.

BRAUNER: So, you know, now you've got a good idea of what...

ARONCZYK: Yeah.

BRAUNER: ...I'm going through.

ARONCZYK: That's pretty visceral.

Francis Brauner is no longer an inmate². He was released from Angola Prison in 2015. His story was crucial in understanding what goes on behind the gates at the prison. We tried for months to get permission to get in.

So we're standing⁸ in front. It's Louisiana State Penitentiary. We're at basically the gate to get in or not get in.

And we were denied access.

And today, we are not getting in.

One person who has wrangled⁹ regular visitation rights is Nick Trenticosta. He's a lawyer who represents death penalty cases. A couple of years ago, he went to see Francis Brauner.

NICK TRENTICOSTA: When I went to visit him this last time, he was paralyzed and in the hospital.

ARONCZYK: The two had known each other for years. Even though Trenticosta has been going to the prison practically every month for the past three decades, he didn't recall ever seeing the hospital ward¹⁰ before, and he was shocked.

TRENTICOSTA: I opened the shower door. It was moldy¹¹ and mildew¹², and nobody went in there. There were open garbage containers, fly tape hanging from the ceiling with a lot of dead flies on it over men's beds who had open bed sores.

ARONCZYK: The number of complaints kept going up. In 2015, a class-action lawsuit¹³ was filed accusing Angola Prison of causing needless pain and suffering. And late last month, a court said the lawsuit could proceed. The prison's lawyers would not comment. So to understand how the hospital ward works from the inside, I contacted people who used to work there, like Sandy Netherland-Roberts.

SANDY NETHERLAND-ROBERTS: Medical-wise, budgetary-wise, the place gives awesome¹⁴ care.

ARONCZYK: She was a paramedic and then later ran the prison hospice.

NETHERLAND-ROBERTS: Do I feel that there is better health care there than some people get in the outside world? One hundred percent.

ARONCZYK: Dr. Tobe Momah, who worked there for a year, said there are some inevitable¹⁵ challenges, like treating prisoners serving long sentences.

TOBE MOMAH: They're going to be there for 40, 50 years, so they're going to develop cancer, hypertension, diabetes¹⁶. So every time they have a need that is outside the scope of us five doctors, they have to leave the site.

ARONCZYK: And that is really expensive. And it's costing the prison even more since Louisiana overhauled¹⁷ its safety net hospital system. Dr. Momah says, given all of these financial constraints¹⁸, the medical staff was doing their best to care for the prison's 6,000-plus inmates.

MOMAH: Under the - I keep using those words under the circumstances.

ARONCZYK: I asked the lawyer Nick Trenticosta what he thought of Dr. Momah's assessment¹⁹.

He felt like they were giving the best care they could give, given the circumstances.

TRENTICOSTA: Well, I don't know what he means by the circumstances. If by the circumstances means we don't have proper medication. We don't have proper equipment, but we do the best we can. That's like talking like a MASH²⁰ unit.

ARONCZYK: As resources have dried up, the prison is struggling to provide even basic care. The lawsuit demands more oversight²¹, reforms and a bigger budget for medical care.

Now, are you feeling more, but you can't...

BRAUNER: No, I can feel, but I still can't move my legs.

ARONCZYK: Today, Francis Brauner uses a wheelchair to get around the medical facility where he's lived since leaving Angola Prison. He says that most of the men he was with on the chronic²² care ward have passed away, and he's lucky.

BRAUNER: I mean, I'm not sentenced to death. And that's bottom line - I'm not sentenced to death.

ARONCZYK: He's grateful to have finished serving his time. And after years of waiting, he's just started treatment to help heal his wounds. For NPR News, I'm Amanda Aronczyk.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAND OBSERVATIONS' "NICE TO TURIN")

GONYEA: This story was co-reported with Katie Rose Quandt from In These Times magazine and was made possible by a grant from the Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAND OBSERVATIONS' "NICE TO TURIN")

1 penitentiary   

n.感化院；监狱

参考例句：

• He worked as a warden at the state penitentiary.他在这所州监狱任看守长。
• While he was in the penitentiary her father died and the family broke up.他坐牢的时候，她的父亲死了，家庭就拆散了。

2 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

3 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

6 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

7 gaping   

adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• Ahead of them was a gaping abyss. 他们前面是一个巨大的深渊。
• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 wrangled   

v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They wrangled over what to do next. 他们就接下来该干什么而争吵。 来自辞典例句
• They wrangled and rowed with other passengers. 他们与其他旅客争辨吵闹。 来自辞典例句

10 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

11 moldy   

adj.发霉的

参考例句：

• She chucked the moldy potatoes in the dustbin.她把发霉的土豆扔进垃圾箱。
• Oranges can be kept for a long time without going moldy.橙子可以存放很长时间而不腐烂。

12 mildew   

n.发霉；v.（使）发霉

参考例句：

• The interior was dark and smelled of mildew.里面光线很暗，霉味扑鼻。
• Mildew may form in this weather.这种天气有可能发霉。

13 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

14 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

15 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

16 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

17 overhauled   

v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越

参考例句：

• Within a year the party had drastically overhauled its structure. 一年内这个政党已大刀阔斧地整顿了结构。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A mechanic overhauled the car's motor with some new parts. 一个修理工对那辆汽车的发动机进行了彻底的检修，换了一些新部件。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

19 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

20 mash   

n.麦芽浆，糊状物，土豆泥；v.把…捣成糊状，挑逗，调情

参考例句：

• He beat the potato into a mash before eating it.他把马铃薯捣烂后再吃。
• Whiskey,originating in Scotland,is distilled from a mash of grains.威士忌源于苏格兰，是从一种大麦芽提纯出来的。

21 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

22 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。