Sick Inmates-Medical parole!?!

[Sir William]

Kentucky is as financially strung out as they can be. Kentucky has reduced/eliminated their state medical aid payments. There has been a suggestion that the Kentucky Department of Corrections parole severely disabled and terminal inmates to reduce expenses. Dr. Mazen Khayat is a staff physician at KSP-La Grange. He held the case of Calvin Paul as an example of an inmate that poses no threat to the public. Paul fell in his cell last year and broke his neck. Poor Paul. Staff at La Grange must attend to Pauls' needs daily. The suggestion was made for Paul and 30 other inmates to be granted medical parole and placed in a nursing home willing to take in convicts, killers and kidnappers. Caring for these inmates is costing 44.4 million dollars per annum. One issue is that released inmates would then become state welfare cases. Prisons across the country are faced with the elderly, hospice, terminally ill, nursing wards and cemetaries to inter the dead. Paul was convicted for violating an EPO, kidnapping and murder. He escaped from the Daviess County, KY jail and shot Malanie Anderson to death. Anderson was the mother of the woman who took the EPO against Paul. So, should granny have convicted murderers in her nursing home?

 

[XavierBreath]

Unfortunately, in my opinion, these prisoners should remain locked up. If the state is unable to give them the minimum medical/nursing care necessary to humanely sustain their lives, then they should be given the option of suffering in prison with the lights on, or suffering in prison with the lights off. In other words, tough. Do the crime, do the time. Break your neck, finish your time.

Chances are this scumbag will develop decubitus ulcers, become septic, and die in prison. Good riddance.

 

[Sir William]

XB, I would gladly manage your campaign for Governor! LOL I do believe that a life sentence is just that. I find it difficult to develop sympathy for a kidnap/murder convict. The Birdman of Alcatraz was vile, despicable and lewd right up to the end. The state says that a single terminally ill inmate can incur costs of $100,000.00 to $200.000.00. OK but. I see 0 savings in simply switching the pay out from the DOC to welfare, the costs are still borne by the state and the taxpayers. This is a feel good measure but, look at how often these become law.

 

[miconoakisland]

How about just limiting medical services to pain management?
"you're dying, but we'll do nothing to stop or cure the disease, just make it painless and humane".
The convict's victims are either dead or suffering, yet we don't pay to keep them medically serviced throughout their lifetime.

When in prison for "life", medical services should be as minimal as humanely possible. When in for, say, 10 years, medical services should be equal to indigent cases and should be billed accordingly after release.

I certainly don't believe in curing/medicating a disease in a death row inmate so he can be lethally injected!

There have been sex changes of prisoners at the expense of taxpayers!

Medical services in prisons should be humane, yet minimal. If I were to develop lung cancer, I'd be better off robbing a bank with a gun and then let the federal government pay for my treatment!

 

[Waitone]

Where is the justice thingy in turning them out of prison?

Why, oh why do we pay more attention to a convicted <insert descriptor> than we do to the victim, the victim's family, or society.

 

[stevelyn]

15 cents worth of lead will end their pain and suffering.

 

[rapier144]

State assisted suicide would come in handy in these cases. Go in and hold a pillow over his head?

 

[MillCreek]

Medical costs of an aging and sicker prison population are indeed skyrocketing across the country. Those of you advocating no treatment or a lesser standard of treatment are overlooking an important point: the US Supreme Court has ruled that prisoners have a right to basic levels of healthcare. Interestingly enough, prisoners are therefore the only class in American society that has a legally-defined right to healthcare. There are numerous State and Federal appellate court cases across the country that have defined exactly what standards of healthcare apply. We have been doing medical parole for several years in this state.

Here in Washington, we had a condemned inmate (who recently died of natural causes) who had earlier been considered for a liver transplant. Several years ago, the Washington Department of Corrections purchased an unused hospital in Yakima and has converted it into an extended care/skilled nursing facility/hospice for the entire prison system. They have achieved some cost savings and improvement in the quality of care by consolidating these services into one facility.

These are difficult questions to balance: fair and humane treatment of prisoners vs. increasing costs to government. There are no easy answers.

 

[XavierBreath]

Another possibility is rather than hiring professional staff to care for these inmates in the prison system, why not train other inmates?

Every day I train people to care for family members. They give IVs, tube feedings, change dressings, wond vacs, monitor VBADs and more. Heck, some maintain ventilators to keep family members at home.

The highest overall costs in health care is the salary of the Registered Nurse. Suitable inmates could be schooled as Registered Nurses just as they are schooled as attorneys in the prison system. Once there are enough graduates, care can be given in house at next to no expense. Heck, if practical, the inmate RN could advance to RNP and function as a primary provider.

 

[Erich]

Suitable inmates could be schooled as Registered Nurses just as they are schooled as attorneys in the prison system.

Never heard of an inmate being officially "schooled" as an attorney in the prison system, and I've been dealing with inmates' criminal cases for 15 years or so. I can only speak for the federal and NM state systems, but there is no legal education for inmates in these 2 systems.

Not a bad idea on the RN training, but your pool of inmates who are suited for it is going to be pretty small. RNs need smarts and a decent background education, and those are lacking in most inmates.

 

[joab]

RNs need smarts and a decent background education,

My ex dropped out of school at 16 and could not do simple math she's an RN now

My mother also dropped out when she married my father at 17 never had a job except at daycares until they got divorced when she was 42 after a 13 month adult ed class she was a LPN and has no desire to be an RN after 20.

Inmates are not necessarily uneducated or have low IQs they're just stupid.

A nursing program would do more to combat recidivism than a license plate making class

 

[Eghad]

but in some states felons can not be liscensed to become RNs so some laws would have to be changed.

 

[XavierBreath]

Let me toss this out there.....
First, I am an RN. I keep considering the people I have known, trained, and supervised in their care for others. These have ranged from other nurses to nurses aides to hospital corpsmen, to family members caring for loved ones.

Many of the tasks of caring for the infirm/paralyzed population are not really nursing tasks, but aide tasks. These tasks could be handled by inmates trained as orderlies, on their way to becoming Registered Nurses. Some hospitals (Charity in NOLA was one) have Diploma systems to become an RN. Basically what you do in a Diploma system is work as a slave CNA for eight years while you are being schooled. That might work in the prison system. The other RN producing systems are the ADoN and BSN programs.

State Boards of Nursing can make exceptions, and even rule that an inmate RN can only practice within the prison system until he passes whatever standard they deem necessary for him to practice once paroled. State Boards of Nursing presently consider applications in instances of criminal history on a case by case basis. Being a felon does not automatically bar one from becoming a nurse, but of course it makes it a heck of a lot tougher.

Of course the other problem that cannot be overlooked is a nurse handles narcotics. Nurses have access to things other people do not. Syringes. Needles. Scapels. Narcotics. Having inmates handling these items would not be acceptable.

Then again, as a patient I would not want to even think that I might have a paroled felon caring for me in the ICU if I ended up there. Bad idea all around. I don't know, it was a thought.

 

[invention_45]

OK.

So, let's see.

First (and there's more on this part later) we do whatever it takes to get an EPO with our name on it.

Then we violate this EPO, kidnapping and murdering a victim.

Next, we decide, all on our own, that we're so righteous in having done so, and so wronged by having been imprisoned for it, we escape.

Finally, we use our new freedom to murder the mother of the first murder victim.

Now, back to the first issue. It might be easy to miss. Somebody, (I can't tell from the article, but it's implied) somebody who was kidnapped and murdered was first tortured and threatened. It was a horror-filled and frightening way to die. How do I know this? The EPO. That didn't just fall out of the sky. Somebody had to be scared to get it.

Where, in what we can see of the workings of this inmate's mind, does anybody see any hint of the concept of "mercy"? I sure don't.

I say leave him exactly where he is. Minimal health care allowed by law, cutting any corner that we're not caught cutting.

In Florida, we were just granted what I think will be $80 per year in property tax credit. I'll gladly give mine back toward paying the cost of doing it exactly that way.

 

[fisherman66]

15 cents worth of lead will end their pain and suffering.

I hate to come across as a liberal here, but I would support increased spending and step up to at least a $1.00 cartidge. Those 15 cent rimfires are notorious for misfiring.

In reality XBreath has a better solution. I just don't think I'd want a trained inmate to use that experience to get a job on the outside taking care of our parents and grandparents (or pets for that matter.)

 

[Superhornet]

The answer is astoundingly simple in its lack of complexity and is very economical, neither costing the prison system or tax paying public...Each prisoner will be put in the care of the Victims or Victims families, with the authorities saying, "Now please take good care of them".

 

[MillCreek]

I can say that in Washington state, in some cases, healthcare providers that have been sent to prison have found work in the prison infirmary. I know this for a fact given that I am personally acquainted with some such providers through my work as a healthcare administrator.

In some very very rare instances, our state board will issue a limited license allowing that convicted person to work as a physician or nurse inside the prison system. After this was 'exposed' a few years ago in the local media, our state boards have had a defacto moratorium on this practice.

What often happens is that if the convicted provider still wants to work in healthcare in the prison system, they act as essentially nursing aides at the bedside, or in administrative roles, or in the lab or other ancillary services. I am told that the most common role is at the bedside as an aide. Many providers do not want to work in the infirmary after finding out that the other prisoners want you to smuggle out drugs, get them sick leave excuses and the like.

PS: I can assure you that it is not unknown for felony-convicted healthcare providers to regain their licenses after release and return to patient care. It depends largely on the type of conviction. Someone convicted for billing fraud will likely eventually get their license to practice back. Someone convicted of sexually-molesting patients or diverting narcotics likely will not get their license back for a long time, if ever.

 

[invention_45]

hehheh.. superhornet...

I'll hound MY state rep to introduce that if you'll hound YOURS !

 

[Superhornet]

Invention 45--------if there is no money involved our reps will not go for it...as you know since you are in FL, some bucks must change hands somewhere....ho ho ho..