danielle
01-12-2005, 02:51 PM
Prison health care shocker
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, OTTAWA BUREAU, SUN MEDIA
Federal inmates are getting "deluxe" medical treatment behind bars, with costs per prisoner roughly double the average Canadian on the outside. Taxpayers spent $81.5 million to keep 12,500 offenders healthy last year, providing free access to prescription drugs, medical treatments and a controversial methadone program for heroin addicts.
Figures obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information show the tab jumped 26% from $64.8 million in just five years, driven up by soaring pharmaceutical and opiate-addiction drug costs.
Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay said Canada must treat convicts humanely, but insisted criminals don't deserve a greater per-capita share of health care.
"It seems the whole image around Club Fed continues, and it's not a myth," he said.
Concerned that doling out methadone "condones" drug use, MacKay said the Correctional Service of Canada is also fuelling runaway health costs through lax control over contraband drugs and weapons.
CONS LEAD HARD LIVES
CSC spokesman Michele Pilon-Santilli admitted the high costs are mostly the result of convicts leading hard lives.
"Aging is brought on much earlier because inmates suffer from the cumulative effects of incarceration, substance abuse, poor diet and unhealthy lifestyles," she said, adding the CSC health care services must meet provincial standards.
The methadone program's pricetag has jumped from $1.85 million to $5.06 million over the past two years because it is more widely accessible.
She said taxpayers don't get stiffed for certain medications like Viagra. "It would have to be prescribed, the offender would have to pay for it himself, and it would have to be for something like a private family visit," she said.
Bruce Winchester of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation noted health-care costs behind bars have gone up over twice the rate it has for the population not in prisons.
Pointing to a new healthcare centre on the grounds of a penitentiary in his Abbotsford, B.C., riding, Tory MP Randy White said inmates get "deluxe, first-class" treatment -- two-tier health care.
"Things that you and I pay for, they don't," he fumed. "Canadians will just shake their heads and say, 'There it is again. You treat criminals better than law-abiding citizens.'"
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, OTTAWA BUREAU, SUN MEDIA
Federal inmates are getting "deluxe" medical treatment behind bars, with costs per prisoner roughly double the average Canadian on the outside. Taxpayers spent $81.5 million to keep 12,500 offenders healthy last year, providing free access to prescription drugs, medical treatments and a controversial methadone program for heroin addicts.
Figures obtained by Sun Media under Access to Information show the tab jumped 26% from $64.8 million in just five years, driven up by soaring pharmaceutical and opiate-addiction drug costs.
Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay said Canada must treat convicts humanely, but insisted criminals don't deserve a greater per-capita share of health care.
"It seems the whole image around Club Fed continues, and it's not a myth," he said.
Concerned that doling out methadone "condones" drug use, MacKay said the Correctional Service of Canada is also fuelling runaway health costs through lax control over contraband drugs and weapons.
CONS LEAD HARD LIVES
CSC spokesman Michele Pilon-Santilli admitted the high costs are mostly the result of convicts leading hard lives.
"Aging is brought on much earlier because inmates suffer from the cumulative effects of incarceration, substance abuse, poor diet and unhealthy lifestyles," she said, adding the CSC health care services must meet provincial standards.
The methadone program's pricetag has jumped from $1.85 million to $5.06 million over the past two years because it is more widely accessible.
She said taxpayers don't get stiffed for certain medications like Viagra. "It would have to be prescribed, the offender would have to pay for it himself, and it would have to be for something like a private family visit," she said.
Bruce Winchester of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation noted health-care costs behind bars have gone up over twice the rate it has for the population not in prisons.
Pointing to a new healthcare centre on the grounds of a penitentiary in his Abbotsford, B.C., riding, Tory MP Randy White said inmates get "deluxe, first-class" treatment -- two-tier health care.
"Things that you and I pay for, they don't," he fumed. "Canadians will just shake their heads and say, 'There it is again. You treat criminals better than law-abiding citizens.'"