4301
as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

spo freaking much . . .

leaving austin yesterday morning, between the lyman physics biolding and langdell, 7722 XM pulled in (a little fast) and an asian man got out and walked betweeen griswold and langdell - as if to go to fried's office - or donovan's. . . see previous entries. . . church committee evasive catch twenty-two experriments on the homeless. . .

he parked nextto 985 JDK - from may of 1998, the justice department approved experimetns? and 24W G37 - the terror workshop form the government/grant hls lab house years and RT5600 and 754 NX . . . as in from north carolian times, a prototype. . .

6118 TP was [parked at hte far end, by the lyman labs back entrance - me , the 1984 experiment - and 61W A76 was nearby - the workshop on me, free of hte atutomatopn thing?

well, if i'm free now, i opt to write about it until there's no reason to do so. . .

and then across form the museum, but closest to the hoffman building, which has sumemrs ties with the center for hte environment. . . 4176 EO . . . this is eiher another wilson reference (and i apologized for my railing n that - affirmed by the F doctor the other day) or robohuman, six years experimental operration . . .

see previous entries. . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

a man was on the MBTA this AM and i asked if the bag of boks he had was for/from a library - he said yes and i said libraries were one of civiloizations greatest inventions . . .

at 0945 yesterday, AM, a man on the romer hall floor with a copy of "The Book Thief" - so freaking sad - for it is I who have had my books (and notes, and life) stolen. . . again, though - affirming the HUMF tactics - and this interesting for the book i like to read for the kids at hte museum was missing yesterdday from the vol lounge as well . . . and never forget the missing gould and hte missing carroll . ..

so freaking sad . . .

carol yesterday AM chating, when i walked in, with a woman and a spaulding rehab fleece vest - curious that - and i passed a brigham and women's fleece thins AM - ah: the 1990 surgery - see previosu ntries on bad hu medical. . . and since i read jurassic park recovering form thet surgery, moter hints to HUMF killings to keep human experiments a secret . . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

and then Peter and arthur and "write your congressman" at hte museum - of course peter the hebrew scholar (form the north end and carolym paquette - see previous entris) and also the shalters in 2006/2007 - and arthur the social worker - see previosu entries . . . and i think people are catching on - especially with the freaking taunt of thecrimson.com admission with the stus named hterein - see previosu entrises. . .

Dr. O. of the F takng me to lunch - and i return to find the biologist quitting for vietnam war stuff and the off-eyed , again, affirming the use of roboumans . . . see previosu entries. . .

a read pickup across for the museum when dr. o and i walked to the border cafe for lunch . 5976 JX - as in the robohuman project for six years, a justive department experiment? see previosu entris justice depatment conection with the enslavement of me . . .

C17 CX7 went by . . . oty. . .and RF79FX . . . research dederal 1979 (north carolina years again) FX / . . federal/faculty experiment? this is two years ere the foundation was founded - curious . . .

EAS 6138 (NY) . . .and again - the EA sports (video game thing) and the numbers of r me and the 2004 sharking to maine . . . see previosu entris. . . not good, not good. . .

especially atop the man who owed chris at hte black bull a favor and raise hte titanic, the first hardcover book i ever bought, and that in north carolina - and with the sherlock holmes and bird books (and bird book with black toner - a la black funded EAR RINGING expreiments) for the foundation . . well this is all damed admissive, eh?

371 XIB was parked by Zero Church street, where yaffe had 3D&UP holiday sales and here the ART thing is . . . and 999 JQD (FL) was by menmorial hall . . .

8851 PT (ME) by the science center , the 9-11 door, and RS66HP there too - ass in research subject a child of 1966 harvard president? oy . . .

719JTK (CT) see previou entries and 3449 HX . . .as in the 2000 harvard sponsored research on me harvard experiments/homeless experiments. . .

and 31H E44 - from 1997 harvard, an experimental child of hte state (denied!)/ . .

and this just ter 666 AW5 . . . as in somerville experiments/the religio=politio roght labelling, alfred wallace/automaton workshop since hte hls lab house . . . which was in somerville . . .

and then 3123 MD (ME) - as in from 1997 (the juels years) the mind frag on me via the maryland connectted clinncal research place in maine? explains the mishkin reference to 36+ gorham, with folks form maine - and that in 2002 . . .

the new high school colunteer at the museum passed DR. O and I by ohnston gate as we returned, she had her phone open and kinda hidden in her hand . .

back at he vol lounge, "The Very Quiet Cricket" book was chirping - i shut it off . . . crickets are fed to the animals . . . just as I was fed to those that hide at havrard and pawned off elsewhere. . .

see previous entries. . .

again thinking carol and spaulding rehab . . . well, that's mom;s name too and she and sis with spaulding rehab ties. . .

i was thanked by kids for pacing of fhte legneh og hte blue whale - when i was sayoing by to Dr O they looped the museum lot and rolled down the window and the two little gorls in tandem said "thank you 100 foot man!" - oh, so cute. . .

they ot picked up in 77Z V04 . . . as in church commite evasice zeckhauser, victim 2004 - the sharlking to maine - and the tandem speaking of girls who looked alike, well . . .twin electronics -- paranorrmal studies . . .

oh - at hte border cafe: a biurthday next to the table i was at- and on hte other side a NC state cap wearing man (recall travis and ed of hte black bull in maine) and that nam asked by a strange saying he attended the university of hourston - again, then, as in houston hamilton? see previous ntires. . .

LEFT EAR RINGING!

i was in close uccesioon, as i rote yesrteray, asked thrice about hte fisher cat and the blue whale legnet - and the latter with a USMC sweatshirt wearing man - and i take this to be an admission of experimentla military torture tchniques a la LDS and MKULTRA . . .see previosu entries. . . the mulitary and the museum . . . and harvard . . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

to austin briefly last night and a gray car loaded with kids . . . 243 AJO (see previous entires) - a justice operation (not!) an then 1972 -0 see pevious entiw the guiness book at he foundation and the biology vbook at he vol lounge at hte museum - the move to franklin from hopedale . . .

hmmm . . .

a girl was jogging beween dworkin (hu DEAD 0 enfinggering sciences ) and perkins hall . . .and she was later on the MBTA car from harvard station - she got off at central square - hence, the metaphoric indicates engineered bugging the homeless. . .

on the mbta to - giffen brother lookalikes, one with an ESPN sports cap (ah - mutants on TV hightlights - see previosu ntris), and the one kept putting his ass in my face as i phone scrabbled. . . this perhaps one ofhte reasons for the mom nits offensivce tactics i nthe car this AM. . .

and again - i have to note the keeping things back to 1972 . .. hopredale - the nixon years . . .and i at a nixon named . . .

at south station, quite HUMF games admissons/ . . 78K Y48 (as in the north carolina time uploads for kevin), 144 4597 (NH) (a child of the state (denied!) for the 1997 juels upload project), and 12T V74 (as in eighty-sixing hte televised aspect of the HUMF) all were live parked next to south station and pulled away as i bgan noting them withour picking anyone up; hence, they were there for me to note and to indicate that the hUMF is stopping?

then let hte HUMF prove it - for the only way this will stop is with an institutional and governmental level admission that it did happen, and some rolling heads, and some stiff fines, and thus the public can be vigilent in the future. . .

simple as thatt. . .

see previosu entries. . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

164 6463 (NH) also there . . . and DWC 6711 (NY) as in defense worksho pcoke - addiction studies on me when i was eleven yars old and in north carolina? - and wth hte NY ties still? so frekaing sad . . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

205 2570 (NH) there . . . see prevous entriss. . . and 545 766 and CER 4023 (NY) pulled up - two ladies in scanning the GPS . . . so freaking sad - you ought know the metaphorics by now dear reader . . .

a wide hipped gal as i reentered south station ater a woman asked me if that street was south street (all the SSs . . see previosu entries - nazi like experiments) and she had a fisher college sweatshirt on . . . see previous entris. . . and this with a hippy (as in 1960s) girl escorted with a wackrow like at hte musem earlier - and she looking like toni troop of JFK schiool . . .hmmm . . . whose galpal took pictures in 6/8's building . . .

see previous ntries. . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

a sleeping homeless woman with a lot of baghs - reading tom clancy's net force. . . ah, yes, the phishing spams of hte humf - and spams form overseas false and planted justification for bush league hypersurveilance! and this with marc carleton back in town yesterday!

for at south station a number of african american males seemed to swirl about me - one well ressed on the phone appeared at my side and stayed there as i inched forward to see if he was tailing . . .another followed me stomping his feet behind me - and when i got on the train and headed for the usual preferred seat, he backed up and went to the uppoer level, whereupon hte former male on the phone entered form the other end, chatted, lookng at me, and hten disappeared . . . as if to verify where i was sitting - and this for good reason. . .

also - at south station: the library book bag man form th AM t ride - he kinfa lew sargnentich/santa looking like, and when putting on his black overcoat nodding at me as i acknowledged him . . .

the fisher references . . . hmmm . . . KL at hte museum? a typo in an e-mail to him after a surowiec/rampton reference. . . an that man's asst. a smoker . . . and he with foundation ties too . . .

but also, the kid in with the misspelled lab sheet and coelocanth, which i pointed out to him . . . ciurous . . . e-mails/phishing/fishing (ah, teddy and blanton at spy pond - and hte wackrows) . . . see previosu entries . . .

two males to the table across the aisle . . . loosely one a davis roll of the buttery lookalike (and he the whiskey guy from pine street in) and a matt burdette lookalike . . . they talk about a think aloud teaching program and that remined me of hurtubees/manning in maine stating i spoke what i was planning - in an empty room? that could be heard only if I was bugged, and this afte the CO/NSA thing. . . and this before the beating . . . oy . . as the train left south station (SS) one ofthe two males said "hee haw" indicating the military in the museum - so freaking sad all that - and all this with an african american man three seats in front of me watching me - and three seats behind the two males across were two asian girls who were comparing their shopping and on at back bay two more short haired asian girls to three seats in front of hte burdette/droll lookalikes. . . another sex offer? so freaking sad - and recall Ed of hte black bulls comment to that effect in maine . . . how can they all not be connected? want more? the droll lookalike pulled out a book and began to read: a book on experimental research no less, and when i got up in mansfield he was on the chapter (this the davis droll of pine street in lookalike) entitled validity of research records - a main contention of this journal . . . the fraud involved in the persecution and use of me . . . and i recalled all of a sudden a kid for mthe brunswick house in 04/05 who went to work or a carnival in FL - he showing up in 07/08 with his wife and new kid - and the first job I ever had was in franklin at a carnival where when the man paid me he said i ouight not give too much to tom stewart who did not work as well as I - and tom stewart important because of hte Stuart Thomas of former mentor fame - f-ck with me and I'll f-ck with you - see previosu entires . . .

so freakng sad all of this . . .

and so wrong by so many others . . .

and i have to wonder than about african american medical people . . . not in a bad way, just hte connectivity to the harvard university mind f-ck. . . for recall the university health services man on the mbta from the butteyr to the museum? i even e-mailed him - opught i list his name?> yet another university health services connection . . .

not good, not good. . .

th work now being done under the bridge in mansfield., whre so many HUMF plate drivebys of import were . . . curious - does this indicate the bad medical practicve of CIA and HMS a la the SJC/TRacks crew? see previous entries - the bridge of lowell street somerville . . .

17M K87 passed as i walked to the millhaus . . add them and the [plate states 10-4 MKULTRA . . . thank you . . . and it had a CAW sticker . . .as in Cocaine anonymous workshop? see previous entries. . harvard health again . . .

and just re i entered the coples in the lot, the two closest to hte front fdoor . . .

DRX 7590 (NY) and 57C L76 . . . does this indicate that hte new tork connected experients of the coke'd (bugged drugged and shrugged) lab rats are ending? prove it!

a preponderence of fruit flies in the millhaus unit and at the foundation . . . the tiniest of hte surveillence bughs? see previosu entries, ah: but fruit flies also indic ate genetics testing . .. hmmm . . .

couls also be the FF os so mamy plate references . . .

a fat kid was on the museum fllor late - and again hte references to obesity studies - see my entriues of them in maine - the michaud controllled news there and the story post my posting of hte fat kid studies in maine . . . see previosu entris. . . not good, not good. . .

and this AM - right away . . . 50074 (RI) , a Little Sully Carpet and Upholstery cleaning van (and recall the SULLY1 NH vet plate on Oxford and Francis Streets - by harvard dvinity and the museum). . . and this by the science mike entrance - and mom chatting about parking in back and going through a side entrance . . .

she was on the psy op offensicve this morning . . .

997 DD8 near mansfield center . . . as in the juels year thing - dara splitting - and defense departmen eight year experiments? that would have eneed in 2005 then from 1997 eh? so why still going on in 2008?

3468 TE then pulled out and taile da while - form 2000 (harvard sponsored research - BEFORE 9/11!) the 6/8 addictive research (recll the 6/8 intro by the MA court system!) tyler experiment . . .

and to honey dew (a regional dunkin donuts): and 94F N66 (as in from 1994 federal - mom and the koresh thing) and neurobiologiocal 1966 (on me!) with a handicapped thing in the rearview mirror and a mansfield auto parts wearing man emerging form honey dew and his phone ringing as he passed me sitting in the prius (admission to the mansfield aspect of hte humf and robohman experiments - see previosu entries onm 2002 and 2005 runups in mansfield - not to mention the dumas accident). . . and of course barbara wackrow in mansfield . . . oy . . .so freaking sad . . . 938 WTY was right behind 94F N66 (as in nine years the workshop tyler uploads? or bush league? all before 9/11 and even the harvard times - hence the religio/politico right in place at harvard and conniving here 9/11 . . . and HS 75 (RI) as we pulled out . . .a harvard subject since I was nine years old!

firs tcar on the highway seen was 417 ZZ (RI) . . as in robo(narc)human admissions .. . and mom stting that i not only take plate numbners but record the contrived drama around me calculated to admit without admitting . . . she says she wants to help and does, but her compliance with teh rug and protstitution trafe and her involvement with the robohuman projects (see prevosu entries) makes that difficult - and this when she spelled impede for me at a juncture qwith significant HUMF plate admissions, she was acting as badly as the foundation nterns . . .

see previosu entirwes. . . a game to he mind f-ckers reqwarded fo rtheir complicity . . and recall - she gets a havrard life insurance policy if i die. . .

so freaking sad . . .

738 344 (RI) . .. as in me the sharked robohuman from 2000 harvard sponsored research . . . and 628 JM (ME) passed . . . six to eight records deleted homeless? 6/8 records deleted homeless? and from maine!

the house may be sold up there - and she'll be rewarded still . . .

so freaking sad the gradys. . .

EKR 3158 (NY) and UX 902 (RI) . . . experimental kevin/trial research from 1998 and university experiments form the month and year i left he CA(org) lab house . . . see previous entis. . .

and then CI 61 WM - crimional intent hte homeless workshop oin me - yes I agree. . .

RS772H . . . research subject 1979 harvard? or reseaqrch subject church comittee evasion to harvard . . . ther way it;'s not good . . .

and this passing with RS44GK . . .research subject a child of hte state (denied!) government/grant kevin . . . and this when mom hets haughty with he spelling of hte word impede . . . for yes, the humf impedes me . . .

so freaking sad . . .

2804 KP . . . as in to the prwell project kevin paul . . . or itchen? see previosu entries. . .

and just as we were exciting by quincy ma - 3325 RA . . . a bobohuman hypersurveilled twenty five year research assistent? that's a lot of back pay owed . . .

so frekaing sad . . .

7783 RW as we got onto squantom. . . church committee evasive the pelizzoin/mit/brain thing . . . see previosu entris. . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

and CI 8883 by the golf course . . . criminal intent and pelizzon's birthday, 1983 . . . see previous ntries. . .not good, not good. . .

KFA 6699 (VA) as we approached the station . . . kevin federal automaton . . . and the child of the 1966 thing from 1999? ah - the year ere the millenial change - sop freaking sad . . . but also - 99-66=33 . . robohuman treacking . . .

and 31WV98 . . as in the juels hting from 1997 a workshop victim of 1998 . .. see previosu entries. . .

yesterday an immense fat man was sitting at thye mbta station and today he was replaced by a m an bumming smokes . . . mom brought up the fat man in the car and i reminded her of hte fat man who booked the mayflower truck for hte move to north carolina. . . and she hushed . . .as she always does when the truth is spoken by me to her regarding her involvement in human experiments . . .

phone scrabble on the mbta to harvard . . .

getting out and walking to holyoke to take a leak: 223 XCX (CT) two the mind f-ck. . . and HUPD 50 (again) and 5504 PK . . .harvard internal hypersurveillance at hte hls lab house? se previosu entris. . . an this when the asian lads there cut the deal with baldessari and ahmed mansour the hls human rights fellow began packing up for his move to washington dc. . .

hmmmm . . .

it is also the exact date i turned thirty-eight . . . hence, from harvard university police department, an admission of hte robohuman projects . . . recall the camera asking man, too, from 23 everett street . . .

so freaking sad . . .

but it gets better. . .

read on . . /

to the harvard square bookstore in search of a gift for dan . . . across the stteet were parked an employee shuttle from new jersey (meaning blanton - and the only employee shuttle i rode was Abt's - ah: blanton and clinical trials? no wonder HSPH is taking a beating, and HMS, and HU and MIT - for they all, like abt, use people without their cnsent and in my case rip up tring to cover it up - and sadly an abt amployee now massachusetts bioethics chair. . . ) OXY 9949 (NJ) . . . as in the blantonesque clinical triels ending the pill pushing in the shelters? prove it! see previous entries. . . fits the foundationcarey ocnnection, too . . . not good, not good. . and right behind that was a CT late 5249. . .add tehm - 101, as in the orwell thing and this form the state noted for insurance companies? mind fragging as insurance for those who rail against hte drugging of america's most hapless?

nohing at hte harvard book stre but i did note some tails. . .

leaving. . . 365 JPI (FL) drove by . . .a year of records deleted prinmcipal investigation? private investigation? for recall the 365 AAK plate at ed's house by hte firehouse in maine . . . spo freaking sad . . .and the cambridge cop car (and recall, at sance umbrella i met yaffe close to the cambridge police atation - and that was also newr wher dara juels livedd. . . ) well . . . 229 K - as in the robocop aspect of hte HUF on me church committee evasive?

so freaking sad . . .

and hte former mayor of cambridge, KR, with foundation and salvation army ties. . .

and then 4017 WA went by . . . as in robouman washington DC? workshop automaton?

back to dunster and mass avr and a jogger spat on the sidewalk . . .and this is something for hte jogger last night between dworkin and perkins on the train to central sqwuare - ah: jogger =s runner =s the U disappointed aat its drug stream interrrupted? than it ought to have platyyed fairly with me . . . and not tried to off me . . .

and this with HUPD 7 replaceing HUPD 50 therer . . .hence - HUPD cop cars and robohumans . . .

see previous entries. . .

247 ZNH then an FCCs SW (VA) - as in secret radio workshops? ah - humf audio taping via spygl;asseswear - then the hls assistants are guilty, yes? see previous entries. . .

and those passing when the 239 K cambridge cop car was parked, and three cops taling with a homeless man - close to the jesus guitar man - and i think about that man taking things into his pwn hands, for one of hte cops hinted that he loiters "we see you here all the time" . . . etc .. . perhaps hte fake HUPD cops running me off the austin computer metaphorics here?

i popped into a convenience store to get a bottle of wint to being to the party - nope - not until noon . . . okay, and leaving, there was the harvard square glasses man by the church street T entrance . . .

see previosu entries. . .

and by littauer - a new plate: IC AY97 . .. asi n I see automaton uploads 1997? this is interesting - for this indicates that someone around harvard is aware of hte p[rogramming of humans - a la the walter wegman "telefon" thing - and he with HLS ties . . .

abndthat's it . . .

the peter/arthur/congress runup after carol and spaulding alone was enough- but hte humf pushes to see what it can get away with - like strong humf admissive plates going by as usual and the mom uit trying to intimidfate me . . .

so - i end this entry with two HUF pertinent boston.com storues - and if you've read this journal fom the beginnng - you begin to see the pattern):

boston.com:

A healthcare system badly out of balance
Call it the 'Partners Effect:' Elite hospitals are paid much more for care that is often no better than average. It is the best kept secret in Massachusetts medicine
November 16, 2008
This story was reported by Globe Spotlight Team members Scott Allen, Marcella Bombardieri, Michael Rezendes, and editor Thomas Farragher, as well as Liz Kowalczyk and Jeffrey Krasner of the Globe staff. It was written by Allen and Bombardieri.

As his patient lies waiting in an adjacent exam room, Dr. James D. Alderman watches while an assistant reaches into a white envelope and pulls out a piece of paper that will determine where the man will be treated. Big money is on the line.

Alderman, an interventional cardiologist, plans to open the patient's clogged coronary artery by inserting a flexible tube with a tiny balloon at the tip. Usually he does the procedure, called angioplasty, at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham. But he sometimes operates in Boston as part of a research program. One time of every four, by the luck of the draw, Alderman and his patient go to a big teaching hospital in the city.

If the white slip of paper directs him to do the procedure in Framingham, the insurance company will pay the hospital about $17,000, not counting the physician's fee. If Alderman is sent to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, that hospital will get about $24,500 - 44 percent more - even though the patient's care will be the same in both places.

"It's the exact same doctor doing the procedure," said Andrei Soran, MetroWest's chief executive. "But the cost? It's unjustifiably higher."

Call it the best-kept secret in Massachusetts medicine: Health insurance companies pay a handful of hospitals far more for the same work even when there is no evidence that the higher-priced care produces healthier patients. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true: Massachusetts General Hospital, for example, earns 15 percent more than Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for treating heart-failure patients even though government figures show that Beth Israel has for years reported lower patient death rates.

Private insurance data obtained by the Globe's Spotlight Team show that the Brigham, Mass. General, Children's Hospital, and a few others are, on average, paid about 15 percent to 60 percent more than their rivals by insurance companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. The gap is even more striking for many individual procedures, which can be two or three times more expensive in one hospital than in another.

This payment pattern has become a driving force in the state's galloping healthcare costs, and it raises hard questions about why certain hospitals and physicians receive premium pay for care that is no better than that of their competitors. Until now, the growing pay gap has not been subject to public scrutiny because contracts between insurers and hospitals typically include confidentiality agreements.

But an ongoing Spotlight Team investigation of healthcare in this state found scores of payment disparities for routine procedures in which there is no obvious difference in quality. Consider:

Children's Hospital typically gets about $1,100 for making an MRI of an ankle or a knee, not counting the physician's fee. Insurers pay Boston Medical Center $490 for the same procedure, using a similar high-tech machine.

The technician who makes a simple chest X-ray to help diagnose pain or an insistent cough brings in $75 at Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport. Mass. General earns more than twice as much, $160, for producing the same image.

The cost of Catherine Murphy's care was $5,309.15 for two days in Winchester Hospital to treat the pneumonia she contracted soon after her wedding earlier this year. Had she gone to Brigham and Women's instead, similar care would have cost more than $9,000, according to a Spotlight Team analysis of insurance records.

The dramatic payment gaps have emerged over the last decade as hospitals pushed, with varying levels of success, to offset federal budget cuts by boosting their income from insurance companies, health executives say. The resulting wide range of payments for the same services reflects a healthcare system in which deregulation and lax government oversight have allowed the hospitals with the most clout to extract big increases from insurers while everyone else falls behind.

"The same service delivered the same way with the same outcome can vary in cost from one provider to the next by as much as 300 percent," said Charles Baker, president of the state's second-largest health insurer, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. "There is no other sector of the economy anywhere in this country in which that kind of price variability with no appreciable difference in service or product quality can sustain itself over time."

Health insurance premiums paid by the average Massachusetts family have jumped 78 percent since 2000, and Baker believes that a significant portion of the rise has been driven by hefty insurance payment increases to dominant providers, who use the extra income to install the latest technology and expand, often on rivals' turf.

At the same time, the pay gap undermines less powerful hospitals, whose officials say that they steadily lose doctors to those that can pay more, and that they constantly struggle to keep pace with advances in costly medical technology. For instance, while Mass. General is spending $686 million on the single most expensive hospital expansion in state history, the state's second-largest hospital chain, Caritas Christi, had to borrow money this year to pay for basics, like oxygen tanks.

"The playing field is dramatically unlevel," said Dr. John Chessare at a conference in June, when he was acting chief executive of Caritas Christi. He noted that nearly all Massachusetts hospitals are nonprofit charities - exempting them from having to pay millions in taxes - and argued that those that receive higher insurance payouts should not be in the business of snaring patients away from the less well paid.

"They are using that not-for-profit status to make a profit and to build more capacity for things we don't need," he said.


A powerful hand
Most patients don't think about the payments their insurance company makes to hospitals and doctors, but they should: Inflation of those payments is the main reason insurance premiums increased by an average of $1,800 per family during this decade. More than 85 cents of every dollar in insurance premiums goes to pay the bills in hospitals, doctors' offices, and other medical facilities. Five years ago, those bills were rising mainly because of growing patient demand for care, Blue Cross data shows, but now the escalating prices that hospitals and doctors charge is far more important. A recent Massachusetts study concludes that the price of inpatient care at hospitals is rising by 10 percent a year, while overall use of hospital beds is declining.

The hospitals that are paid at the highest rates all share one trait: They have the bargaining clout to demand higher insurance payments. Often, that clout is based on a powerful brand name and elite reputation. Children's Hospital has negotiated the highest insurance payments in the state, arguing that its work with children is uniquely expensive. The high rates have allowed the hospital to consistently report profit rates three times the median for Massachusetts hospitals; still, insurers pay to keep Children's happy because they know parents won't buy insurance that doesn't include access to one of the world's most prominent pediatric hospitals.

The other source of bargaining power is geographical isolation. Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, for example, commands high insurance payments for outpatient procedures because local residents have no convenient alternative, insurance executives say.

But no company has thrived more in this sharply competitive world - or has had more impact on the cost of medicine here - than Partners HealthCare, a company formed in 1994 to fight back against what its founders saw as the stinginess and lopsided power of insurance companies, which had brought many hospitals to their knees. By bringing together two of the most prestigious hospitals in Boston - the Brigham and Mass. General - Partners became what some called the "800-pound gorilla" of Massachusetts healthcare, able to bend insurers to its will.

Almost from the start, Partners played its powerful hand with conspicuous - rivals would say relentless - aggression and skill. No other city can boast two of the top 10 hospitals on US News and World Report's honor roll, and every insurance company is vividly aware that its members want access to their famed halls.

Partners' dominance became clear in 2000, when executives of Tufts Health Plan had the temerity to refuse Partners' demand for a substantial rate increase. Partners countered by declaring it would no longer accept Tufts insurance at its hospitals. Within days, as thousands of Tufts customers threatened to change insurance rather than lose the right to treatment at the two famous hospitals, Tufts gave in to Partners' demands. Since then, Partners has negotiated one big pay increase after another from insurance companies fearful of a similar humiliation.

Today, the Brigham and Mass. General are paid an average of 30 percent more than similar nonpediatric hospitals statewide for each procedure, based on payment rates of Blue Cross obtained by the Spotlight Team. The health official who provided the information asked not to be identified for fear of professional retaliation. Though Partners' rates are not the highest - that would be Children's - Partners has more effect on statewide costs because its revenue is five times larger.

"We were willing to take the risk of challenging payers," said Partners chief financial officer Peter Markell, adding that Partners should not have to apologize for a successful strategy. "If you are never willing to challenge them, of course they are going to jam it down your throat."

That willingness to get tough turned Partners' main insurance contracts from money losers a decade ago to the company's largest source of profit, Partners officials say. Extrapolating from Partners' internal tally of its insurance revenues, the Brigham and Mass. General receive at least $500 million a year more from the three biggest insurers than if they were paid at the lower rates typical of their rivals. Likewise, Partners' 6,000 physicians are paid 15 percent to 40 percent more than most other Massachusetts doctors, based on Blue Cross rates, while the company's community hospitals earn at least 10 percent more than their peers.

Altogether, those higher rates add up to at least $800 million more for Partners hospitals and doctors than if they were paid at rates similar to competitors, based on Partners' insurance income. That is the equivalent of $170 a year for every member of the three leading insurers - Blue Cross, Tufts, and Harvard Pilgrim.

Partners officials reject the idea that their insurance payments have driven up healthcare costs significantly, arguing that costs in Massachusetts are part of a national problem and not caused by any one company. They note that insurance premiums here are rising at about the same rate as the national average.

"Boston is experiencing the same premium increases as the rest of the country," Partners said in a prepared statement to the Globe.

Likewise, the state's insurers are divided on Partners' responsibility for the current price run-up. Blue Cross officials discount Partners' role, while Baker at Harvard Pilgrim says there is a meaningful but hard-to-measure "Partners effect" on statewide insurance costs. And Partners officials themselves have said in the past that their goal was to "reset the prices" paid to hospitals even if it drives up insurance premiums.

Partners' favorable insurance contracts have helped the company to reap $1.7 billion in profits since 2004, reflecting a profit rate that is average compared with the nationally known hospitals the company considers its peers. But it's high by Massachusetts standards: Partners collected 35 percent of statewide hospital profits last year, even though it owns only 16 percent of the beds.

Those earnings have allowed Partners to launch a five-year $4 billion construction program that includes the addition at least 180 new hospital beds and several outpatient facilities. Though the current recession is expected to slow expansion considerably, Partners officials say it won't affect projects already underway.

While Partners prospers, 24 Massachusetts hospitals are losing money. Many of them would be profitable if they had even a fraction of Partners' contract clout. Caritas Norwood Hospital, for instance, could erase the $242,347 deficit it reported through the third quarter of this fiscal year if the hospital were paid Partners rates for the babies it delivers. Instead, the hospital is losing money and bracing to lose more next year, when Partners opens a new outpatient center at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

"Some are able to spend more than others," said Jack Connors, Partners' longtime chairman of the board. "It's our fortune that we're probably in the lead on those investments. And several hospitals aren't able to keep that pace. And that's what I, as a businessman, call market forces, if you will."

But market forces don't do much for some other highly regarded hospitals. A few years ago, when an executive for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center asked then-Tufts HMO boss Harris Berman why Beth Israel, a Harvard teaching hospital, wasn't paid as well as Partners, Berman said he had a simple response: "You are not Partners."

One influential researcher found that Beth Israel's overall mortality rate was lower in 2005 than the mortality rates at both the Brigham and Mass. General, but the hospital and its doctors still earn 15 percent to 20 percent less for the same work, according to the Blue Cross rates obtained by the Globe.

"Shouldn't there be some correlation between what you get paid for doing something and the quality of what you do?" asked Beth Israel chief executive Paul Levy last month in remarks at the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Curtain of secrecy
Michelle Faulkner got lucky.

The self-employed marketing consultant sprained her right ankle last Memorial Day weekend for the second time, and in August, when she still felt pain while running, she went to see an orthopedist. Fortunately for her, the doctor, affiliated with Winchester Hospital, did not send her into Boston for an MRI. That choice saved her about $500.

Faulkner is one of thousands of Massachusetts residents who save money on insurance by purchasing lower-cost plans that require patients to pay a higher deductible before insurance kicks in. Faulkner had to pay the $526.84 MRI bill herself, which hurt, but the bill at Winchester Hospital was far more affordable than what she would have paid for care at the Brigham ($987) or Mass. General ($1,091), insurance claims data show.

"People don't shop around," said Faulkner, 39. "That's why insurance is so high."

One reason patients don't shop for care is that, as a practical matter, they can't. The pay rates of different caregivers have long been treated as confidential data, veiled by nondisclosure agreements between insurers and hospitals. As a result, there has been no public notice or debate as an insurance system that a decade ago paid hospitals and doctors similar amounts for the same work has grown into one that disproportionately rewards a few.

The insurance data obtained by the Globe, drawn from millions of medical claims collected by the state Health Care Quality and Cost Council, is a byproduct of the state's sweeping healthcare reform law of 2006. Because some hospitals treat sicker people, the data has been adjusted to reflect the cost of care for an average patient.

The law calls for the council to post insurance claim information on the web so that the public can see the disparities. But a year and a half after the law was passed, the council has still not published its findings because of disputes with medical groups about how the numbers should be presented and whether they are accurate in every detail.

"Apparently, this subject is the equivalent of the third rail," said Gregory W. Sullivan, the state's inspector general and a member of the Quality and Cost Council.

However, council officials say privately that the data, after months of review by the hospitals, is generally accurate. Partners said it has raised concerns "about the data and methodology" with the council. But other hospitals contacted by the Globe either confirmed the data's accuracy or would not comment on it.

The Globe also checked the state numbers against detailed payment rates for Blue Cross; the two closely track. The Blue Cross data show that about 10 hospitals - four Boston teaching hospitals and six community hospitals - are paid at least 30 percent above the state average, while 12 hospitals make at least 20 percent below average, including Cambridge Hospital, which earns about half as much per procedure as the Brigham and Mass. General.

Partners officials say that they don't know exactly how their pay compares to others, though they know they are paid more. That added revenue is going for good purposes, they say, such as research and doctor training. Insurance profits also subsidize unprofitable lines of business, such as psychiatric care and the burn units at the Brigham and Mass. General. In addition, Partners employs 50,000 people, more than any other private company in Massachusetts.

Partners officials also say they are building a massive integrated system that could become a model for how to reduce errors and waste. The company's computer networks, for example, will eventually be used to bar-code every single pill, so that each can be double-checked at bedside.

"We are different," said Dr. Thomas H. Lee, chief executive of Partners' physicians network, "I would say it is like 70 percent potential and 30 percent reality in terms of how different. But we have the pieces of a system that are increasingly actually working together."

Lee, however, admits that existing measures of quality do not prove Partners is consistently better. In fact, he argues that the science of measuring medical quality remains so limited that it can't determine which is the best among Massachusetts' very good hospitals. He offers an analogy: If the Boston marathon were judged using tools as imperfect as current medical quality measures, researchers could identify the Kenyan runners at the front of the pack, but they could not predict the winner.

Partners hospitals, he said, "are running with the pack of Kenyans at the front of the country. And it's great to be one of those Kenyans, but there's a fair amount of angst about us because we are being paid more than the other Kenyans, and they aren't particularly happy about it."

Brand name medicine
Karen Dahl, 31, lives less than 2 miles from Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, but when she became pregnant with her first baby last year, she decided to go to a Boston teaching hospital to deliver.

"I talked to women in the area who had babies in Boston," said Dahl, a self-described nervous patient who gave birth to son Henry by Cesarean section at the Brigham last November. "I also looked at the US News rankings for female care. The Brigham was rated very high."

State health officials have tried to encourage women like Dahl to reconsider their flight to Boston, pointing out in a 2003 study that community hospitals are generally just as reliable as teaching hospitals for normal births. In fact, they had a slightly lower complication rate - and they're a lot cheaper. Dahl's care cost $8,282.14 at the Brigham, while the cost at Mount Auburn would have been about $5,700, according to state insurance data.

But Dahl, who had a complicated pregnancy, has no regrets: "I felt this was the safest place to be if anything happens."

Massachusetts patients love brand name medicine, going to teaching hospitals 2.5 times more often than patients across the country, according to a 2005 report for the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals. It is a habit that carries a heavy cost: We spend about $1.7 billion more per year than we would using community hospitals at the national rate.

Partners' Lee, a cardiologist who still sees patients in addition to his management job, argues that patients are voting with their feet.

"There's a very fair question of can we afford that as a society, but there's no question in our market that people want this," Lee said. "I have people come and see me from New Hampshire and Rhode Island for their blood pressure, and I tell them, 'You don't need to come here,' and they say, 'But I want to,' and I think they're sometimes offended because I'm trying to chase them away."

The growing dominance of Partners - and Children's Hospital for pediatrics - is a microcosm of the national trend in the last 15 years, as government has increasingly allowed the market to decide what healthcare will be available and at what price. Hundreds of unprofitable hospitals closed, while many others merged to gain more negotiating power with insurance companies, which, by the mid-1990s, were aggressively denying claims and shortening hospital stays to hold down costs.

The balance of power between insurers and providers did need to shift. But the realignment has had costly side effects: After a decade of stable insurance rates in the 1990s, medical inflation began to soar across the country, something economists attributed partly to the increased clout of merged healthcare systems like Partners. And healthcare specialists agree that the price run-up did not lead to a similar improvement in quality.

At a Federal Trade Commission workshop on healthcare in April, the moderator asked a panel of healthcare leaders, "Is price a signal of quality in healthcare markets?"

A professor quickly offered a one-word answer: "No."

There was a pause. Then someone else chimed in, "There's a universal no on that."

The moderator concluded, "That was pretty easy," and moved on to the next question.

Behind the rankings
To walk the gleaming corridors of Partners' flagship hospitals is to tour a Hippocratic Hall of Fame: Dr. William Morton first demonstrated the use of anesthesia in surgery at Mass. General in 1846. Dr. Joseph Murray carried out the first successful organ transplant at the Brigham in 1954. Today, the two hospitals manage one of the largest biomedical research budgets in the country, carrying out cutting-edge studies on everything from AIDS to arthritis and attracting patients from all over the world.

But the high-end procedures that make the Brigham and Mass. General so famous are not their bread and butter. Eighty-five percent of the time their doctors are performing the same less glamorous medicine that occupies most other hospitals: delivering babies, repairing hernias, treating pneumonia.

And it is there, in the workaday world of hospital care, that the hospitals' reputation for unmatched excellence fades - and with it much of the rationale for the higher payments they receive for such treatments. The growing, if still inadequate, body of data available about hospital quality paints a fairly consistent picture of the care at the Brigham and Mass. General: often good, but rarely extraordinary, and sometimes inferior to the care available at other hospitals.

The two hospitals have inconsistent performance on routine care, according to data collected from nearly all US hospitals by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on how often hospitals give the right drug or test on time. Using a method of comparison commonly employed by government officials and researchers, the Globe determined that the two hospitals finished ahead of the other Boston teaching hospitals overall for four areas of treatment in a recent 12-month period, but both scored lower on caring for pneumonia patients than half of American hospitals. A quarter of American hospitals outperformed Mass. General on heart failure care.

Hospital accreditors faulted Mass. General after a surprise inspection in December 2006. They saw staff members fail to wash their hands after touching patients, and the hospital could not document that its staff had consistently followed routine safety checks that can prevent doctors from performing the wrong procedure on patients. At the Brigham earlier this year, the rate of one common - but dangerous - infection that sometimes enters the bloodstreams of intensive care patients was about twice as high as that at Beth Israel Deaconess. Brigham officials said their infection rate has since dropped.

When it comes to saving lives, the Brigham and Mass. General do not rate the highest even in Massachusetts. A review of 42 individual mortality ratings produced by the state and federal governments for Massachusetts hospitals from 2002 to 2007 found that three other hospitals - Beth Israel Deaconess, Partners' own Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Beverly Hospital - had the highest average scores.

The mortality rankings - adjusted for the relative sickness of patients at different facilities - graded hospitals as either average, above average, or below average for ailments and procedures from pneumonia to coronary bypass surgery. The vast majority of the ratings for all hospitals were average, but Beth Israel earned a dozen above-average scores, and none below average. The Brigham received seven above-average scores and one below-average score. Beverly and Cape Cod hospitals each earned five top scores and no low scores. Mass. General had four high scores and one low score.

In sum: When all scores are averaged, the Brigham ranks high, though not among the very best; Mass. General was part of the broad middle, or average, tier.

Partners officials said some of the ratings are based on untrustworthy data that should not be used for scoring. In general, they said, the statistical methods used to adjust for the sickness of the patients at different hospitals are not sophisticated enough to recognize how much more vulnerable their patients are.

They also noted that even as governments are making more data public, many of the existing measures are controversial and often fairly crude.

"I think a consumer that relies on the cross-section of information that's out there and available to them, it's akin to being a cork floating in the ocean," said Dr. David F. Torchiana, head of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. "You'll be driven in random directions by the randomness of the information that you will obtain."

But Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon who juggles his practice at the Brigham with writing soul-searching books and magazine articles about his craft, said the reality is that no hospital, not even his own or Mass. General, can be good at everything.

"We aim to deliver more than 2,000 different kinds of surgical procedures, and there are more than 10,000 different diagnoses we take care of," Gawande said of the Brigham and Mass. General. "There is no way we are the best at all of them. I'd be surprised if you didn't find that there are particular areas of incredible excellence, but for the larger share of them we are probably floating around in the middle, and I would not be surprised if on a portion of them we are down toward the bottom."

And it is by no means clear that a big teaching hospital is safer or better than a well-run community hospital for a wide variety of procedures, including some that are fairly complex.

Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, for example, reported no deaths among 741 angioplasty patients from July 2007 to June 2008, an extraordinary feat that hospital officials attribute partly to the fact that theirs is not a teaching hospital. The care also costs less: $20,020 for angioplasty, on average, compared with $27,242 - 36 percent more - at Mass. General, according to the insurance records collected by the state.

"When you go to a teaching hospital you have residents and interns caring for you, which is different from our hospital," said Dr. Richard Zelman, the hospital's director of interventional cardiology, referring to doctors who have not completed medical training. "When you come into Cape Cod Hospital at three in the morning having a heart attack, you have an attending cardiologist with 20 years of experience that will take care of the patient every step of the way."

Many community hospitals say they are willing to cede some of the most complex, technology-assisted care to the large teaching hospitals. They can't compete in that arena. And they don't try to.

But for more ordinary procedures - the vast majority of care - community hospital officials say the existing data on quality supports what they've been arguing for years: They're as good. Or better. And considerably cheaper.

At Caritas Norwood Hospital, where he scrubbed floors as a teenager, Dr. Adam Glasgow said it's unfair that the Brigham and Mass. General make so much more for some procedures, even factoring in the expense of teaching and research.

"We're doing the same work," said Glasgow, a surgeon. "It doesn't make any sense for that institution and that physician to be paid more for doing the same work. It just drives up the cost of healthcare. It's unfair, and it's unnecessary."

------

and

boston.com:

Prison to double-bunk inmates
Sentencing changes urged to ease overcrowding in system
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | November 16, 2008
MILFORD - The number of inmates in Massachusetts prisons is projected to reach about 12,000 next year for the first time, prompting the head of the prison system to call for sentencing changes that ease overcrowding and to proceed with a controversial plan to double-bunk inmates at a maximum-security facility.

About two weeks short of his one-year anniversary as commissioner of the Department of Correction, Harold W. Clarke said last week that he hopes Governor Deval Patrick reintroduces legislation to reform "mandatory minimum" sentences, which Clarke said have led to a surge in inmates, many with no history of violence.

"We've been really concerned with mandatory sentencing laws," Clarke, 57, said at the department's headquarters here. "We don't want people backed up in prison that are not posing a risk to the community at large."

On Nov. 3, the state's 18 prisons held 11,380 inmates, putting them at 44 percent above capacity, Clarke said. The number is projected to grow by 5 to 7 percent next year, which would put the population at between 11,949 and 12,176.

The prison population declined steadily from 10,990 in 1999 to 9,825 in 2005, but it has surged since then, according to department statistics. The totals include convicted offenders, people awaiting trial, and individuals committed involuntarily - even though they have finished their sentences - because they still pose a danger, such as some sex offenders.

With crime rates remaining relatively stable, Clarke said, the main reason for the surge is mandatory-minimum sentences passed by Massachusetts since the 1980s. Many of the laws were approved as part of a harsh nationwide crackdown on drug offenses, but a growing number of judges, defense lawyers, prison administrators, and advocates for prisoners say they often do more harm than good.

As of Sept. 22, about 1,917 inmates were serving a mandatory minimum sentence for a drug offense, said Diane Wiffin, a prison system spokeswoman. Those inmates are ineligible for parole and are forbidden from participating in work-release programs or halfway houses that could ease overcrowding.

Patrick filed legislation last year that would have let drug offenders serving mandatory minimum sentences participate in work-release programs, but the bill did not win passage. He has refiled it for the new legislative session. The Patrick administration is also scheduled to complete a master plan in December that will discuss construction projects that could relieve overcrowding, said a spokesman for the governor.

In the meantime, Clarke is moving forward with a plan to double-bunk some inmates at a maximum-security prison. As early as year's end, he said, he plans to move 400 inmates from maximum-security MCI-Cedar Junction at Walpole to Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley.

Each of the 400 inmates would share a cell with another prisoner at Souza-Baranowski, which has 1,028 inmates. Cedar Junction would become a medium-security prison that takes in new inmates until they are classified, a role currently played by MCI-Concord. And Old Colony Correctional Center, a medium- and minimum-security prison in Bridgewater, would mostly house inmates with diagnoses of mental illness.

The plan to put two inmates in a cell at the 10-year-old Souza-Baranowski has drawn fire from prisoner rights activists and the union that represents correction officers.

Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, said that double-bunking at Souza-Baranowski - where prisoners spend scant time outside their cells - would probably lead to violence.

"You're taking two prisoners that the department has deemed of maximum-security dangerousness and you're locking them together in a cell for over 20 hours a day," she said. "I think it's a very risky measure that should be taken only in desperation."

Her comments reflect a rare agreement with Steve Kenneway, the president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union. He told the Globe last month that putting two inmates in the same cell would provoke fights, stabbings, and killings.

"There are some inmates out there who are going to make a choice whether to accept a roommate or kill their roommate," he said. "That's not an exaggeration."

But Clarke, who headed the prison systems of Nebraska and then Washington State before Patrick appointed him last November, said prisoners already share cells or dorms in the state's 16 medium- and minimum-security prisons. He said many other states double-bunk prisoners, as does the federal Bureau of Prisons. And Souza-Baranowski cells were originally designed to house two inmates, he said.

"We don't have many options - one, releasing offenders, and two, building more capacity - and I'm not sure that either of those are now palatable," he said.

In another matter, Clarke and Walker said in separate interviews that they hoped a federal suit filed last year by the Disability Law Center against the Department of Correction over treatment of mentally ill inmates will be settled soon.

The center, a nonprofit advocacy group that provides legal help for the disabled, alleged in a March 2007 suit that hundreds of seriously mentally ill prisoners were held in cells 23 hours a day in inhumane conditions, leading to self-mutilation, the swallowing of razor blades, and at least seven suicides since November 2004. The group, which has been assisted by Walker's organization, urged the creation of special treatment units similar to those in at least six other states.

Clarke said last week that settlement talks have been under way for a year and that soon "we're hoping to be able to say, 'We don't have to go to court, we can avoid litigation,' which I'm certain will serve all parties best," he said.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.

=============

translation - bad medical experiments on the helpless, imprisoned, and mentally ill . . .



so . . . read the journal form the beginning . . .

as always:

It is best to read this journal from the beginning. . .

<http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2006/02/08/>

it makes more sense then. ....

or just explore the journal at: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/>

may i recommend: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/01/04/>

and a follow up to that: <http://theurbanhermit.livejournal.com/2008/10/12/>
--------------------------------------------

and help one another if you can. . .

* * *

oh, i forgot, thre was a new watcher at the h sq. note taker/hyman merry christmas bench this AM - and he looked like jow wckrow. . .