By Healthcare Facilities Today

The California Health Care Facility in Stockton was ordered to stop admitting inmates due to unsanitary conditions and medical malpractice — leading to one man’s death and an outbreak of scabies, according to an article on the Think Progress website.

The facility allowed prisoners to languish in their feces for extended periods of time, provided broken wheelchairs, and ignored patient requests for medical assistance, the article said.

Court-appointed investigators identified several other examples of patient mistreatment.

 “A shortage of towels forced prisoners to dry off with dirty socks, a shortage of soap halted showers for some inmates, and incontinent men were put into diapers and received catheters that did not fit, causing them to soil their clothes and beds,” the report said. 

Nurses did not respond when called, as was the case when a bleeding man’s request for help went ignored. Moreover, prisoners were often expected to assist one another, as was the case when “one man in a wheelchair with emphysema” was told to transport another inmate confined to a wheelchair, the article said

Read the article.