Last edited Sat Mar 2, 2013, 05:38 AM - Edit history (1)

and they will use this as a talking point.

In 2009 in California a prisoner received a heart transplant estimated at $1 million.

Two things: 1. Taxpayers paid for it, and 2. there were several hundred non-criminals who were on the waiting list for a heart.

BTW, he chose not to follow the rigorous post-op routine and died 11 months after the operation.

1: Of course tax-payers paid for it, how the heck would a prisoner pay for it????? You can't take away one's means of supporting themselves and expect them to pay for anything. Are you suggesting his family should pay, his children?

2: Non-criminals is simply a non-relevant term. Do you mean people that never got caught and convicted? Everyone I know has broken a law at some point in their life but most haven't been caught or convicted (like the bankers).

3. How in the heck is not surviving relevant here? And, might one not want to take his post op living care in to consideration? How long do you think you might survive in prison with or without a transplant?

4. Is a human life not worth a million dollars while CEO's are worth many millions because of their "hard work"?

I'd add a fifth, but am sure it would violate DU rules!

I have a family member in federal lock-up (something he didn't do, but that's a different story) and they are only allowed to see the nurse on scheduled days, so if the prisoner's appendix happens to burst on Wednesday morning, well- too bad! gotta wait until next Tuesday to see the nurse.
I believe that stories like the OP are propagated in an attempt to convince Americans of many things: one of them being that our prison system isn't so rotten for the inmates- that the "justice" system is really coddling law breakers and such. Kinda like the right wing proposition that the poor aren't really poor because they have microwaves and refrigerators.
Prison for profit is immoral and ought to be illegal. Some of our prisons are still run by the justice system, but they are going the way of the newspaper; for-profit ideology in action.
My family member can still refuse to submit to slave labor in the prison factory, but the day is getting closer that the prison owners will be able to force prisoners to work in the prison factory.
Maybe this is the reason for the continued status of marijuana possession as a crime
--slave labor with no health care expense--
brilliant business model!
I'm sure those bastards on Wall Street are lining up to invest.

as is the great prison food and recreation. Private prisons are big business and increasing laws making people felons are the result.

from the perspective that a criminal lifestyle takes precedence over actively participating in a personal health lifestyle.

Meaning, typical inmates, pre incarceration did not traditionally seek routine health care, lived dangerously and were abusing their bodies. Drinking, drugging, smoking with robbing and stealing, guns, knives, raging fights and brawls....fed by a fast food high carb diet........ takes it's toll on ones health... damage done.

When incarcerated, health care becomes a reality..time for reflection. To catch-up maybe futile. The state is obligated to render quality care without predigest. Prisons must provide care equal to what anyone could access outside of prison. Remember, an inmate is placed in prison...they didn't make reservations.

to medical care.