egs
08-15-2003, 06:47 PM
This commentary was published in the Phila. Inquirer in response to the recent PA DOC announcement that they are cutting the budget for Hep C treatment of prisoners. PA has been one of the few states in the US to aggressively treat prisoners w/Hep C. This essay does a good job in arguing for budget restoration for treating this infection! It is applicable to any state's prisoner population struck w/Hep C epidemic.
egs
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Posted on Thu, Aug. 14, 2003
A double-edged budget cut
If we don't treat hepatitis C in our prisons, it will spread to our communities.
By Angus Love
The potentially fatal disease hepatitis C is running rampant in Pennsylvania's prisons and jails, but the state Department of Corrections has announced a major reduction in its treatment program.
The state budget deficit has been cited as a contributing factor in the decision, but cutting back on drug therapy for inmates is a sad commentary on our budget priorities.
About 8,030 of the state's 40,000 inmates have tested positive for hepatitis C, a debilitating disease that can be transmitted through blood or sexual contact. It is the leading cause of death in our prisons. Nationwide, more than 4 million people have it - 1 million of them inmates.
In October 1998, the Centers for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued a new treatment regimen for hepatitis C, a leading cause of liver disease such as cirrhosis in the United States. Almost a year later, in August 1999, state corrections officials met with community advocates and legal representatives from the nonprofit Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project to discuss the hepatitis C epidemic here. As a result of those discussions, prison officials announced a new protocol/treatment regime for inmates suffering from hepatitis C.
Since then, more than 1,100 inmates have been treated with a combination of drugs, Interferon and Rabavirin - the most extensive program for inmates in the country. Such treatment costs up to $20,000 per patient for a 48-week program, but it has been successful in about 75 percent of the cases.
Fred Maue, chief of medical services for the Department of Corrections, has said the number of inmates receiving medicine for hepatitis C will drop from the current 550 to 130 - and then possibly to fewer than 100. "We felt we needed to prioritize our budget," he said, explaining the effect of the state's budget problems.
The cutback is a matter of grave concern for public health. People often take an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to issues concerning those behind bars. They argue that it is all part of the debt inmates must pay to society for their criminal wrongdoing.
Our constitution, public health officials, and common sense suggest otherwise, however. Our conservative Supreme Court has stood strongly in support of the concept of providing adequate medical care to those held in state custody. Health officials warn that diseases in prison can - and do - spread easily to the population at large.
We are putting everyone at risk by reducing this treatment. Diseases such as hepatitis C cannot distinguish between an inmate and a visitor or a corrections department employee. More than 15,000 people are employed at Pennsylvania's 25 state correctional institutions. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come and go each year. More than 95 percent of those in prison eventually return to their communities.
All of these people are at risk of being infected with hepatitis C. To ignore this danger is to look at public health through the eyes of a jailer. We must aggressively address this health threat - not bury it under political rhetoric.
Budget cuts such as the one triggering reductions in treatment of hepatitis C are more frequent in these difficult economic times. Gov. Rendell reduced budgets for all state-run departments by 5 percent in his first budget. The country's economic downturn has plagued Pennsylvania and most other states.
It is far cheaper to treat hepatitis C in our prisons than to let it infect our communities. The continued spread of hepatitis C within and outside prison walls will result in far greater harm and cost to our society. Though I commend the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for initially taking the lead in hepatitis C treatment, I urge it to reconsider curtail the program. The health of all concerned is at stake.
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Angus Love is executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, which provides free civil legal assistance for people in federal, state and county prisons.
egs
----------------------------------
Posted on Thu, Aug. 14, 2003
A double-edged budget cut
If we don't treat hepatitis C in our prisons, it will spread to our communities.
By Angus Love
The potentially fatal disease hepatitis C is running rampant in Pennsylvania's prisons and jails, but the state Department of Corrections has announced a major reduction in its treatment program.
The state budget deficit has been cited as a contributing factor in the decision, but cutting back on drug therapy for inmates is a sad commentary on our budget priorities.
About 8,030 of the state's 40,000 inmates have tested positive for hepatitis C, a debilitating disease that can be transmitted through blood or sexual contact. It is the leading cause of death in our prisons. Nationwide, more than 4 million people have it - 1 million of them inmates.
In October 1998, the Centers for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued a new treatment regimen for hepatitis C, a leading cause of liver disease such as cirrhosis in the United States. Almost a year later, in August 1999, state corrections officials met with community advocates and legal representatives from the nonprofit Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project to discuss the hepatitis C epidemic here. As a result of those discussions, prison officials announced a new protocol/treatment regime for inmates suffering from hepatitis C.
Since then, more than 1,100 inmates have been treated with a combination of drugs, Interferon and Rabavirin - the most extensive program for inmates in the country. Such treatment costs up to $20,000 per patient for a 48-week program, but it has been successful in about 75 percent of the cases.
Fred Maue, chief of medical services for the Department of Corrections, has said the number of inmates receiving medicine for hepatitis C will drop from the current 550 to 130 - and then possibly to fewer than 100. "We felt we needed to prioritize our budget," he said, explaining the effect of the state's budget problems.
The cutback is a matter of grave concern for public health. People often take an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to issues concerning those behind bars. They argue that it is all part of the debt inmates must pay to society for their criminal wrongdoing.
Our constitution, public health officials, and common sense suggest otherwise, however. Our conservative Supreme Court has stood strongly in support of the concept of providing adequate medical care to those held in state custody. Health officials warn that diseases in prison can - and do - spread easily to the population at large.
We are putting everyone at risk by reducing this treatment. Diseases such as hepatitis C cannot distinguish between an inmate and a visitor or a corrections department employee. More than 15,000 people are employed at Pennsylvania's 25 state correctional institutions. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come and go each year. More than 95 percent of those in prison eventually return to their communities.
All of these people are at risk of being infected with hepatitis C. To ignore this danger is to look at public health through the eyes of a jailer. We must aggressively address this health threat - not bury it under political rhetoric.
Budget cuts such as the one triggering reductions in treatment of hepatitis C are more frequent in these difficult economic times. Gov. Rendell reduced budgets for all state-run departments by 5 percent in his first budget. The country's economic downturn has plagued Pennsylvania and most other states.
It is far cheaper to treat hepatitis C in our prisons than to let it infect our communities. The continued spread of hepatitis C within and outside prison walls will result in far greater harm and cost to our society. Though I commend the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections for initially taking the lead in hepatitis C treatment, I urge it to reconsider curtail the program. The health of all concerned is at stake.
-------------------------
Angus Love is executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, which provides free civil legal assistance for people in federal, state and county prisons.