San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, November 19, 1992
Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Among the report's findings -- which were based on interviews with inmates and prison staff -- were complaints that prison doctors did not thoroughly review inmates' medical histories, made prejudicial comments about HIV-positive inmates and have HIV-positive inmates living in a cold and drafty wing without warm clothes where they can catch potentially fatal colds or pneumonia.

"This is an intolerable situation," said Assemblyman John Burton, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee whose staff made 10 visits to the prison in compiling the report.

"The department (of Corrections) has agreed to improve the situation within 90 days," said Burton.

"If we don't feel the improvement by then is dramatic enough, we'll jump in with both feet."

"There's no question the level of service could be dramatically improved," said Tip Kindel, a spokesman for the department. "And it will be once some critical medical positions are filled."

Burton's investigation came after the deaths between August and October 18 of four inmates who were HIV-positive.

Both members of the staff and other inmates said one inmate who died in September was sent to a maximum-security cell, instead of to the prison hospital, when he began coughing up blood.

Prison administrators acknowledged that the move was a mistake, the committee's report said. Inmates also told committee members that another inmate who collapsed in front of his cell did not receive emergency medical attention for 40 minutes, despite three calls for assistance.

Another inmate, who died in August, was discharged from the prison hospital even though he was still vomiting and could barely stand up, according to an inmate in the hospital at the time.

Burton said that although the investigation began as an examination of the deaths of the four inmates, each visit yielded more complaints and problems.

The number of beds for HIV-positive inmates at Vacaville is being increased and a new hospice and medical clinic are being added, said Kindel, who added that the department is already acting on some of the Burton committee recommendations.

Kindel placed most of the blame for the inadequacies on the fact that the three top medical slots at the prison are vacant.

The medical center has recently hired a director for its HIV center who is a specialist in infectious disease control, Kindel said. Among the committee's 25 recommendations were turning medical services at all prisons over to the state Department of Health Services, establishing an advocate for hospital patients and HIV-positive inmates and installing emergency buzzers in the cells of HIV-positive inmates.

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