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Mississippi doesn't have to provide protective gear to working inmates. New legislation aims to change that. (mississippitoday.org)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250128122652/https://mississippitoday.org/2025/01/23/mississippi-doesnt-have-to-provide-protective-gear-to-working-inmates-bill-aims-to-change-that/

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Susan Balfour, 63, was incarcerated for 33 years at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility until her release in December 2021. Balfour said she was among a group of prisoners asked to clean the facility without protective equipment.

She was later diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, a condition that prison health care providers failed to identify years ago because they could save money by not performing necessary medical screenings and treatment, according to the lawsuit Balfour filed in the U.S. Southern District of Mississippi.

Balfour’s attorneys and Gibbs say over 10 other Mississippi inmates have come down with cancer or become seriously ill after they were exposed to chemicals while on work assignments.

Cleaning supplies are often caustic, this just seems like incredibly unnecessary cruelty. They also waited till the very end of the article to mention the prison doctors did think she needed a test for cancer years prior and the medical groups just refused to send her to get the test.

Balfour sued three companies contracted to provide health care to prisoners at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. The companies delayed or failed to schedule follow-up cancer screenings for Balfour even though they had been recommended by prison physicians, the lawsuit says.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This news org did a story more focused on Susan Balfour's case (archived) a year ago shortly after she filed her lawsuit,

Balfour first asked prison medical staff for a mammogram in June 2011.

After that visit, doctors recommended she return for follow-up annual mammograms to monitor any changes in calcifications found in her right breast. By 2016, doctors recommended she have mammograms every six months.

Instead, Balfour went up to three years between follow-ups, according to the lawsuit.

It wasn’t until Nov. 3, 2021, that a biopsy revealed Balfour had an invasive, malignant cancer in her breast, court documents state.

The lawsuit alleges VitalCore was aware of the doctors’ findings from the November visit and did not inform Balfour about the cancer until days before her release on Dec. 27, 2021.

Less than a week after leaving prison, Balfour went to the University of Mississippi Medical Center where she had another mammogram and full testing, which the doctor used to diagnose her cancer as Stage 4.

One thing that's not in that excerpt is the fact that her release from prison happened after the prison approved her parole request after years of denying those, and that's suspiciously convenient for this prison system that now doesn't have to pay for Balfour's cancer treatment.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

In the immortal words of Nina Simone, Mississippi Goddam