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| System Plans Study of Prison Health Care |
| By Daily Texan Staff |
| Published: 10/28/2002 |
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Mounting complaints of faulty health care have led University of Texas Chancellor Mark Yudof to call for an independent evaluation of prison health care provided by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Earlier this year, a committee formed by former Chancellor Dan Burck to look into these complaints found the quality of prison health care satisfactory. However, critics claimed the study was biased because members of the committee were affiliated with the UT System. Chancellor Yudof is seeking the assistance of Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, Texas commissioner of health, in conducting the current study. 'He did this so that it would not look like an internal review of ourselves,' said Michael Warden, executive director of public relations for the UT System. In a letter to Sanchez, dated Oct. 9, Yudof outlined several specifications for the evaluation. Sanchez will have complete freedom to select members of the three-person panel and the UT System will provide a list of potential candidates, but the commissioner is not confined to it. None of the members will have any ties to the System, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or UTMB, and at least two of them must be physicians. The panel will observe a selected number of prisons and deliver a written report that Yudof hopes to receive by the end of the year. So far, the commissioner has not picked anyone and the evaluation has yet to commence. The UT System will cover the cost but there is no estimate of how much it will be. Since 1994, the UTMB has provided medical care for about 78 of the TDCJ's 105 facilities. Texas Tech provides care for the rest of the prison population. The contract with UTMB and Texas Tech has saved the state over half a million dollars. The TDCJ has budgeted $332.8 million for inmate medical and mental health care in the current fiscal year. According to the Texas Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, a prison reform group, most of the complaints come from the families of prisoners. The UTMB does not place much stock in these concerns. Doris White, media relations officer for UTMB, pointed out the improvements in prison health care since the UTMB took over in 1994. These include the introduction of the Tele-medicine program which enables patients in a prison facility to be seen by physicians at the medical branch in Galveston through live interactive hookups. The rates for several diseases in the prison population have also fallen: In 1995, there were 1.5 AIDS deaths per 1000 inmates - by 2000, the number had dropped to 0.24. Pregnant inmates also have fewer birth complications than women in the general population, White said. 'We're very proud of the health care we provide to the inmates,' she said. However, advocacy groups continue to find fault with the way Texas conducts prison medical care. |
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