Detroit Free Press: EDITORIAL
DETROIT — A just-released audit of Michigan’s dysfunctional prison health care system might have missed plenty. Still, it’s troubling enough to renew calls for the governor and Legislature to ensure independent oversight of Michigan’s nearly $300-million prison health care system.
Unfortunately, the auditors from the National Commission on Correctional Health Care failed to interview inmates -- the direct users of the system -- or experts who have reported problems to the federal court.
Even so, the 131-page document exposed a range of problems, including staffing shortages, an inefficient and “achingly slow” electronics records system, underuse of telemedicine, a cumbersome bureaucracy, low productivity, and conflicts of interest in the use of psychologists for patient care as well as parole board evaluations.
Perhaps most troubling, however, was the Michigan Department of Corrections’ failure, over the last 10 years, to provide a single monitoring report for its contract with Correctional Medical Services of Missouri, the private, for-profit provider of primary medical services. Nor has the department monitored its mental health contract with the Department of Community Health.
To her credit, MDOC Director Patricia Caruso has acknowledged systemic problems and vowed to fix them. Among other things, the department will hire a quality assurance administrator to oversee health care improvements.
But Michigan can no longer rely solely on the oversight of a department whose failure to hold people accountable has caused so much unnecessary suffering and even death. It needs an independent body with access to medical records -- and the authority to act.
In a shortsighted move, the Legislature closed its Corrections Ombudsman’s Office in 2003. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislators from both parties have expressed support for reopening the office, but none has acted. At the very least, Granholm could appoint her own medical monitor.
In August 2006, the death from heat and thirst of a 21-year-old mentally ill inmate, Timothy Joe Souders, brought national shame to Michigan.
The commission’s report can be a blueprint for change or an empty gesture to remove political pressure. Much will depend on whether Granholm and the Legislature have the courage and foresight to ensure independent oversight of prison health care in Michigan.
Copyright 2008 Detroit Free Press