These doctors were censured. Wisconsin’s prisons hired them anyway.
MARIO KORAN
The New York Times/Wisconsin Watch
Updated
Dressed in her Sunday best — pink ruffled sleeves and a rainbow tulle tutu — Crystal Martinez’s 4-year-old daughter proudly presents her with a multicolored bouquet of carefully crafted tissue paper flowers. With her 5-year-old son nestled on her lap, laughing in delight, Martinez holds out …
While serving time in a Wisconsin prison in 2021, Darnell Price watched a golf-ball-size lump on his thigh grow as large as a football. Price pressed for a thorough examination, he said, but the prison’s physician, Dr. Joan Hannula, did not order a biopsy.
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About two years before he worked at the medium-security Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, above, Dr. Kevin Krembs was told by the Indiana medical board that he was "unfit to practice due to professional incompetence."
The Stanley Correctional Institution. Of the 60 staff physicians employed by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections over the past decade, 17 have been censured by a state board.
Nevada Jerome, an inmate at Oshkosh Correctional Institution, above, had been coughing up blood when he was treated by Dr. Patrick Murphy, who has been involved in at least four legal settlements related to medical issues in Wisconsin's prisons.
Justin Mayo contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy and Douglas Duncan contributed research. This article was produced in partnership with Wisconsin Watch and with support from the Data-Driven Reporting Project, which is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University — Medill.
About the analysis
The New York Times and Wisconsin Watch, in partnership with Big Local News at Stanford University, used state payroll information to compile a list of people employed by the Wisconsin Corrections Department as physicians, physician supervisors and physician managers going back to 2013. Reporters then cross-referenced the physicians’ names with data from the state’s Medical Examining Board to assess their disciplinary histories. In some cases, reporters were able to use online tools and publicly available information to identify disciplinary actions in other states.
In addition, Wisconsin Watch, with support from the Data-Driven Reporting Project, requested a database from the state’s Justice Department showing legal settlements between the prison system and current and former inmates from 2013 to 2023. The publication partnered with Douglas Duncan, a retired lawyer, to review court records associated with the settlements and analyze the settlement data.
About two years before he worked at the medium-security Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, above, Dr. Kevin Krembs was told by the Indiana medical board that he was "unfit to practice due to professional incompetence."
The Stanley Correctional Institution. Of the 60 staff physicians employed by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections over the past decade, 17 have been censured by a state board.
Nevada Jerome, an inmate at Oshkosh Correctional Institution, above, had been coughing up blood when he was treated by Dr. Patrick Murphy, who has been involved in at least four legal settlements related to medical issues in Wisconsin's prisons.
