62 year old Susie Annie Balfour spent more than half of her life in Mississippi’s correctional system -- most of it at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County as part of the facility’s cleaning detail.
As part of that work, Balfour says she and many other women were forced to handle raw cleaning chemicals like degreaser, germicide and glyphosate without personal protective equipment – despite all three products' well documented health effects – up to three times per day.
Michael McEwen
Central Mississippi Correctional Facility
But Balfour’s suit, announced Feb. 14 on the front steps of the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse in Jackson, alleges not only that she was forced to work with the chemicals in their raw, unmixed state, but that she was also purposefully denied care for what was once stage 2 breast cancer that later metastasized and became terminal.
The suit itself is structured in two parts: in one, Balfour and her attorneys say the refusal to afford her informed consent and proper care relating to her condition represents cruel and unusual punishment and is in violation of her eighth amendment rights.
In the other, they allege the third-party healthcare providers withheld diagnoses and critical care in what is tantamount to medical malpractice, and a violation of their Hippocratic oath.
Joseph Wilson, one of Balfour’s attorneys, says healthcare providers contracted by the Mississippi Department of Corrections avoided referring her to a specialist because it would have impacted their bottom line.
“This lawsuit describes how these for-profit companies, who ultimately bore the responsibility for providing healthcare to these incarcerated human beings, were financially incentivized to withhold necessary and in some instances life-saving medical care,” Wilson said.
“In Ms. Balfour’s case, her cancer diagnosis was withheld from her for ten years.”
According to Wilson, the nature of the medical providers' contracts with MDOC was financially structured in a manner which disincentivized the contractors from referring incarcerated patients to outside specialists, even when medically necessary. Each of the three companies listed as defendants in the suit were compensated by the state on a per diem basis for each incarcerated person in their care, so if one was referred to medical providers outside of the contractors purview, MDOC was allowed to recoup their funds.
"Under those terms, these contracted medical providers were encouraged not to give these incarcerated human beings the necessary medical care they needed because, ultimately, it would cut into their profits," said Wilson. "Said more plainly, these companies made more money by delaying and denying necessary medical attention to folks just like Susie Balfour."
In 2011, after noticing abnormal lumps on her breasts and experiencing pain, Balfour says she underwent a mammogram that found a calcified mass in her right breast. Doctors at the time recommended she return for yearly follow-ups, and in 2016 updated their recommendation to check ups every six months.
The suit alleges both the current and former healthcare providers contracted by MDOC – VitalCore Health Strategies, Wexford Health Sources and Centurion of Mississippi – on several occasions went as long as three years between providing Balfour with follow-ups.
It wasn't until Nov. 2021 – within a month of her release from prison – that a biopsy was conducted on that mass and it was determined to have grown significantly. And it wasn't until early December of that year, 3 days before she was released, that Balfour was notified she had cancer.
Upon her release Balfour visited a cancer specialist and was told the cancer had spread throughout her body; to her bones, lymph nodes and several organs, and was now terminal.
“I was not able to be my own advocate because I was not told what was wrong with me. There are no second opinions when you have no say over your own body or health,” she told MPB News. “This system betrayed and failed me in so many ways. I’m speaking out in pursuit of justice and accountability.”
Wilson added that their investigation into how MDOC inmate workers contract cancer specifically is ongoing, and that at least 15 other incarcerated people at the facility are known to have cancer but are not receiving treatment. Balfour's lawsuit is seeking both damages and punitive action.