This is an interesting story after a caller today on Dialog brought up a story about cottages being built at Albion Correctional for conjugal visits. It sounds like the state cares more about prisoners getting some than their health. Any thoughts?
Rod Watson: Inmate health is ignored at our risk Rod Watson Updated: 08/14/08 7:46 AM
No one ever lost an election by paying more attention to taxpayers than to inmates.
But there comes a point when the interests of those two groups coincide.
Given the well-documented problems at Erie County lock-ups, you have to wonder if county officials recognize that theyve reached that point. Five deaths in the Holding Center and other county facilities in the past year have the U. S. Justice Department concerned.
The lawsuit from a diabetic inmate who claims he couldnt get insulin because there was no medical staff on duty should have taxpayers concerned.
While a judge will decide how much access the Justice Department gets after the Collins administration barred federal inspectors, a jury could end up deciding how much the county read the taxpayer has to fork over to Craig S. Beatty.
Beatty is the corrections officer and diabetic arrested in 2005 in a dispute over a go-cart theft. He ended up pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.
But in between, he spent a hellish two days in the Holding Center and then four days in Erie County Medical Center after he was found unresponsive in his cell. According to Beatty and a former chief medical officer for the state Department of Correctional Services his lawyers hired to review the case it was because he was not given the critical insulin injections he needed. The former state official concluded the Holding Center had no organized system of care for patients with serious medical needs.
The State Commission of Correction, which had inspected the Holding Center two weeks before Beatty was locked up, reached an identical conclusion, finding no system for the management and monitoring of chronically ill inmate/patients.
Thats a prescription for medical and litigious disaster.
Of course, all of that occurred under the reign of former County Executive Joel Giambra the gift that keeps on taking. Theres no telling how long it will be before taxpayers finish paying for that electoral mistake.
But now its Chris Collins responsibility to fix things. County Attorney Cheryl A. Green, citing the lawsuit, said she cant discuss health care at the Holding Center. A commission spokesman said by e-mail Wednesday that county officials have made progress. But given the complexity and expense its been slower than the state had hoped.
Theyre in better shape than they were in 2005, but not quite where they belong, he said.
Thats encouraging sort of. But the fact that those problems were allowed to fester in the first place means taxpayers soon may reach into their wallets to pay Mr. Beatty. Now the feds want to see what else may be wrong.
A government run like a government might be expected to stall, under the guise of avoiding a fishing expedition, and to avoid funding fixes not likely to win many votes. But a government run like a business by a former businessman, like Collins should see the bigger picture.
That includes constitutional safeguards that protect us all. We bar cruel and unusual punishment for a reason: It says something about who we are as a society. What happened to Beatty was cruel. The question is, how unusual was it?
But even if you mistakenly think it could never happen to you, the bigger picture includes at least 250,000 other reasons to care.
Thats how many dollars Beatty is suing for. And if the Justice Department gets stymied in its bid to see what else might be wrong, expect more defendants to start seeing dollar signs.
Theyll take that obstructionism to the bank, after stopping at the courthouse first.
What's more important......sex or health? Or should inmates not be allowed the same rights as civilians? Maybe it was just an oversight....but now this case will drag out in the court system with only the attorneys to benefit.
I work with inmates on a daily basis, and they rely on the state for everything, including medical care. Be it new glasses or life-saving prescriptions, if they need it, there's only one place to get it, from the prison itself. When the state chooses to incarcerate someone, they accept the responsibility for caring for that person.
