PR campaign objective
The PR campaign of our team is concerned with raising awareness among the US population and
attracting attention of legislative body towards an important issue of medical care in the prisons
of the United States. The key problematic issue represents inadequate medical treatment and
inappropriate conditions of the national jail facilities. Although, prisons receive substantial
financing from the government, the money is highly misused due to a corrupted prison system in
the US.
Background of the issue
The intensification of the problem of poor medical care in prisons led to the establishment of
research and regulatory organizations such as ACC Correctional Health Care. The main
objective of these companies is to ensure the high quality medical care for inmates “by
developing and maintaining nationally recognized standards for correctional health care.”1
Among the alternative services offered by ACC is medical treatment of inmates by qualified
physicians and nurses as well as utilizing advanced computer program that automates the process
of filing and storing medical records, scheduling patient visits and offering emergency and
pharmacy service. The slogan of the company states: “Incarceration shouldn't be an ending.
CCA‟s programs help prepare inmates for life outside bars.”2
According to Celia Chazelle-a co-founder and co-director of its Center for Prison Outreach and
Education, there are around 2.3 million prisoners in the US, which makes it the largest pool of
1
CCA Correctional Health Care (2008)
2
CCA Correctional Health Care (2008)
inmate population in the world. In fact, 90% of all inmates are male and 40% of all prisoners are
African-Americans. The number of imprisoned people nowadays indicates the importance of the
issue of their living and medical conditions which, in return, cries out for more funding from
the government. However, data shows that from 1982 to 2009 there was a 660% increase in
prison system financing from the US administration which constituted an amount of 60 billion
dollars allocated for the national jails in 2009. 3 If we analyze the data by different states, the cost
of health care of every prisoner per year constitutes $11,600 in California, $5,757in New York;
$4,720 in Florida; $4,418 in Pennsylvania; $2,920 for Texas.4 The volatility of the expenditures
is directly related to the legislators‟ decision making on increasing, decreasing or reallocating the
funds for the in-state educational programs. But ,unfortunately, the cuts in prisons „financial
support in favor of other sectors result in dramatic drop in the quality of inmate healthcare in that
state.
There are several reasons for the extent of the problem of the inmate healthcare in the US.
However all of them address the issue of high costs incurred by prison authorities for
maintaining adequate conditions in jails. The chair of Committee on Oversight, Senator Jackie
Speier, pointed out the major reasons that hinder the improvement of imprisoned healthcare.
First of all, majority of the inmate population suffers from serious diseases, like HIV,
tuberculosis, hepatitis C, asthma and mental illness. Thus, they are in need of constant expensive
medications and clinical tests which, in most cases, are not provided by poor medicare in jails.
The second reason stated by the Senator is that in case of emergency with health condition of an
inmate, which is not a rare case, prison authority incurs high costs of transportation of the patient
to the hospital and covering all the medical services offered. Not to mention the fact, that inmate
3
Chazelle Celia (April 2011)
4
Kiai L. Jasmine and Stobo D. John (January 2010)
patient outside the prison facility must be heavily guarded which creates another extraordinary
expense. Another problematic issue represents a lack of professional personal and high turnover
rate of the prison workers due to low salaries and isolated location of the prison facilities.
Finally, the roots of all the problems rest in inefficient management and inadequate primary
health care practices in prisons.5There are funds being periodically transferred to the prison
authorities that represent a portion of tax payments by the US citizens. However, the lack of
supervision over corrupted administrators and inefficient money distribution channels result in
millions of dollars allocated for medical care of inmates being wasted for other purposes.
However, there are a lot of proposals on how to decrease the costs of healthcare in prisons but
keep the quality on a high level. On the example of state of Texas which significantly improved
its healthcare system in prisons by “transforming the way health care was delivered within the
prison system.”6 Beneficial results were reached through implementing electronic medical
protocols, pharmacy management practice and telemedicine. The Texas authorities also targeted
the issue of recruiting professional physician assistants and nurse practitioners to raise the quality
of medical service for inmates. Thus, there are numerous ways of changing the prison system for
good. At this point, it is a matter of raising public concern and communicating the issue to
legislators who have the power of influencing things on a state or national level.
5
Speier Jackie (September 2004)
6
Kiai L. Jasmine and Stobo D. John (January 2010)
Reference
CCA Correctional Health Care (2008), Source: http://www.cca.com/facility-operations/health-
care/
Chazelle Celia (April 2011), How to waste money and lives: the American prison system,
American Pendulum, Source: http://www.americanpendulum.com/2011/04/how-to-waste-
money-and-lives-the-american-prison-system/
Kiai L. Jasmine and Stobo D. John (January 2010), Prison health care in California, UC Health
Source: http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/uchealth/2010/01/22/prison-health-care-in-
california/
Speier Jackie (September 2004), Improving the Delivery of Health Care at State Prisons,
Background Briefing Paper , Source:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/committee/c208/briefing_documents/Healthcare%20briefing%20pa
per31.htm