“Why do you give a shit about that piece of shit?” then-Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility Warden Cody Graham allegedly asked a nurse in late 2002 about inmate Jimmy Villanueva.
Villanueva, 55, was serving a one-year sentence at the facility for violating his probation on an underlying drug-possession offense, when he began to have back pain. SFCADF staff diagnosed him with everything from insomnia to fractured ribs. After Villanueva’s pain became so acute that he couldn’t move off his bunk, the detention center had him transported to an outside radiologist, who observed an abnormality in his chest that the clinician thought could be a tumor. The radiologist referred Villanueva for further testing. When none was performed, a nurse asked Graham about the lack of follow-up. Graham responded by calling Villanueva a “piece of shit.”
Months dragged on without the prescribed diagnostic testing. At one point, Villanueva told a cellmate that, if he didn’t go to the hospital, he would die in jail. Finally, he was transported by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where an MRI found fast-spreading lung cancer. Villanueva began “urgent radiation treatment” the following day. Two weeks later, still an inpatient at the hospital, he was dead.
“Our expert said that timely intervention could have saved Jimmy’s life,” Mark Donatelli, the Santa Fe attorney who negotiated a hefty settlement
for Villanueva’s family after his death, tells SFR. “As a result of those delays, the Villanueva family had to experience the tragedy of not only losing a loved one, but watching the incredible suffering he went through with lung cancer.”
Donatelli and others draw a connection between Villanueva’s case and the jail’s management: At the time of his death, the detention facility was run by a private corporation. During eight years of private management, the Santa Fe County jail got into legal hot water not only for Villanueva’s death, but also for several other cases of medical and behavioral health care negligence. Since the county assumed control of the facility in 2005, there have been no medical malpractice suits related to inmate care.
But declining revenues and rising costs have put the prison in a different kind of trouble. Some officials say the county can’t handle the expense, and they’ve proposed a solution: to return the jail’s medical care to private management. To Donatelli and other critics, that’s a death knell for the very prisoners the system is intended to heal.
And as county officials weigh their options, one company—Colorado-based Correctional Healthcare Management—waits eagerly in the wings.
I find it rather amusing that Ms. Romero says shes trying to keep her hand picked staff when she has driven out several nurses in the past month. These nurses were the most experienced and had been with the medical unit from the beginning. Ms. Romero is trying to save money by simply not providing SFC with the medical supplies necessary to provide proper care. Its also obsurd that SFC Medical is run by a medical administrator with no medical background and not even a degree in any type of management. In the past month there have been so many medical errors by Agency nurses who arent given proper orientation to the facility. It amazes me that Ms. Romero is even trying to retain a county medical staff when she fights them every step of the way to provide quality care...
Santa Fe County, until just recently, had experienced, responsibile nurses who wanted to work at the jail and who were dedicated to not only the inmates' healthcare but also to Santa Fe County. Because of Ms. Romero's institance in changing the work schedules of the experienced nurses she drove them away. She attempted to "fix" something that was not broken. The healthcare offered to inmates for the last 4 years while under the county oversight was head and shoulders above what any outside agency could offer. Sadly, when and if an outside agency is brought in to oversee inmate medical care the Department of Justice will most likely find it necessary to reinvolve themselves and Santa Fe County will suffer because of thier own poor decisions. It will be much more costly to the County in the long run. Sad situation, poor decision making, poor management.
If our state is so hard up for money, why don't we; RELEASE ALL prisoners whose "crimes" involved neither harming another nor harming another's property?
No victim, no crime.
I have worked with the county and left on good terms. The entire operation with the medical unit like the "Good Ol Boys" Club. You are out unless you are a "FOA" Friend of annabelle. The entire staff has to bow down and praise her to keep their jobs. The work that is done there can be done by a private contractor for less money. I say, leave it to the professionals who know what needs to be done. I am sorry, but Ms. Romero may just have to get along managing the county without hand picking people who praise her like a King.