Jails are in the habit of releasing sick prisoners in order to avoid paying their medical bills
The jail in Perry County, Alabama. Photo: W. Steve Shepard Jr./Getty Images The prohibitive costs of America’s for-profit health-care system are well documented. Even in 2016, after the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act had taken effect and the national uninsured rate was down to 8.8 percent, a historical low, nearly 30 million people still lacked coverage, a disproportionate share of them black or Latino.
But among the less-appreciated features of America’s system is how it supplements our more explicitly punitive institutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in Alabama, where an investigation from ProPublica and AL.
On his fourth day in the aging jailhouse, Tidwell became ill and vomited off and on for the ensuing 48 hours. He was unconscious for most of his final two days there, according to court and medical records.Before he was taken to Washington County Hospital, Tidwell’s blood sugar reading was 1,500 mg/dl; a normal reading for him is 80 to 100 mg/dl. Over the less than seven full days he was incarcerated, he had lost at least 17 pounds, records show.
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