Insistence on Persistence. (Best in the Business).
For more than a decade, Nevada's Department of Corrections' (DOC) Dr. Karen Gedney has aided the cause of every kind of inmate imaginable: the artistic, the addicted, the diseased, and the old and enfeebled. Her ability to touch so many lives shows as much heart as it does persistence. This persistence and heart seem all the more remarkable considering how her medical career with the DOC began.In 1989, the inexperienced physician was taken hostage and brutalized by a death row inmate at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC). "I was too naive to realize he was on the edge, wanted to die and would have used any pawn to get killed," explains Gedney. "He took me hostage for 10 hours. I was assaulted and raped. ... The prison director told the staff not to talk to me. So, in essence, when I came back, it felt like no one cared if I lived or died," she says.
She received an extraordinary response from her patients. "That's one of the reasons I stayed," Gedney asserts. "The inmates helped me get over what happened. The administration [did not] realize that the worst thing possible to someone who has been traumatized is to make believe it never happened."
The strongest somehow derive strength from tragedy, opportunity from adversity. This captures Gedney's spirit since the start of her career in medicine. On scholarship from the National Health Service Corps., Gedney had finished medical school and fulfilled her obligatory service in a field crippled by manpower shortages and underserved patients, when she decided to make correctional health care her life's work.
Gedney remains at NNCC and her rationale is clear: "The diversity of the population." As an internist, she could take care of a wide range of patients, at every step of the treatment process. Gedney views corrections as affording doctors "more autonomy to give medical care than almost any other provider controlled by third-party payers." This free environment is one whose lack of freedom for its patients motivates her to champion their cause. "I protect the inmate population from abuses of power," she says. "I've always been an advocate of the underdog ... to make an impact that's positive in a fairly negative environment."
One way Gedney fosters a positive environment is supporting inmate art. She was inspired by a colleague, poetry teacher Shaun Griff en, who reduced inmate stress and restored self-esteem through writing workshops. More than 75 inmates attended workshops, she notes, and "when they left [prison], none ever returned." In Reno's VSA Art Gallery (promoting "vision, strength and access" for disadvantaged Nevada artists), Gedney found the perfect medium for inmate art. The positive results transcend prisons and museums. "Part of the [show's] proceeds went to advocates to end domestic violence because our current director, Jackie Crawford, is very interested in restorative justice," says Gedney. "She wants the inmate population to give something back to society."
Gedney, the self-proclaimed "optimist and idealist," also maintains a "pragmatist" side. She has devised and helped implement an original health-related recovery substance abuse curriculum. With her expertise in oncology, Gedney cares for a needy, overlooked inmate population: elderly and terminally ill inmates. Finally, Gedney promotes comprehensive prison HIV/AIDS testing and research, insisting corrections should tackle "societal problems." When discussing addicted, elderly or HIV-positive inmates, Gedney stresses behavior over biology. Addicts require treatment, she maintains, and the elderly need mental stimulation rather than lockdown to battle dementia and depression. Society, according to Gedney, must face empirical reality: While male inmate drug use and same-gender sex cause surprisingly low HIV rates, drug-addicted women incarcerated for prostitution have higher rates.
Gedney believes doctors can thrive in prisons, and prisons can thrive on the medical triage model: pinpointing problems, solutions and where resources are best spent. For funding prison programs, Gedney believes "the biggest bang for your buck is ... prevention."
Gedney remains positive but practical, visionary and realistic, surviving, if not thriving, and persistent that corrections tackles the most dire societal issues. After more than a decade of being one of the best in the business, Gedney certainly has a worthy tale to tell.
Matthew Katz is librarian and archivist for the American Correctional Association.
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| Title Annotation: | Karen Gedney, Nevada's Department of Corrections |
|---|---|
| Author: | Katz, Matthew |
| Publication: | Corrections Today |
| Article Type: | Brief Article |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Jun 1, 2002 |
| Words: | 695 |
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