Prisoners with hepatitis C sue California state prisons, alleging inadequate treatment

State prisoners with hepatitis C are not getting the health care they need, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that adds to complaints about the medical treatment of California's 159,000 inmates. The filing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles estimates that as many as 40 percent of the state's inmates are infected. About 30,000 are expected to report difficulty getting adequate care, which is why the suit seeks class-action status, said Shawn Khorrami, the prisoners' lawyer. "This is a nasty, nasty disease," Khorrami said. "We don't allow this kind of punishment in America, where someone has a disease and we have them suffer from it and have all kinds of problems going forward in their lives just because they've committed a crime." The filing comes on the heels of collapsed settlement talks in a different lawsuit... [read full story]