Jails And Prisons

With overpopulation in jails come healthcare issues for these inmates. Prison overcrowding breaches United Nations and other international standards by causing a situation where various factors such as poor hygiene facilities and restricted living space generally decreases prisoners’ feelings of health and well being, and puts strain on the effective delivery of healthcare. Diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, or other diseases are predisposing before entering the jail system. The health of prisoners are inferior to that of the general population. Prisoners face health and social problems. These health problems may be chronic, acute, or both. Some health problems may include increase rate of health risk behaviors, communicable diseases, and mental illness.

There are many healthcare disparities through out a variety of populations in the United States. People face difficulties and disparities getting quality health care for many different reasons such as race, gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs and various other reasons. One population that has numerous health care issues and disparities is the incarcerated population. This population stood out to me because there is a mixture of all kinds of people (races, genders, age, etc.) living in close and often overcrowded spaces. This is a complex problem because not only is there a lot of diversity but also jails were not meant to accommodate everybody’s medical specific issues. If someone were to commit a minor crime and has an untreated health issue while in jail it could be very serious or even become a death sentence.

As warden, my recommendation to lower medical costs would be aimed at the population of inmates in my facility. Reducing the number of inmates is the single most effective way to drive down all costs of housing inmates including medical care (Henrichson, Rinaldi, & Delaney. 2015). Recent studies show the amount of money that can be saved is significant, but to successfully reduce inmate populations it will require participation from law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, community corrections officials, and lawmakers (Henrichson, Rinaldi, & Delaney. 2015). Our country has the largest population of inmates than any other country in the world and the consequences that has had on taxpayers and peoples lives have been a negative one

When it came to prisoners it would have been less costly to have alternative punishments or other treatments that could be involved in the community, but if you incarcerate the inmate then it makes them more likely to reoffend, and by this process it is creating more cost in the future. When it comes to women “Incarcerating women, in particular, increases the social cost of prisons because someone has to pay to take care of the children, and furthermore, when mothers do not care for their children personally, the kids are more likely to become offenders in the future” (Pryce, Vicky 2013 Prisonomics: Behind Bars in Britain's Failing Prisons. London: Biteback , 336 pp). But if we were to invest money into other ideas that would give better

According to Henry J. Steadman in his article titled Prevalence of Serious Mental Illness Among Jail Inmates and sponsored by Psychiatric Services, “⅔ of convicts met criteria for a lifetime psychiatric disorder, anxiety disorder, and antisocial personality disorder.” Theodore M. Hammett, Mary Patricia Harmon, and William Rhodes also stated in the article The Burden of Infectious Disease Among Inmates of and Releases From United States Correctional Facilities sponsored by American Journal of Public Health, that “Political leaders and the public have not recognized the importance of correctional settings for health interventions.” With this information at hand, government should take action into

Prison administration and medical researchers need to develop an attitude that is respectful, sensitive, and seeks to improve and treat inmates. Overholster contends that prisons should aim to rehabilitate inmates rather than punish them (194). Capron argues that the government should participate both in forming and regulating policy (4). Perhaps, the government should set quotas on the number of medical research experiments in prisons in order to invest more efforts and time in setting up a good environment and regulating research. Depending on how research and treatment fares in prisons, the government can tighten or relax restrictions on the purpose and nature of medical research in

In the United States there are “2,300,000 people are in jails or prisons today. Incarceration is one of the most common forms of punishment in the country for those who choose to commit crimes. This number includes those who are jailed for a short period and are released on probation, as well as those who are doing time for the rest of their lives. (soapboxie, 2016).

In chapter five of Ironies of Imprisonment, it is evident that there is inadequate healthcare for those incarcerated. Throughout the chapter the different diseases are discussed as well as myths and misconceptions surrounding healthcare behind bars. Furthermore, proposals to spend healthcare dollars on correctional facilities are becoming more unpopular. This is likely because people do not believe that prisoners have equal rights to normal people, and they see them as less human.

Your post was informative as you detailed the incline of the incarcerated population from 1978 to 1998 and the increase is alarming. I concur that jails are smaller than prisons and emphasize on shorter sentences for lesser crimes. I concur that prisons are structured to facilitate detainees that are serving a longer sentence for a more serious crime or repeated crime. Jails in Tennessee are mandated by the local Sheriff's Office or Police Department and prisons are mandated by the state unless it is a federal prison. Some jails even hold federal and state detainees for various reasons and profit from these calibers of inmates and have to maintain a certain accreditation to do so. Good

Research regarding the populaces view of jails versus prison shows that prisoners view jails as more punitive than prison, which is interesting due to the statistics (May, Applegate, Ruddell, & Wood, 2014). Consequently, 2015 statistics show that there were over 1, 500,000 individuals incarcerated in the United States (Carson, & Anderson, 2016). Additionally, of the 1, 500,000 over 700,000 were held in local jails during that same period, which brings the percentage above 50% of individuals, at least initially, are being held in local jails (Minton, & Zeng, 2016). Therefore, the differences of the population in jails versus prisons becomes extremely significant.

Jessie, I enjoyed reading your post as we share some of the same ideas. Correctional administrators must provide adequate medical care for all of the inmates as the requirement is both ethical and legal. Several times, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that an inmate has the same right to medical care as one that is not locked up (Carlson & Garrett, 2008, p. 99). Like you say, an initial screening or physical exam is a very important policy for any correctional institution as it may discover unknown pre-existing conditions and also allows institution know which inmates need to be separated from others for medical reasons. You also mention aging inmates, which is becoming a big problem. Most correctional institutions are not

Prisoners rights, some people believe when you go to jail or prison all your rights are terminated but there not. Even though you may have to give up many rights and privileges that you have in everyday society, does not mean all your constitutional rights are terminated. Jails and prisons must balance the constitutional rights of prisoners and the functions of the jail or prison. In this paper I will explain the mandatory rights that prison administrators must provide prisoners and discuss how those rights are balanced with the security, safety, court requirements, visits, and other functions of the facility, and provide an example of where a corrections officer must balance the rights of the inmates with his own daily functions.

Furthermore, I would begin an education program for inmates. It would encompass issues regarding hygiene, viral and bacterial infections, blood borne pathogens, and other health issues. I would also provide more thorough counseling and mental evaluations for my inmates.

Overcrowding depletes limited resources of prison staff, imposes demands well beyond the capacity of medical and mental health facilities, and creates unsanitary and unsafe conditions that make progress in the provision of care difficult or impossible to achieve. An increasing in prisoners often lead to a massive decrease in funds available, and many times the leads to cuts in provided or quality healthcare. Due to many constraints, the care of prisoners is often regarded as unimportant, of no concern, and disconnected from the general population. However, health professionals and criminal justice professionals ignore the fact that over 600, 000 prisoners are released from prison or jail each year. These individuals will eventually return to their communities, bringing their health problems with them. Studies have also shown that inmates being release from prison are average, sicker than the population of free citizens. Compared to the general population, prisoners have “a four times greater risk for tuberculosis, a nine to ten times greater risk for hepatitis C, a five times greater risk for AIDS, an eight to nine times greater risk for HIV infection, a tree to five times greater risk for bipolar disorder, and an equal chance for major depression” (Delgado & Humm-Delgado, 2009). Not only are the odds already against them, but due to our current healthcare reform, prisoners will not be able to secure health insurance until they have been released from prison. Even still, many will have to wait extensive period of time and many will be left without health insurance. Therefore, what little treatment that was administered or provided in prison will often cease once these individuals return to the outside. Due to the lack of health care provided and limited access to healthcare insurance, many prisoners are at high risk of emergency

Russell, I enjoyed reading your post as it contained some very good ideas and it was very easy to read. You are very right in that it is imperative that inmates receive the best affordable medical care like the citizens in the outside world. It is humane and required by law as decided by the United States Supreme Court (Carlson & Garrett, 2008, p. 99). I agree that physical and mental evaluations should occur after an inmate arrives at a facility and also periodically during their sentence. This will detect any prior problems and show what needs to be done to keep the inmate healthy. You are also correct in that every correctional institution is different and will require different types of medical care, whether it’s inside or from