The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Inmates encouraged to seek local health care
A two-year-old state policy that allows inmates in halfway houses to access Medicaid services for health care encourages them to seek better medical assistance nearby rather than return to state prisons where they were required to return for even routine checkups, a new report indicates.
The former system resulted in inmates avoiding help for health problems, according to a report by the nonprofit Urban Institute. “Just to see the doctor, you’re walking back into prison,” one inmate told researchers. “That’s traumatizing for some guys. Nobody wants to go back to the prison they just left.”
Inmates complained that Department of Correction providers did not discuss treatment options, and there may have been disciplinary repercussions for advocating for their health.
Others said there was virtually no privacy for personal medical information. “What if I had like, you know, something where people are scared of, like AIDS or something, and now all of a sudden people are beating me up or something,” another inmate told the survey.
Halfway houses are community-based residences throughout Connecticut for those inmates preparing to transition away from incarceration. But prior to 2016, under federal rules, inmates had been banned from Medicaid eligibility, forcing those in halfway houses to return to prisons for all health needs.
Connecticut accepted the expansion of Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act.
About 1,000 men and women — 10 percent of the prison population — whose conduct while incarcerated is good and whose sentences are close to ending, are annually transferred to halfway houses. Many of them work during the day and return to the halfway houses, occupied by between 10 and 75 people, each night.
“Once Medicaid became available to them, halfway house residents, staff and correctional personnel found community-based care a substantial improvement over the previous system, which deterred people from seeking care, entailed logistical and security challenges and burdened staff and residents alike,” the report said. “Residents thought care quality and access were superior in the community, while staff perceived less burden and no additional risk.”
The survey asked inmates to rate the Medicaid program on access to care, and how they used the availability. Halfway house staff, DOC health care providers, correctional officers and state officials in all five regional parole districts were also interviewed.
“Inside the facility, I don’t think they take the medical situation as seriously as if you were a free man,” another inmate said. “Because we inmates or whatever, ex-inmates or whatever ... they don’t jump to your medical concerns.”