Gaspipe, formally known as Anthony Casso, is a mobster serving a sentence tallying hundreds of years in prison for multiple murders and related mischief. He is newsworthy at the moment because he claims to know how the French Connection drugs were lifted from police custody back in 1972 and presumably, who did the heavy lifting. He interests me because at the age of 66, he is being treated for prostate cancer and heart disease at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C. and you and I are paying for his care. Several years ago, a prisoner on death row got a heart transplant ahead of thousands of law abiding citizens on the national list. Prisoners have gotten breast reduction surgery and even hormone treatments for anticipated sex change surgery. They are automatically entitled to free medical and dental care regardless of whether they can afford to pay for health insurance as law abiders would be forced to do.
As of 2007, there were 2.3 million prisoners incarcerated in America at a cost of sixty billion dollars annually. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, 800,000 suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, heart disease, cancer and mental illness. In some counties, illegal immigrants comprise as much as 25% of the prison population - this means that the easiest way for a Mexican to get treatment for a serious illness is to jump the border and get arrested. Prolonged use of methamphetamines and the lifestyle that accompanies it result in aggressive tooth decay, known as meth mouth. This eventually necessitates full dentures and the state pay for this expensive work for incarcerated people as young as their twenties. When prisoners require transport to hospitals, guards must accompany them and remain with them during their hospital stay. Obviously, we pay for these collateral costs too though they might apply to former CEO’s of large companies as well as criminals from the underclass.
Not every prisoner is destitute or even financially strapped; many white collar criminals are in jail temporarily but will be released to a middle or upper class lifestyle. If they should happen to need expensive surgery while they are in custody, it will be on our tab instead of theirs. What sense does this make? Now that we are spending trillions of dollars to keep our economy afloat, why not reform this system and insist that prisoners who can afford to self-insure must do so and pay for their own medical care. Though it may seem like a drop in the bucket it would do something to vindicate the complaints of law abiding citizens who pay for their own health insurance and then watch their taxes go to paying for prisoners as well. Before being sentenced to the equivalent of 455 years behind bars, Gaspipe pled guilty to fifteen murders and was implicated in more than twenty others. He was undoubtedly handsomely rewarded by the Mafia for his productivity during his employment. Isn’t it time to demand that he use that blood money to pay for maintenance of his very own flesh and blood?
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