Comment on SIU Medical School to pilot state prison health care

SPRINGFIELD – Southern Illinois University School of Medicine will provide health care at two state prisons in a test that could expand statewide and which could provide answers for a troubled, $180 million-a-year medical program for 40,000 inmates, officials said Monday. SIU aims to have medical teams by summer at prisons in Lincoln and Pinckneyville and to add teams next year at two more lockups in what dean and provost Jerry Kruse said is in keeping with the school’s mission as well as an economic expansion opportunity. “We plan to make a go with this long term.