Monday, October 31, 2011
Negotiations extended over TDCJ-UTMB prison health contract
The UT Board of Regents approved a 30-day extension of UTMB's contract with the Department of Criminal Justice to provide prison healthcare, but vowed to end the contract after December if the state can't come up with roughly $100 million more than was budgeted by the Lege this spring, reports Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman.
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This was predicted in recent UTMB "Townhall Meetings" to employees; perhaps a series of 30 day extensions.
UTMB has an inherent conflict of interest with it's contract for prisoner care with the TDCJ. Under the current contract UTMB is responsible for inmate medical needs, be they natural, inmate, or guard inflicted. The conflict arises when an inmate dies while in the TDCJ system and the body is sent to the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office.
The Galveston Co. Commissioner never established a statutory, or constitutional medical examiner's office. Instead they opted to entered into a contract for medical examiner services through an inter-local autopsy agreement with UTMB. Texas county commissioners have no statutory or constitutional authority to enter into such an autopsy agreement.
Under the inter-local autopsy agreement, UTMB Pathology Professor Stephen Pustilnik uses the title of Galveston Co. Chief Medical Examiner, even though he has no legal association with Galveston County government. Pustilnik, his deputy chief and assistant medical examiner are all salaried employees of UTMB Pathology Department. This arrangement is not only a conflict of interest, it is violation of the TX Code of Criminal Procedure, Art. 49.25, Sections 1 thru 13, & Section 14, which makes a violation of the statute a criminal offense.
Since the Galveston Co. Commissioners never complied with the statute, or the constitution, Galveston Co. is still under the authority of a Justice of the Peace inquest system. (see AG Opinion WC-0422, 1965)
Since no medical examiners office exist in Galveston Co., all autopsy and forensic reports are falsified government records under TX Penal Code, Art. 37.10., and all death certificates signed using the title of medical examiner, and filed with the State Office of Vital Statistics are falsified state records, a third degree felony.
Really, How do these thugs keep getting away with breaking the law? I can see the conflict of interest but didn’t know it was criminal. I thought Texas was tough on crime but evidence seems to always support that Texas is tough on crime depending whose committing the crime. We worry about terrorist and cartels when the biggest offender of organized crime is our own government agency’s like TDCJ and those child molesters that run tyc. What’s up with that? If there is any truth at all to what dfisher says why isn’t this monkey business shut down?
Sheldon, I agree with you the people appointed to head these Commissions are some of our society's worse of the worse. The only reason they do the autopsy's is to hide the real causes of death. TDCJ and UMTB are criminal on so many levels.
omoOf greater concern to me is the fact that UTMB owns the medical record used across the state. If they back out of the contract, will another system be willing to pay the big bucks to keep the EMR floating?
AND the system gets 340b pharmacy pricing due to UTMB affiliation with a hospital. If TDCJ calls their bluff and pulls the whole contract (on site and hospital) much more will be spent for pharmacy costs.
Let 'em rot...they committed crimes.
I agree with you anonymous 11:58 but TDCJ is more likely to wallow in their crimes than rot. Historically that’s how they roll.
If I were Brad Livingston, I would think twice about having my name on any agreement to send prison inmates to regional hospitals as a rule and not as an exception for anything other than acute care. Just a matter of time before an inmate assaults or takes a hospital employee or patient hostage or worse. (History repeats itself when you set up the same scenarios) There is not sufficient staffing to take our officers off the facilities to guard an inmate for long periods in hospitals that are not designed to house offenders. The money to renovate or outfit multiple regional hospitals round the state would be above the cost of maintaining the one prison hospital in Galveston. If we think we are going to be able to hire extra officers to man the hospital inmates we are living in la-la land. We can't staff the prisons as it is now and many are grossly understaffed. I wonder if any of these things have been considered? Top TDCJ brass never really asks those of us that are on the units doing the work and understand the logistics on the unit. They don't take into consideration how their political decisions will impact the facilities. The people that surround him are going to tell him what he wants to hear which doesn't do him or the agency any favors in the long run. Not to mention, when the regional hospitals take over, much of the UTMB staff will leave and find state jobs because they need to become vested in state retirement. Those that do stay may not stay long because they are hearing their pay will be cut significantly. In this market, medical professionals don't have to settle and they wont. I have plenty of UTMB friends/staff that tell me they will exit if UTMB doesn't maintain the contract. TDCJ will be back in the same boat they were in years ago before UTMB and Texas Tech came on board. We will end up in Federal Court because of health care issues and the Texas Taxpayer can then send Brad and his folks a "thank you" card for increasing their taxes for prison healthcare. Seems like we would learn from past mistakes. Contrary, this agency is hell bent on repeating them and letting the taxpayer foot the bill for their stubborness and unwillingness to negotiate.
I can only comment on the units that I have witness seeing things during visitation but you would be surprise at what you see there and how stupid some can act even when they know or should know everything they do is being watched. The reason the units are under staff is that it is true the administration, administers and supervisors do treat the employees bad. This is because the officers will do some of the stupidest things such as steal, throw away and destroy an inmate’s personal property, deny the inmate meals or medical, stand there and watch the inmates shower when you are a male officer and you refuse to let them pull down the shower curtains. You refuse to give a female inmate on her period toilet tissue and tell her to use her sock then write the inmate up and the hearing officer punishes the inmate for this. You hand out jobs based on sexual favors and both the male and female officers do this and retaliate based on this same issue. You are a racist lesbian holding sex over the inmate’s heads or you are a high ranking officer holding the kangaroo courts and are a lesbian and punishing the inmates for the same behavior. I would love to see the background investigation being conducted on these employees in the female facilities. You are a young person with a very limited education in a rural school system and now you have unlimited power to abuse human beings and this power goes to your head. So you the officers shoot yourself in your foot every time by breaking the rules yourself and treating the inmates like slaves. The wardens and administrators are worst by not even being smart enough to manage a commissary contract. This is why the current system is broken when you put people in high positions that cannot count or negotiate simple contracts. The females cannot get sneakers because the people in charge cannot do anything right when it comes to the commissary contract. I would think anytime you are involved in bribes and kickbacks it would be hard to run any program right. They then tell family members they cannot send sneakers in because that would eliminate the kickbacks. They steal and throw away the inmates clothes so that the inmate can go to the commissary repeatedly and buy the same clothes over and over again and this could only be because someone is getting kickbacks. What else could be the excuse? Now to put any of these crooked and immature officers with very questionable judgment, ethics and morals in a free world hospital is a recipe for disaster just waiting to happen. The units I have been on in Gatesville are broken from the top to the bottom point blank. Those running the units if they have one must have brought their college degrees because I have witness 10 years olds who can make better decisions and I do not believe for one minute the guards have even a 9th grade education much less a high school education.
If you have never worked at any of TDCY Units be it male or female.
You do not know how the co's or the med.staft is treated by said inmates.Until till you walk in there shoes do not make remarks about something you know nothing about.Been the system for 13 years I have been cussed , called every ulgy, nasty name you can thank off. I have been spit on,had body fulids tossed at me.We are at risk every day we walk in to the unit.
We are the most understaff and underpaid set of people you can thank of.Med. staff has not recived a raise in 3 years now.And we not get one this year.No cost of living raise.So come on to work with me and see if you can do my job.
TDCY worker
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