Dr. James Heinrich, a prison OBGYN, told the Center for Investigative Reporting that the money spent sterilizing female inmates is minimal “compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children.”
Corey G. Johnson, reporter for CIR covering money and politics, reported that in addition to being responsible for hundreds of female inmate sterilizations, Heinrich “has a history of medical controversies and expensive malpractice settlements both inside and outside prison walls.”
Between 2006 and 2012, Heinrich arranged nearly 400 accounts of sterilization, including hysterectomy, ovary removal, and endometrial ablation, a procedure that destroys the uterus’s lining, at Valley State Prison, according to data obtained under the California Public Records Act.
Despite his history of medical practices, Heinrich was hired even after a federal judge ordered a receiver to clean up the unconstitutional medical system in California’s prisons.
In order to prevent unnecessary surgeries and medical costs in prisons, California requires all surgery referrals to be signed off by a state-level committee of medical professionals. According to the medical service request records gathered by CIR, more than half the surgery referrals made at Chowchilla’s Valley State Prison, which became a male prison in 2013, did not receive the necessary sign-off.
From 2006 to 2008, Valley State Prison averaged 150 sterilization surgeries per year — six times that of Central California Women’s Facility, the largest women’s prison in the state.
Though Heinrich did not talk to Johnson for his report, Heinrich’s attorney, Ronald B. Bass, said he could not comment on Heinrich’s role because he had not seen the data compiled by CIR.
However, in response to CIR’s initial report, the Federal Receiver decided to bar Heinrich from future prison work. After two hearings in last August, lawmakers in Sacramento have ordered the Medical Board of California and the California State Auditor to “investigate the situation.”
Crystal Nguyen, a former inmate worker at the Valley State infirmary, received a letter in August advising her that, “The medical board is currently examining Dr. Heinrich’s patient care,” requesting her participation.
When contacted by CIR last September, Nguyen provided names of many others who were witnesses to Heinrich’s medical habits, such as eating while conducting vaginal exams. However state and federal rules ban health care professionals from having food and drink in areas where patients are treated.
Nguyen believed that the named witnesses felt powerless to get Heinrich to change his ways.
“It was gross. It just creeped me out,” said Nguyen.
Several former inmates told CIR that Heinrich pushed hysterectomies and other sterilization surgeries during routine visits, often giving misleading information about the medical reasons.
Johnson reported that one former inmate, Tamika Thomas of Stockton, saw Heinrich in 2006 to request birth control pills to regulate her menstrual cycle. Thomas said Heinrich refused her request and recommended endometrial ablation without advising her that this surgery would sterilize her.
Thomas also recalled Heinrich asking her if she had children. Thomas told Johnson that when she told the doctor that she has two boys, his face turned red and he said to her, “That’s too many.”
According to CIR, a team of federal examiners visited Valley State prison to investigate the deaths of two inmates’ babies during childbirth. They found that one newborn died, in part, because Heinrich, the staff and another prison doctor each gave the mother the wrong prenatal medicine.
The other death, the team concluded, resulted from Heinrich failing to perform a routine prenatal test for bacteria, according to court documents. The Center for Investigative Reporting also reported that medical documents show the state paid the woman $150,000 to settle against Heinrich, and that the Attorney General’s office and CDCR filed documents in 2010 acknowledging Heinrich’s negligence.
Furthermore Michelle Diaz, another former inmate, accused Heinrich of alleged unprofessional and unsanitary behavior while performing a Pap smear, according to CIR.
According to Diaz, 36, during a visit to get treatment for irritation near her genitals. Diaz told Heinrich that the discomfort was outside her vagina, but Heinrich inserted his fingers inside her and noticed the doctor was not wearing gloves. Then, without warning, Heinrich applied a burning chemical to her vaginal area.
Diaz filed a complaint against Heinrich in March 2008 and one of Heinrich’s regular nurses confirmed that Heinrich did not warn Diaz before treating her, a piece of information kept confidential before it became public as part of a federal lawsuit, according to CIR.
After his retirement in 2011, records show that Heinrich returned to the prison as a contractor, continuing to order sterilization, and was responsible for training his replacement at the prison.
