Death row inmates at the federal prison in Terre Haute are routinely denied access to medical, dental and mental health care, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday in a letter to a governmental official.
A yearlong investigation by the ACLU’s National Prison Project uncovered “grossly inadequate” conditions that “fail to meet constitutional standards and jeopardize the health and safety” of the more than 50 inmates awaiting execution at the prison, the organization said in a letter to Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“The Constitution prohibits deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of prisoners, including those sentenced to die,” ACLU attorney Gabriel B. Eber said in a news release. He called on officials to “do whatever is necessary” to correct the problems.
Associated Press – October 15, 2008:
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What is it with America and its weird attitude toward health care? Universal health care, whether you are condemned to death or not, should be a basic human right in a civilized society.
I read people posting on DU that Islam is a barbaric and backward religion. Barbaric and backward is how I would describe a society (and religion) that denies health care to the sick, supports the death penalty and invades other countries with the sole intention of looting and pillaging their assets and forcing your values upon the inhabitants.
Take a good look at what you have become, America. You have become a backward and barbarous nation controlled by greedy Christian hypocrites, universally hated and morally (and now financially) bankrupt.
There shouldn’t be, a Death Row. Executions should take place in the courthouse, with the jury in attendance, immediately after sentencing.
Yeah, that’s great. Keep someone alive so that you can kill them.
sure the reason for death row is so the person can go through the appeal process. not only are people took off of death row, there have been many people found to be not guilty of the charges that put them there.
Each era defines cruel and unusual punishment differently. The death sentence prescribes the method of death. The have cured inmates so they could execute them. Why is there this persistent delusion that the human race is rational? I thought that was one of the reasons of this blog. Along with promoting JCD paying enterprises and to gather ideas for his 72 weekly publications. 🙂
The way I see it if you’re on appeal in death row there should be no reason why you should be denied healthcare. The prison-industrial complex makes plenty of money that they shouldn’t be hurting just for denying not only death row inmates but all inmates healthcare.
I think it’s only reasonable that a family of a child that was raped and buried alive should be partially responsible for the killers well being and good health,and as a society we should all feel a little guilty that someone in an inmates shoes should be afforded so little when we have so much.
“It’s not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they’ve got a chance for success too,” Obama responded. “My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody … I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”
exact quote from Obama
You know what suck, you goto hospital for your sickness and having out figure out what does anything that dr do cost or if it covered by insurance or not!
$3000 worth of treatment, only $1200 covered was covered by insurance and I already pays more then that in last 5 years and never visited a doctor!
If the inmate still has appeals left then it seems obvious that he or she should get medical care There have been enough people in prison for years that were found innocent due to DNA evidence to show that the guilt of every prisoner can’t be guaranteed.
However, it should be reasonable levels of health care. If it is a long term illness that doesn’t really involve pain but does involve very expensive drugs? I’m not so sure.
Everyone in prison should get basic care – stitches, antibiotics, set bones, CPR. Prisoners should be able to buy health insurance, if their families can afford it.
These people will eventually get out of prison. How horrible would it be if, being in prison for a year or two, you were denied the right to use your own insurance to get a tumor irradiated.
Death row inmates? Nothing above and beyond the most basic, and immediate, care. Prisoners on death row should also be allowed to opt for early, or immediate, execution.
Bring back the firing squad.
Funny, I don’t see anything in the constitution that says prisoners are entitled to health care.
Wait, wait….Why should our tax dollars finance or benefit death row inmates health? Makes no sense.
[Duplicate comment deleted. Please don’t double post! – ed.]
there was a person on death row,
he decided to Starve himself to death.
Those in charge, Hooked him up to IV and kept him alive until they could kill him..
Yes, they should. I don’t support the death penalty at all, BTW.
#13 Yeah, much better to throw them in a stinking unsanitary hole to rot and fester until the state murders them. Barbaric.
You throw billions of tax dollars at the war in Iraq because your ‘bringing Democracy to the region’ but you wont spend tax dollars on health care for fellow Americans.
# 11 “Funny, I don’t see anything in the constitution that says prisoners are entitled to health care.”
No, but I do see a right to bear arms.
Funny how the American Communist Liberal Union sees something in the Constitution that isn’t there and totally misses something that is.
LOL
#1 Alien, “What is it with America and its weird attitude toward health care? Universal health care, whether you are condemned to death or not, should be a basic human right in a civilized society.”
That’s easy to handle. All that’s required in the U.S. is an amendment to our constitution. If enough American’s want it as a basic right then it’ll happen. It’ called DEMOCRACY. Where do you live?
#17 – O’Pinocchio
You wouldn’t know a well-regulated militia if it bit you on your pimply ass.
The closest you’ve ever come to anything military is sitting on your pasty fat kiester, cheering Dumbya thowing American young people into the meat-grinder of Iraq.
I’m willing to pay more Taxes to get Universal Health Care. It will be a lot cheaper then paying for Insurance Premiums for most people. May be I can finally start my own business too!
#20 – Sleepy
>>I’m willing to pay more Taxes to get
>>Universal Health Care.
Me too. Most reasonable people would. The right wingnuts (I guess that’s redundant; all wingnuts are tighty-righties) will call you a commie, a pinko, and a fag.
Tsk.
#18 I’m not questioning America’s democratic institutions but the reasoning behind the reluctance to spend tax dollars on universal health care. The only conclusion I can come to, given that your Democracy works (according to you at any rate) and you *could* have universal health care if you wanted it, is that you don’t give a shit about the well being of your fellow humans and would rather spend tax dollars waging war, filling the coffers of the already obscenely rich.
Id be interested to know just how many Americans do support universal heath care. We have it here in Australia and its political death to those who try to remove it.
Our Constitution requires meticulous examination of the trial process to attempt to avoid the injustice of executing an innocent person. This takes years. One reason our system passes Constitutional muster is because of this lengthy process. It’s called Due Process.
If you don’t like it, change the Constitution. Really, change it, because it is the only way to circumvent its protection unless we resort to lawlessness such as lynching. In the meantime, we are stuck with what the Founding Fathers left to us, a principle Justice Scalia and the ACLU can both agree upon.
Even the guilty who will ultimately be executed (a low percentage of those who go to death rows because of the cost and complexity of review) have the right to reasonable health care. And by the way, death row inmates already have the right to “volunteer” to waive further litigation and be executed in a fairly quick process. And there are always quicker ways to commit suicide.
Do death row inmates deserve health care?
Absolutely. As long as the care is delivered by the relatives of the victim(s).
#22 – Mr. Ripper
>>you don’t give a shit about the well being of
>>your fellow humans and would rather spend tax
>>dollars waging war, filling the coffers of the
>>already obscenely rich.
That’s pretty much it, at least for the past 8 years….
It’s about to change in 3 weeks, with the implementation beginning in 96 days.
Sure they can have some asprin and cough med’s. Nothing else as far as treatment. Break a bone get stabbed or raped, you get bandage and asprin. You get cancer you get asprin. Or ask to move up the execution date. Makes no sense to pay to keep a dead man alive.
No.
#25 MM
I wish I had your confidence in Obama. I’m distrustful of governments of any persuasion, as they always act in the interests of the obscenely wealthy regardless of what they promise. Power corrupts absolutely.
Personally, I’ll be just glad to see the criminal neo-cons out of office and GWB take his place in history as the Worst (Dumbest?) President Ever.
#21 – “all wingnuts are tighty-righties”
You really think there are no wingnuts on the Left? C’mon.
#27 – Mr. Ripper
>>I wish I had your confidence in Obama.
Well, Obama may not be perfect, but he’s head and shoulders above Bush, and his evil twin McBush.
It’s a darned good step in the right direction.
After watching Obama and McBush in tonight’s debate, there’s just no comparison. Obama is the man. And based on the running graph at the bottom of the CNN screen, there are a lot of others that feel the same way.