Inmate Health Care Issues Essay

The Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Department is tasked with providing health care services to all incarcerated prisoners within a jail system which at present exceeds 18,500 inmates. Correctional Treatment Center (CTC) provides care and treatment for inmates requiring inpatient medical and or psychiatric care in this 196-bed rated medical unit located in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles. The inmate population is in poor health, largely due to the lifestyle choices of the inmates which often include substance abuse, violence, and living on the streets of Los Angeles. They require the same basic medical care that all residents of Los Angeles County require, including routine illness to advanced medical issues such as tuberculosis (TB), AIDS/HIV+, heart disease, diabetes, dialysis, paraplegics, and acute mental health problems. Additionally, problems associated with aging are becoming common as the jail population increasingly includes older inmates. In the wake of chronic overcrowding in the county lockups, the Sheriff 's Department has been struggling to provide adequate care for thousands of inmates, many of whom have never been treated, with illnesses ranging from tuberculosis to AIDS to schizophrenia. Reported rates of tuberculosis in jails and prisons are more than six times higher than those for the general population. Jails and prisons concentrate individuals at high risk for TB or noncompliance with therapy, including those who are

Linder and Frederick J. Meyers. This article starts with a story about an inmate who found out he had cancer while incarcerated. Then, it goes on to incorporate his story throughout the article in interview form to provide inside information on the treatment of prisoners. Most inmates come in with addictions and substance abuse, no access to health care, homelessness, and untreated mental illnesses (Linder and Meyers 895). They blame this on the lack of medical health that’s available to the general population. According to Linder and Meyers, “Inmates and the free-living populations share 6 of the 10 leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, respiratory disease, influenza/pneumonia, and septicemia”. With the remaining four for inmates being liver disease, AIDS, self-harm and digestion

One of the most controversial issues regarding the mentally ill and the prison system is the medical treatment received. According to the film, “16% of the prison population in the state of Ohio, which reflects a national average, are persons who have been diagnosed with mental illness.” Prisons began as an institution designed to rehabilitate, however, a vast majority of prisons throughout the country do not provide adequate medical care for their mentally ill inmates. However, the prisons that do possess adequate health care are most likely the first instance in which the inmates with mental illness have received any sort of treatment in their entire life. People with chronic mental illness need constant supervision which they cannot get outside of prison. Although inmates does not receive the most extensive treatment, the treatment they do receive is well beyond the treatment they would have received had they stayed out of the criminal justice system.

The criminal justice system has become an ad hoc medical and social service delivery institution with more than eight million offenders under correctional control. Offenders have more physical, substance-abuse disorders, social and psychological deficits than the general population. According to Estelle versus Gamble, correctional institutions are required to provide reasonable care for all offenders who are incarcerated. Other issues such as psychological and social services have become a burden. A recent survey of prison administrators sheds light on the capacity of offenders that needed medical, psychological, and social services for offenders. The survey also dissected the analysis of the organizational factors that may affect whether an

While much discussion has been had in respect to the legislation of the Affordable Care Act and how it would impact the citizens of the United States, not a lot of thought is given to the medical state of the inmates incarcerated in North America. According to the eighth amendment, cruel and unusual punishment should not be inflicted upon inmates (U.S. Const. amend.VIII). Not issuing the proper medication to a pain stricken cancer patient or prenatal vitamins to an expectant mother can be looked at as cruel and unusual punishment. This paper aims to determine if healthcare in the United States is unconstitutional in its delivery. Healthcare at both federal and state prisons along with detention centers will be examined for this study. I am

would still need a consent from their treating doctor and a record of inmate’s medical history. Inmates who aren’t being treated well in prison would be transferred to hospitals for proper treatment (Reed and Lyne, 2000).

They need health care just like everyone else. There is a show called 60 minutes in. Where people offer to stay to see what jail is really like. It is an eye opener to me because the sanitary conditions were bad... People controlled who stayed where by a Pod boss instead of the guards which is a big issue. On one show that I had seen sewage was leaking in the cells and people where getting sick, One inmate was throwing up blood the nurse saw him for maybe a few seconds and called it a stomach bug. While we tend to view people in prison and jail as dangerous and threat to society it isn’t always that way. All people deserve

California’s prison system is facing a number of infrastructure changes as a result of a judicial decision that came down from the United States Supreme Court, Governor of California et al v. Plata et al. California’s prison system was deemed inadequate and dangerous due to severe overcrowding which led to “needless suffering and death” (Rogan, 2012, 262). The court ruled that the State must reduce the number of inmates in California’s thirty-three state prisons. This ruling came about after two class-action lawsuits were filed, Coleman v. Wilson in 1990 and Plata v. Davis in 2001 (Rogan, 2012, 261). These lawsuits were filed by inmates that claimed they received poor medical and mental health care within the State’s prison health care system (Vicini, 2011,1). The evidence presented in these cases showed several shortcomings in California 's prison health care system (Rogan, 2012, 264).

Each day, men, women and children are put behind bars suffer from lack of access to medical health care. Chronic illnesses go untreated, emergencies are ignored, and patients with serious illnesses fail to receive needed care. A small failure to medical care can turn in to death of an inmate if left untreated. Prisoners are humans whether inmates or not, with normal health issues or diseases. Even a common cold is an example of an illness that needs treatment. A lot with what is wrong with the health care system today, in the United States deals with money. Within prisons, it is an entire different story. The mission of medical care is to diagnose, comfort and cure. These goals are not being achieved within the prison system. Care needs to be given to every inmate, even the most despised and violent one among them all.

Although elderly inmates are receiving health care while they are institutionalized, they are not always receiving the proper health care that is needed. The overwhelming increase in the elderly prison population has caused challenges to health care administrators. According to Kuhlmann and Ruddel (2005), not only do elderly inmates have common illnesses such as high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, dementia or other diseases that one undergoes as they age, elderly inmates are also affected by transmissible diseases due to overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, or unprotected sex. Health officials also have a problem treating elderly patients who are at the top of the list for being attacked by other inmates. Even if an elderly inmate is healthy when processed into the prison system, the stressors contribute to the declines in physical functioning ensuing in amplified health care. Kuhlmann and Ruddel (2005), states the only way that elderly inmates can receive proper health care is if public health practitioners and jail administrators launch an improved long-term

It is not uncommon to hear of inmates and ex-inmates having lots of health problems. It is said that many prisoners have severe mental disorders and chronic and infectious disease. Living in prison they are provided a health care facility but it doesn’t stop all the things they are exposed to. Often times it has been proven that when people get out of jail they will try to use their mental incapability to their advantage. Although some of them may have some mental issues I believe that they occasionally try to take advantage of it and get what they can from it.

Healthcare is a big topic no matter how you view it, but when looking at it from the point of a person who is in prison, it takes on a whole new view. Those who are in prison have federal and state laws that say that the prisons must provide them with medical facilities for their healthcare needs. This paper will identify a governmental agency that regulates the healthcare that is provided to prisoners in an institution within the United States, along with the foundation of such an agency and who regulates the licenses, accreditation, certifications, and authorization for employment for those who work within one of these

There are approximately 1,600,000 million inmates are behind bars in America (Glazer, 2014, para. 11) . Without a doubt, much of state prisons are overcrowded, which can lead to, very dangerous situations and environments. Due to the overwhelming number of inmates incarcerated it is difficult to deal with medical and mental health problems in prison. If most inmates complain about not feeling well or have symptoms, medical condition or disease that is not immediately, they would get some form of medication and get turned life back without seeing a doctor for a proper medical exam. A clear majority of the health care professional that work in the prison systems are very under qualified to work in such dangerous and trauma environments like prisons

Several effects of overcrowding may be distinguished. Overcrowding results first of all in a restricted living space and associated losses of privacy and human dignity. Also, overcrowding may result in a reduction of general services to be provided in a prison facility in order to comply with standards set for access to medical treatment, sanitary equipment and educational, training or rehabilitative programs (The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, 2009). Rehabilitative needs may be affected also through assigning low risk prisoners to maximum security units because other prison space is not available. In particular substandard medical treatment and an environment prone to the spread of infectious diseases, as prison populations exhibit higher rates of certain infectious diseases; in some world regions these include besides HIV and hepatitis; programs to deliver effective treatment are impeded as are policies to prevent the transmission of diseases within the prison itself; after release from prison of course, the threat of further transmission extends to the general public (The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy,

While, the issue of the incarcerated population having the privilege of this scarce medical resources is extensively and generally approved or compelling recognition within the correctional health profession and there is a case-law supporting the matter of concern, that the statues of a person as an inmate must not preclude such person as a patient from receiving adequate care in respect to serious health needs, regardless of the cost of such treatment. They also have all the social and moral values since the law does not exempt them from citizenship (Puisis, 2006, p.23).