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| Minnesota's million-dollar inmates |
| By startribune.com - PAUL McENROE |
| Published: 04/02/2012 |
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James Vogel knew he had it coming in 2009 when an Aitkin County judge sentenced him to five years in prison for his sixth drunken-driving conviction. What gave him pause was the mysterious lump in his gut -- a bulge the size of a football -- and who was going to take care of it. The lump turned out to be a rare form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Terminal. Five years average life expectancy. Yet, at the direction of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Vogel soon started receiving the best medical care in America: a year of intensive chemotherapy, then a trip to the Mayo Clinic for nearly a month to receive a sophisticated bone-marrow transplant. By the time he left Mayo in August 2010 and headed back to prison in Oak Park Heights, Vogel, now 52, was on his way to being what state corrections officials describe as a "million-dollar prisoner." Vogel's treatment epitomizes a pair of forces bearing down on Minnesota's corrections system: Soaring medical costs and a rapidly aging prison population. More than one in 10 Minnesota inmates is now over age 50 -- a share that has doubled in the past decade -- and increasingly many of them need specialized treatment for costly illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. More than 550 offenders are serving life sentences; at an average age of 40, most face at least 30 more years in prison before they have any chance of parole. With a medical budget that has tripled in the past decade, to $68 million last year, the Corrections Department faces politically sensitive questions -- among them the matter of providing expensive, sophisticated medical care to offenders who have committed heinous crimes, at a time when many Minnesotans are struggling to afford basic care and health insurance. "The aging curve in prison is crushing when it comes to costs, just like the one for the general public, and it won't get any better," said Sen. Tony Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, whose district includes a correctional facility and the secured treatment center for the state's sex offenders. Nan Larsen, the Corrections Department's medical director, is often asked by legislators why prisoners are afforded care that those on the outside would find difficult to obtain. A direct, tough-minded administrator, she has an answer: "Their punishment is that they are separated from us, from society and from their families -- but not from our care." Besides, Larsen notes, inmates like Vogel have unique status. As a prisoner in the United States, he is a member of the only class of Americans with a constitutionally guaranteed right to health care, as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court. Vogel, a construction worker from Grand Rapids, Minn., understands the paradox. "I probably would not have gone to see a physician, or had the cancer found as soon as it was, if I hadn't been arrested," he said in an interview at Stillwater prison. "I'll admit that. So there's a level of gratitude over the treatment I've received." Read More. |
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