This dental hygienist should not be heading to prison

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Human Cages

Human Cages

Introduction
Cherie R. Dillon, a hygienist from Idaho, is going to prison for five years for practicing beyond her license (e.g. fillings, extractions, etc.), illegally billing Medicaid and other insurances, and using the identity of a disabled, non-practicing dentist to make it happen.  She also has to pay over $500k in restitution and has to forfeit over $800k in illegally gained proceeds.  You can read more details about the story at the links below, but that’s basically the gist of it.  There are a lot issues about this case that bother me, but I’m going to focus on just two.

Why is she going to prison?
Before answering the question let’s first focus on the word prison.  In our society the word prison has ceased to capture the barbaric nature of what it really is.  Prison is a human cage.  That’s the brutal reality of what we are doing.  We are literally throwing human beings into metal cages and locking them in.  Ok, with that in mind, let’s get back to the question.  Why is Cherie going to prison?  I’m not asking this from a technical or legal perspective.  I’m asking this from a moral perspective.  Putting someone in a human cage is a very extreme act that should be limited to very extreme crimes.  Cherie’s “crimes” do not qualify, not even close.  No one is benefiting from putting Cherie in a cage (unless you work in the current “justice” system), but it’s worse than that.  We are also punishing many innocent people.  Her innocent family is punished.  Her innocent friends are punished.  The innocent tax payers are punished with a $150,000 bill to cage her.  And most of all, the innocent dentist she victimized is now less likely to receive any restitution from her (I wouldn’t be surprised if the government was the only entity receiving “restitution” in this case anyway).  Putting Cherie in a human cage for what she did is an immoral act and our society should be ashamed.

Who did she victimize?
Let’s first identify the actual victims.  Is the disabled dentist a victim?  Yes.  She at least put his identity/reputation at risk and may have caused actual damage.  Are the patients victims?  The primary question here is, did she regularly perform subpar work, or even worse, did she hurt the patients?  If the answer is no, then the patients were not victims.  But what if she claimed to be a dentist, or let patients assume she was, wouldn’t that be considered fraud?  Yes, but the actual damage is very little if she performed treatment that was on par.  And I would be willing to bet that many of her patients knew she was not a dentist and didn’t care.  Are the tax payers victims?  Again, did she perform subpar work?  If not, then there are no victims here.  What if her work was subpar?  If the moral response to performing subpar dental work is to put clinicians in a cage, then I have a long list of licensed dentists and hygienists that need to be sent to the same government cage facility.

What does she owe her victims?
She owes the disabled dentist some compensation for putting his identity and reputation at risk.  And additional compensation if she caused actual damage to his reputation.  What dollar figure that should be, I don’t know, but it should be something.  Unless she performed subpar work, she owes both the patients and taxpayers nothing.  And most importantly, she owes no one, especially society, time in a human cage.

The house building analogy
Let’s look at this situation from the perspective of a different profession.  Let’s say you hire a general contractor to build a new home.  The contract you sign with this general contractor states that all tradesman (e.g. plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc.) involved in this project must be licensed.  You pay the contractor $200,000 and your new home is built without a hitch.  The home passed all inspections.  Two years later you still love the house, but you find out that none of the tradesmen were licensed.  From a moral perspective, does the contractor owe you $200,000 for violating the contract?  No.  Should the contractor and the unlicensed tradesmen be thrown in a cage?  No.  What if this project happened to be funded by a charity or a government?  Would either of those organizations be entitled to $200,000?  No.  Would you be owed any compensation from the contractor who clearly violated at least part of the contract?  Maybe, but not much.

What kind of criminal justice system do you want?
I want a criminal justice system that is primarily focused on restitution.  Who is the victim and what is that victim owed?  That’s it.  A criminal justice system that is focused on hurting or punishing people to “teach them a lesson” or “pay their debt to society” is antiquated and barbaric.  That philosophy needs to die.  Let’s save the human cages for real criminals like, I don’t know, serial killers.

Shout out to Cherie
If you are reading this Cherie I would love to hear from you.  My thoughts are with you.  You can contact me at kona26@hotmail.com

Links
http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/crime/article154852059.html

https://www.justice.gov/usao-id/pr/fruitland-woman-sentenced-60-months-prison-health-care-fraud-and-aggravated-identity

Mark Frias, RDH

13 thoughts on “This dental hygienist should not be heading to prison

  1. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. A contractor working on a house is not the same as doing physical work in a persons mouth. Illegal means against the law, and we have laws so that there is order and something to abide by. There are licenses and certifications so that we can all agree that a person has the adequate training to do a certain job. I’ve been in dentistry for 15 years and that doesn’t qualify me to preform a filling or crown prep. I know how it’s done and I think I could do a better job than some of the recent dentist that I’ve met, but it still doesn’t make me qualified and doesn’t mean I should. Prison is exactly where she should go. She behaved as an animal and bad animals go in cages or are laid to rest. I’m sorry for her family and the people that might “need” her or miss her, but maybe they will be able to help her when she gets out in 5 years to be a better logical thinking human being. She obviously needs to be educated on right from wrong as do you for considering the possibility of not going to prison. End of discussion.

  2. Mark, I could not agree with you more. Our prison system is not working except to create better criminals. There is no reason every person who breaks a law needs to be locked in a cell.

  3. Prison should only very for those who are dangerous to society. All other crimes should be punished with restitution and community service.

  4. She doesn’t have the proper training, education, and licensure to treat those patients – she knowingly broke the law. Luckily, no patients were harmed, but that’s the reason why – luck. If you knowingly break the law and you are caught, you will be punished. The patients, her family, and the dentist whose license she used aren’t victims of the law being too harsh – they are victims of HER and her arrogance in thinking she is above the law.

  5. She knowingly broke the law. She defrauded patients, the dentist and the government. Mark, are you a friend of this hygienist? Your view is incredibly biased. Your analogy is laughable. Martha Stewart went to jail for insider trading and she survived. This hygienist should most definitely go to prison.

    • I don’t know this hygienist at all. I just think five years, or any prison time, is way over the top. Martha Stewart was not convicted of insider trading. She was convicted of “obstruction of justice”. I’m no fan of Martha, but based on what I read she did nothing wrong, morally or legally. It was another case of overzealous federal prosecutors going after someone.

  6. She committed fraud, knowingly. She used someone else’s license and benefitted financially. I would have a bit of a different feeling about it if she was providing services for minimal or no cost to underserved populations. Does not sound like this is the case. She does deserve prison. Her sentence needs to deter others from trying the same thing. Community service and restitution won’t do that. Sorry Cherie – but you knew you were practicing beyond the scope of your license and you are only sorry that you got caught. You weren’t benefitting anyone but yourself.

  7. I have three points of concern about this, from a patient’s perspective.

    1). Would you mind a nurse doing surgery on you? You’re at their mercy, you have to live with the consequences. Even though the nurse has seen it for years, and probably could do it better than some surgeons, do you really want a nurse to have done that? Do you want the flight captain flying, or are you okay with the flight crew? Do you want your cancer treatment done by a cancer specialist, or is a nurse okay for that too? Do you want to hike a.mountain with an expert guide, or the probably equally capable layman? None of these analogies fit the difference between a hygenists and a dentist, but it illustrates a good point between the difference of these educations and qualifications. A dentist is trained in the use of anesthesia and analgesics. Are you as a patient okay with unsupervised use of these?

    2). What if something terrible had gone wrong. What about malpractice and malpractice insurance? What about the ability to fix a terrible mistake that the patient will have to live with?

    3). Different prices are paid to different training levels. A nurse, nurse practitioner, doctor, specialist, and surgeon will be paid different rates. The patients paid a dentist price for a hygenist.

    It would be different if this was donated services to people in dire need.

  8. Pingback: Dental Hygienist, Cherie Dillon, has been released from federal prison. | Mark Frias, RDH

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