State Highlights: Advocates Say Mississippi Prisons Are ‘Uninhabitable,’ Call For DOJ Probe; Majority In Oregon Favor Of State-Run Insurance Option

ProPublica/Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting: Some Of The Country’s Worst Prisons Have Escaped Justice Department Action
Mississippi has saved a lot of money on its prisons over the past several years. But as the experiences of next-door neighbor Alabama show, rampant violence and understaffing can eventually draw scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department, with potentially costly consequences. In April, the Justice Department concluded that “there is reasonable cause to believe that the men’s prisons [in Alabama] fail to protect prisoners from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, and fail to provide prisoners with safe conditions.” It demanded that the state fix the problems or face possible litigation. (Mitchell, 8/20)

The Oregonian: Majority Of Oregonians Support Statewide Universal Health Care: Poll 
A majority of Oregonians could favor universal health care provided by the state, even if it requires a new tax to pay for it, according to a poll released last week. Seattle-based polling firm Elway Research found that there is broad support from both Democrats and Republicans for a government-run health care option, some even saying that it should replace private insurance altogether. (Harbarger, 8/20)

The Hill: Florida Health Care Workers Allege Government Clinic Forced Them To Speak Only English 
A group of Puerto Rican health care workers at a Florida government-run clinic reportedly said supervisors threatened that if they spoke Spanish among themselves, they would be fired. Seven women at the Haines City, Fla., health clinic, run by the Florida Health Department, filed a complaint with human resources and penned a letter to the state-level department, The Associated Press reports. (Campisi, 8/20)

Georgia Health News: Reviewer Says Georgia Not Living Up To Mental Health, Disabilities Pact
Georgia is still failing to meet key parts of its agreement with the U.S. Justice Department on caring for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities, according to an independent reviewer’s report released this week. The reviewer, Elizabeth Jones, cited “preventable deaths occurring in the state system, often the product of confirmed neglect.’’ Many deaths of people with developmental disabilities were classified as ‘‘unexpected,’’ she said. (Miller, 8/20)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Approves Raise For Those Who Work With People With Developmental Disabilities
That relief is coming in the form of a raise for direct support professionals who work with individuals with developmental disabilities.In the state budget, Ohio lawmakers approved the increase from $11.12 an hour to $13.23 an hour by Jan. 1, 2021 – the first raise approved in 15 years. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the change, preferring not to lock the rate into state law, but is implementing the rate increase through state policy. (Balmert, 8/20)

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa General’s New ‘Command Center’ Cuts Delays, Saving Millions
Tampa General Hospital has become one of only four health care institutions in the world to open its own high-tech “mission control” command center, using artificial intelligence to predict and improve patient care. The hospital announced the milestone Tuesday, joining with GE Healthcare to open and staff the 8,000-square-foot center, to be known as CareComm. The center will use data to track patients at every stop of their care, streamlining operations and eliminating the chronic delays so common at hospitals. As a result, officials said, patients will receive better care and the hospital expects to save millions. (Griffin, 8/20)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Transgender Inmate Can't Collect Damages Form Officials
Wisconsin prison officials who denied an inmate's requested gender confirmation surgery could not have anticipated the decision might violate her rights and are therefore immune from damages in a lawsuit, a federal appeals court ruled. The 2-1 decision from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a pretrial ruling by a Madison federal judge that the officials were not covered by qualified immunity. (Vielmetti, 8/20)

Politico Pro: Federal Judge Rejects Opponents' Request To Block Vaccination Law
A federal judge has rejected a request to block a new state law that ended New York's religious exemption for school vaccination requirements, delivering a setback to opponents who argue that the repeal violates U.S. education law. Judge Allyne R. Ross of the Eastern District of New York denied a request from attorneys Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kim Mack Rosenberg for a preliminary injunction to compel the state to admit students with disabilities to schools this fall regardless of the religious exemption repeal and their vaccination status. (Young, 8/20)

KQED: For Low-Income Parents, Most Child Support Goes To The State — Not The Kids
Thomas Lam Jr. says he has always tried to do right by his two daughters, but for a while, he found himself in an untenable situation: His child support payments were eating up most of his income, but most of the money wasn't even going to his kids. Lam's case isn't isolated: Some 250,000 families in California only get $50 a month in child support payments because they're receiving government assistance, like welfare or Medi-Cal. (Lagos, 8/20)

Politico Pro: Powerhouse AIDS Organization Faces Scrutiny For Use Of Federal Money
A California state senator has formally asked state Attorney General Xavier Becerra to investigate whether the powerhouse AIDS Healthcare Foundation is fraudulently misusing savings from a federal drug-discount program designed to help poor patients. The request comes from state Sen. Ben Hueso (D-Chula Vista), who has urged an investigation into the politically powerful organization that has dumped upwards of $60 million into state ballot drives since 2012, according to Hueso’s letter obtained by POLITICO. (Marinucci and Colliver, 8/20)