Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/807066
t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 7 24 It's an issue made worse by the fact that prisoners are more likely than the general popu- lation to report ever having a chronic condition or infectious disease, with 40 percent of state and federal prisoners and jail inmates reporting current chronic medical conditions, according to a National Inmate Survey published by the U.S. Department of Justice. Many offenders in the Estelle Unit will die on the inside. More and more will require increas- ingly expensive medical care and infirmary placement. But where will they go, when much of Estelle's medical slots are already at max capac- ity? Releasing older offenders with a low likeli- hood of committing a crime has been proposed, but how would the justice system determine criteria, especially when life sentences are on the line? It's a problem the state legislature will have to address, and soon. "When I started in '95, we had open infirmary beds, but now they're filled 100 percent of the time, and the number of those patients who are permanently assigned has grown each year," Murray said. "Right now, about 70 percent of our total beds are filled with offenders who will never get out of here." Blister packs Each prison in the state of Texas has a Count Room, where rows of colored tags hang from tiny hooks on a wall. It's a visual census, a physical database of every offender in the facility, their tags marked with height, weight, age, medical restrictions, custody levels and whether or not they require a bottom bunk due to strength and mobility. The tags are color-coded by race—blue for black, red for Hispanic, white for white. Offenders are separated into different wings based not on race, but on age and stature; indi- viduals in each group can be no more than WITH A CURRENT CHRONIC CONDITION TAKE PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION* 66% of u.s. prisoners Prisoners Have a Right to Medical Care "Under the landmark 1976 Estelle v. Gamble decision, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that prisoners have a constitutional right to adequate med- ical attention and concluded that the Eighth Amendment is violated when corrections officials display 'deliberate indifference' to an inmate's medical needs. The manner in which states manage prison health care services that meet these legal requirements affects not only inmates' health, but also the public's health and safety and taxpayers' total corrections bill." Source: State Prison Health Care Spending: An Examination, a report from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation In the Count Room at the Estelle Unit, rows of colored tags serve as a visual census for every offender in the facility.