r/interestingasfuck • u/truly-immaculate • 18h ago
In June 2011, James Verone, a 59 year old unemployed man from North Carolina, robbed a bank for $1 to get medical care in jail. Without health insurance and suffering from multiple health issues, he couldn’t afford treatment /r/all, /r/popular
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u/FranciscoFernandesMD 18h ago
This should be over at Depressingasfuck.
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u/dorkofthepolisci 17h ago
Or perhaps dystopianasfuck
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u/Yuukiko_ 17h ago
orphancrushingmachine?
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u/Pdoinkadoinkadoink 12h ago
Not quite. OCM is a story that sounds positive until you realise the human misery that underpins it: They turned off the orphan crushing machine, that's great! Wait, why was there an orphan crushing machine to begin with...? This story is just depressing.
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u/LPNMP 18h ago
Where health care, shelter, and hot food are a right for prisoners but not the free.
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u/ThisCarSmellsFunny 18h ago
Healthcare in prison isn’t what people who have never been to prison think it is. 100% chance he regretted his decision once he got there, it’s worse than being uninsured and free.
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u/certifiedtoothbench 17h ago
But you have to admit it’s incredibly insane and fucked up that someone is desperate enough to consider it an option.
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u/iwouldratherhavemy 17h ago
100% chance he regretted his decision once he got there, it’s worse than being uninsured and free.
He didn't go to prison or get medical treatment, that part is always left out of this story.
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u/CrashingAtom 17h ago
“We’re just going to fine you a ton.” Fuuuuuuuck
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u/Treadwheel 16h ago
He did go to jail for a year and did receive medical treatment.
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u/throwawaycima 17h ago
Please explain, I am open minded and curious
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u/ThisCarSmellsFunny 17h ago
When you need medical attention, you have to apply for a sick call. Depending on your state, it typically costs $5-25. After that, they more or less get to you whenever, regardless of urgency. Sometimes you’ll be seen in a week if you’re lucky, but 3-6 weeks seems to be the norm. When you’re initially seen, you don’t even see a doctor, you see a nurse. The nurse will do the bare minimum, and tell you to put in another sick call if it gets worse. Of course it almost always gets worse, because the nurse essentially does nothing for you. So you pay for another sick call and wait. Maybe you see the nurse again, maybe you get lucky and see an actual doctor. But regardless, you still get sub par treatment. The absolute minimum is what they shoot for. Compound leg fracture? Think tylenol or motrin for pain, a wheelchair or crutches, and gauze with a splint and some antibiotic cream applications by the nurse daily. It’s worse than people can possibly wrap their heads around.
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u/CrashingAtom 17h ago
Federal prison are not like this, I have a bunch of friends who work at a federal prison. Whole families work there. Those inmates have it muuuuch better than the state prison that’s an hour away, so people will try to cop to federal charges to get into the nicer prison.
The U.S. mostly sucks, at any rate.
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u/LoafingBonobo 16h ago
Curious to hear more if you're willing.
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u/CrashingAtom 16h ago
The difference is funding is just massive. They have education, rehab, art, healthcare etc. They get very few REALLY violent criminals, and more so white collar and people who made plea deals.
Like their prison in WI got multiple IL governors. 😂
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u/LoafingBonobo 16h ago
I have to imagine in places where the criminals are treated well the prisoner workers are much happier. Money is everything unfortunately.
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u/CrashingAtom 15h ago
Oh, infinitely. My friends that work at the state prison say it’s a totally different world. State prison is violent AF, the pay is a joke and the benefits suck. Federal prison comes with a fat pension and things are much more chill. Inmates are trying not to upset the apple cart, so to speak.
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u/Dream_Catcher99 16h ago
I'll be honest this sounds like military medical care. My husband broke his ankle and they gave him Tylenol and told him to buy a brace from Walmart because they didn't have any for him and wouldnt for a month
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u/chicharro_frito 17h ago
How can you pay if you don't have money?
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u/ThisCarSmellsFunny 17h ago
You can apply as indigent, which will make you wait longer and you won’t get approved for if anyone ever sends you money, or you have to wait until someone sends you money. Where I was in NC, you don’t qualify as indigent if you’ve received money in the previous 6 months.
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u/ineedt0move 16h ago
I came here to say this. I spent 3 years in a Louisiana women's prison. I was a nonviolent 1st time offender sentenced to 9 years for 3 lbs of weed. Anyone who thinks prisons just take care of medical needs for inmates is disillusioned. In fact, a woman in my pod hung herself after many failed attempts for help. They ignored her. When she hung herself she was locked in her cell..by choice. We saw her slouched kind of from the top bunk. Her face was purplish..and her cheeks looked so weird..she was alive at that point We banged on the huge glass type windows to get the guards attention. They stared at us..while eating plain lays potato chips..the kind in the yellow bag. I'll never forget it. 20 or 25 minutes past before they casually walked into the pod. The woman was dead. She wrote many medical slips...she was ignored.
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u/jordaninvictus 13h ago
I was stupid one time and had to spend 3 days in the Orleans Parish Penitentiary (the real “OPP”). The inmates were kind and looked out for one another.
The COs tried to fuck with me by trying to make me believe that in Louisiana, possession of Molly would easily result in a life sentence. They also constantly spouted racial slurs, got obvious joy out of watching fights break out and only intervening when they knew they could use the fancy crowd control toys they want to play with.
The only reason it was 3 days instead of 5 was because 5 inmates circled the observation box after they came to pick everyone up for pre-trial hearings and didn’t pick me up; the other inmates insisted that there was a mistake and that my pre-trial hearing was on the docket. Which wound up being true.
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u/celestial_gardener 16h ago edited 6h ago
This is going to be a lot more common, especially in North Carolina. NC stands to be the biggest loser with the Medicaid cuts coming late next year with approximately 651,000 North Carolinians being kicked off the rolls; the most of any state. That will only be the beginning, we will be looking at rural hospital/clinic closures, specialties will be eliminated, skilled nursing facilities, custodial living will be decimated as Medicare only covers 100 days in these facilities, if at all, and Medicaid picks up the rest. Emergency services will be forced to take people to the next closest treatment center which could be an additional 30 minutes from the patients home. ER visits will explode and the hospitals will not be reimbursed which will strain their budgets even more than they are now. If people thought healthcare workers has it bad during COVID, this will be worse. Thanks to corporate medicine they will be forced to do even more with even less and burnout amongst nursing and medical staff will be guaranteed and an exposure from the field may be inevitable.
Keep in mind, this will not begin in earnest until late 2026, shortly after the midterms have wrapped up. Make sure you keep tabs on the representatives who voted for this and blame them, because it's coming and there is nothing we can do about it until at least 2028.
Good luck out there.
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u/Polarity68 11h ago
i feel like i just need to ask the best question, why? why are they cutting medicaid to accomplish what?
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u/celestial_gardener 6h ago
It's a great question with a super simple answer, greed. This is how they are funding their tax cut for rich people.
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u/ThisCarSmellsFunny 18h ago edited 17h ago
Anyone who has been to prison can tell you this guy made a stupid decision. The “healthcare” in prison not only isn’t free, but it’s below sub par. They don’t give a damn if you receive adequate treatment. I was in with a guy who got part of his foot amputated and was given 600mg Motrin for 5 days to handle the pain. I saw many people die waiting for their sick call appointment that can take several weeks. This isn’t the way.
Edit: since people who don’t get it are responding to my other comments, sub par is not better than nothing. Even without insurance, you can go to the ER and receive treatment, you’ll just be stuck with a bill you can’t pay. In prison, the bill will be under $25, but you will receive the equivalent of a bandaid for a bullet wound.
I went in with a diagnosed heart valve condition and hypertension that I had been on prescriptions for for almost 20 years. With my condition, anything more than 2 days puts me at a 75%+ chance of sudden death. They knew this, acknowledged that they spoke to my doctor and knew this, and took a week to get me my medication. They don’t care at all.
When I got pneumonia, they told me to pay my $15 and put in a sick call. It took them 3 weeks to see me. I’d had pneumonia before, so I knew that’s what it was. They sent me back to my dorm with Tylenol to bring down my fever and said to put in another sick call if my breathing got worse.
It was already unbearable, so I immediately put in another one. I woke up at Duke Medical Center a few days later in the ICU. Because I had fucking pneumonia, and I was beyond the prison’s ability to treat me. I was at Duke for 2 weeks and would’ve died if the prison had it their way.
Don’t speak on shit you have no experience with. I lived it, I know it’s garbage.
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u/Kundrew1 17h ago
Yeah its not great. If you have a dental issue they basically just pull the tooth. Met several guys with dentures who had all their teeth pulled while they were locked up.
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u/iguess12 17h ago
"Don’t speak on shit you have no experience with."
Imagine how much better social media would be if people learned that lesson.
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u/odix 17h ago
I've been to jail. This is true. And they charge you and it's wack. Homeless people already qualify for Medicaid.
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u/SirtDwimmer 16h ago
This happened in 2011 in North Carolina prior to their Medicaid expansion in 2023. He wouldn't have qualified at the time.
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u/ThisCarSmellsFunny 17h ago
Tell that to the privileged dipshits who downvote en masse and clutch their pearls thinking this can’t possibly be true lol.
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u/PanoramicAtom 16h ago
I did time, too. In jail, awaiting court dates, I developed an infection inside the opening of my nose (where I had plucked a hair). A cyst developed inside the bridge between my nostrils, and grew so large that the pain became unbearable. Medical gave me tylenol, and wouldn’t do anything to remove it. I couldn’t sleep for days because of the pain. It was excruciating. I was going insane, and they absolutely refused to do anything but give me tylenol twice a day. I finally did self-surgery, after about a week. After inspecting our mail, they would staple it closed, so I got a staple, and sharpened one end on the stainess steel sink/toilet. Cleaned it as best as possible. Pierced the cyst (which I could now see because the swelling was so great that it stretched out the follicles). So much boood and pus. Made a hook after that, and extracted the skin of the cyst. It had been the size of a grape. Fucking tylenol.
Later, in prison, where medical care is arguably better, I developed kidney stones. Agonizing pain in my lower back. The remedy? Ibuprofen. Once a day. Referral to a medical unit. After three weeks, of agony, I was transferred to a medical unit to be evaluated. Whereupon I passed the stone without further intervention while I awaited evaluation. Fucking ibuprofen.
Do not think you will be treated effectively or in a timely manner in jail or prison in the US.
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u/Severe_Fennel_6202 16h ago
Was gonna say, hope he enjoys being told drink more water for whatever it is he has lmfao
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u/MarGoLuv 13h ago
Depends on which state. I knew an inmate that was in AL and CA. Said it was better in CA because AL prisons don’t try to improve. As a matter of fact, one warden in AL got caught stealing federal funds to buy a beach house in the redneck riviera. While the prisoners ate rotten food and had no health care.
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u/celestial_gardener 16h ago
From Families USA
A 59-year-old North Carolina man held up a bank—demanding only $1—so that he could be arrested and placed in prison where he could finally get the health care he needed.
James Richard Verone is like many without insurance. Verone worked for Coca-Cola for 17 years and after that job ended, he had only temporary employment options and eventually he wound up jobless. He worked several part-time jobs (which often don’t offer health insurance) and watched his savings quickly dwindle to nothing.
And that’s when his situation got even more complicated. According to the Gaston Gazette,
The Gastonia man’s back ached; problems with his left foot caused him to limp. His knuckles swelled from arthritis, and carpal tunnel syndrome made daily tasks difficult. Then he noticed a protrusion on his chest.
Desperate for access to affordable health care, Verone applied early for social security, but all he qualified for was food stamps. While the extra money helped, it didn’t cover nearly enough of the cost of the medical care he needed. That’s when he hatched his plan. He figured if he robbed a bank, they’d arrest him and in jail he could get the medical attention he needs.
The Gaston Gazette writes,
On June 9 he followed his typical morning routine of getting ready for the day. He took a cab down New Hope Road and picked a bank at random—RBC Bank. Verone didn’t want to scare anyone. He executed the robbery the most passive way he knew how. He handed the teller a note demanding one dollar, and medical attention.
While this is an extreme case, it just goes to show how few options people have when they don’t have access to affordable health care. One can play by the rules their entire life and still be left to make the difficult decision to go without insurance in order to afford things like rent and basic necessities.
What’s more, older Americans with health problems like Verone are often denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition or simply priced out of the system due to sky-high premiums. Insurance practices like these lead Americans to do crazy things for insurance, like marrying someone for coverage, flying out of the country for surgery, and yes, even robbing a bank.
The Gaston Gazette also notes that while Mr. Verone isn’t very political, he believes he wouldn’t be talking to a reporter through a metal screen in prison if the U.S. had comprehensive health care for every American.
And Mr. Verone is right. When every American has access to affordable health care that can’t be taken away if they lose their job or get sick, Americans won’t have to resort to committing a felony, simply to obtain much-needed medical care.
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u/throwaway1937913 16h ago
There were people in my bootcamp division who went in specifically to get their teeth fixed and then washed out.
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u/smoothie4564 16h ago
I remember this story. He never brought in any weapons to the bank. He simply handed the teller a note indicating that he was "robbing" the bank and waited outside on the curb for the police to arrive. The police never even charged him with a felony, just a misdemeanor if I recall correctly. The judge offered a really low-priced bail, just a $2000 dollars, and he refused to pay it. He stayed in jail pending trial and after he was processed into the jail he was then assigned a doctor to see him and he was given full medical treatment (well, adequate treatment as far as the jail system would allow).
This goes to show how broken the American health care system was before the ACA. It's still broken today, but it was REALLY broken back then.
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u/Big-Honeydew-961 14h ago
Judges are going to get tired of this shit. But not tired enough to do anything.
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u/Head-Mud_683 18h ago
The US health system might be the worst thing in the world. It’s unbelievable that people from my country (Brasil) consider going to the US to have a better life.
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u/FrozenGiraffes 18h ago
Hey we even have unmarked heavily armed people in masks in vans. we aren't so different you and i!
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u/myNiceAccount__ 15h ago
Maybe the masks are for covid prevention, they just got the memo 5 years too late.
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u/chicharro_frito 16h ago
Not sure if this is the case in Brasil but I think many people don't realize there's no national healthcare in the US and that it costs an arm and a leg (sometimes literally).
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u/Spirited-Amount1894 16h ago
Canadian here. WTF America?
Universal single-payor health insurance is something we launched in the seventies.
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u/Physical-Modeler 15h ago
You know we could reduce your taxes for 1 or 2 years if you become the 51st state by eliminating such frivolities. Of course, your taxes will go back up when we start our next proxy war, and need an extra trillion or two for our military, but don't worry about that.
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u/SUDDENLY_VIRGIN 17h ago
TIME TO BAN PORN AND TRANS KIDS, THERES NO OTHER SOCIAL ISSUES TO ADDRESS REEEEEEEEEEEE
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u/Tr4shkitten 14h ago
Imagine a country calling it land of free and all and at the same time, you have to do crime to not die.
And then again, I wonder: why is it so much easier to get the means to rob a bank rather than get medical attention??
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u/Comfortable_Lynx7330 17h ago
Sad that this rich country has its own people doing things like this to survive.
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u/MagicOrpheus310 16h ago
That saying "three hots and a cot." meaning at least you get 3 meals and somewhere to sleep in prison compared to being homeless just shows how fucked the system is
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u/fieldday1982 15h ago
I remember when this happened. The guy was so riddled with cancer he had to come up with a 1/4 mil just to have the slightest chance. This was his own option. At the time the internet was split 50/50 as to whether or not he was a dirtbag or a robinhood left with no other options.
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u/bread_link 14h ago
The incentives to join the military are the same to be incarcerated. Let that sink in.
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u/bobbysoxxx 13h ago
Read where senior women in Japan are committing robberies to get in jail for food and shelter.
Whatever works.
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u/Jackieirish 6h ago
This says more about the sad state of education, general knowledge, propaganda, and common sense in America than it does even about our dismal healthcare system.
With a better education, he would have had more general knowledge about the state and treatment of inmates in our prisons, the ability to recognize propaganda about "criminals getting better treatment than law-abiding citizens" and the common sense to know that committing a crime to get tossed into prison is not worth whatever he might think he could possibly get out of it.
Also: "after spending one terrible year in jail," Man who robbed bank for free healthcare released
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u/ALG2003YT 17h ago
This isn't interesting. This is horrifying and awful. Richest nation in the world, and if you dont have an income, you dont get healthcare. Even if you do, it's up to the insurance gods if you get healthcare or not.
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u/TesseractToo 18h ago
This is incredibly sad. I wonder how common this is now
Ugh look at the expression on his face, heartbreaking
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u/giraflor 17h ago
What’s worse is that the carcel system won’t even treat every ailment. Some they ignore. Others will trigger “compassionate release” so they aren’t obligated to treat.
We need universal health care.
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u/PrimaryInjurious 16h ago edited 16h ago
He would be eligible for Medicaid in NC.
https://medicaid.ncdhhs.gov/eligibility#Familysizeof1singleperson-2634
An adult ages 19 through 64 may be eligible if the family income is $1,800/month or less.
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u/redshift83 16h ago
I’m fairly confident the healthcare in jail is quite poor, correct me if I’m wrong
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u/MetalxZebra 15h ago
I'll maintain that this guy was an idiot. Guess what? Look into this story a little more & you'll see that this was completely unnecessary. Instead of "robbing a bank" & risking a felony conviction, this gentleman could have EASILY accessed medical care that is available to low-income & indigent individuals. Don't believe me? Then you've probably never really been poor before & needed medical attention. But yeah, let's act like there are zero resources available to people who can't afford it 🤷♂️
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u/Chaos_Theory1989 15h ago
I am a teacher and worked with a colleague who had cancer. Even WITH insurance she and her husband couldn’t afford the tumor removal surgery. They had to save for THREE YEARS before getting the surgery and had to just pray the entire time the cancer didn’t kill her. America sucks.
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u/secretvomit 14h ago
I remember seeing this on the news (not local to NC) and this is the type of stuff I think about years later, over maybe more 'interesting' news. This is the day to day and it hasn't changed. We are all from day to day at this point.
it's the people who willingly incarcerate themselves in order for 3 square emeals. one of the biggest profits in the US is prison labor, right?
idk everything tastes like acid lately.
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u/octarine_turtle 14h ago
I'm permanently disabled and on SSDI. I would have never ended up disabled to begin with if I had access then to the medical coverage I get now. Now it is too late to fix and a permanent issue. That's how screwed up US healthcare is.
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u/13thWardBassMan 14h ago
Yeah I’m literally right there, right now. Haven’t had medical or dental care in many years. Would gladly adjudicate myself for either. America, now.
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u/NeilDegrassedHighSon 14h ago
Any system that forces its inhabitants to choose incarceration in order to access healthcare is a system worthy of contempt and total destruction. Burn it to the ground.
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u/haleakala420 14h ago
my buddy got popped in the late 90s for possession of an oz of weed in a small town in nj where the whole town was a school zone. just after the crime bill went through that cracked down on drug users. ended up doing 14 months in state prison. got out on parole and immediately went to cali to skate (illegal cuz he had to check in w parole officer regularly and get out of state travel approved). was a fugitive for like 5 years, then broke his ankle skating. took a bus back home for thanksgiving, then turned himself in for skipping out on parole and was sentenced to another year. he did this for medical care. he talks about his time in prison like it was summer camp, most positive dude ever. second stint in prison got him addicted to heroin for like a decade tho. now he’s super healthy and sober and doing great but man his life was derailed for like 20 years over nothing.
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u/ChopAndDrop27 13h ago
I used to work in a correctional facility and have seen this happen. Especially sad when a pregnant woman breaks the law on purpose so she will be incarcerated just to receive care for her baby.
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u/thegnarlyhead 13h ago
This. Is. America.
The most developed country with the worst health care, diet, and one of the worst education systems. We need to fix this country.
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u/sassy_cheddar 12h ago edited 12h ago
A schizophrenic relative of mine also robbed banks to go to prison. She'd do something like go sit at the nearest bus stop and wait to be arrested.
Prison was one of the safer, more stable places available to her. A routine, meds, shelter and food. Really tragic. Family had no idea where she was for years at a time. Family couldn't have afforded a private mental care facility and some of those were as bleak as prison or worse in the 70s and 80s.
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u/NihmarThrent 11h ago
You read something like this (if it is true), and the people from USA still defends their health care
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u/fighterpilot248 11h ago
Friendly reminder that Breaking Bad would not have taken place if Walter White (a high school teacher) had good health insurance.
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u/PlumbutterOnToast 9h ago
That's pretty much how I fantasize my retirement plan, but it ain't a bank robbery.
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u/Minute-Object 8h ago
Just a reminder that the U.S. does have a patchwork universal healthcare system. It just isn’t all that great. We have a series of city and county hospitals, legal requirements for EDs to stabilize patients, and medicare and medicaid.
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u/Johnnygunnz 8h ago
I work in an infirmary in my states prison system.
Last year, the state medical director gave a speech to a bunch of staff and said, "some of these inmates have never had healthcare in their entire lives. You will be the first bit of medical care they have ever had. Maybe they grew up on the streets or an abusive family who never got them any healthcare. There are a million reasons, but remember that you can change their lives."
That one hit different, actually. I guess I just never thought about it. Most of these guys need mental healthcare and medication-assisted addiction treatments. It's a shame we don't have better options, and they wind up in a prison. Once they get themselves straightened out, so many of them are decent people.
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u/CardiologistFree364 7h ago
We had a mentally ill young man in our town, some of the African American activists in town would get mad when the cops would arrest him. Finally, one cop asked one particularly vocal member of the community if he wanted to take him home with him. (He didn’t) The cop then replied, if we don’t take him to jail he will be dead in the morning in the cold weather. They would feed him and then let him go when the weather warmed up. The sheriff finally found a long term facility that would take him, see he didn’t draw enough money for most facilities to take him in.
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u/no1_vern 5h ago
Gee, why does our nation think it is so much better for our country to treat people this way instead of providing universal health care?
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u/_Damale_ 1h ago
Homeless people often commit lesser crimes during cold months, just to get a warm place to stay and something to eat every day.
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u/thatgirlzhao 18h ago edited 17h ago
This tracks. Many inmates say they’re scared to leave jail, not only do they have no where to go, they’re losing a bed, 3 meals a day, a shower and medical care. Absolutely despicable the state of health care in this country.