The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, will host a webcast on policy and strategy states can adopt to provide inmate health care in more cost-effective ways.
Inmate health care is a primary driver of state corrections costs. On average, states spend between 10 and 20 percent of their corrections budgets on providing health care, which inmates have a right to receive under the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and unusual punishment. Because prisoners are not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, the cost of providing health care falls entirely to states. As the nation’s prison population gets older and the number of chronically and terminally ill inmates increases, health care costs are only expected to rise.
This webcast will provide an overview of the primary drivers of health care costs and recommend policies and strategies states can adopt to reduce those costs.
Panelists
- Elizabeth Gondles, Health Care Advisor to the President, American Correctional Association
- Joan Shoemaker, Deputy Director of Prisons, Colorado Department of Corrections
- Viola Riggin, Director of Healthcare Services, Kansas Department of Corrections
- Richard Ellers, Director, Bureau of Health Care Services, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
