Changes Made: Insurance Coverage For Inmates
Attorney General Kim Wilson said that instead of insuring every inmate with HIP, approximately 40 inmates who have qualified for insurance are insured and the medical costs for the remaining inmates will be paid on a case-by-case basis.
“The DOC has recently changed the Insurance coverage for inmates,”said Minister Wilson speaking in the Senate today [May 16]. “This was preceded by an analysis of the cost of insurance versus the actual amounts claimed.”
“The result is that instead of insuring every inmate with HIP, DOC insures approximately 40 inmates who have qualified for insurance (i.e. those with long-term illness such as diabetes).
“The costs of medical attention for the remaining inmates will be paid on a case-by-case basis as incurred. On the basis of past claims, it is anticipated that with this change Government will save between $200,000 and $300,000 during this budget year.”
Minister Wilson went on to say that another area in which they intend to cut costs is by charging inmates for secondary issue of clothing and footwear.
“Upon reception, inmates are issued with underwear, prison clothes and running shoes. It is being proposed that any subsequent issue of such articles will be charged against the inmate’s canteen account,” Minister Wilson continued.
Minister Wilson also spoke about the ‘work release’ programme, saying earnings are kept in an account and are given to the inmate when they are released.
“A little over a year ago, the DOC and the Department of Works and Engineering (W&E) entered into an arrangement whereby inmates soon to be released, or soon after being released, were hired by W & E in full-time employment,” said Minster Wilson.
“The aim of this programme was to provide released inmates with meaningful and long-term employment. Owing to budget cuts, this programme has recently been temporarily suspended however a similar programme is in the advanced stages of development and will continue to provide meaningful and long-term employment to our inmates soon to be released.”
“Almost four years ago, an agreement was reached with the West End Development Corporation (WEDCo) to employ three carefully selected inmates from Westgate to provide low-level maintenance work on WEDCo properties in Dockyard.
“Inmates selected for this programme earn $5.00 per hour, as opposed to the $1.50 per day if they were in Westgate. Monies earned go into an account for the inmate, who may access the funds only by permission of the Commissioner.
“These funds are typically used to help support the family of the inmate for such things as school fees and other family-related expenses. Despite a hue and outcry from various quarters at the outset, this programme has been a huge success and one that has benefited the DOC, WEDCo and the families of inmates. The programme has been so successful that as a result two former inmates are now full-time employees of WEDCo.”
“The cumulative effect of these measures is that they afford the opportunity to directly cut costs by allowing inmates to earn money toward their upkeep,” said Minister Wilson.
Minister Wilson’s full statement from the Senate follows below:
Madame President, in these times of economic challenges warranting corresponding fiscal responsive measures; it is incumbent upon myself in my capacity as Minister of Justice, to provide some reassurances in this regard from time to time. This is particularly so as it relates to those incarcerated within our correctional facilities and the Department of Corrections’ (DOC) cost savings measures through work programs designed to rehabilitate inmates for their eventual reintroduction into society.
Madame President, soon after initial arrival at correctional facilities inmates are assessed as to the risk they will pose while incarcerated and are classified accordingly as either maximum, medium or minimum risk. Factors that are taken into consideration to determine an inmate’s risk classification are the offence for which they are incarcerated; sentence being served; and criminal history.
Madame President, the Westgate Correctional Facility (Westgate) is a multi-level security facility. It has three security levels for Maximum risk offenders; Medium risk offenders (called the Echo Units); and minimum risk offenders (the TLC programme). The Prison Farm Correctional Facility (PFCF) is a minimum security facility. When inmates reach the stage where they are assessed as being minimum risk, they are transferred to the PFCF or sometimes directly to TLC.
Madame President, the DOC has a work programme and community programme in place to facilitate the rehabilitation of inmates and to reintegrate them into society. Only inmates who fall into the category of ‘minimum security risk’ are eligible to leave the facility to participate in work or community programmes. Currently, inmates are involved in a variety of work-related programmes, broken down into 3 sequential phases; charity work, community service and work release. Furthermore, the vast majority of inmates involved in these programmes come from the PFCF, owing to its population posing the lowest level of security risk.
Madame President, the said programmes involve a myriad of public works projects and private engagements intended to match inmates’ skills with available employment; as well as to develop those skills and to build sustainable employment relationships beyond incarceration. Accordingly, the DOC operates in partnership with a number of Governmental agencies as well as private endeavours that are appreciative of the opportunities the Programmes afford and their societal benefit.
Madame President, the ‘work release’ phase of the programme at PFCF is the final phase of corrective rehabilitation during which inmates attend a place of employment. Earnings are kept in an account and are given to the inmate upon his discharge. All phases of the work programme involve stringent guidelines and rules to which each inmate and supervisor must adhere. Failure to do so results in disciplinary action and immediate withdrawal of inmates from the programme.
Madame President, little over a year ago, the DOC and the Department of Works and Engineering (W&E) entered into an arrangement whereby inmates soon to be released, or soon after being released, were hired by W & E in full-time employment. The aim of this programme was to provide released inmates with meaningful and long-term employment. Owing to budget cuts, this programme has recently been temporarily suspended however a similar programme is in the advanced stages of development and will continue to provide meaningful and long-term employment to our inmates soon to be released.
Madame President, almost four years ago, an agreement was reached with the West End Development Corporation (WEDCo) to employ three carefully selected inmates from Westgate to provide low-level maintenance work on WEDCo properties in Dockyard. Inmates selected for this programme earn $5.00 per hour, as opposed to the $1.50 per day if they were in Westgate. Monies earned go into an account for the inmate, who may access the funds only by permission of the Commissioner.
Madame President, these funds are typically used to help support the family of the inmate for such things as school fees and other family-related expenses. Despite a hue and outcry from various quarters at the outset, this programme has been a huge success and one that has benefited the DOC, WEDCo and the families of inmates.
The programme has been so successful that as a result two former inmates are now full-time employees of WEDCo. Residents at Westgate in its TLC programme are also eligible for work release and most of them are out every day at work as they prepare to re-integrate into the community.
Madame President, the DOC has recently changed the Insurance coverage for inmates. This was preceded by an analysis of the cost of insurance versus the actual amounts claimed. The result is that instead of insuring every inmate with HIP, DOC insures approximately 40 inmates who have qualified for insurance (i.e. those with long-term illness such as diabetes).
The costs of medical attention for the remaining inmates will be paid on a case-by-case basis as incurred. On the basis of past claims, it is anticipated that with this change Government will save between $200,000 and $300,000 during this budget year.
Madame President, another area in which the DOC is intending to cut costs is by charging inmates for secondary issue of clothing and footwear. Upon reception, inmates are issued with underwear, prison clothes and running shoes. It is being proposed that any subsequent issue of such articles will be charged against the inmate’s canteen account. “Canteen” is the term used for the inmates’ personal account into which family members or friends deposit funds and from which, the inmates draws to cover costs of incidentals such as toiletries, etc.
Madame President, the cumulative effect of these measures is that they afford the opportunity to directly cut costs by allowing inmates to earn money toward their upkeep. While we uphold international human rights standards through these Programmes the public also benefits from the spin-off effects of employability of former inmates as well as initial resources afforded to them to begin life after incarceration. In this way society is also afforded benefits that are incalculable.
Thank you Madam President.
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One minute….im paying drug dealers, non-child supporters, murderes, theives, rapist and ect; insurance as a taxpayer, and i struggle every month to pay my own and my elderly mothers…..Do i see something wrong here, or is it just me.
Crime does pay !!! go figure.
It is called rehab! Do you want them to come out and….commit more crime or have a reason NOT to commit more crime?
Why doesn’t the insurance come out of the $1.50 a day. I have to pay mine sure as hell they should pay their own….
AAAAmen!!!!!
They should have made that change a long time ago. And to think some of these people were getting gold fillings in their teeth. Whew that goodness they figured that one out.
I just couldn’t help myself, just gotta say it.
The “DOC”.?
Is that, must be Department of Corrections, right?
Or is that the ‘DOC’ as in Brown.
Um cunfoozed.
I am 17 years old….both my parents are out of jobs and my parents, me or my sibling DON’T have medical insurance and the scum in jail gets it? Wow……………
So everyone in jail is scum? The difference between them and many who are writing on this subject is……. they got caught and you did not!
What makes you think everyone writing here works for Government??
Obviously If your in jail your “scum” idiot, why else would you be there? For being an up-standing citizen?!?!?!? STFU!!… and eventually those who didnt get caught, there will be a time for them.
SMFH and Wow….I hope that you are perfect and do no wrong! You are throwing lots of stones and making judgements on hundreds of individuals. Obviously you have never had the hard knocks of life or have had family that have. If you have and you still can call people scum because they made a mistake, glad you aren’t my teacher/professor/pastor. I feel for your kids and the ideals that you will be teaching them.
Scum is a very harsh word for one human to use towards another. There are so many reasons why a person does what they do and in most cases it is a ‘generatinal curse” (comes on down the line from great grandpa on down), in other cases ‘following the wrong person/crowd’, in other cases ‘i needed to do it for my habit (drinking/drugs/fetish) now these reasons shouldn’t leave many other reasons. Should you or one of your family members be caught up and ordered to lock-up, what would be your reason “the devil made me do it?”. Rather than knock these persons, you should be encouraging the young men/women in your neighborhood to see the wrong and not follow that path. Be a Leader, be an honorable example, a mentor. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it is not a good thing to call people names – teach that to your kids and others.
Yes. And stupid.
The priosners only need one pair of sneakers for when they come out of cells outdoors or to court and can wear flip flops when inside prion. The money saved from not insuring all the prisoners should be forwarded to a fund to assist senior citizens who cannot afford HIP or Futurecare without starving or not having things they need. I said it before, feed them corn flakes or oatmeal for breakfast a sandwich for lunch and then a basic dinner. Prisoners need to learn to accept that they are in jail and should have limited everything. Visitors should be restricted to family only on their birthdays and Christmas. Even then the persons they hurt families cant see their loved ones. So no visitors for the first 5 years.
Let me get this straight – - these inmates may or may not have insurance OUTSIDE Westgate, but get it once they get convicted and sentenced to Westgate? I don’t have insurance – - should I hold up some old lady and get convicted to free insurance? I’m thinking I may have a cavity that needs filling…..now I know who will pay for it! Thanks neighbors!!
This makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER! The inmate or his family needs to be on the hook for medical treatment!!! This is ridiculous!
If I’m paying for medical and dental care for these scumbags, let me do the surgeries and the toof fillin’ !!!!!
Does anything in bermuda under the gov make sense?
The problem here is that G’ment may save 2-300k a year, unless the have an inmate with a serious illness or injury…. That savings could be eaten up and more very quickly….
Such an interesting situation… It seems grossly unfair that prisoners are able to obtain insurance coverage while persons not in jail may be unable to do so due to various financial situations. The fact however is that inmates are in the care of the ‘state’ or the ‘country’ in our case. Therefore, any related healthcare costs are born by the ‘state’. Sucks, but, that’s just how it goes.
An idea may be to put the $200-$300k in savings highlighted above towards some type of unemployment health insurance fund so that the general public can have access to such monies if they have been unable to secure health insurance on their own. This move will not result in an overall savings in government costs, but it is a good way to ‘redirect’ government spending particularly during these challenging economic times.
Just a thought…
I agree. I can’t afford insurance or my wife a kids because my inflated taxes go to paying for their insurance. Let them ROT !!!!
My husband and I have four kids all under 9, thank God they are covered to some extent by the BDA government. But my husband and I cant afford basic HIP insurance for ourselves yet the inmates can get it? Bermuda spoils them. Bermuda should deplete the corrections system altogether and form an agreement with the UK to have all inmates shipped over there until they have served their sentence. Let the UK handle all of that. Bermuda will save SO MUCH MONEY. MILLIONS!!! We’ll be ballin’!
The question is, what will we offer the UK for all these millions to hold these prisoners? Free work permits for uk nationals?
somehow i dont think that will go over well.. all the govt/supporters do is bitch about the uk and colonialism and independence. To say we’ll ship you prisoners, btu not really give much back may be a little far fetched.
I like the route of charge the inmate for their insurance… but let govt give inmates a better chance at a meaningful job…. some sort of work during incarceration that actually pays a decent amount… so they can be taxed their own healthcare. otherwise… they go without.
Forget every single one of those prisoners!
if the inmates want insurance then they need to request that a family member pay for it. the government should not be paying for something that is such a luxury to the average Bermudian!
Pathetic as is usual for out stupid PLP Government.
i beleive the 40 thieves I mean the UBP started insuring prisoners during their time. I stand to be corrected. Either way eliminate insuring the scum bags.
That may be right BUT didnt the PLP get elected on the premise that they were not going to do the same thing but instead do things differently! REmember the slogans “MAKE IT HAPPEN – VOTE PLP” “VOTE FOR CHANGE” The only reason they are doing something 14 years later is because the well is dry. They are being reactive – not proactive. If your thought is that what they have done for the last 13 years is okay “because the UBP did it” then I say bring back the UBP , at least when they ran things – companies were coming to Bermuda not leaving, unemployment was almost non existent, the educattion system was better, crime was down. What the heck – I never thought I would say it because I to voted for the PLP in the FIRST election – but if you STILLbelieve the PLP is the Answer???? I say PlEASE bring back the UBP!
UBP? Again?
Ancient history after 13years.
you had the 40 Thieves Club that pumped out some dance hall disco.
Now you got The Thirty Six Thieves Club pumping out pomposity and
sucking in de dollas. Ya see it now?
Toothache huh , one or two things , extraction or Bayer aspirin . That’s it and that’s all . We only insure that you serve all of your time miserably . If your crime is stealing from the Government extractions only . Pay for your own aspirin .
So it took the geniuses how long to figure this out? How about letting the families/girlfriends provide clothing/food for them. Nuff girls love thugs.. let them be responsible for ‘em.
Keep it gangsta fools!
Come on guys…how is Bubba going to get his little blue pills for welcoming the fresh gang meat????
Not only do the prisoners get free health care, they get free meals (three every day and special meals on special occasions), free cable TV, free clothes (limited selection though), free rent with all the maintenance taken care of, free gym workouts, free education ….
And the best part? They don’t even have to work if they don’t want to. They can sit around all day just chatting with their buddies waiting for the next package to come sailing over the fence.
Poor Mrs. ‘O’ should have threatened to stab someone with a knife then she wouldn’t have had to worry about where her next meal was coming from. The ‘caring’ government doesn’t seem to care so much for the vulnerable.
Funny how our leaders will fall back on The International Human Rights bill to justify all this warm,fuzzy mollycoddling of convicted criminals yet they can ignore and rebel so quickly
against Our Constitution and The U.K. by bringing in Guantanamo prisoners who have no cause to be here.
You think they don’t have insurance needs too?
For all you people out there…there’s actually a very active group called teh Bermuda Health Council which is working for Universal Health Coverage in Bermuda for EVERYONE. Health is a basic necessity for everyone, remember there are individuals in prison that are innocent or will be released soon. They are there to do their debt to society and then contribute upon release. In order for this to even begin, prisoners must be treated with dignity and respect. I wouldn’t be so willing to be an upstanding citizen knowing my parent was disrispected and treated worse than an animal because they made a mistake. Rembmer prisoners are someones child/mother/brother too.
And to think when my grandson, who is a student in the public school system had an accident he was released early from KEMH because his parents who were both laid off and are out of work had no insurance. If he was a prisoner/inmate we wouldn’t have the bills to pay. Go figure!!!!!!!!!
Government Health Subsidy covers all school children at KEMH. Your information is a bit suspect.
Exceptionally bad idea. Takes the healthy off of HIP and keeps the sick on it. This skews the insured population putting pressure on the insurance plan.
Finally someone with a brain. May I nominate you as a candidate?
Let me clarify what was siad in the story…. 40 prisoners with long term illnesses(Diabetes,etc,etc) were given HIP insurance the most basic healthcare available as a means to cover costs associated with thier illness. If the government paid for these prisoners out of pocket then the would incur immense costs. The other inmates do not have any form of insurance and will be accessed as and when they have an issue… every human being (yes prisoners are human beings) are afforded the right to have access to housing, food and healthcare. These prisoners were given a sentence for whatever crime they may or may not have committed. To be treated in any inhumane way is more than punishment its abuse. We all have our opinions of some of the men and women we see go through those prison doors but what about that person that fell on hard times and couldnt pay his bills and found himself incarcerated because of his inablity to pay??!! Would he be considered “scum” as some of the posts have labelled these people. Should they “rot” as one of you put it. At the end of the day we have to wish on others what we would wish for ourselves. One day you may be foul of the law and find yourself in that situation. would you then ask for all these things that you have said should happen to the current prison population… i would think not…
and for to “serious” you need to stop lying about the hospital kicking your grandson out of there early. I know for a fact the KEMH does not operate like that. if your grandson needed further care im sure they would have kept him in spite of his parents lack of insurance or inability to pay…. come on now…
Pathetic!