A recently released prisoner who contracted tuberculosis while serving time in Halawa Correctional Facility has filed a handwritten, federal lawsuit alleging that Hawaii’s Department of Public Safety failed to adequately safeguard him and other inmates in a state that leads the nation in TB cases.

U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright denied in October a motion by the state attorney general’s office to dismiss the lawsuit filed in May by Todd Brewer Weeks, 44, who served the full term of a five-year sentence for auto theft and is now representing himself in his $1 million claim against Hawaii prison officials.

"I went in for a five-year rap, and now I got a life sentence because I got to deal with this forever," Weeks said.

Weeks was released from prison Nov. 24 with a supply of TB medications from the Halawa infirmary, he said.

Tuberculosis is actually curable and treatable, state Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said. But it can be fatal, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The highly communicable bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis often attacks the lungs first, but also can infect the kidneys, spine and brain, among other parts of the body, according to the CDC.

Hawaii led the nation in tuberculosis last year with a rate of 9.1 cases per 100,000 people, according to the Health Department.

Most of the Hawaii cases — an overwhelming 85 percent — began outside the United States, according to the Health Department.

Tuberculosis was once America’s leading cause of death, and three people died of TB in the islands last year.

"When I found out I had it, it messed me up mentally," Weeks said. "My girlfriend and me broke up over it. It’s highly contagious if it’s ‘active,’ and I’m not active. But I shouldn’t have even contracted it."

Hawaii’s inmates are tested for a variety of maladies when they enter the prison system and are re-tested specifically for TB every year, said Tommy Johnson, deputy director for corrections for the Department of Public Safety.

The Health Department could not immediately identify how many inmates are tested for TB each year and how many show up positive.

Weeks said he had tested negative for TB annually until he tested positive in February, one month after fainting in Halawa.

"The night before I passed out, I got chills and was coughing up blood," Weeks said. "The next morning I straight up dropped in the chow line. I was negative (for TB) all the time — negative, negative, negative. And then they tested me again, and I tested positive. From then on I was coughing up blood."

Weeks believes he contracted TB in Halawa’s Module 2 from other inmates who should have been quarantined and properly treated, he said.

One of the deputy attorneys general defending Weeks’ lawsuit said the case is pending litigation and did not respond to a request for an interview.

But in court documents, the attorney general’s office said it is possible that Weeks contracted TB from a visitor and not from another inmate.

The office also said in court documents that a follow-up chest X-ray determined that Weeks did not have an "active" case of TB.

Johnson, DPS’ head of corrections, said Hawaii prison officials follow national health standards in treating prisoners with communicable and other diseases.

"Precautions are taken according to national health standards to help ensure that that is not passed on to another inmate or staff person," Johnson said.

Weeks’ lawsuit is tentatively scheduled for trial in federal court next year.