CHESTER -- Guards at the Menard Correctional Center have been paid more than $1.5 million since January 2009 in workers' compensation settlements for hand, wrist and elbow injuries they say were caused by repetitive duties like locking and unlocking cells.
The tax-free, taxpayer-funded settlements range from $119,184 to $21,860, according to public documents obtained from the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission. Payments are based on percentage of permanent loss of hand and arm functions, usually below 20 percent.
Fifty-five Menard staff members - including 51 guards, nearly one in every 10 corrections officers at the 3,500-inmate maximum security lockup - applied for compensation for injuries attributed to the accumulated effects of "repetitive trauma." About 30 of these cases are pending.
More than $195,000 in salary also was paid by the prison to guards and other employees who missed work since last year because of repetitive trauma or while recovering from corrective surgery.
Repetitive chores at the prison, which opened in 1878 and is still equipped with non-electric locking mechanisms, include using finger-long Folger Adam keys and "cranking" a heavy wheel to open an entire row of cells. Guards also must perform "bar taps," running a hand-held steel rod five times across each cell's bars to detect any flat sound that could warn that an inmate was trying to saw his way free. They are often required to apply and remove handcuffs.
Guards have complained that running a prison tier leads to numbness in hands and arms. They claim the job leaves them injured to the point of not being able to do relatively non-stressful acts like throwing a football to a son or daughter or raking leaves. Four prison medical personnel - nurses and technicians - and one maintenance man also have received awards or filed for claims for repetitive trauma injuries.
The St. Clair County Jail also uses a Folger Adam key for some of their holding cells. A reporter allowed to test the key found that it worked with relative ease, requiring less turning force than an automobile ignition key.
Sheriff Mearl Justus said he can't recall a single worker's compensation claim by one of his jailers for carpal tunnel syndrome.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, persons most likely to acquire repetitive trauma injuries such as painful compressed nerves in the wrist and hand are those who, "... perform repetitive tasks such as assembly line work, meat packing, sewing, playing musical instruments, and computer work." Some people are more prone to such injury because of congenital narrowness of the passage that houses nerves.
Treatment usually requires that the affected person be given breaks between repetitive tasks. Or, they may need certain surgical procedures including a carpal tunnel operation. Women are three times more likely than men to acquire carpal tunnel syndrome, according to the institute.
Anders Lindall, spokesman for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers, which represents prison guards, said the union's members would not undergo painful corrective surgery "... if not out of medical necessity."
Another 27 workers' compensation cases were filed since last year on behalf of Menard guards and staff for non-repetitive injuries like slipping and overexertion such as heavy lifting. A dozen of these have been approved and $282,480 was paid out.
Illinois has two other large maximum security prisons besides Menard; Stateville and Pontiac. A review of similar documents for these two prisons revealed that each had less than a dozen workers' compensation claims for 2009 and 2010 and none for repetitive injury. Stateville and Pontiac prisons employ electronic systems to open doors, eliminating most of the need for manual tasks for this purpose.
As for a solution to cut down on these claims, like installing electronic locking and unlocking devices at Menard, Department of Corrections spokesman Cory Foster said, "That would be hugely too expensive." He referred further comment to the Workers' Compensation Commission.
Public records show that 18 of the repetitive injury cases filed by guards since last year generated $1.1 million in settlements for clients represented by Thomas Rich, a Fairview Heights attorney.
"I would tell DOC, `Please talk to me and I can help with this problem. Take this money you are paying me and let me help you improve your operation to protect the health of your employees,'" Rich said.
Instead of taking 20 percent of a settlement as a legal fee, which is allowed by statute, Rich said he takes 15 percent, or $167,685 for the 18 settled cases.
"I hate to see these people get hurt. These people are my friends," he said. "I make a real good living representing these people (but) all I want is for them to get well and get back to work."
Medical fees that can total $10,000 per case or more also are paid by the state and are separate from settlements, Rich said.
Before 2009, Rich said his office processed about 20 repetitive trauma claims for Menard corrections officers; however, he said a hearing in January of last year smoothed the way for future settlements.
In a 12-page decision that led to an award of approximately $44,200 to guard Craig Cowan plus $3,798 in wages lost during recuperation, arbitrator John Dibble wrote, "The arbitrator finds that (Cowan) credibly testified to hand intensive activities which required forceful stress, gripping and pulling."
Besides his repetitive duties inside the prison, Cowan also had complained of driving a high mileage prison van in which the steering wheel vibrated, causing his hands to go numb.
"Clearly the activities performed by correctional officers at (Menard) qualify as repetitive work involving multiple micro traumas to the hands on a daily basis," Dibble concluded in his ruling.
In 2005, Dibble awarded $3,500 a month for life and $136,425 in back pay to William Barham, the former warden of the Shawnee Correctional Center near Vienna. While serving as warden, Barham was involved in a fatal accident in 2001. Court records allege that after drinking alcohol, he was driving a state-owned vehicle when it crashed into a tree, killing his only passenger, a prison administrator. Barham was convicted in Johnson County Circuit Court of reckless homicide and sentenced to four years in prison, but the conviction was overturned by the 5th District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon. That ruling allowed Barham to apply for workers' compensation.
Gary Hutter, who has a doctoral degree in environmental health and safety and owns Meridian Engineering and Technology in Glenview, questioned that so many Menard guards could acquire carpal tunnel syndrome, a repetitive trauma condition, just from their daily routines.
"I would think that a guard would spend six to eight hours a day continuously turning locks," Hutter said. "They would unlock a door, move 10 feet, unlock another door. That interval would provide some mitigation of the repetitive action. It's when you hold your body in odd positions for a long period of time doing repetitive actions that causes carpal tunnel."
Dr. Stephen Burger, a Belleville neurologist, said that while nerve conduction tests are often accurate, a negative result does not necessarily mean that the patient does not have carpal tunnel syndrome. Burger also said the tests can sometimes be manipulated by a patient to show a false positive.
Hutter said there can sometimes be "clusters" of persons claiming this type of injury that might be due to psychological reasons.
"People see something and then they feel something and they report something that they normally wouldn't report."
Hutter said diagnosing such injuries is not uniform.
"Diagnosis of carpal tunnel is subjective, not definitive," he said, "One physician may say, `I think so,' while the other may say, `I don't think so.' The diagnosis is very dependent on an unbiased tester and patient. Even nerve conduction studies aren't definitive. You can bang a hammer on a anvil 50 times and it will bias a nerve conduction test."
But Rich disagreed. He said that nerve conduction tests done by two neurologists usually used by his office are solid proof that a repetitive injury has occurred.
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