Convicted murder Phil Spector had a dental appointment today. He was allowed to leave the prison with a security detail to see a private dentist instead of seeing the prison dentist. The California Department of Corrections allows inmates with the “financial means” to do this as long as they pick up the bill for security and transportation. I suppose one could argue that this rule is actually a good one since it does save the taxpayers money (& CA is in financial crisis).
One could argue that. I’m of the opinion this is a fucking disgrace! :mad: This is utterly disgusting. The man’s a convicted murderer serving a fucking life sentence and because he’s rich he’s allowed to literly buy better treatment for himself? What’s next? Letting him have his meals sent in from a caterer? Rent a deluxe private cell? Maybe they should let his servants accompany him to wait on him in prison like imprisoned nobles of old. Fuck that. His fucking high priced lawyers (costing far beyond most defendents means) couldn’t keep his sorry ass out of prison so now he get’s to throw is money around 'cause the prison clinic isn’t up to his fucking standards!? Gee maybe California could just give it’s wealth citizens the option to pay a huge fine (for murder) instead of going to prison. What’s a fair fine to get out of a life sentence?
If you get sent to prison, the amount of money you made or have should be irrelevant. Convicts are convicts, they should all see the same medical staff unless the ones on site aren’t equipped to handle their rare situation.
The prison has a damn dentist. If you like yours so much, stop killing people.
Taking a wild guess, I’d say the lack of responses means no one disagrees with you guys. Spector could have gone to the prison dentist, just like everyone else.
It’s not like he really has to worry about his teeth looking good anymore, so my guess is that the dentist is a friend who let him huff nitrous for a few minutes so he could have a nice, relaxing break from the prison grind.
Whatever. Just because you’re in prison doesn’t mean you lose your rights to good health care. Take away his television or whatever, but having access to good health care is something I just can’t get riled up about.
No you don’t lose your rights to [adequate] health care, which, because you are, for the length of your confinement, a ward of the state, is to be provided by the state. You most certainly do lose the right to travel at your own discretion, even if you’re capable of paying for the expenses incurred.
At least, that’s the impression I have carried with me since childhood.
The more I think about it, the less I understand the outrage. Oooh, mister la-dee-dah gets to leave prison whenever he wants. It’s the dentist, not disney world. Maybe the chair should be particularly uncomfortable, or the assistants should be ugly.
My impression is that as a ward of the state for the duration of his incarceration, his personal assets should be just as out of reach to him as is the rest of the outside world. Paying for his legal representation could be handled by a trust, should he wish to set one up.
Say he wants to pay his respects at the gravesites of his parents on the anniversaries of their deaths. Should he be allowed those little field trips?
Yeah, this thread is kind of a let down. I see the thread title and the obvious outrage the OP must have felt, so I check it out, expecting some sort of “and then…”. I mean, “They let Phil Spector out of jail to see a PRIVATE dentist, who he then forced to perform an unnecessary root canal at gunpoint, because he’s Phil Spector and that’s what he does” would be a Pit thread I’d be down with. As it is, the guy paid for a visit to a private dentist, is back in jail. Not really a provision I’d bother to include if I were running California prisons, but I simply can’t work up any real outrage.
The dentist coming to the prison would still be an example of people with money, getting access to things people without money do not have in jail. Jail should be uniform in its treatment of people, regardless of financial standing.
If you get locked up, you get locked up. There should be no hierarchy of wealth that decides what you can and cannot get there.
Also, that “Is it safe?” joke is more stale than the original Marathon Man, and Dustin Hoffman’s career.
I don’t know. Dentistry’s kind of a specialized field. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that an inmate needed a particular tool or a dentist with specific training that the prison doesn’t have on staff. They get to go to the hospital if they need something that can’t be provided at the prison clinic. It doesn’t bother me that an inmate can go to a special dentist if need be. If they pick up the bill for it, all the better.
If need be is the catcher though. There’s no indication that this was a specialist, it’s just his personal dentist. This wasn’t a necessity, this was a privilege being afforded to Spector because he’s got wealth in a bank account outside of prison and because he hasn’t broken any prison rules so far.
But this had nothing to do with need. This wasn’t a specialist visit nor an emergency. There’s no excuse for this kind of privilege to be given to a prisoner – especially one serving a life sentence for murder – just because they were wealthy on the outside.