A shameful trend is taking hold in America. Desperate for medical care but unable to afford services citizens are committing felonious, but petty, crimes for the sole purpose of being arrested. Their reasoning is simple; they would rather lose their freedom and be alive in prison receiving medical attention, than die slow and miserable deaths because they cannot afford care.
When these instances arrive the main stream media tends to report the story as a petty crime, and it disappears after a single day in the headlines. Here is a small summary of cases, that is by no means definitive, that have transpired over the last few years:
June 9, 2011. James Richard Verone of North Carolina non-violently robbed a bank for $1 and then waited calmly in the lobby to be arrested by police. He was suffering from arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, and an abnormally large growth protruding from his chest. He claims he did not want to harm any person, and says if he had not committed his crimes he does not believe he would be alive today.
Nov. 26, 2012. Frank J. Morrocco of New York committed petty theft at a Wegmans supermarket so he would be arrested and sent to prison to receive treatment for a rare form of leukemia. As a former felon on parole, even a small infraction would invalidate Morrocco's freedom. He stole a stuffed animal, and a pair of shoe laces.
July 8, 2013. Rickie Gardner of Alabama handed a bank teller a note that said he had a gun, and this was a robbery. Gardner took the bag of stolen funds and locked it in his vehicle, and then sat on a sidewalk bench and waited for police to arrest him. Gardner was afflicted with an unspecific pain in his leg which he claimed made him unable to care for himself. He possessed a state handicap parking permit, and when searched was found to not possess a firearm.
August 23, 2013. Timothy Alsip of Oregon gave a bank teller a note that said, "This is a hold up. Give me a dollar." After receiving said dollar Alsip sat in the bank lobby and awaited arrest. Alsip did not speak for himself but police have publicly speculated he committed the crime to receive medical attention. In the week leading up to Alsip's arrest he had been observed stopping motorists and asking them to call 911 for him. Alsip is homeless, has a history of mental illness, and does not have a criminal history.
All of these stories highlight the difficulties in balancing the cost of medical care, but one is more telling than the others.
Joshua Mezrich is an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The Atlantic published Mezrich's personal account of performing surgery on a man who stole a bottle of lotion to be arrested for the sole purpose of being able to have surgery in Feb. 2013. The man's name, which is unknown, was told by the presiding judge, "I'll give you 14 months, go get your surgery." Dr. Mezrich's diagnosis was that if this man did not have an operation he would have surely died.
The average cost of incarceration of a prisoner is $47,000 a year, which is all paid directly from the American taxpayer. Would not these individuals and society have been better off if those funds were spent on medical care rather than the cost of keeping them in a cage with twenty-four hour surveillance?
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