The Oregon Department of Corrections will no longer force prisoners to pay hundreds 鈥� or even thousands 鈥� of dollars for medical devices, such as hearing aids and prosthetic limbs. The policy change, which came as part of a legal settlement, resulted in the agency paying back thousands of dollars to hundreds of adults in custody.
Until now, if an incarcerated person needed a medical device and could not pay for it in advance, the state鈥檚 prison system would garnish their wages to recoup the cost. Prisoners typically make less than $100 per month.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no insurance in prison and people don鈥檛 have any access to it,鈥� said Thomas Zito, an attorney with the nonprofit legal firm Disability Rights Advocates, who represented people in prison in a class action lawsuit. 鈥淪o they would go into debt and then Oregon DOC would deduct a certain amount of money every month from their trust account to pay back those devices.鈥�
The agency would typically take half of the balance of an inmate鈥檚 account at the beginning of each month, and then whatever funds remained at the end of the month.
As part of a legal settlement reached last month, the Oregon DOC agreed to abandon the practice.
The state鈥檚 prison system refunded $77,041 to 870 people currently in prison and forgave $39,683 in medical debt for 30 people. Amber Campbell, a spokesperson with the state Department of Corrections, said some in custody could have received both.
Campbell also said the 2021 lawsuit helped agency officials realize it needed to expand its definition of 鈥渆lective medical devices.鈥�
鈥淲e are in the process of reviewing and updating our rule for health care services as a result of this direction from the court,鈥� Campbell told OPB in a statement.
Those new rules could be finalized by the end of the year, Campbell said.
In 2021, several prisoners at the Snake River Correctional Institution in eastern Oregon filed a class action lawsuit, arguing that the Department of Corrections violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
鈥淭here is no provision regarding waiver of costs for indigent people,鈥� the lawsuit states. 鈥淭herefore, a person with a disability requiring an artificial limb in order to walk, a hearing aid in order to hear, or a simple wheelchair repair in order to be mobile, must pre-pay or incur significant debt in order to access the prison facility and all of its programs and services.鈥�
Donald Terrill, who has a lower-leg amputation and uses a prosthetic to walk, said in the lawsuit that since 2013 he鈥檚 paid more than $10,000 towards the costs of the prosthesis and still owed more than $14,000. At the time the lawsuit was filed, Terrill made about $45 per month, about half of which went to pay for his prosthetic.
鈥淪hould a family member place money on his books, the administrative rules allow ODOC to take any amounts exceeding $40 (including wages) per month,鈥� the lawsuit states. 鈥淭herefore, incarcerated individuals with disabilities cannot save money because ODOC will take any funds remaining on their books at the end of the month.鈥�
The result is disabled people in prison have an even lower quality of life, the lawsuit argued.
Nicholas Pando, who uses hearing aids, was charged $900 for them. According to the lawsuit, just like Terrill, every month the prison system would dock Pando鈥檚 trust account. As of 2021, he had paid more than $550 toward the balance and still owed more than $300.
Michael Wesly, a paraplegic who needs a wheelchair to get to meals and recreation in the prison, was forced to pay for repairs after the prison system refused.
鈥淗e had the funds so he did not incur debt,鈥� the lawsuit states. 鈥淗is wheelchair requires regular maintenance, thus causing him to incur significant expense.鈥�
Zito said Oregon was an outlier, with states such as Idaho, Washington, California, Colorado, Hawaii and Alaska all having abolished the practice.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very significant for people in custody with disabilities,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople who need durable medical equipment need it for independence to access the services of what they need to do while they鈥檙e in prison with a level of independence that other prisoners have, and having those devices gives them that independence.鈥�
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