OPINION: There's a health crisis at corrections facilities

There is a public health crisis inside the women’s New Mexico Corrections Department facilities — and it has been going on for years. Women incarcerated there are being fed food contaminated with feces. This is not an isolated problem — it is systemic, ongoing and getting worse.

Many women have become seriously ill infected with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a dangerous bacterium that attacks the stomach lining. Reports from the women at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility estimate that over one-half of the over 400 women housed there have contracted H. pylori. Aside for the pain and other gastrointestinal symptoms, H. pylori seriously compromises the immune system. This is extremely dangerous in a prison atmosphere for many reasons. Perhaps most serious is susceptibility to infections. In fact, there has been an ongoing epidemic of out of control infections that have resulted in permanent severe harm, amputations and/or death to many in the custody of NMCD. These include osteomyelitis (bone infections) and sepsis in the spines, hearts and extremities of untold numbers of NMCD prisoners. Our firm has filed many lawsuits related to these cases.

The women incarcerated at WNMCF now face the risk of severe, permanent harm or death. And the consequences will not end at the prison walls. If these women survive the NMCD system, they will likely be released into our communities with long-term health conditions. Many will require lifetime Medicaid coverage. If their hearts or spines are damaged or they are missing limbs, they will be unable to work, meaning taxpayers may end up funding lifetime disability benefits, housing assistance and other public support — all because NMCD and its contractor refuse to do their jobs.

And they were given every opportunity. My office has sent over 20 letters to NMCD and its food contractor, outlining in painstaking detail the conditions inside the facility. Incarcerated women themselves have filed an untold number of sick calls and grievances. Other organizations have raised the alarm as well. The pattern is unmistakable. NMCD’s inaction is unfathomable.

NMCD is a drain on New Mexico taxpayers from top to bottom. It is a broken agency with those that broke it still in charge.

Parrish Collins is an Albuquerque attorney who has filed a lawsuit against the New Mexico Corrections Department..