ACLU Sues Over Denial of Hep C Treatment for Thousands of Prisoners

7-29-17 Colorado:

For years, inmates have complained that the Colorado of Department of Corrections has denied most of them access to wonder drugs that can cure hepatitis C, a potentially deadly virus that attacks the liver and has infected 17 percent of the American prison population. Last week, the ACLU of Colorado filed suit seeking a dramatic change in the DOC's policy, calling its approach to rationing treatment a violation of constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment.

"Colorado has an immense public-health crisis in its prisons," ACLU of Colorado legal director Mark Silverstein declared in announcing the class-action lawsuit. “Highly-effective treatment is available that could prevent deaths and fight the spread of the virus, but DOC’s cruel and arbitrary standards deny that treatment to all but a select few prisoners." ..Continued..