By Laura A. Bischof
Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS — The Cincinnati-based Ohio Justice and Policy Center filed a motion in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to extend a class-action lawsuit over the quality of prison medical care for 50,000 inmates, signaling that the long-standing fight may not be finished.
The suit, originally filed in 2003, alleged that Ohio’s inmate health care failed to meet the minimum standards. A settlement agreement reached in 2005 led the state to hire 310 more medical staff and ramp up spending by about $28 million a year, according to the Correctional Institution
Inspection Committee, a bipartisan legislative agency that keeps tabs on prison issues.
The Ohio Justice and Policy Center says the problem has not been fixed. Inadequate staffing means inmates don’t get essential medications or receive timely care for serious conditions, the center said.
Ohio’s prison system spends $210 million to $223 million a year on medical care, including $28 million for prescription medications. As in the private sector, health care costs have exploded in the prison system over the last decade. In 2010, Ohio’s health care spending averaged $4,371 per inmate, up 85 percent from the $2,365 per inmate cost in 2001.
The steady climb in Ohio’s prison medical costs is attributable to health care inflation, an aging inmate population and the federal class-action lawsuit.
The settlement deal between the state and the Ohio Justice and Policy Center was set to expire in November 2010, but the center and state prison officials mutually agreed to extend it to June 22 to give Ohio time to shift from contract doctors and nurses to hiring state workers to provide those medical services. Court monitoring over dental services ended a year ago.
The state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction noted that other allegations made by the center will be addressed through the court process.
Copyright 2012 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.