Prison Health Care after the Affordable Care Act: Envisioning an End to the Policy of Neglect

Authors

Evelyn Malave, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

New York University Law Review

Publication Date

5-2014

Abstract

Inadequate prison health care has created a health crisis for reentering prisoners and their communities--a crisis that is exacerbated by barriers to employment and other collateral consequences of release. This Note will first examine how current Eighth Amendment doctrine has failed to sufficiently regulate prison health care so as to have any significant effect on the crisis. Next, it will argue that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) alters the Eighth Amendment analysis by triggering a change in the "evolving standards of decency" that guide the doctrine. Specifically, this Note will argue that, after the passage of the ACA, releasing sick, Medicaid-eligible prisoners without enrolling them in the federal benefits program violates the Eighth Amendment.

Recommended Citation

Evelyn Malave, Prison Health Care after the Affordable Care Act: Envisioning an End to the Policy of Neglect, 89 N.Y.U. L. REV. 700 (2014)
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/1512