County Jail Nurses: Ostomy Bags
CA San Bernardino County jail nurses and medical staff: My mother has two ostomy bags as a result of cervical cancer, chemo, treatments and radiation. She is anemic, and has persistent headaches, body aches, and is always cold. She has a port on her upper left shoulder. She has had shoulder surgery. She was recently sentenced to 1.5 years for a crime. I'm a concerned child, she is still learning to care for her ostomies. Cleanup and hygiene are a huge concern. I'm worried about infections, or lack of hygiene available. I'm not looking for tips and tricks, just looking for resources or advice on how to advocate for her. Should I connect her medical team to the jail facility? Does the jail medical team request her health records? She has health insurance, a 4-5 team of oncologists and she has other specialists involved. A ton of medications prescribed at our local CVS. She has strong dosage of ibuprofen. The woman has a large team of health care staff who book monthly appointments for blood work, PET scans, port flushes, and other issues.
Should my mom (the inmate) be requesting access to her health services? Are they allowed to request gloves, to change her ostomy? How will she get her bags for waste? We usually purchased these and sent them for delivery to our home. Sometimes the waste is very smelly, like very! Where does she dispose the bags? How will other inmates respond? Do the nurses give inmates space/location for cleaning up the ostomy? TIA
Posted Jun 8, 2026, 10:19 PM UTC