ACI's new medical chief brings a dose of activism Providence Journal
-->CRANSTON — For decades, from apartment buildings in the devastated South Bronx to a medical practice in rural Foster, Dr. Michael D. Fine has been trying to reinvent the medical-care system.
Now, he’s going to prison to do it.
Since February, Fine, 56, has been director of medical services for the Department of Corrections, a job that gives him authority over a 76-member staff that is responsible for dealing with the medical and health issues for around 20,000 people a year; 4,000 sentenced inmates in the Adult Correctional Institutions and the 16,000 who cycle through the Travisono Intake Service Center, which holds suspects for anywhere from a few hours to months as they await court appearances.
And from a medical perspective, they need help. According to a 2005 analysis of health care at the ACI, the HIV rate there was four times the state average. About 20 percent of inmates had hepatitis B virus and 25 percent had hepatitis C.
Fine said some estimates
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