by Eike Blohm, MD
Defendants nationwide who require competency restoration are suffering irreparable harm awaiting psychiatric beds in solitary confinement.
Here’s what happens: An individual with major mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, comes to the attention of law enforcement due to the delusions or mania that are ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
On January 26, 2023, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) granted California approval of a plan to extend Medi-Cal, the state’s equivalent to Medicaid, which provides health insurance to low-income individuals. As of that date, prisoners scheduled for release will be able to ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
A frail, elderly, wheelchair-bound prisoner had to assist the execution team killing him in Arizona on June 8, 2022. It was the state’s second execution since breaking an eight-year hiatus to kill Clarence Dixon the month before. [See: PLN, Feb. 2023, p.40.]
The most recently ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
A change in Medicare rules ends years of forcing elderly prisoners to pay for benefits they cannot use or face life-long penalties.
Americans 65 years and older are covered by Medicare, the government-run health insurance. Medicare consists of several parts: Part A covers hospitalizations; enrollment in ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
A change in Medicare rules ends a years-long policy of forcing elderly prisoners to pay for benefits they are literally not free to use or else face life-long penalties.
Americans 65 years and older are covered by Medicare, the government-run health insurance. Medicare consists of several ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
On September 30, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho awarded $2,631,593 in attorneys fees and expenses to a former state prisoner, who successfully sued for gender confirming surgery to address a severe case of gender dysphoria that included several attempts at self-castration. ...
by Eike Blohm, MD and Chuck Sharman
After Arizona resumed executions last year, following an eight-year hiatus, it quickly murdered three murderers on its death row.
On May 11, 2022, a lethal injection of pentobarbital was given to Clarence Dixon, 66, a mentally ill Native American, by then blind. Blaming ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
Hepatitis C (HepC) is inflammation of the liver due to the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). The virus infects about 1 to 2% of the U.S. population, but it is likely the most prevalent infection in American prisons. As there are no national standardized testing protocols or ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
A special report issued by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in August 2022 tracked the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in state and federal prisons. It found they suffered high rates of infection and death despite lockdowns and suspended visitation. There was also a ...
by Eike Blohm, MD
After a federal court in North Carolina declined to stay a civil case against Wellpath and a nurse it employed accused in the wrongful death of a detainee at the Forsyth County Jail, the county settled its part in the case for $3 million on May ...
