In my experience as a long-time advocate for inmates, I find that the Department often operates its medical services on the theory of “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” In a normal week, I probably have to bring to the attention of Central Office Administration officials the cases of a dozen of so inmates whose efforts to go through normal, institutional channels to obtain constitutionally-mandated medical care has failed. And they come to my attention only after the family members have also tried to obtain necessary medical care for — often — very serious medical needs. I often wonder when I review the Department’s death statistics, which often list the prisoner’s cause of death as “natural causes,” how many of those deaths could have been prevented had appropriate, timely and professional medical care and diagnosis been provided at an early stage when symptoms initially appeared. After all, many of the “natural causes” deaths are reported for prisoners who are under the age of 40.

If Arizona is going to remain committed to a criminal justice code that incarcerates many property and drug offenders for lengthy periods of time when they could possibly be supervised in the community without compromise to public safety, then we have to be prepared to provide timely, professional and even costly medical services to those with serious medical needs. It’s the right thing to do.