Many doctors treating state's prisoners have disciplinary records themselves

7-29-2012 Louisiana:

Of the 15 doctors working full-time at Louisiana state prisons, nearly two-thirds have been disciplined by the state medical board for issues ranging from pedophilia to substance abuse to dealing methamphetamines.

Two have served federal prison time. Five are still on probation with the medical board and have restrictions on their licenses, including bans on prescribing controlled substances. Altogether, nine have received the rare black mark of a board sanction.

Louisiana state prisons appear to be dumping grounds for doctors who are unable to find employment elsewhere because of their checkered pasts, raising troubling moral questions as well as the specter of an accident waiting to happen. At stake is the health of nearly 19,000 prisoners who are among the most vulnerable of patients because they have no health care options.

About 60 percent of the state's prison doctors have disciplinary records, compared with 2 percent of the state's 16,000 or so licensed medical doctors, according to data from the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners. The medical board is aware of the prison pipeline -- in fact, a board-employed headhunter has sometimes helped problem doctors get prison gigs.

"Aside from being unethical, it is dangerous," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, a physician and director of health research at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "You're winding up having people who don't have any choice being where they are, getting taken care of by people with demonstrable previous records and problems with the way they practice medicine."

Dr. Casey McVea, the medical director and sole full-time physician at Rayburn Correctional Center, pleaded guilty in 2004 to possessing 41 images of hardcore child pornography and a movie containing prepubescent child porn. He served four years in federal prison and is still on federal probation. The medical board has restricted him to adult patients.

Dr. Randy Lavespere, the assistant medical director at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, spent two years behind bars for purchasing $8,000 worth of crystal meth from an informant at a Home Depot parking lot. His medical license was reinstated in October 2009 on the condition that he practice in an "institutional, prison or other structured setting."

The prison system's two most recent hires also arrived with serious baggage. Dr. Paul Toce admitted to "professional sexual misconduct" and requires a chaperone when examining female patients under 60 years old. After the medical board put him on indefinite probation in February, he landed at Angola, where he is a staff physician for the all-male inmate population.

Dr. Robert Cleveland, who pleaded guilty to health care fraud in 2009, was hired as medical director of Avoyelles Correctional Center shortly after his medical license was reinstated this February. While serving his 18-month federal probation, he issued numerous narcotics prescriptions in violation of an order from the medical board that restricted him to practicing in a board-approved setting.

Among the dentists at Angola is Dr. Billy Cannon, an LSU football legend who served federal prison time for a counterfeiting scheme. ..For the rest of this story: by Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune