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Utah lawmakers should bring some healthy scepticism to a questionable proposal to privatize medical care for inmates at the Utah State Prison, taking care not to sacrifice improved inmate health care for the promise of a better bottom line.
A patient in prison has no medical options and very little recourse if health care is inadequate or downright negligent. And most inmates eventually leave prison, taking with them any untreated diseases, such as infectious HIV and hepatitis.
Utah's Bureau of Clinical Services, organized after lawsuits over inmate deaths in the 1990s, has improved inmate care while reducing costs. Even the American Civil Liberties Union and the Disability Law Center -- once highly critical of medical care in Utah prisons --...
