Love it! My morning is complete.
[quote user="C"]
my goal is to just stay out of jail.
[/quote]
Works great, until you are arrested for being hypo.
Ajax -- I thought of you when I saw this link -- Whatever happened with your situation? Was there any follow up?
P.S., For the people who think, well, it's their fault for being arrested, that's easy for us to say if we're white. Minorities are much more likely to be incarcerated if they're innocent. The government should think, "If someone with T1 or T2 is not allowed proper treatment for x number of years in prison, how much will the taxpayers have to pay for their medical care for complications both in prison and after they come out." Sadly, it's money not human rights that get some people to make changes.
I paid the state of florida an obscene amount of money, got a substance abuse evaluation, can't ever make contact with a club in florida again, and did 25 hours of community service, in exchange for having nothing on my record. I could do that because my parents could (and did) afford a very expensive lawyer.
There is no documentation of me having a seizure, because prisons don't document when things go wrong. A whole lot of people "die" in ambulances being taken away from prisons, because if they were to die in the prison, there would have to be an investigation. Anyway, because there's no documentation, it would be near impossible to file civil charges.
The state of prisons is so upsetting and pathological to our society. I agree that tearing the "justice" system down and starting over is the best way to fix it.
I think it must depend on the state or something because if there is a problem in our jails and prisons they are overly cared for. They have doctors and nurses on site and their needs are taken care of better in custody. What I am wondering is where is all the money for their free care coming from? Oh wait, the taxpayers. I worked 3 jobs for years to cover my medical expenses and they broke a law, work minimal hours in prison and they get their medications for free. It kind of makes me sick. I also can understand why they would not allow pumps. In a prison personal belongings are locked up. This can include something as simple as a tooth brush. Having worked with dangerous teenagers in a level 9 group home facility even we had to lock down harmful substances. The plastic on tooth brushes can be broken and filed into a weapon and used to stab someone. What is a pump made out of? How much is a taxpayer expected to pay to provide around the clock watch per diabetic wearing a pump to prevent such an incident. We're talking approx $200 per hour (that's about how much is charged for a sheriff) So assume a diabetic is in for 6 mos. That's 4,320 hours. That would cost approx $864,000. That is insane. I feel for any diabetic but maybe the diabetics who didn't break the law should be taken care of first especially at that price. Even diabetics in foreign countries who can't afford monitors should be taken care of before these guys.
"these guys" are people like you. Yeah, some of them broke the law - most of them YEARS ago. Some of them didn't break the law, but were accused and can't afford representation other than the extraordinarily overworked DAs. It takes one mistake at the wrong time to end up in prison, or it takes a lifetime of living in a society where violence is a valid way to solve problems, where you're taken seriously if you're big and loud, where you can break laws to get respect. The huge majority of incarcerated people are working class, non-white people.
It is not as simple as "person broke the law, person is evil, person is kept from getting adequate medical care". It's easy to call incarcerated people criminals and make them the "other" until you're one of them, or you know one of them.
Yeah, everyone should have access to health care, including those in prison. But people in prison are routinely denied access to SUGAR. Immediate, life saving access. These people were given a prison sentence, not a death sentence.
I'm really glad that some of you guys responded seriously to this thread. Especially Crochet Nut and Ajax. Your responses give me a little bit of hope in this sick, sad world.
[quote user="ajax"]
Yeah, everyone should have access to health care, including those in prison. But people in prison are routinely denied access to SUGAR. Immediate, life saving access. These people were given a prison sentence, not a death sentence.
[/quote]
Could not have said it better.
Even if you didn't break the law, but simply got arrested for something, you're in danger as a diabetic, so although I, too, am looking to NOT go to jail, that doesn't mean that it isn't your concern. I don't know if we have a lot of Christians on this board, but for those of you who are, remember Matthew 25:45 ("I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me" - New Living Translation). There's no need to be cold-hearted just because someone is in prison. Haven't you guys ever, like, watched a movie where you sympathized with prisoners? You know, like The Shawshank Redemption or something? I recommend some documentaries, though: Shakespeare Behind Bars (about prisoners putting on a show of Hamlet), After Innocence (about people who spent a long time in prison for crimes they were later completely exonerated from), The Jaundiced Eye (another one about people who were falsely imprisoned), Murder on a Sunday Morning (and yet another about someone, this time a youngster, who was exonerated for murder after spending time in prison).
Kellie, I'm not sure where you got your statistics, but, really, it shouldn't cost any more to use your pump inside prison than it does outside prison.
Hey Melissa, Could I ask you a favor? A ways back, some people were trying to use religion to prove points, etc on here. It became rather contentious and many people ended up offended on both sides. So, Gina created a "Religion/Spirituality" Group. So, if you would like to discuss religious quotes, I'd like to ask that you use that group to do so. We are all on here for D-related support, but we may not want to be exposed to religious ideas or we'd be on a different forum. I agree with what you're saying but would like to make sure we don't fall back into discussing religious-related points on here b/c it's sure to upset someone one way or the other. I appreciate it!
I think the “oh well, they’re in jail, it’s their fault” crowd or the “if you’re in jail, diabetes is the least of your concern” crowd are not thinking this clearly enough. Any one of us could end up in jail just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And while there, if you had all the things to deal with while you were high or low, that would make diabetes a huge concern, at least I’d think so anyway.
People get picked up and put in jail because someone mis identified them. Or the police get a confession out of someone after 12 hours or questioning, etc.
I suppose you could be like George Bush and when someone gets a reprieve after 10 years on death row you can say “it proves the system works.”
One of my greatest fears is getting falsely accused and convicted of a crime. Probably happens more than we want to admit.
Sorry, Sarah, wasn't trying to offend.
I have known criminal diabetics. There are many problems in the world and some are more important than others. For instance, I think a child suffering is more important to fix than an adult ,who had the chance to make choices and live their life. They are all bad, do not get me wrong, people need to realize that there is not much money to begin with and any changes will cost money either at the tax payer expense or some charity. I know the prison system out here and inmates with medical conditions are often overly cared for and even separated from other inmates. They even get 3 full meals a day and doctors overseeing their care. I would have to assume that a low would either be on purpose (meaning the inmate did not eat the intended meal) or some per instance rare situation in which the inmate had a low. Perhaps prisons should loose the movies and extra curricular additions to cover the medical needs. I checked to confirm that the state of California allows jail inmates to wear insulin pumps, which I was surprised to discover considering to possible danger. I suppose other states must handle things differently.
I went to Juvi with Diabetes. Just recently, and it wasnt like that. They actually treated my lows and i got more than that amount of shots. It wasnt that bad really. But it was still really alot harder than being home.