Editorial: Prisoners’ health at risk

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 | 7:12 a.m.

Inmates within the state's maximum-security prison at Ely are being deprived of adequate medical attention, federal public defenders Gary Taylor and Michael Pescetta told a Nevada legislative committee last week.

The two gave these examples:

There was no doctor at the prison, which is holding 1,068 inmates, during a recent two-month period. The previous prison doctor was an obstetrician-gynecologist with no experience in treating men. The prison's X-ray machine has been broken for six months. Inmates wait weeks to see a doctor. An inmate diagnosed with a serious medical condition may not even be informed of it for months.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada told the Las Vegas Sun this week that health care is exceptionally remiss at the state women's prison in North Las Vegas as well. Nearly penniless women are charged $8 to see a doctor, and if they do not have an additional $16, they are not informed of the results of any medical tests, the ACLU said.

The ACLU also noted the "complete lack of preventive care" and that the women prisoners can go as long as six years without a dental exam.

Findings by the public defenders and the ACLU mirror the state of health care in prisons around the country. A 15-month study of the U.S. prison system was completed last week and presented to a Senate subcommittee. The report, titled "Confronting Confinement," was prepared by a private commission whose members included former FBI Director William Sessions, National Urban League President Marc Morial and former U.S. Attorney General (under President Lyndon Johnson) Nicholas Katzenbach.

Along with documenting the abysmal health care throughout the nation's prison system, the report explained why all of us should care. "Every year, more than 1.5 million people are released from jail and prison carrying a life-threatening contagious disease," the report said.

A state prison spokesman, Fritz Schlottman, reacted to the report by Taylor and Pescetta, saying, "What do you expect from the public defender's office? ... You get what you pay for. How many people on the outside get free medical care?"

Nevada must overcome this kind of attitude. The state has a responsibility both to the inmates and public health. It must, without delay, decide upon a plan for improving medical services within its prisons.