Death Sentence
We did it — we made it to Thursday, folks. This week’s issue of “Weekly Recap” is going to be fully dedicated to a sobering eight-part series that STAT’s Nicholas Florko has been working on for two years now.
The project is titled “Death Sentence.” As Florko explains:
“There is a simple, outright cure for hepatitis C. But state prisons across the country are failing to save hundreds of people who die each year from the virus and related complications.
A STAT investigation has found that more than 1,000 incarcerated people died from hepatitis C-related complications in the six years after a curative drug hit the market. The death rate in 2019 was double that of the broader U.S. population.”
Let us take you through these stories.??
Incarcerated people are dying of Hep C
John Ritchie knew he had hepatitis C while he was serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery. He went through all the formal steps to request medical care from the Missouri Department of Corrections. The prison system knew he was getting sicker and sicker — it documented his deteriorating condition in his health records. The prison’s doctors wrote frequently he would benefit from hepatitis C treatment. But officials still denied him. Then he died in 2021. Ritchie is one of more than 1,000 people that died of hepatitis C-related complications in states’ custody in the six years after the first cure hit the market in late 2013.
Some states are worse than others
Whether an incarcerated person gets cured of hepatitis C pretty much comes down to where they’re locked up. If you’re sentenced in middle America, you’re likely out of luck. If you’re incarcerated in New England and have hep C, you don’t want to be in New Hampshire.
These eight states are doing the worst job with treatment in prisons.
The future of care may be promising
Prisons in states including Washington, Michigan, and Virginia are cutting deals with Gilead and makers of competing drugs to further reduce how much they spend on medicines for hepatitis C. The recent progress demonstrates that the future of hepatitis C care in prisons doesn’t have to look like the early years after these drugs first launched.?
State prisons continue to hide information
For more than two years, STAT tried to document the number of incarcerated people who died due to complications from hepatitis C, part of this broader investigation. But prison systems fought the attempts at every turn.?
The undertaking reveals how easy for prisons to hide the true reason why people die behind bars, and how useless the existing data is for determining whether people in prison are dying from preventable conditions.?
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Prisoners’ right to health care?
Carl Hoffer should have been one of the first people on the Florida Department of Corrections’ list to receive transformative hepatitis C treatments when they hit the market in late 2013. Instead, after requesting the medication repeatedly, he had to sue to get it.?
The first judge who heard his case ordered Florida to treat everyone in custody who had hepatitis C. But the state appealed — and won. Hoffer’s story shows how difficult it is to establish that prisoners have been denied their constitutional right to health care.
Suing for a cure from prison
Phil Turney didn’t have a computer, let alone internet access, when he took on the Idaho Department of Corrections. Yet he managed to overturn the entire state’s policy on hepatitis C treatment in prison. Our colleague Alex Hogan brings you this video on Turney’s journey.?
The grieving families
The most powerful sentence in this entire project may come in the opening line of this story:?
“The only thing worse than caring for a sick loved one in prison is watching them die of a treatable condition, like hepatitis C.” (...wow)
A second chance
Hep C treatment is more than a cure for the prisoners who receive it. It’s a second chance to live long enough to get out of prison and contribute to their communities.
“These are all human beings who deserve the best we can find to help them stay healthy and resume — hopefully — a normal and productive life once they’re released,” said Francis Collins, the White House science advisor. “That’s what public health is all about.”
That's all we have for this week.
Join us next Thursday for another edition of “Weekly Update.”?
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