Expand hospitals to include prisons

I read your July 22 editorial (“Federal legislation follows Iowa's lead”) with interest. You are advocating that we expand prisons to include hospitals. I advocate expanding hospitals to include prisons. Normal patients do not recover when criminals are housed in hospitals. Criminals should be treated humanely in jails and prisons.

For example, let's renovate jails and prisons to have recreation wards, interview rooms and television rooms so that the criminals recover quickly from their shock of incarceration. There is no need to transfer criminals to hospital wards. There is no need for a Bruce Braley bill.

You say that Iowa's Ed Thomas bill will improve communication, but do we want Mark Becker on our hospital floors? The solution is to insure that mental patients are taking their medicine. That can be accomplished by requiring the patient dial a number every time he takes his medicine. If the operator doesn't receive a call, the operator could call authorities to see how the patient is doing. If we knew earlier that Mark Becker was not taking his medicine, the issue would not be communication.

Braley could advocate for federal funds to remodel prisons to improve the recovery process. I have credentials in this area. I am a former board member of the late Mental Health Advocates of Linn County.

Al Swegle

Cedar Rapids