Anita Hendricks-Pearce, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Dewell W. Pearce, Appellant v. State of Alaska…

Summary

The plurality affirmed the superior court's judgment, holding that the statute makes a prisoner responsible for the costs of medical care provided or made available during incarceration, including care obtained from outside providers, regardless of access to enumerated collateral funding sources. It also held that the common fund doctrine did not require the State to contribute to the prisoner's attorney fees because the State was merely a general creditor for unrelated medical expenses and did not benefit from a fund created specifically for it. FABE, Chief Justice, dissenting, would have held that prisoners without enumerated collateral resources are not personally liable for outside medical care and would have reversed and remanded.