Better Health Care for Inmates Is A Potential Model for Community Care
Marion County's Democratic Sheriff is a popular political figure in Marion County and a rising star in my view. Today, Sheriff Ed Dean unveiled a new way of giving inmates better health care at a lower cost for tax payers - by moving inmate health care from a large private company, to local, community-based care:
OCALA - At the stroke of midnight on Jan. 2, the Marion County Jail and local health care providers together will launch a new and unique system to care for the medical needs of inmates.
Ocala Community Care, Inc., an organization created by Sheriff Ed Dean, will collaborate with local health care providers to extend inmate health care beyond the jail's steel bars, and eventually incorporate it into the community's health care system.
The change will make MCJ one of the few jails in the nation to implement such a program, which is modeled after a community-based health system that got its start in a Massachusetts correctional center.
OCC will replace Prison Health Services, the Tennessee-based private company that has provided health care at the jail for the past two years. As one of the largest private providers of correctional health care, PHS has been the subject of frequent complaints and lawsuits over the quality of care here and around the nation.
This is good for several reasons. First, because the vast majority of inmates are eventually released back into the community (many of which have serious heath conditions such as AIDS or have serious mental health issues), plugging inmate health care into the community makes for a much better, more comprehensive approach. Recidivism is reduced particularly among former inmates with mental health issues, as they don't lose badly needed health care when they're released back into the community.
Second, the health of correctional officers and the inmate's families are better safeguarded.
Third, taxpayers will probably see a much better value for their tax dollars while inmates will receive better quality care.
Such a policy is also good for political reasons. The case is being made that a public and community-driven health care system wins hands-down in terms of cost and quality of care compared to profit-driven health care conglomerates. The accusations of "socialized medicine" will undoubtedly be thrown against such a program, but such a program provides a nice framework for progressives to debate under (never mind that our education and public safety systems are also "socialized"). This system is a nonprofit group with a public board of directors. In Marion County, the board for Ocala Community Care (the group that will be providing health care for the inmates, started by Sheriff Dean) is a who's-who of health care professionals and leaders in the county. The board includes both registered Republicans and Democrats.
Over time, more and more citizens will realize that the public health care system provided to prisoners provides better care and lower costs than their own private health care plans! Eventually, voters are going to want our health care policies at all levels to start reflecting this reality.
