Corizon Corizon,Inc; Corizonhealth Saving Florida Money? Maybe. Denying Healthcare to Inmates? Absolutely. Sneads Florida

In 2013, Corizon, Inc began providing healthcare services to Florida Inmates.  Gov. Rick Scott endorsed this change, stating that Corizon would provide the same services for a lesser cost.

On its website, Corizon boasts that it is the largest prison healthcare provider in the nation, so the problem is not isolated to the state of Florida.

When Corizon took over providing healthcare at the prison I worked at, the staffing ratios mandated by the State were not honored.  At full staff, all of our healthcare workers were overworked.  Corizon cut our healthcare staff by 25%.  Which 25% of inmates are going to be denied healthcare?

Inmates are the ONLY population in the United States which is GUARANTEED access to reasonable healthcare, by way of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution: denying inmates access to reasonable health care is considered cruel and unusual punishment.

Readers of this may be angered by this fact, as am I.  Since Corizon let me go because of a documented disability, I have been on Florida Medicaid.  BTW, when Corizon terminated me, they REFUSED to document that I was no longer working, which made it very difficult to get public assistance.  But this article is not about me, it is about the State of Florida.

Having worked with inmates for the past nine years, I am not in any way sympathetic to their cause.  I beleive that if the State convicts a person of a crime, and sentences them to a sentence of less than Life, that the same State should provide them with food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and religious opportunities.  It is the Florida Department of Corrections, NOT the Department of Punishment.

I also realize that there are many people in prison because they could not afford an attorney.  Many inmates do have friends and family sympathetic to their cause, and it is to these people that I am addressing this post.

In the name of Cost Savings, the State of Florida has left itself wide open to federal lawsuits.  

In the past, if an inmate sustained a head injury with a loss of consciousness, the inmate was sent out to the nearest hospital for evaluation.  Not now. With Corizon in charge of healthcare, there are to be NO ambulance calls.

In the past, if an inmate overdosed on medication, blood was drawn for drug levels and the inmate was sent to the hospital until blood levels returned to normal, or until it could be determined that the inmate had been untruthful.  With Corizon in charge, there will be NO outside hospital trips.  Broken bones will no longer be sent to the Orthopedic Specialists in Lake Butler-bones will be set by physician's assistants and physicians with limited licences, or a Registered Nurse if it happens between the hours of 5PM and 8AM.

People, if you are reading this and you have a husband, father, uncle, brother, son, cousin, baby daddy or homeboy, please advocate for the State of Florida to return inmate healthcare to the State, and away from privatization.  The State does NOT make a profit from inmates' pain-Corizon does!