Without Funding, Connecticut Cannot Live Up to its Legal Obligations for Prison Care

To the Editor:

Connecticut is reaching a crisis point where the most vulnerable members of the population are experiencing worsening health conditions. Despite being one of the wealthiest states in the U.S., we are failing to adequately support healthcare, dental, and mental health services for marginalized communities. This failure is eroding our humanity as health disparities persist unchecked.

My name is Leslie Bumpus, DDS,  (Doctor of Dental Surgery),  and I am a dentist at the York Correctional Institution, the state’s sole women’s facility. For nearly five years, I’ve worked with the Department of Corrections (DOC), covering multiple facilities. Additionally, I’m pursuing a second master’s degree in public health with a certificate in interdisciplinary disability studies at the University of Connecticut. Lastly, I serve as a District 1199 New England Executive Board Member and Delegate.

As the only dentist responsible for over 800 incarcerated women, and with no option for overtime, I witness individuals suffering from dental pain daily. My responsibilities as a health care provider are to treat infections, diagnose disease, and educate individuals on oral health and disease prevention. I relieve dental pain and restore mouths back to health to help patients attain a better quality of life. I’m proud of the care I provide. However, with DOC dental staff being severely underpaid compared to the private sector and several other states, it is nearly impossible to recruit and retain oral health professionals to work for the state.

Those incarcerated have a constitutional right to receive timely and equitable healthcare. Public Act 22-133 (formerly SB 448) mandated dental screenings and care plans upon intake and annually thereafter. Despite our willingness, DOC dental practitioners struggle due to high patient needs and inadequate staffing. This results in delayed treatment, turning manageable issues into painful emergencies, like the story of one incarcerated individual that I cared for whose tooth decay progressed due to delays in treatment. This individual was bounced around to several facilities, and by the time I saw him at my facility, the decay had already reached the nerve. It was so bad that it got infected, and we had to extract the tooth, which, incidentally, we can’t replace because, per policy, he isn’t missing enough teeth for a partial denture. Routine fillings are not getting done in a timely manner because dentists are spread too thin treating emergencies rather than being able to fill a cavity while it is still small and savable.

Imagine that throbbing, pounding, incessant chronic pain in your head, and then having to sit and wait with that until it is finally your turn to be seen. This is unacceptable. To have the capacity to ACTUALLY provide quality care and to fulfill the requirements of Public Act 22-133, we urgently need more dentists, assistants, and hygienists — 34 more, to be exact — to meet the demand. Additionally, our facilities need upgrades such as portable dental chairs, adequate space, and extra X-ray units. Without addressing short staffing, foreseeable harm looms as there is not enough personnel or space to treat everyone promptly. Addressing systemic understaffing and expanding services requires funding from the Governor’s Budget to the DOC.

We have the resources to do whatever it takes to recruit quality healthcare staff with proper compensation, but this is simply not being done. Incarcerated individuals must be ensured the same rights and level of healthcare treatment as those who are not incarcerated. This health disparity continues to exist as we do not have an adequate amount of healthcare personnel. To address years of systemic understaffing of medical services, expand access, and improve the quality of healthcare and mental healthcare services for the incarcerated population, there must be adequate funding given in the budget to be allocated to the “DOC Inmate Medical” line item. Access to healthcare is a human right that we must invest in, especially in one of the richest states in the country with an astronomical budget surplus.

As a medical professional and someone who is on the frontline of this issue I am pleading for the state to fully fund DOC and its mandated programs. Without adequate funding, we cannot fulfill our obligations to provide essential healthcare to incarcerated individuals as mandated by P.A. 22-133.

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Leslie Bumpus is Lead Dentist at York Correctional Institution for female offenders, and has worked for the Department of Correction since 2019