Health Director Selected ‘Prison Doc’ Will Succeed Retiring Dr. John Beare

A doctor who once treated inmates in San Quentin and helped blow the whistle on prisoner abuse in Hawaii is the new director of the Spokane Regional Health District.

Dr. Kim Thorburn, whose career has included work at California’s maximum-security prison, most recently was director of medical care for Hawaii prisons.

By a unanimous vote last week, the county health board selected Thorburn to replace Dr. John Beare, who retired in July but has continued to lead the health district part-time. Thorburn starts June 1.

In 1995, Thorburn and other “prison docs” in Hawaii raised allegations of abuse that included inmates being beaten and bound in chains. Conditions met “the international definition of torture,” Thorburn said.

The complaints sparked wide-spread media coverage and outrage from human-rights groups. In letters published in Hawaiian newspapers, medical and mental-health groups praised Thorburn’s “energetic efforts” to improve conditions.

But there have been no reforms, said a frustrated Thorburn.

The Hawaii Department of Corrections did not renew its contract with Thorburn’s employer, the University of Hawaii, when the contract expired last June. Thorburn said it was because of that, and a desire to return to the mainland, that she sought the position in Spokane.

Thorburn said she sees similarities between prison work and the job of a public health official. Like inmates, the health district’s mostly low-income clients are susceptible to communicable diseases and are likely to have inadequate health care, she said.

A California native, Thorburn attended Stanford University and received her medical degree from the University of California in San Francisco.

She expects to earn a master’s degree in public health from the University of Hawaii by the end of the year.

Thorburn said she does not plan any significant changes in the organization that enforces sewer regulations, provides immunizations, inspects restaurants and administers a needle-exchange program designed to help prevent the spread of AIDS.

“It really seems that Spokane is very progressive in the field of public health,” she said.

Major decisions affecting the agency are made by the health board, which includes elected officials from the city, the county and small towns. But it is the director who often sets the agenda and champions controversial issues.

Thorburn said she would “fight hard” against turning the district into a county government agency. That issue was raised last year by Spokane County commissioners.

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