PRISON HEALTH CARE WOE’S

IDOC and its numerous prison facilities, throughout the State of Illinois, has a whopping 32 million dollar deficit in regards to paying its bills. There have been numerous writings and reports on IDOC’s  severe “Medical situation”  which has claimed the lives of numerous inmates, due to the lack of adequate medical care.  The Chicago Sun-times, in their VIEWPOINT section, suggests to lock up fewer people to improve Illinois inmate health care. (see Chicago Sun times)

The article reports that the barbaric state of medical care in State Prisons was documented recently by a team of doctors acting as court appointed experts and the teams blistering 405 page report leaves the State with two choices, either spend more money on medical care for its 49,000 inmates or deliver better medical care to a much smaller prison population.  The Associated Press reporter, Mr Michael Tarm, reports that an expert panel criticized medical care in Illinois prisons referring to the same 405 page report as reported by the Sun-times, which raises this plight of Illinois medical care in their prisons to a “National Level.”  However, the question remains why haven’t these particular groups of people done more than just report?  This questions should be presented to our government on a much more “National Level” due to the fact that his report closely “scrutinized” the cases of 63 prisoners who became ill and died in recent years due to a significant lapse in care in 60 percent of these cases, instead of just calling this rate “Unacceptably High.”

Since this report is truly too important to ignore, when will lawmakers hold those responsible accountable instead of continuing to report the issues without taking appropriate actions or providing reprimands?  The Sun-times, upon further review on June 8, 2015, suggested that this information is important, again referring to the same 405 page study concerning 60 percent of cases in which prisoners died behind bars in 2013 and 2014, not counting those who died of violent causes.

The report also raised doubts about contracting health care services to a private company  that charges each prisoner a $5.00 co-pay to receive medical services at each IDOC Illinois prison.  This fee could provide an incentive to cut cost on health care, an allegation the private company had denied.  This private company called “Wexford Health Sources” has exhibited instances of “Deliberate Indifferences and Negligence.”

1. Signed to a 10 year, 1.36 Billion dollar contract with the State of Illinois in 2011, to provide medical services to Illinois prisoners.  Wexford is a for profit company.
2. Since the contract went into effect, there have been numerous complaints concerning the level of medical care prisoners are not receiving.
3. More than 170 Federal lawsuits have been filed against Wexford by Illinois prisoners since the contract was signed in Sept. 2011.
4. The John Howard Association’s report found that Wexford has never been audited prior to the 1.36 Billion dollar contract and that no one is currently reviewing the quality of care the company provides.  My question to the John Howard Association and many others directly involved is why not do more that just report the findings?  You have the facts so why not hold Wexford more accountable?
5. State Representative, Mr Gregory Harris, has sought proof that Wexford is fulfilling its contract with IDOC and has not been satisfied with the results of its inquiry, within the one page response from IDOC stating that they’re doing it.  Rep Harris stated, “As legislatures, we need to do our jobs and monitor these contracts.”  I couldn’t agree more, so when are you legislatures going to begin monitoring?
6. House Resolution 1248 requires an examination of IDOC’s contract with Wexford and the quality of medical care being provided to Illinois prisoners.  The resolution calls for either the Illinois Auditor General, or the National Commission on Correctional Health Care to monitor Wexford’s provision of medical treatment in IDOC facilities.  Do these commissions exist, are they actually watching, or, more importantly, “Do They Care?”

Finally, the question remains could the facts reported herein be the reason that Governor Bruce Rauner’s hand picked Corrections Director, Mr Donald Stolworthy, resigned after just 2 months on the job despite a salary of over $150,000.   He was charged with a  system designed for a population of 32,000 prisoners, but holds 49,000  with a budget of over $1 Billion dollars and beset by legal actions over health care and mental health care treatment, just to name a few.

Unfortunately it looks like litigation is the only thing that State officials and for profit companies like Wexford understand.  It is also unfortunate that some of those who are supposedly watching have turned a blinds eye.  Why has Wexford’s contract with IDOC not been sanctioned in the 6 plus years that they’ve had prison health care, while the death toll is much too high?

I will write next time concerning another “shocking story” regarding health care from a personal perspective!