Federal courts have allowed prisons and private medical contractors to neglect prisoner health

Monica Stone holding the ashes of her son, Christopher Cox, at her home in Lakeland, Florida. Cox died after he was attacked in a Florida prison and denied potentially lifesaving care.

Octavio Jones for Business Insider

On the morning of March 16, 2015, the night-shift nurses of Martin Correctional Institution clustered in the medical exam room to brief Robert Silvis, the prison's nursing director. Silvis had just started his shift at the facility in Indiantown, Florida, and the nurses looked stunned.