The medical care provided to Pennsylvania prisoners is marginal at best. In many of the 26 state prisons, such as Huntingdon, the care is quite poor. In others it's somewhat better. It depends on the staff and on the contractor. The Department of Imprisonment provides some services directly such as nursing. Many of the nurses are friendly, qualified and conscientious. A few are like Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety. Three contractors profit handsomely from providing care to Pennsylvania prisoners. At present an outfit called Prison Health Services out of Brentwood, Tennessee contracts to provide the doctors and people called "physician assistants" who are supposed to substitute for doctors. Some of the doctors are satisfactory, the majority couldn't make it as veterinarians. The physician assistants, or "PAs," by contrast operate contrary to Pennsylvania law in almost all respects and are almost universally of incompetent caliber. There's also a contractor for psychiatric treatment. His job is pretty much limited to telling prisoners that they're depressed and prescribing lots of psychotropic drugs to keep the "inmates" stupefied. The drugs are contracted from Diamond Pharmacy Services out of Indiana, Pennsylvania. This firm habitually fails to deliver necessary drugs on time. Just today, they have failed to ship nitroglycerin needed for a prisoner's serious heart condition. At present there are about 42,000 Pennsylvania State prisoners. Many of them (over 5,000) are old. Thanks to the insane Republican imprisonment policies, the prisoners are getting older and sicker. Thousands more are sick, crippled, invalid and dying. Their medical care is simply not adequate. The dental treatment is no better. The Imprisonment Department pays over $9140 per year to give generous health benefits to each and every member of the staff. Each prisoner is provided less that half of that amount. Because most prisoners can't afford to pay the seemingly small "co-pay" (about a quarter of their monthly income), they avoid medical treatment. That only allows dangerous conditions to get far worse. The State is addressing the problem by doubling the amount of the co-pay. If the State gets its desire, twice as many prisoners will die. If you have a loved one in prison, help him stay healthy and fight to get him medical care. Prison Healthcare Menu Healthcare In Prison Report on the Deadly Prison Medicine Payment Scheme Patient Died Waiting for His Boots Baby Born to Unattended Mother in Jail Cell Iraq Sending Us Drug-Resistant "Super Germs" Deadly Infection Attacking Pennsylvania Prisoners and Guards Killing Off More Pennsylvania Prisoners Getting More Blood Money Feed the Sick Prisoners Chilled Swill Many Sick Prisoners Aren't Treated Amateur Operates on Sick Prisoners Imprisonment Department Fails to Prevent Medical Crimes Healthcare Needs of the Aging Prison Population Imprisonment Boss Punishes Prisoners for Being Sick and Old Keeping Cancer in the Pennsylvania Prisons Dog Roams the Frackville Prison Medical Department Wexford and Medical Lies Wexford's Doing Its Worse In Florida Medications Often Unavailable at the Frackville Prison Prison Medical Information Illegally Made Public Prison Nurse Greg Wants Prisoners to be Killed Prisoners' Illnesses Punish Their Families Heart-Healthy Diet Benefits Only the Prison Budget Deadly Prison Infection Has Spread to the Public Schools Prison Health Services Deals in Death Death, Disease and Dorina, Prison Bureaucrat Correcting the Patient for having a Heart Attack Medical Unit "E," Laurel Highlands Prison Individual Cases Female Prisoner Murdered at the Muncy State Prison The Doctor Is a Dangerous Bully Prisoner's Cancer Interered With Guards' Loafing Prison Health Service Lets Smithfield Prisoner Die Nurse Vicki Stanishefski Fails to Help Prisoners Nurse Vicki Stanishefski Is a Danger to Her Patients The Needless Death of Joseph Reif Prisoner Cancer Patient Allowed to Die Steve Gresiak Died From Frackville Prison Neglect A Death In Wyoming Wexford Strikes Again Guard Sergeant Withholds Heart Medication Loved Ones Not Notified of Prisoner's Death Heart Attack Patient Subjected to Sadistic Ineptitude Dauphin County Neglected Another Prisoner to Death Healthcare Information A Marve1! The Cold Water Diet Really Works Official Information On Members of the Prison Medical Staff Jeff Dicks Medical Coalition Helps Sick Prisoners A Database of Useful Healthcare Websites Socialist Guards Against Socialized Medicine A Genetic Basis for "Crime" Impotent Prison Guards and the Tax Costs of Their Viagra Government Lies About Breast Cancer Research Barbaric Torture at Laurel Highlands Prison Hospital Rebecca's Bargain Antiques Collectible Vintage Photos Fine Prints - Old Maps Sheet Music - Old Books Elegant Antiques and Collectibles "Facts don't cease to exist because they are ignored" Aldous Huxley, 1927 You are welcome to use or republish any of our material. Please give www.prisoners.com credit as the source. Return to the Main Menu Go to our site's Search Engine Send us Your Comments or Input.