Phila. Inmates Sue Over Testing
P H I L A D E L P H I A, Oct. 19, 2000 -- Allen Hornblum’s first job out of graduateschool in 1971 was teaching literacy at Philadelphia’s HolmesburgPrison.
Inside the imposing walls, he says he was shocked to see dozensof inmates with adhesive tape on their faces, their arms and theirbacks.
At first he thought there had been a knife fight, but he soonlearned that the bandages betrayed widespread medical experimentsthat had gone on for 23 years inside the city-run prison.
Hornblum’s 1998 book, Acres of Skin, explored the physicaland psychological effects of the testing and inspired a lawsuitfiled this week in Philadelphia on behalf of 298 former inmates.
The lawsuit claims the testing exposed the inmates to infectiousdiseases, radiation, dioxin and psychotropic drugs — all withouttheir informed consent.
Doc Denies Long-Term Harm
It names as defendants the city of Philadelphia; Dr. AlbertKligman, a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist who conductedmuch of the research and is credited with developing the acne andanti-wrinkle treatment Retin A; the university; and drug makersJohnson & Johnson and the Dow Chemical Co., whose products wereallegedly used on inmates.
Kligman, who is now in his 80s but keeps an office at theuniversity, did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.However, in 1998 he said: “To the best of my knowledge, the resultof these experiments advanced our knowledge of the pathogenesis ofskin disease, and no long-term harm was done to any person whovoluntarily participated in the research program.”
The university declined to comment on the lawsuit, and officialsfor the city and Dow Chemical did not immediately return telephonecalls.
Johnson & Johnson confirmed that it had tested cosmetic andskin-care products on inmates at Holmsburg during the late 1960sand early 1970s. But it said none of the ingredients cited in thepart of the lawsuit it had seen were used in the company’sproducts.
Using inmates for testing was common practice during the 1950sand 1960s, but it is now frowned on by the university, Universityof Pennsylvania spokeswoman Rebecca Harmon said.
Inmates Want Apology, Assurances
While medical testing took place in other prisons, Holmesburgwas well-known among scientists because of Kligman’s research andbecause of the prison’s willingness to have its inmates tested inexchange for annual fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,Hornblum said.
Most of the inmates involved were black men and relativelyuneducated.
“There are men who do have cancer, severe lung problems, allsorts of maladies,” Hornblum said. “I am not a doctor, so I can’tconfirm that there is a direct linkage. You need to have someserious epidemiological studies, but no one has ever beeninterested.”
The inmates’ attorney, Thomas Nocella, said the inmates receivedonly a dollar or two a day to be used as subjects for lucrativecommercial product testing. Since they did not know what drugs theywere being given, they could not have given informed consent, evenif they signed waivers, he said.
“As human beings, they want an apology for being treated theway they were treated back then. Secondly, they want some kind ofassurance that medical treatment will be available to them,”Nocella said.
The lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, seeks$50,000 in damages from each defendant.
The medical testing at Holmesburg began in 1951 and didn’t enduntil 1974, when it was banned, said Hornblum, now an adjunctprofessor at Temple University. The ban was prompted bycongressional hearings into allegedly coerced medicalexperimentation, including Tuskegee University tests onblack men infected with syphilis
A few Holmesburg inmates sued the university and the city in1984, and settled for sums in the $20,000 to $40,000 range.
Holmesburg was closed in 1995.