• An injunction was given against Taycheedah Correctional Institution.
• The ACLU claims Taycheedah has a dangerous medication distribution system.
• Correctional officers give prisoners medicine instead of nurses.
• Taycheedah has made improvements in the past year to their health services unit.

Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac has 21 days to respond to a preliminary injunction over the prison's medication distribution procedures, said Larry Dupuis, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation.

The motion was filed in federal court by the ACLU of Wisconsin on Jan. 23.

Within TCI's medical system, problems range from the moment prescriptions are prescribed to when the prisoners are handed their medicine, Dupuis said.

It takes too long for medicine to be distributed and prisoners sometimes get the wrong dosage, he said.

He said after a prisoner sees a doctor, the doctor's words are written down and must be sent three other places before an inmate receives medication.

The current system allows for too many errors, Dupuis said. Some of the problems that have occurred are patients being prescribed medications that do not mix well with medicine that is currently being taken, patients having bad reactions to medicines, and the wrong doses have being given out, he said.

Many of these errors are not caught because the medicine is being distributed by a correctional officer instead of a licensed practical nurse Dupuis said.

The ACLU is asking Taycheedah officials to devise a plan to fix their distributional system, Dupuis said. He said the procedural rules of the federal court allow TCI 21 days to respond before a judge decides how to proceed with the case.

The recommendation of the ACLU is to hire more LPNs and use a computerized system to distribute medicine, Dupuis said.

The ideal situation for prisons is to have medical professionals distribute medicine, said Michael Harrington, a senior lecturer at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

A statement was issued by John Dipko, the Public Information Director for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

"The delivery of quality health care to inmates at Taycheedah Correctional Institution has been and continues to be a priority at the Wisconsin Department of

Corrections. We have made a lot of progress in improving health care for women at Taycheedah, and this commitment to improved health care will continue into the future."

"The Department of Corrections cannot comment specifically on the case because it is under active litigation."

An increase in direct patient care and support staff in 2008 was one of the improvements in Taycheedah's Health Services Unit, according to the Wisconsin Women's Correctional System Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2008.

As part of its mission statement, Taycheedah's Web site said, "We are proud to provide the female offender health care that is consistent with professional, community and correctional health care standards."

Dupuis said some of the employees at Taycheedah asked for nurses to distribute medicine but for the last five budget cycles, it has been shot down. He said he doesn't know why it was shot down.

There are budget considerations, Harrington said. If more nurses would be hired, it would take money away from other things, like corrections, he said.

Harrington said there is no national oversight for prisons. He said the court system, special interest groups and religious advocacy groups are the ones looking out prisoners rights.