Nov 26, 2007 9:30 pm US/Eastern
Taxpayers Pay For County Inmate Medical Care
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
Inmates at the Allegheny County Jail are getting some of the best medical care the region has to offer and taxpayers are footing the bill.
The county says it's the law even though the inmates don't have any medical insurance and many of them haven't seen a doctor in years.
When an inmate gets into a fight or comes down with the flu, they usually end up at the jail infirmary for some stitches or bed rest.
But every year the jail sends out dozens of inmates with problems that can't be treated in house to local hospitals for expensive treatments and procedures.
"Guess who pays - the taxpayers pay," Jail Warden Ramon Rustin said.
Taxpayers are shelling out between $2 million and $3 million a year for pacemakers, cancer treatments and state-of-the-art surgeries.
According to records obtained by KDKA, dozens of inmates are racking up individual tabs of $50,000, $100,000 and even $150,000 for treatments they could never hope to get if they weren't in jail.
"It is, it is [frustrating] but you know we're obligated to provide treatment to everybody that's in our institution," Rustin said.
Inmates like a repeated drunken driver who was discovered to have a failing liver. His bill for repeated treatments top $80,000.
Inmates with kidney failure amass medical bills of $150,000 and $80,000 each. You're paying the bill even though their medical conditions weren't discovered until the inmates went to jail.
"They have not received good medical care and many times when they come in to jail, they're found to have conditions that are serious and occasionally life-threatening and then you and I pick up the cost of that," Dr. Bruce Dixon, of the Allegheny County Health Department, said.
Dixon says the county's hands are tied. They are required by federal law to provide the care even if it seems like a reward for bad behavior.
"I don't like it anymore than you like it but there are things that are basically required and basically are ethical to do," Dixon said.
At the same time, judges could release inmates on bond if they are non-violent and perhaps some mentally ill inmates shouldn't be in jail in the first place. One woman jailed several times for prostitution has been hospitalized dozens of times for swallowing dangerous objects at the cost of the taxpayer of $70,000.
Rustin says the county is examining all possible solutions.
"Believe me if I, if there's any ways to cut my expenses you know to lower this budget, I'll do it in a minute," he said.
In addition to these medical costs, the sheriff's department is spending more than $200,000 a year to guard these inmates while they're in the hospital.
County Chief Executive Dan Onorato says he's very concerned about these costs.
Watch for Andy Sheehan's next report tomorrow on KDKA-TV News at 6 p.m.
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