A plan was recently approved by the Michigan House that would allow for frail prisoners in need of care to be released to nursing homes.

[Read the bill here.]

This plan would save the state millions of dollars and could cut back on prison mortality rates, according to bill sponsors.

Despite this, the plan is encountering opposition.

McKnight’s discusses the plan further.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Al Pscholka (R), is estimated to save the state’s prisons as much as $5.4 million each year. Frail prisoners cost the state nearly three to five times more than healthy prisoners, according to the Associated Press.

Pscholka’s bill would allow around 120 prisoners up for parole each year — roughly the same number that die in the state’s prisons each year. That number is expected to rise as prisoners age and they require more complex healthcare, Pscholka said in a press release.

“A lot of them are bed-ridden. Some of them are taken advantage of or abused in prison, and this is just a better place for them to be,” Pscholka told the AP.  Pscholka’s plan may also include Medicaid coverage for the parolees, if federal officials approve.

[…]

Melissa Samuel, vice president of government services for the Health Care Association of Michigan, disagreed, saying the group isn’t comfortable with the legislation and continues to oppose it.

[…]

“What are the conditions of their parole? Do any of these conditions conflict with how the nursing facility has to operate?” Samuel said. “You don’t do this, or you proceed very very cautiously in moving forward in doing something like this.”

The bill has been passed to the Senate for further approval. Read the bill here.