Scarring, 'unbearable' itching: Over 200 women sue prison over scabies outbreak

LANSING, Mich. — Inmates at Michigan's only women's prison suffered "unbearable itching" and permanent scarring because the Michigan Department of Corrections failed for more than a year to diagnose or properly treat a scabies outbreak, prisoner Rebecca Smith said in a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday.

Rochester Hills attorney Daniel Randazzo, Smith's attorney, said he has letters from more than 200 inmates at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility near Ypsilanti who suffered from the microscopic mites that can live on skin for months, burrow and lay eggs, causing a red and itchy rash.

"Some of them suffered for six to eight months," Randazzo told the Detroit Free Press. "Some of them more recently contracted it and were treated in a few weeks."

It's difficult to estimate the possible damages, but they could hit seven figures, he said.

A department spokesman declined comment, citing the pending litigation.

The department and the other defendants "should have known of the infestation among the prisoner population, and the intensely contagious nature of it," according to the lawsuit.

They "failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate the infestation, to quarantine inmates, or to treat those afflicted," the lawsuit alleges. The defendants "failed to properly diagnose the scabies infestation" after "minimal testing."

Also named as defendants are department director Heidi Washington, warden Shawn Brewer and Tennessee-based Corizon Health Inc., the company that holds a five-year, $715.7-million prison health contract with the state.

The Free Press reported extensively on the outbreak in 2018 and told how the department initially thought the rash was scabies-related but then turned to other possible causes, at one point blaming the prisoners for using improvised soap to clean their undergarments in their cells.

More:How Flint MD solved rash mystery that stumped women's prison officials

More:Itchy rash spreads at women's prison in Mich.; officials blame inmates

In January, the Free Press reported that a Flint doctor who had read about the symptoms had to cajole his way into the prison with his microscope to make a proper diagnosis.

After that, the prison was closed to visitors while all of the more than 2,000 women housed there were treated for scabies, whether they were showing symptoms or not.

Smith, 44, told the Free Press in March 2018 that she'd had the rash since October 2017, and some women showed signs of the rash even before that.

"It itches unlike anything — it's like the worst mosquito bite," Smith said at the time.

She said she had cut her fingernails extra short to keep from scratching herself and making things worse.

Smith said in the lawsuit that by April 2018 "the itching was unbearable" and she was unable to sleep. However, "there was no response to her request for a sick call."

The suit alleges deliberate indifference to medical needs, violation of the constitutional right to due process, and failure to train.

Follow Paul Egan on Twitter: @paulegan4