50 years after Philadelphia halted prison medical testing, families seek reparations

Oct 23, 2024 Story by: Editor

PHILADELPHIA — Half a century ago, Philadelphia prison officials halted a medical testing program that had allowed an Ivy League researcher to conduct experiments on incarcerated individuals—many of whom were Black. Today, survivors of the program and their descendants are seeking reparations.

At Holmesburg Prison, thousands of people were subjected to painful skin experiments, anesthesia-free surgeries, harmful radiation, and mind-altering drugs, as part of research for products ranging from hair dye and detergent to chemical warfare agents and dioxins. In return, they received about $1 a day, often used for commissary items or to try to make bail.

“We were fertile ground for them people,” said Herbert Rice, a retired Philadelphia city worker who has experienced lifelong psychiatric issues after ingesting an unknown drug at Holmesburg in the late 1960s, causing him to hallucinate. “It was just like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit.”

Though the city of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania have issued formal apologies in recent years, most lawsuits related to the testing have been unsuccessful, aside from a few modest settlements. On Wednesday, families will gather at a Penn law school event to seek reparations from the university and pharmaceutical companies that reportedly benefited from the Cold War-era research.

A University of Pennsylvania spokesperson stated the school had no comment regarding the reparations initiative.

The testing program was led by Dr. Albert M. Kligman , a dermatologist from the University of Pennsylvania with research affiliations to the Army, the CIA, and pharmaceutical companies, according to Allen Hornblum, an author who ran an adult literacy program at Holmesburg in the 1970s and observed the effects of Kligman's experiments firsthand.

During the 1960s, medical testing on prison populations was widespread, with studies involving radiation in Washington and Oregon, cancer in Ohio, and flash burns in Virginia, Hornblum noted.

Human testing also extended to other vulnerable groups in institutions, hospitals, and care facilities throughout the 20th century. This trend shifted in the early 1970s amid the public outcry over the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where Black men were deliberately left untreated to observe the disease’s progression. This scandal spurred a shift in medical ethics, Hornblum explained. Kligman defended his research practices until his death in 2010.

Kligman is recognized as the first dermatologist to establish a link between sun exposure and skin wrinkles. In 1967, he patented Retin-A, a derivative of vitamin A known generically as tretinoin, as an acne treatment. He later obtained a second patent in 1986 for its wrinkle-reducing effects.

“Retin-A was discovered and made at Holmesburg Prison,” Rice remarked. “They made millions and millions of dollars off the skin on our backs.”

In a 1966 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Kligman expressed enthusiasm about his initial visit to Holmesburg, saying, “All I saw before me were acres of skin.”

Hornblum pointed out that the case shares some similarities with that of Henrietta Lacks , a Black woman whose descendants settled a lawsuit last year with a biomedical company that used her cervical cells—obtained without her consent in 1951—to create the HeLa cell line, now fundamental in medical research.

After serving about three years for burglary, Rice went on to earn his GED and build a 30-year career with the city’s recreation department, eventually becoming a supervisor. However, he also faced periods in psychiatric hospitals, a failed marriage, and lost connections with his children. Nearing 80, he still takes lithium and requires medication for sleep.

While he says he would accept reparations, Rice believes they wouldn’t fully address his suffering.

“No amount of money can replace what was done to me, what was done to my children and wife. This thing was generational,” Rice reflected. “There’s nothing that can be done to make it right. I’m going to be like this the rest of my life.” Source: ABC News