Shock, horror. Taxpayers fund bill of $22 million for prisoner health.Convicted criminals have received more than $22 million in taxpayer-funded healthcare while in jail in the past year – nearly three times more than five years ago.
Figures obtained by The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show the average annual health spend per prisoner in the year to June was $2752.
But how does that compare to non-prisoners?
Total health spending forecast by Treasury for 2009 was $12.396 billion. Divided across 4,316,000 people that's $2,872 each. More than was spent on prisoners.
Where's the story? The only conclusion I can draw is that prisoner health has been chronically under-funded in the past. Under Labour, no less.
Or is the writer simply attempting to fuel resentment that anything at all is spent on prisoner's health?
1 comment:
Whenever comments are made about money spent on prisoners for whatever purpose, the attempt is usually the same, to further vilify those in custody and to point out how 'inappropriately' taxpayer dollars are being spent on the unworthy. Since criminals are the unwanted in society, they make an easy target for conservatives seeking to divide the population into us and them.
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