|
|
| Elderly inmates costing Texas millions |
| By Fort Worth Star-Telegram |
| Published: 03/29/2004 |
|
Two elderly inmates suffering from chronic heart and lung failure require around-the-clock medical care that is costing taxpayers nearly $1 million a month and is straining the Texas prison health system, officials say. The inmates, both sex offenders in their 70s, remain in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Galveston under contract with the Texas Criminal Justice Department. They are breathing with the aid of ventilators. The situation illustrates a growing problem for Texas, where the prison population is rising nearly 13 percent a year as the state is facing increasing budget problems. Inmates older than 55 represent one of the fastest-growing segments. Prison and parole officials cannot release the two men to a nursing home or other long-term care facility, where their medical bills would be lower and paid by federal funds, because Texas law forbids the early release of those convicted of sex crimes. "We've got two guys costing us a million dollars a month and they ain't a threat to anybody," said state Sen. John Whitmire, the Houston Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and led the recent fight to make it harder to parole sex offenders. "We could use that million dollars for other treatment programs. We could use it for education. What we're doing just doesn't make any sense," he said. Whitmire said lawmakers must make the state's parole guidelines more flexible to deal with such situations, even if it means taking the politically risky step of freeing sex offenders who are no longer threats to public safety because of medical conditions. Victims advocates, however, don't want convicts released early just to save money. "You do the crime, you do the time," said Dianne Clements, president of Houston-based Justice for All. "Juries knew the ages of these offenders when they gave them their sentences, and they took into consideration how old they'd be. It's just that simple." Dr. Ben Raimer, chairman of the state's correctional managed-care system, said officials can use special-needs paroles to release ill inmates who are not convicted sex offenders and make them eligible for Medicare or Medicaid. "Because of the nature of their offense, we have to keep them and absorb the cost of their medical care," Raimer said of the two men, who are not identified because of federal privacy laws governing inmates' medical conditions. The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston administers about 70 percent of the managed health care for the correctional system and is housing the two inmates. Whitmire said he was told that the two men were in "near vegetative" states, but Raimer said that description might be a stretch because they still respond to some stimuli. Together, the cost of their treatment comes to about $955,000 a month. Texas is budgeted to spend about $288 million a year through 2005 for correctional health care through contracts with the UT Medical Branch and Texas Tech University Health Science Center. The figure is based on a set amount per inmate. There is no provision for adding money in the event that the costs exceed the budget. The contract for 2004-2005 reflects a budget cut of nearly 6 percent from the previous two-year cycle because of the financial crunch facing the state during last year's legislative session. The prison health care staff was cut by more than 10 percent, or 360 positions. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think