Doctor: Inmates should be able to get transplants

[okarol]

Doctor: Inmates should be able to get transplants

Tuesday, June 05, 2007
By Pat Shellenbarger
The Grand Rapids Press

A policy barring Michigan prison inmates from receiving kidney transplants should be overturned, a doctor appointed to monitor medical care inside Jackson prisons urged in a report to a federal judge.

Denying prisoners with advanced kidney disease the right to be considered for a transplant is "incompatible with the practice of medicine," Dr. Robert Cohen told U.S. District Judge Richard Enslen.

"As a physician, I find this extremely disturbing. All authorities agree that transplantation is the recommended treatment for ESRD (end-stage renal disease)."

Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan confirmed his agency has a policy against organ transplants for inmates.

"There are not enough kidneys available to provide law-abiding citizens out in the community," he said, adding kidney dialysis is an alternative offered to inmates.

Cohen agreed prisoners should not be more favorably considered for transplant than anyone else, but neither should they be denied a place on a transplant waiting list simply because they are in prison, he said.

A transplant is cheaper than keeping a patient on dialysis indefinitely and can add years to a patient's life, Cohen said.

Two of the 60 prisoners receiving kidney dialysis in the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility died in April, according to court records, although it was unclear whether transplants would have saved them.

"There were serious deficiencies in the medical care provided both patients," attorneys for a group of inmates wrote in a brief filed last week with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Cohen's recommendation is the latest development in a long-running class action lawsuit over conditions in the Jackson prisons. In May, Enslen temporarily barred the state from going ahead with plans to close Southern Michigan Correctional Facility this summer, a decision the state appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Attorneys for the inmates asked the appeals court to deny the appeal and allow the case to proceed before Enslen. The attorneys contend the decision to close the prison is an attempt to get out from under federal court jurisdiction by scattering hundreds of medically fragile inmates to prisons statewide. The inmates' attorneys asked Enslen to grant them access to Corrections Department records to determine if the closing is an attempt to evade the court's jurisdiction.

Marlan confirmed the lawsuit is one reason corrections officials marked Southern Michigan Correctional Facility for closing, "but it's absurd to say we're going to close this facility just to get out from under the lawsuit."

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has ordered the Corrections Department to cut its spending by $92 million a year, a directive Marlan said can only be met by closing prisons. Fighting the lawsuit, he said, cost the state $800,000 in attorney fees last year and $700,000 this year.

The state is facing a July 15 deadline ordered by Enslen to install air conditioning equipment to assure that the heat index in parts of the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility does not exceed 90 degrees. That order came after a 21-year-old inmate died last August while shackled to a bed during a heat wave.

Complying with that order could cost the state $10 million for permanent air conditioning units and more than $1 million for temporary equipment, Marlan said.

Send e-mail to the author: pshellenbarger@grpress.com

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-36/1181051180120950.xml&coll=6

[Sara]

"There are not enough kidneys available to provide law-abiding citizens out in the community,"

This is what stands out most to me.  If they have a relative or friend who wants to donate to them, I don't think I'd have a problem with that.

[George Jung]

To deny an inmate the best treatment available is absurd.  People make all kinds of mistakes and those in prison are paying for them in that respect, they do not deserve to be denied a transplant.  One exception should be only if they are on death row or possibly serving a life sentence, that I could understand.  It would be really cool if there was a program to encourage long term inmates to donate life.  For someone who has seen the err of their ways and are looking to right what they have done wrong there may not be a more satisfying decision than to save another life. 

[glitter]

Having inmates donate organs is scary, I realize not every person in prison is also a drug addict, engages in homosexual behavior, or just came in already HIV +,  but I would think too many prisoners engage in high risk behavior for them to be a good organ source.

As for a prisoner getting an organ- death row and Life no way.  Shorter sentences still allow for a person to redeem themselves in society- I could go for that.

I would like to see it talked about in every grade of school- Organ donation as if everyone should, this is just what we do as a society. That would be great.

[jbeany]

 I say let them apply for the list like the rest of us. I think the people objecting think the list is just something you automatically get your name put on when you have kidney failure.   How many prisoners would actually be eligible anyhow?  Think of all the hoops we had to jump thru to get put on the list, and the dozens of things that eliminate people from getting on it.  How many of them would realistically have a shot at getting on?  Is a prison system considered an "adequate support system"?  Any previous drug use would keep them off - pretty hard to deny a habit if you are serving a sentence for possession.  And then there's the mental health and stability issue - what social worker would pass an inmate convicted of anything more than some white collar crime?  It's unlikely most of them would qualify financially - as soon as they got out, they would have to have a job or family that could pay for the meds - how many would meet that requirement?  Would they be able to do the follow up care required?  Denying them the chance to apply just gives people something to complain about.  It's not like they are going to get on the list anyhow.

[Sluff]

Inmates should be eligible under the same rules and procedures as anyone else. Obviously if they have aids or something like that they would be ineligible. Just because they chose to spend the life they have in prison, doesn't mean they should not be able to receive proper medical care.

[George Jung]

I figured it would be understood that the same requirements/qualifications would be imposed.  Of course they should not have any privileged rights but none should be taken away either.  By the way, it's not just violent offenders and drug sellers/users in jail.  They may or may not be the majority, I could care less really, but someone who qualifies should have the privilege of the treatment.

[st789]

Communist China. 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[glitter]

I say let them apply for the list like the rest of us. I think the people objecting think the list is just something you automatically get your name put on when you have kidney failure.   How many prisoners would actually be eligible anyhow?  Think of all the hoops we had to jump thru to get put on the list, and the dozens of things that eliminate people from getting on it.  How many of them would realistically have a shot at getting on?  Is a prison system considered an "adequate support system"?  Any previous drug use would keep them off - pretty hard to deny a habit if you are serving a sentence for possession.  And then there's the mental health and stability issue - what social worker would pass an inmate convicted of anything more than some white collar crime?  It's unlikely most of them would qualify financially - as soon as they got out, they would have to have a job or family that could pay for the meds - how many would meet that requirement?  Would they be able to do the follow up care required?  Denying them the chance to apply just gives people something to complain about.  It's not like they are going to get on the list anyhow.

very good point.