Good on ya, Yvonne and JJ.
Posted by: Donna
For the past several months Republic reporters Yvonne Wingett and JJ Hensley have been investigating the horrid conditions of the Maricopa County Jail health system. If you haven’t had the chance, please do yourself a favor and read yesterday’s and today’s features.
Peruse the comments section, if you’ve got the stomach for it. Lots of the usual ignorant claptrap about how you should just stay out of jail if you don’t want to die from a treatable condition and the obligatory references to the “American Communist Liberal Union”. Oh, and Obama-bashing.
There are a few comments from people who have lost their jobs and health insurance and wonder why inmates merit such concern. I understand where those folks are coming from, believe me. Until this April, I was without health insurance for over a year and lived in constant dread of an illness or injury. But I still wasn’t in jail. If I had a medical emergency I could have (ostensibly) walked into a hospital and been given care. Sure, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the gold-plated treatment I get now with the (very good) coverage I have with my job, but I can be reasonably sure that I wouldn’t have been left to die from, say, complications of diabetes that would manageable if treated. (That said, I guess I should acknowledge that the fact that I’m Caucasian and not “low class” would be extremely helpful to me in that situation.) The point is that this is the kind of divide-and-conquer stuff that Republicans do so well. Arpaio loves to insist how his inmates have it no worse than soldiers in Iraq. But so what? That’s not an indication that he’s treating the inmates just fine; it’s an indication that we treat our soldiers like dirt.
Or to put it another way: If you don’t have a problem with suspects and petty criminals dying in cages in the hot sun or from an untreated insulin attack, just remember that Bernie Madoff will probably get excellent care wherever he’s sent.
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