The News Journal
05/19/2006
DOVER -- A bill that would require wholesale improvements in Delaware's prison medical system is dead for this year, crushed by a $30 million annual price tag attached to it by the General Assembly's staff.
The demise of Sen. Margaret Rose Henry's reform bill, Senate Bill 291, came Thursday when the Joint Finance Committee included no money in the Department of Correction's budget for next year to pay for the improvements.
The bill has been mired in the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. James Vaughn, D-Clayton, for months. Henry and Vaughn said the bill would not be considered this year, in large part because of the fiscal-impact report from the Controller General's Office.
"That would have added $30 million to correct the problem, and if we're spending $30 million to fix a $29 million system, we're really in a mess," Vaughn said. "We need to get a real picture of what's going on before we do anything like that."
Henry said her fight for the bill will resume next year.
"Inmate health care is an issue that's a big concern to a lot of legislators," Henry said. "It's not going away."
Problems with prison medical care were the subject of a series last year by The News Journal. After the series was published, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into medical care inside Delaware prisons.
The committee, which is amending Gov. Ruth Ann Minner's proposed $3 billion budget for the year that begins July 1, did add some extra money for prison health care. The panel agreed to pay the state's private health care provider more for existing services, and for several positions to better oversee Correctional Medical Services.
The panel added $2.9 million as an "inflation adjustment" for the CMS contract, raising the annual cost by 11 percent to more than $28.8 million. The multiyear contract was transferred to CMS without bidding last July on an emergency basis.
The committee shifted $238,900 to Corrections for prison health care oversight by the Division of Public Health, and prison care reviewers. That extends changes begun last fall by Minner and Correction Commissioner Stan Taylor to address substandard prison care.
Those steps followed the reports in The News Journal. This spring, articles detailed how a female inmate gave birth to twins in a toilet stall at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in March. She said a prison nurse employed by CMS ignored her complaints of powerful contractions, which began 24 hours prior to the births.
Henry's bill was drafted to address many of the shortcomings.
The bill would have required all incoming inmates to be tested for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis, and the training of guards as medical caregivers -- including for emergency childbirth.
The reform bill also would require CMS to deliver records of inmate deaths within three days to the Medical Society of Delaware's Prison Health Committee for review, and make other records available to the state for audit. Inmate medical grievances would have to be sent to the Department of Correction, not to the medical service provider.
But all of that would be costly, according to the fiscal analysis.
"There were concerns because of the estimate that this bill would cost at least $30 million over what we're spending now," Henry said. "I am going to be working with Sen. Vaughn to evaluate where we really are and what can be done about it."
Vaughn said he is concerned about inmate health care, but wants more study. He thinks the federal probe, coupled with greater oversight by the public health team, can shed light on the matter.
He also complained that Henry's bill was too unwieldy.
But the Rev. Christopher Bullock, who founded the Delaware Coalition for Prison Reform and Justice, said a price should not be placed on human life.
"We ought to be able to find money," said Bullock, adding that he continues to get letters from inmates complaining of improper medical care. "If we can find money for golf courses, we can find money for roads and bridges, we ought to be able to find money to help people live and not die."
He said he was not discouraged to hear of the bill's demise this session, and not deterred.
"This issue will not go away," Bullock said. "We will continue to fight and if we have to march again we will."
Other lawmakers said they will continue to press other prison reform bills in the month remaining before the General Assembly adjourns for the year on June 30.
Sen. Patricia Blevins, D-Elsmere, said she plans to push ahead with a bill that would mandate that all female inmates receive a pregnancy test when they enter prison and that staff receive training, including childbirth techniques.
Legislation that would make publicly funded reports open to public scrutiny -- including an audit of prison health care -- passed the state House this month without a vote against it.
House Bill 320, sponsored by North Dover Republican state Rep. Nancy H. Wagner, would require the state to release the audit and other such reports, provided that personal information such as medical records is withheld. The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate.
Contact Patrick Jackson at 678-4274 or pjackson@delawareonline.com. Contact Esteban Parra at 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.
