A pair of recent incidents at the state facility in Monroe have raised questions about inmate medical care, and prompted prison management to take remedial steps that might make even free men envious.

Inmates were riled up about the purported neglect of Richard Saintcalle, a 44-year-old murderer who started feeling ill while exercising in the gym last week. He was taken to the prison clinic and tested, but with inconclusive results, according to Karen Portin, an associate superintendent at the Monroe Correctional Complex. Feeling better, he walked back to his cell and stayed there until he collapsed. Another man, 61-year-old George Manussier, recently collapsed while playing softball in the prison yard and was treated—unsuccessfully—within minutes. Manussier was serving time for robbery in a three-strikes case.

Due to a let’s-not-coddle-prisoners law that passed the legislature in the mid-’90s, all state prisons charge a $3 to $5 fee for doctor visits—a not inconsiderable sum for inmates who typically earn no more than 55 cents an hour. After Manussier’s death, though, Monroe announced that it would start offering physicals for free. Few inmates have taken the prison up on the offer, Portin says.