Gov. Frank O’Bannon has ordered an investigation into charges that the Department of Health has covered up violations in the prison system.
An inspector who says he was disciplined for calling attention to health violations said Monday that taxpayers should be concerned.
“This isn’t just a case of the conditions in prisons being bad,” Phillip Giddens said. “I don’t think anyone in the public feels that we need to send prisoners to Club Med. But in the past, we’ve found people practicing medicine without a license, prescribing narcotics without the proper federal documentation.”
Indianapolis lawyer Forrest B. Bowman Jr. will start the investigation at the Indiana State Prison.
Previous inspections by Giddens for the Health Department have found hundreds of violations at the Michigan City prison. After Giddens, a longtime whistle-blower, was demoted last year in a dispute with superiors, a check of the prison resulted in a one-sentence report issued for public release:
“This facility was in substantial compliance with physical environment, food-service requirements and health-care services.”
