Prison Health Care - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

In the show's first episode back from the Writer's Guild of America strike, HBO late night host John Oliver discussed prison health care as the Featured Story on "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver." He references the 1976 Supreme Court ruling Estelle v. Gamble, where the Court held that deprivation of health care constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Yet we hear frequent stories of incarcerated persons being denied timely healthcare or receiving less-than-adequate or poor quality health care. Oliver discusses a 2013 case in Arizona where denying and delaying care led directly to a death.

Dean Vocke, incarcerated for vehicle theft with10 months left on his sentence, reported experiencing multiple seizures. A facility doctor suggested sending him out for an exam, but was told that was not going to happen, but the facility would “order a helmet for him to protect his head instead.” Not only did Vocke never receive the helmet, but after four months where he also complained of back pain, an x-ray indicated potential signs of cancer. Even then, the facility dragged its feet addressing the potential diagnosis, denying an MRI, CT scans, until an eventual CT scan confirmed a cancer diagnosis after a significant delay in receiving treatment.

It was a kidney cancer diagnosis that would otherwise be 95% treatable if addressed in time. Instead, Vocke, who was 10 months from ending his prison sentence, was granted medical parole so he could die with his family.

"...again, he was in there for vehicle theft. The punishment for that is clearly not death, but under a system this cruel, it can turn out to be."

You can watch the full featured story, "Prison Health Care" on the YouTube channel for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.