| Abstrakt: |
The conditions within U.S. prisons have long been a concern among human rights advocates and a source of litigation under the Eighth Amendment. While an issue long before COVID-19, the pandemic brought the state of healthcare services in prisons to the public's attention. Many people incarcerated in state and federal prisons suffer from chronic disease, and Hepatitis C is especially widespread. Despite its prevalence, effective treatment for Hepatitis C in prisons is rare, and ample legal hurdles exist to prevent incarcerated people from challenging insufficient treatment. In two recent cases from the Sixth Circuit, the court made it more difficult for incarcerated people with chronic disease to get the care that they need by holding that prisons can deny otherwise widely accepted forms of treatment on the basis of cost. Both cases not only ignore prior holdings to the contrary, but also incentivize prison officials to turn a blind eye to patients' chronic conditions and refuse providing any care or treatment at all. Furthermore, because of the impacts of mass incarceration and the imposition of longer sentences, the Sixth Circuit's decisions will potentially leave people serving long sentences in prison with no means of treating their chronic disease. This Recent Development will address the faults in both the court's analysis of the legal issues involved in these cases, as well as their implications for healthcare and human rights in prisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
