Updated:

Mar 8, 2018

Original:

Apr 1, 2012

"Million-dollar inmates" on the rise in Minnesota prisons

More than a tenth of Minnesota's prison population is 50 years or older. Many of them who need expensive medical treatments for things like diabetes, cancer and heart disease are referred to as "million-dollar prisoners." The Star Tribune reports the Corrections Department has tripled its medical budget over the past 10 years in order to provide offenders with proper medical care.

Author:

More than a tenth of Minnesota's prison population is 50 years or older. Many of them who need expensive medical treatments for things like diabetes, cancer and heart disease are referred to as "million-dollar prisoners." The Star Tribune reports the Corrections Department has tripled its medical budget over the past 10 years in order to provide offenders with proper medical care.

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The medical director for the state Department of Corrections told the Star Tribune prison medical staff failed to quarantine a prisoner with a history of leprosy who had visible lesions. The offender was held in the general population in prisons at St. Cloud and Rush city for nearly two months this spring, exposing prison staff and hundreds of inmates to the communicable disease.

Four puppies are on their way to becoming service dogs thanks to the efforts of a Twin Cities program and the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth. Through the program Pawsitive Perspectives Assistance Dogs, or PawPADs, inmates will take two years to train the puppies in to disability dogs to help diabetics and the physically handicapped.

Minnesota prisons are joining other states nationwide that are allowing inmates to receive emails. MPR reports that the emails, which began this week, are coordinated by Iowa-based Advanced Technologies Group, which sends the emails to prison mailrooms. The messages are then printed out by staff members and delivered along with regular mail.

A new report suggests a Christian-based program is helping inmates leave prison and find housing and work. And a prison official tells MPR those benefits come at no cost to taxpayers. But some critics charge the program is taking advantage of vulnerable adults; others say it creates a separate class of inmates who get special benefits.

A new law taking effect in Minnesota next week means gardens may be popping up in the state's medium security prisons next spring. Glencoe Republican Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen is behind what he calls a "tough-love" law for offenders. Maintained by inmates, the gardens will produce food that will go to feed minimum-security unit inmates and families who get food from local food shelves.

The Interact program aims to reduce the number of times sick residents are sent to a hospital by offering additional medical training to nursing home employees. In other markets, the program has cut avoidable hospitalizations by up to 20 percent.

School districts, cities and counties in Minnesota are saving tens of millions of dollars in borrowing costs by refinancing old bonds, the Pioneer Press reports. The South Washington County School District is among the government organizations reaping the benefits of historically low interest rates. The district alone has saved more than $14 million since 2001.

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