HOUGHTON — Staying in jail is one thing; staying healthy while in jail is another. Many jail inmates, deterred by costs, will avoid seeking medical attention, at great risk to everyone, according to Lauren-Brooke Eisen.

“p1″>”Communicable diseases spread easily behind bars,” Eisen stated.  “Inmates“Apple-converted-space”>  are  continuously  being  detained  and  released  into  the  community,  and  inmates  live  in  close quarters with one another, oftentimes double and triple bunked in a small cell. The spread of communicable diseases  in  jail  and  prison  affects  not  only  inmates,  but  also  correctional  officers,  maintenance  personnel, volunteers, medical personnel, and family and friends who visit the facilities,” Eisen stated in a report she released in 2015 entitled “Charging Inmates Perpetuates Mass Incarceration.” The report was the result of a study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, a New York-based nonpartisan policy institute that examined the effectiveness of the pay-to-stay mandates common to all 50 states. Eisen is  senior counsel for the institute.

Houghton County Sheriff Brian McLean is keenly aware that not all inmates can afford to pay the jail costs along with the additional medical expenses, so his facility attempts to help those who cannot afford the charges.

“We contract with a company out of Lansing,” McLean said, “and this guy is an expert in billing insurance companies. He takes all of our medical bills and goes out and searches for coverage, either Medicaid, or Blue Cross, or what have you; if they’re a veteran, try and seek reimbursement from the VA, if they’re tribal, the tribe pays all the medical expenses for its members.”

In some instances, medical costs can be far more than just a medical examination and a prescription.

“If you drop of a heart attack back there (in a cell) and we have to bring you in,”McLean said, “and it’s $60,000 or $70,000,we get billed for it, we bill (the inmate).” In the instance of such a high medical bill, McLean said very few inmates will ever be able to afford to pay it off, which is why the jail contracts with the billing company in Lansing.

“The bills come to us, we bill them to you; they go to a third party company, so if you have coverage, they’ll bill that company,” McLean said. “Of course, they keep a little bit of everything they collect, because that’s how business works, but we’re getting satisfied.”