The quality of healthcare provided in prisons varied by location and personal experience, but generally healthcare functioned on the assumption that incarcerated people were trying to abuse the system. Although this may be true of some people inside, it leads to undue prolongment of pain and symptoms which worsened the medical issue and made it more costly to treat.
Jay on healthcare and treating his hernia:
“They’re, they’re trained to look for the cheapest solution possible. Not the most effective, the cheapest solution. Like they were going to give me a jockstrap for a hernia, and if I say no, I’m refusing treatment.”
Tore dealt with similar complications in diagnosing and treating his now long term knee injury which still troubles him today. Part of the issue is likely the inaccessibility of physical therapy.
“The doctor gave me the bands, and then the health care said you can’t have them.”
Tore and Jay also note the scarcity of needs being addressed due to the system used to request medical care: submitting internal mail called kites, which were limited in access and slow to respond.
Medical professionals like dentists and nurses were described as being available at irregular schedules. Mostly, those incarcerated were treated by nurse practitioners or physicians. Jay describes the presence of a doctor within the correctional facility to be akin to spotting a unicorn.
Jay, Tore, and several other participants expressed their reliance on having the right connections to get treatment, as well as having to repeatedly emphasize their suffering to be heard.
Unfortunately, even when medical needs were established prior to incarceration, people like Ursula still faced obstacles to receiving proper medical care. Having been diagnosed with bipolar and ADHD, Ursula had been on a regiment of medication that regulated her symptoms to manageable levels. When she was incarcerated, her access to her needed medication was lost and it took several months for her to negotiate for her prescriptions to be filled.
“I had been on the same meds four years and when I went to prison, they would not give them to me.”
Everything depended on meeting with the right doctor. Ursula’s situation also only speaks to receiving medication that she knew worked for her as well. One can imagine the process of diagnosing and finding proper treatment without an established record would be even more difficult inside.
Q avoided healthcare as much as possible, only going for his yearly checkup. However, he noted a nurse getting a needle stuck in his arm, being prescribed preventative high blood pressure medication he did not need or consent to receiving, and a dangerous combination of appendicitis and dismissive medical staff.
“Had I done what she said, take her Tums and lay down, it could have killed me.”
COVID Prison Archive 
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