# The Public Health Service in the prisons

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Public Health Service in the prisons," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/public-health-service-in-the-prisons/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's contrast between the United States Public Health Service officers he worked with during fifteen years at the CIA, whom he found excellent, and the Public Health Service physician assistants he encountered as a prisoner at FCI Loretto, whom he describes as the dregs of the service — people dumped into the Bureau of Prisons because they could not work anywhere else in government.*

- **At the CIA:** "Terrific people, good medics, committed, patriotic"
- **In the Bureau of Prisons:** "The dregs of the Public Health Service"
- **Loretto's doctor:** Resigned rather than be barred from treating prisoners properly
- **His replacement:** A failed child psychiatrist, after six months with no doctor at all

**The Public Health Service in the prisons** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of the same federal uniformed service seen from two sides of his life, and of what he concluded from the difference.

## Two encounters with one service

Over fifteen years at the [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) Kiriakou had occasion to deal many times with medical professionals from the United States Public Health Service, and found them *"just terrific — people, good medics, committed, patriotic."*[1]

His experience in prison was the exact opposite. He was shocked to find that Public Health Service professionals were the physician assistants seeing patients every day, and that these were *"the dregs of the Public Health Service — these were the people who just couldn't cut it anywhere else in government, and so they were dumped into the prisons."*[1]

## The doctor who left

His illustration is a doctor at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) of whom most prisoners he knew spoke highly. About six months into Kiriakou's sentence the man resigned — he did not ask for a transfer, he resigned and went into private practice — because the [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons) would not let him treat prisoners the way he wanted to, meaning send them to outside appointments and prescribe the medications he thought they needed.[2]

The institution then went about six months with no doctor at all, and finally hired a failed child psychiatrist who had been asked to leave one of the major American teaching hospitals.[2]

Kiriakou closes the argument with an observation he offers as arithmetic rather than insult: half of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class, somebody has to be ranked last in medical school, and frequently those doctors end up in prisons.[3]

## See also

- [Medical care in federal prison](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/prison-medical-care)
- [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons)
- [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto)

## Sources

1. Kevin Gosztola (2016-09-29), at 08:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oscOuMADGI&t=532s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-09-29-kevin-gosztola-kevin-gosztola/
2. Kevin Gosztola (2016-09-29), at 09:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oscOuMADGI&t=563s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-09-29-kevin-gosztola-kevin-gosztola/
3. Kevin Gosztola (2016-09-29), at 09:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oscOuMADGI&t=596s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2016-09-29-kevin-gosztola-kevin-gosztola/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/public-health-service-in-the-prisons/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt