In this week’s FOIA round-up, High Country News obtains the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ new employee harassment policy, documents obtained by the Voice of San Diego show Immigration and Customs Enforcement is neglecting to care for detainees with serious medical conditions, and sexual misconduct allegations against doctors in California have drastically increased over the past two years according to data obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
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Bureau of Indian Affairs has a new employee harassment policy, documents released under FOIA show
The BIA has a new employee harassment policy, according to documents obtained by High Country News under the Freedom of Information Act. Following an internal survey in 2017, which found that 40% of BIA employees had reported being harassed in the previous 12 months, the new policy was implemented. However, when High Country News requested a copy of the new policy under FOIA, they received no response. After filing an appeal, they obtained the new policy:
Read the original High Country News investigation into employee harassment allegations at the BIA here, and the story about the new policy here.
ICE detainees at the Otay Mesa Detention Center are being subjected to medical neglect, according to records obtained by the Voice of San Diego
At the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, people detained by ICE are not receiving attention for serious medical conditions, according to court documents and other records obtained by the Voice of San Diego under the Freedom of Information Act.
C.O., an asylum-seeker, suffers from severe headaches and other lingering effects of a gunshot wound – remnants of an incident that forced him to flee Guatemala. His ears and eyes bleed sporadically.
When C.O. has sought medical treatment for the bleeding at the Otay Mesa Detention Facility where he’s being held, he’s been given ibuprofen, said Anne Rios, a staff attorney at Al Otro Lado, an organization that provides legal aid to immigrants.
C.O. is one of many detainees who have been subjected to systematic neglect at the facility in recent years, even after an ACLU lawsuit against ICE led to a settlement agreement in 2010 in which ICE agreed to change its medical policies to protect detainees.
Read the full story on medical neglect at the Otay Mesa Detention Center from the Voice of San Diego.
Sexual misconduct allegations against doctors in California have risen in the past two years, according to data obtained by the LA Times
The California Medical Board received 279 complaints of sexual misconduct against physicians between June 2018 and June 2019, according to data obtained by the Los Angeles Times under the California Public Records Act. In the previous year, the medical board had received 173 such complaints.
Since Fall of 2017, the number of complaints against physicians for sexual misconduct has risen 62%, a jump that coincides with the beginning of the #MeToo movement, according to a Times analysis of California medical board data.
However, even as complaints against physicians rise, the California medical board has failed to take action against physicians.
Just 4% of complaints turn into action against physicians, a figure that has dropped in recent years.
Read the full analysis of the California medical board data from the LA Times here.
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Image via U.S. Indian Affairs Facebook
