Albuquerque attorney, Parrish Collins, has been practicing law since 1989 following graduation from Duke University School of Law.
Parrish has handled personal injury, medical malpractice and wrongful death cases for 20 years. In early 2017, Parrish turned his attention to prison and jail medical negligence.
Since that time, prison and jail medical negligence has become a passion for Parrish and Collins & Collins, P.C. Since turning his focus to prison and jail medical negligence and filing the firm’s first case in January 2018, the Collins & Collins, P.C. has filed many prison medical negligence and civil rights lawsuits and will be filing many more.
These cases have been filed as state law medical malpractice claims and federal civil rights claims. As the firm files more and more lawsuits, the civil rights claims for each successive case become significantly stronger due to the clear patterns and practices of gross negligence, reckless disregard for the health of inmates and deliberately cruel refusal of proper medical care become too clear for even the most conservative judges to ignore.
Improving the medical care in New Mexico prisons and jails has become a passion for Parrish. Over the course of the many prison and jail lawsuits filed by Collins & Collins, P.C., the firm has uncovered startling levels of extreme and deliberate medical neglect that has caused countless severe injuries and/or deaths to inmates.
In addition to the cruelties inflicted on inmates, the actions and inactions of New Mexico prisons, jails and their contractors are costing New Mexico taxpayers untold millions as a result of countless extensive hospitalizations paid by Medicaid and/or written off by New Mexico hospitals (state, local, county and private). This is just the beginning of the burden on taxpayers which include lifetime medical care, disability and other public assistance for the inmates and their families.
This is in addition to the hundreds of millions paid to out of state billion dollar corporations under contracts which are routinely and grotesquely violated. The true costs to taxpayers of medical neglect in New Mexico prisons and jails has never been calculated by state, county or local government. Collins & Collins, P.C. seems at times to be the only entity in state concerned about these costs.
Worse, the horrifying consequences to inmates of deliberate refusal of adequate medical care along with the resulting costs to taxpayers will continue to soar as the medical care in New Mexico prisons and jails is getting exponentially worse.
This is despite the large and growing number of lawsuits filed by the Collins & Collins, P.C. and other firms and organizations, and the hundreds of notices of claims sent to New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD), the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) and other county jails outlining the deliberate cruelties and the consequences to inmates.
Only time will tell, but if history is any indication, medical care in New Mexico prisons and jails will keep getting worse as they simply recycle one bad contractor or another, often brining in contractors who have previously been ousted from NMCD, MDC and other county jails. Even worse, the individual medical providers (doctors, nurse, physician assistants,…) remain in place for the most part with each successive contractor.
Very rarely do any of the correctional staff or the medical providers themselves report wrongdoing. A rare exception is the recent Declaration/Affidavit provided by a former Corizon and Centurion nurse who worked at MDC which lays bare the abuses of these two corporate behemoths of which NMCD and MDC have been well aware for years.
NMCD, MDC, county jails, and their respective medical contractors are incapable of change. Simply put, medical neglect is more profitable than providing the care for which the medical contractors are paid hundreds of millions of dollars. And the convenience of turning a blind eye is apparently the path upon which NMCD, MDC and other counties intend to remain.
The medical contractors are billion dollar companies with little incentive to change their practices. NMCD, MDC and other counties are completely indifferent and complicit in the abuse. For this, inmates, their families and New Mexico taxpayers will pay the price. Parrish, Collins & Collins, P.C., and their allies in this fight will continue to fight for the healthy and lives of inmates while doing their best to educate the public and the few politicians willing to listen. This will be their path until change comes to New Mexico prisons and jails.