Bureau of Prisons Struggles to Provide Prison Medical Care,
Says
Staffing of Medical Facilities Reaches “Crisis Level.”
Reprinted by Permission of Prison Legal News
“BOP
administrators have recently acknowledged that several factors, including an
aging prison population, medical staffing gaps, and other problems have causing
rising problems in providing timely and adequate medical care to
prisoners. This will come as no surprise
to the chronically-ill individuals within the system who are subjected to the
effects of that system. It is also the
reason for the new medical services ‘survey’ that inmates are now encouraged to
fill out.
According
to USA Today, ‘Physicians are paid at least 55% more in the private sector,
while dentists are paid at least 112% more outside the system…the government
has been increasingly unable to compete with the private sector for medical
professionals…’ In other words, this in essence means that the BOP
is only able to hire those who are unemployable elsewhere, for whatever reason.
In one
Region of the BOP , there are three physicians
on staff, and two of those are in that Region’s Metropolitan Correctional
Center, who allegedly provide medical care to tens of thousands of inmates in
that Region. Of course, in today’s
medical community, PA’s supply medical care, but PA’s are not trained or
intended to act in the place of physicians.
This
explains the recent upsurge of prisoner federal civil rights suits and federal
tort claims actions specifically targeting those individuals and institutions
responsible for the continuing problem by prisoners who are becoming
increasingly more sophisticated in retaining medical records and other
evidence. Once targeted by these suits,
prison administrators and medical personnel can no longer say that they are not
aware of the problem. Many prisoners feel that without such legal action, that
their medical issues and requests for compassionate release would continue to
be ignored.
This
upsurge in litigation and complaints has caught the attention of Congressional
oversight offices, as well as the DOJ’s Inspector General, and in all
probability was the catalyst for the newest prisoner survey. The BOP
has indicated that it needs to develop a ‘strategic plan’ to resolve the
problem.”
Federal Legal Center, Inc.
federallc@yahoo.com
