Effectiveness Of A Worker For Prisons

This paper explores the topic of mental health within prisons and how it affects the inmates. The report of my findings were through research of twelve articles, two credible website sources, and a published textbook.

Despite the fact that my parents have worked in the criminal justice system for many years, I have never given much thought to the treatment of prisoners. As we learned from the readings, the current state of the United States criminal justice system is imperfect to the point of cruelty to those involved in it. This is truer for individuals with a mental illness. Due to a lack of psychiatric facilities throughout Alabama and overcrowding of those that do exist, many criminal offenders with mental illnesses are sent to prisons instead. State prisons are currently overcrowded, leading to substandard conditions such in almost every aspect.

Everyday correctional officials work to deal with mental health inmates. Often hotly debated, many search for ways to work with this growing population. Glaze and Bonczar (2009) estimate around 2.3 million people are incarcerated within the US and of those, 20 percent suffer from some form of mental disorder. Even with such a high number, the rate of mental illnesses within the prison system is on the climb. Many of these inmates will remain incarcerated and receive little to no treatment for their mental issues. This essay, will look at the practices associated when dealing with mental illness and discuss the strategies on dealing with this growing issue.

The jail program I believe is most beneficial to an inmate is educational and training programs. Most jails and prison offer inmates the GED programs to help them further their education more. Most of the inmates that receive education program are most likely not to return back to prison and more likely to find a job as well. This program gives the inmates hope for a better life and future. The ones with no education will stay on the street and make their living.

Governor Wilma James’ state is facing severe budget cuts due to economic struggles and drops in tax revenues. The Department of Revenue had informed the governor that she must find ways to reduce the budget by $6 billion. There are several areas which the governor acknowledged as fixed and cannot be touched such as, health care and pension payments. Several proposals were brought to the governor’s attention and the one that stands out the most were the prison system. After conversing with the correctional commissioner, the governor decided to order an early release of inmates whose been charged with drug related crimes. Governor James believes that her action will reduce the state’s budget immensely; however, another problem that may transpire, is the rise of drug related criminal activities occurring all across the state. This essay will briefly highlight the contexts of prison labor and work release programs, and how it would be a better alternative as compared to the early releasing of felons incarcerated for drug related crimes.

The three health officials will also be required to critique the social worker's form of being an assistance to the top three health care officials in the program as well as the patients who are receiving treatment. With the social workers being trained by the top three health care officials. The social workers in the facility will be taught to have passion for the rehabilitation of the inmates and are strongly encouraged to have a positive influence on the inmates as they help the mentally ill inmates cope with their internal issues. Social workers will be required to train the correctional officers as to recognizing any suspicious actions. Also the correctional officers will be trained by the correctional facility on how resolve most conflicts involving an inmate and the staff by use of his or her voice rather than using physical violence which could worsen the mental status of the inmate. Any suspicious actions or mood swings should be monitored by any part of the staff, much of the prison population dealing with mental health issues end up committing

I interviewed the Bonneville County Jail social worker, Brian Mecham. Social Workers at the jail are mainly responsible for helping the inmates, doing assessments for individuals that need medications, group and individual discussions and also helping them with learning more life skills. Being their advocate and helping them go through changing processes is all part of the job. Mecham and his wife are both a part of the social work profession. Although seeing two completely different sides with Mecham working in the jail and his wife in the hospice field, Mecham emphasized the importance of finding what you want to do in the social work field. “You never know what is going to impress you to do one thing or the other.”

One major problem of prison overcrowding is the effect it has on prison organizational stability. The more prisoners and people put in jail have made it harder for prison guards and staff to monitor and control them. The entire prison system must make enormous changes in order to accommodate for the number of inmates versus the number of prison guards (O’Leary). This often results in a misclassification of offenders. Many who come through the system are classified based on the amount of space available instead of on the security level and programs that would be most suitable for them (Howard). “It is not uncommon to find inmates, classified as medium security, incarcerated in maximum security institutions, while other inmates are in medium security who were previously considered candidates for maximum security” (Howard). Misclassifying offenders often leads to “slow progress through the corrections system as well as a slow exit” (Howard). This in turn only prolongs and increases the overcrowding problem (Howard). The corrections programs should be reformed to meet the needs of the inmates rather than the inmates having to adjust to meet the requirements of the system. Offenders need to be on specific rehabilitation programs that are customized to fit their needs, such as alcohol and drug abuse programs and so forth.

At any given time, a single corrections officer, can expect to be outnumbered by upwards of 400 inmates (Conover, 2011). It can be chilling to work in the midst of hundreds of inmates, some of which initiate attacks and inappropriate relationships. However, other issues have impacted the psychological health and physical safety of the staff. Detrimental factors have included heavy workloads, the prisons physical structure, and a lack of support from both peers and superiors. Each workplace issue has been in addition to role problems, specifically role ambiguity and role conflict (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). It is believed that anyone of these undesirable facets of prison should be enough to deter the public from attempting to enter such

It is no secret that the issue on incarceration is ever apparent. This is mainly due to the underlying stigma of those convicted of said crime, which is especially hard to break out of, even for minorities who are constantly scrutinized on a daily basis for their racial background. Questions were made in the process, wondering almost exactly what had been the reason for the stigma and discrimination of former convicts. Reading the book; “Marked: Race, Crime and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration”, Devah Pager, the author of this book, goes into detail of the possible explanations by means of conducting experiments in order to find the answers. However, another question is in place; where the methods in which they used efficient enough to provide a clear answer? Though they had gone in the right direction, it is obvious that due to the nature of the experiments, that there was room for bias as well as a lack of accuracy. However, the researcher had

Demarco Young filed a lawsuit in August 2015 challenging the state’s use and requirement of penal labor in prison. Young was convicted for domestic abuse and assault in Monroe, Louisiana and was sentenced to eight years in the Louisiana State Prison with parole. Young was in great physical shape, his only health issue was high cholestrol. Young was required to fulfill penal labor in prison and was sent to Microsoft’s storage facility to work. At this facility, Young was instructed to move the heavy computer parts into the storage crates and carry them to the trucks for travel. After one month of performing well he began to feel unnatural back pains, and after another two months he threw his back out while attempting to carry one of the crates. Young was diagnosed with chronic lower back pain and after that event Young was unable to bend over and lift anything heavier than a few books. Young then sued the state of Louisiana saying they violated his 8th amendment which resulted in his new health problems and ruined his future once he’s released from prison.

Mental illness is a problem that occurs in all nations around the world. This is even more true for the populations in correctional facilities for both men and women. The overwhelming number of persons in correctional facilities with health issues is caused by: the rational that people with mental health disorders are a threat to society; narrow mindedness and low tolerance for people who are different from us; no resources to acquire the proper care needed. These mental health problems may have occurred prior to incarceration, and may nurtured further by the stressful environment of prisons, or they may have also been caused by being incarcerated in the first place in addition to other prior issues. Correctional facilities is not the place for the mentally ill, instead they should be treated for there illnesses. The purpose of this paper is to depict both the problem of inmates with mental health disorders in correctional facilities and the challenges faced by correctional staff. Secondly, denote possible interventions (treatment) for inmates with mental health issues. Next, support this information with studies about mental health in correctional facilities. Lastly, offer reasons it is important to combat the problem of mental illness in correctional facilities in order to better serve their well being needs.

Some prisoners are plagued with Post Incarceration Syndrome, a combination of psychological problems. These problems are institutionalized and antisocial personality traits, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,

Mentally ill, elderly, and female inmates are faced with more than normal circumstances in the correctional facilities that they are housed in. These circumstances add more stress on to the administrators’ job. The administrators are faced with challenges such as the following: failing health, aggression, strict monitoring and observation, counseling services, and providing the proper health care inmates. They have to ensure that the accommodations and adjustments that are enforced are aligned with the

Criminologist and politicians have debated the effectiveness of correctional rehabilitation programs since the 1970’s when criminal justice scholars and policy makers throughout the United States embraced Robert Martinson’s credo of “nothing works” (Shrum, 2004). Recidivism, the rate at which released offenders return to jail or prison, has become the most accepted outcome measure in corrections. The public's desire to reduce the economic and social costs associated with crime and incarceration has resulted in an emphasis on recidivism as an outcome measure of program effectiveness. While correctional facilities continue to grow, corrections make up an increasing amount of state and federal budgets. The recidivism rate in