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| Prison targets aging inmates in request to build hospital |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/05/2004 |
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Prison officials hope to build a $25 million hospital at Dixon Correctional Center in Illinois that would expand Illinois' bed space for the growing number of inmates who require special medical care because of advancing age or chronic illness. The nearly 200-bed facility would fill a need for long-term care that has risen as the state's prison population has quadrupled over the last three decades, said Sergio Molina, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections. An existing 200-bed hospital at the Dixon prison provides some long-term care but other inmates are in infirmaries at about two dozen other prisons across the state, Molina said. He said infirmaries are generally better suited for emergency care and cannot handle the increasing population of aging prisoners. The head of a Chicago-based prison watchdog group said last Tuesday that he supports the expansion but thinks the state also should consider a "compassionate release" program to ease the crunch of elderly and chronically ill prisoners. "Essentially, what we would propose is that at some age - maybe 65, maybe 70 - you would take a close look at inmates who have served long sentences and are chronically ill or pose no risk to society and you find a way to release them," said James "Chip" Coldren Jr., president of the John Howard Association. Inmates 50 and older still comprise just 3 or 4 percent of the prison population, but their numbers have jumped as the state's inmate count grew from about 10,000 to more than 43,000 since the 1970s, according to the Corrections Department. Stiffer sentencing laws also are keeping some inmates in prison longer. "On top of that, a lot of our inmates have not lived very healthy lives," Molina said. The Corrections Department will seek money for the hospital in next year's state budget and hopes to open the facility "in the next couple of years," Molina said. He said the state would pay about $5 million for construction, with about $20 million in federal funds. About $1.2 million has already been spent on planning and design. Molina said the proposed facility, which would be built next to the existing hospital, would add dozens of new medical and nursing jobs. He said exact figures are not yet available. He added that Dixon was chosen because of the existing hospital and its location about 100 miles west of Chicago, providing easy access to University of Illinois medical centers that offer free care for inmates who cannot be treated at prison facilities. |
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