Health care in prisons

After reading through the many blogs posted in Grits For Breakfast, I stumbled upon one where the blogger is commenting on an article that was recently published in the Austin American Statesman.  It details a variety of proposed facts about the potential financial benefits of paroling prisoners for the sake of saving the government bundles of money in “unnecessary” medical expenses. As I read through the information presented, I became increasingly frustrated with the idea that prisoners with severe medical disorders and complications would have an ankle bracelet slapped onto them and be sent back into society without any type of plan or available resources.

As I reached the end of the commentary, I was surprised, given the blogger’s background, that there were minimal thoughts or comments about what complications this action could cause for the state and country as a whole. The author is very active in criminal justice politics and does research for reform. I expected him to provide more facts about the negative impact paroling could have on not just society, but on the inmates as well. Considering that this blog is directed to a liberal crowd, I believe others probably feel similar to me in this regards. It is complicated issue that needs to be weighed out more evenly.

The basic argument is clear. Inmates need and utilize health care. This is costly. If we can find a way to parole more of the inmates that are using this health care, the government can apparently save money. The more complex argument happens when you dig deeper and try to determine how exactly will it work. Will the parole board be qualified to decide who is eligible? Will federal funds have to compensate for the state funds that were previously funding the health care?

It appears that the evidence is definitely one-sided. I am sure people can see and agree that there are financial savings that can be accrued if the number of inmates who are paroled is increased. What seems to be lacking are the dollar amounts on the other side of the issue. How many parolees will be eligible for SSI or SSDI and what will be the cost of this expense? How much will it cost to run the nursing homes and what will the impact be on local hospitals? Lasly, what is the human impact?

This blogger’s conclusion left me with a lot of unanswered questions. I know this is a sensitive and difficult issue to tackle, but I truly expected he would have put a lot more passion and effort into his counter attack!