Huge verdict vs. Corizon
A jury awarded $307.6 million against prison healthcare firm Corizon after finding the company denied a necessary colostomy surgery for an incarcerated patient. The award was reported in social coverage of the trial outcome as a large punitive figure tied to withheld medical care inside a correctional setting (x.com).
A federal jury in Detroit awarded former Michigan prisoner Kohchise Jackson $307.6 million on April 2 after finding Corizon’s successor liable over delayed colostomy-reversal care. (freep.com) Jackson said he spent more than two years in Michigan prisons with a leaking colostomy bag after the reversal surgery planned for February 2017 never happened. The lawsuit was filed in November 2019 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. (freep.com) (courtlistener.com) The jury deliberated a little more than two hours and awarded $300 million in punitive damages against CHS TX, Inc., $7.5 million in compensatory damages, and $100,000 in punitive damages against former Corizon doctor Keith Papendick. CHS TX is the company that bought Corizon Health after its 2023 bankruptcy. (milawyersweekly.com) A colostomy diverts waste through an opening in the abdomen into a bag, and a reversal surgery reconnects the bowel so the bag is no longer needed. Jackson’s lawyers argued the reversal was medically appropriate and was withheld to save money, not because it was unsafe. (clickondetroit.com) (freep.com) The case lands in a prison-health system that Michigan outsourced for years to private contractors. Corizon was the Michigan Department of Corrections medical contractor during the period covered by Jackson’s claims, from 2017 to 2019. (freep.com) The verdict also tests how far bankruptcy can shield prison-health companies from old claims. Lawyers Weekly reported that the award was entered against CHS TX, the post-bankruptcy buyer, not the old Corizon entity alone. (milawyersweekly.com) Jackson told Local 4 that the bag leaked and smelled and that other prisoners abused him over it. In a 2019 interview cited by the Detroit Free Press, he said other prisoners did not want to bunk with him because of the odor. (clickondetroit.com) (freep.com) Court records show the case is before Judge Gershwin A. Drain in Detroit under docket number 2:19-cv-13382. Post-trial motions or an appeal could still reduce, uphold, or restructure the award. (courtlistener.com)
