Media Advocacy

Ted Koppel's Nightline Series | Chowchilla Prison Deaths | Fraudulent Medical Lab

LSPC uses the media as a tool to raise public awareness about prison conditions and pressure state officials to implement systemic changes. However, California's unofficial "medial ban", which limits press access to prisons, makes media advocacy difficult. Despite this obstacle, LSPC regularly works with print news reporters, radio and TV producers, and freelance journalists to expose the human rights abuses occurring behind bars.

Find out more about the "media ban"

Nightline Series Leads to Re-assignment of Prison Doctor

In the fall of 1999, LSPC worked closely with the film makers and producers of Ted Koppel's Nightline news program which resulted in a three hour six part series entitled "Crime and Punishment: Women in Prison." The program offered viewers an extremely rare chance to see behind the walls and hear directly from incarcerated women about their experiences inside California state prisons. In an uncharacteristic move, prison officials allowed the Nightline crew to film inside Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW) in Chowchilla, CA. While Koppel was not allowed to set up pre-arranged interviews with prisoners, he was granted near full access to the housing units, solitary confinement cells, chow halls, medical facilities, main yards and receiving areas. The TV series focused on drug use as an engine of incarceration, substandard medical care, parenting behind bars, family relationships, solitary confinement and the revolving door epidemic.

Koppel heard from many women prisoners about inadequate medical care. When probed for specific examples, prisoners complained that they often received unnecessary cervical exams and pap smears. Responding to this assertion in an unbelievable on-screen interview, Dr. Anthony DiDimenico (Chief Medical Officer in charge of overseeing all health care services at VSPW) told Koppel, "I've heard inmates tell me that they would deliberately like to be examined. It's the only male contact they get." After this comment, Dr. DiDimenico lost his position as Chief Medical Offer at VSPW.

	Read more about Dr. DiDimenico and the medical care at Valley State Prison for Women

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Media Campaign Exposes Chowchilla Prison Deaths

In the winter of 2000, nine women died in less than ten weeks at the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF). LSPC, in coalition with other Bay Area prisoner rights group, organized a massive multi-pronged campaign to demand an investigation into the CCWF deaths. Generating media exposure was a key component to the campaign. Three of California's major daily papers covered the issue, family members of the deceased spoke on local and national radio programs and Amnesty International joined our efforts by issuing a press release which lead to international coverage.

Due to the effectiveness of the media campaign, the California Department of Corrections conducted an investigation and the California state legislature convened a public hearing. The hearing gave family members of the deceased an opportunity to confront prison health officials directly about the circumstances of their loved ones' deaths. This in turn lead to a temporary suspension of the $5 co-payment for prisoners, an internal investment of at least one medical staff person implicated in one of the deaths, and the introduction of two legislative bills aimed at improving prison health care statewide.

	"'Am I Gonna Die Here?'" (Donna Willmott)
	"State Probing 5 recent deaths of female inmates at Chowchilla" (San Francisco Chronicle)
	"2 more die at women's prison in Chowchilla" (San Francisco Chronicle)
	"8 since Nov. 8: Another woman dies in Chowchilla prison" (San Francisco Bay View)
	"USA, Independent investigation into deaths at California prison urgently needed" (Amnesty International)
	"Deaths of 3 Women in State Prison Probed" (Los Angeles Times)

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LSPC Helps Expose Fraudulent Medical Lab

In June 2000, LSPC worked in collaboration with the San Francisco Chronicle to expose a fraudulent medical laboratory that contracted with the California Department of Corrections (CDC) to test prisoners' specimens. The story appeared on the front page of The Chronicle and revealed that BCL Laboratories faked test results on screenings for HIV, hepatitis and other serious diseases. The lab was shut down in 1997 and the CDC was notified by federal Department of Health regulators "that the problems at BCL labs posed immediate jeopardy to patients." Despite the warning, the CDC provided no evidence of retesting. LSPC reviewed medical records of 100 women prisoners incarcerated at the Central California Women's Facility and discovered that 13 women received test results from BCL, including an HIV test, and no evidence of retesting was found in the records. In fact, the CDC could not prove that it ever notified any prisoners about the BCL.

	"No Record of Lab Tests for 650 State Inmates" (San Francisco Chronicle)
	"Reborn Blood Lab Under Scrutiny/Investigators closed previous business for faking results on inmates' tests" (San Francisco Chronicle)
	"Inmates may not have been retested after medical test company faked results" (Associated Press)