What is the Real Cost of Saving 20% on Prison Medical Care?

 I fully support responsible cost-cutting, saving money, reducing costs. In a nation obsessed with consuming, it's a good idea every once in a while to trim the fat, so to speak. But when any government entity begins talking about cutting costs, I get highly skeptical. 

Take for instance the Michigan Department of Correction's recent signing of a new contract for prisoner medical care. They like to tout the aim of cost cutting (up to 20% savings!) all while continuing insanely wasteful spending in other areas. Before coming to prison, I had never witnessed such grotesquely wasteful spending. 

Now that the department has signed a new medical care contract, let me tell you just two of the recent examples of "care" provided by medical staff in prison. One prisoner in my housing unit can barely walk. He has a problem with his foot or his leg in some way, I don't know. He's elderly, and he clearly needs some sort of assistance to get around. But medical staff here have said they want him using that leg to develop more mobility. That makes sense, actually, for certain injuries. However, when a man can only shuffle forward six inches at a time, and he looks like he can barely stand the whole time, common sense says he needs some sort of assistance. Will they give him a cane or walker? No. Will they allow someone to push him to chow in a wheelchair? No. Meanwhile, the entire housing unit has finished eating, and he's still shuffling to chow, six inches at a time. That is not even close to a reasonable standard of care. 

Another prisoner in my housing unit has a herniated or slipped disc in his back. But supposedly because we are on Covid outbreak status, only "emergency" medical issues are being seen. This prisoner can barely walk or function because of the pain, but medical staff refuse to help him. Today, he "fell out" in the hallway because of the pain. Only then did medical staff see him and give him a temporary injection for his pain. He's serving life in prison, so it's not like he can grin and bear it until he can get some real healthcare. 

So, while the department is purportedly saving 20% on medical costs, by denying essential care to prisoners, it is paying exorbitant amounts of overtime pay to corrections officers and administrators. Because the department cannot hire and retain enough officers and staff, the severe shortage means mandated overtime. This mandated overtime requires overtime pay. It also causes burnout and leads to more staff members quitting. 

To make matters worse, while the department pays its staff ridiculous amounts of overtime pay, it has refused to raise wages for prisoners, for decades! Prisoner wages have remained stagnant so long that I don't know a single prisoner who has experienced a pay raise while in prison. In fact, prisoners used to make bonus money in some jobs, and that was taken away. The Constitution of the United States allows slavery for those convicted of felonies, and the State of Michigan has capitalized on that fact for many, many years. The highest wage a prisoner can make in a day can barely purchase a stick of deodorant or tube of toothpaste. He may have to work at least two days, or eleven days at the lowest rate, just to buy either item. 

Inflation is hurting many American families, and it is devastating prisoners' purchasing power too. Without a single pay raise in decades, but commissary prices rising all the time, a dollar just doesn't go very far these days. Since the amount and quality of food served to prisoners has also declined in recent decades, commissary food is often necessary to supplement a lackluster diet. 

The sad reality is that the State of Michigan has it within it's power to reduce the prison population by joining the other 49 states and offering prisoners incentives to reduce their prison sentences. It can further reduce the prison population by eliminating mandatory minimums, passing second look sentencing reforms, and making several other important sentencing reforms. 

But these reforms take guts, they take courage. And rather than tackle tough issues and save real money, legislators and prison administrators make decisions that sound good to the public (reducing medical costs by 20%!). These mirages of public responsibility comfort the public while mismanagement and wasteful spending continue unabated.

Until the State of Michigan makes tough decisions, like significantly cutting its prison population, staff shortages and the resulting overtime paid out will continue to wipe out (and then some) any supposed savings gained through new contracts. And Michigan prisoners will continue to suffer from desperately substandard or completely absent medical care.