DeKalb County is making a good-faith effort to comply with terms of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit filed by inmates to improve medical care at the county jail but still has problems to correct, Dr. Robert Greifinger, the court-appointed monitor said Friday during a hearing. Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who presided at the hearing, is considering extending the 18-month old settlement agreement that is to expire this month. The Southern Center for Human Rights filed the suit in 1999 on behalf of 15 inmates who said they were brutalized and given poor medical care. The settlement agreement reached in March 2001 requires the jail's medical services contractor and staff to submit to regular inspections. Until his most recent review, Greifinger had found the quality of health care unacceptable. Among the remaining problems he cited were disorganized record-keeping and often-delayed treatment of inmates with HIV.

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