BILLINGS — A Montana State Prison inmate says the prison discriminated against him based on his age and disability status, and later retaliated against him when he reported the discrimination.
The Billings Gazette reported Wednesday that 57-year-old Jeffrey Arthur Mewes said in his complaint to the Montana Human Rights Bureau that he was placed in an upstairs cell for more than a week and denied a cane despite telling staff that he had torn knee ligaments.
Mewes says once, when he fell, prison staff laughed at him and instructed another employee not to help him.
The complaint filed in August names the state, the Department of Corrections and Montana State Prison Warden Michael Fletcher as the defendants.
A response filed by the department’s lawyer Ira Eakin denies discriminating or retaliating against Mewes.