Ex-convict says he got himself arrested to get prison health care

[alp227]

On the night of Nov. 26, a man walked into a Wegmans store on Alberta Drive in Amherst, where he stepped up to a counter and began stuffing shoelaces, a pair of sandals, a small stuffed animal and other miscellaneous items worth a total of $23 into a shopping basket.

Making sure the cashier and other people in the store saw him, the man then walked out of the store without paying. A few minutes later, Amherst police arrested him on a shoplifting charge.

The man was Frank J. Morrocco, an Amherst resident who was convicted of felony drug conspiracy charges in the 1990s and released from federal prison last December after serving 20 years. He suffers from a rare form of leukemia.

Morrocco said he intentionally got himself arrested in hopes that a federal judge would send him to prison for a violation of supervised release

Full: http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121208/CITYANDREGION/121209222/1002

found via think progress, which comments:

Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is crucial to funding health care for ex-convicts like Morrocco, since it will help extend coverage to the underemployed or unemployed Americans who cannot currently afford to purchase insurance on the private market. But until the health reform law is fully implemented in 2014 —or if stubborn Republican governors continue to resist expanding Medicaid in their states —the soaring cost of health care is still forcing some uninsured Americans to go to desperate lengths to attempt to fund their medical costs. Those without adequate coverage are increasingly turning to the Internet to attempt to crowd source the funds they need to pay off their rising medical debt.

[quinnox]

1. what a sad reflection on the state of health care in this country

Health care for all, nationalized health care run by the government, should be instituted at once. Let's finally join the rest of the civilized world, America.

[Historic NY]

2. He's got to do better than Petit Larceny....

he should have went over to the bank. A bid in a county jail isn't going to earn he anything.