Medical Staff In Prisons

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.

A major issue facing the prison system and society is the fact that prisons are not equipped to meet the needs of older prisoners and older prisoners are not adequately prepared to-renter society.

In both Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard” by Shane Bauer, there is a large amount of evidence to prove that prisoners aren’t treated well in state and private prisons. And that those prisoners are abused by the prisons staff. If given the chance, I believe both Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Bauer would reform prisons greatly by, making staff treat prisoners humanely, giving better medical support, and taking care of abusive staff. Some, if not all, prisons treat their inmates like they are less then animals and go to the point that they don’t care of an inmate dies. It’s easy to get sick in prison, and most sicknesses can be treated fairly easily, but certain prisons barely give any medical attention to inmates.

The United States is desperately in need of prison and criminal justice reform. The current system miserably fails at lowering recidivism rates, limiting prison populations and rehabilitating drug and alcohol addicts. This is because very few prisoners receive drug treatment in prison, and those who do receive inadequate treatment. Fortunately, there are a multitude of upcoming drug treatment techniques that have proven effective in treating addiction. As a result of refining drug treatment in American prisons, not only will more drug addicts overcome their addiction, but the prison population will be reduced and the United States improve financially.

In 2012 doctors performed a study on the prevalence of substance use and serious mental illnesses such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia in incarcerated women. There were a total 491 participants from prisons in Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These participant’s ages ranged from 17 to 62 and about 75% of these women were mothers of children under the age of 18. One in five women had been incarcerated for two weeks or less and about half of them had been incarcerated for less than five weeks. The occurrence of mental disorders in this study was higher than they thought it would be. They found that there was no major difference in the percentages of women from rural and urban locations.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has guidelines and regulations that they must adhere to when it comes to providing healthcare to inmates within the prison system. Although some of the guidelines and regulations vary from institution to institution, the authority given to the BOP when it comes to health services is much the same regardless of which prison an inmate is housed at. The BOP regulates the health care services that are provided to the inmates based upon the needs of such. Most prisons have psychological services available to each inmate along with a provider for other medical services. As other needs arise, the BOP is responsible for providing and maintaining

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

Life is something we all have the opportunity to experience and live the way we want. We are exposed to choices we can make, some being good and some having a negative effect on our life. We are the ones who put these consequences in our life based on the choices we make everyday. No one in life tells you what you can and cannot do and when you make a bad choice it is 100% on yourself. Yes, there are people around us who influence these choices, but in the end the decision made is solely based on what you chose to do. This is why I don’t think California should grant medical parole to inmates in state prisons because it might actually save the government money, prisoners should be held accountable, they need to face consequences, shouldn’t be given the pleasure to leave jail early and we would have a felon the street. I believe these people are there because of something they did wrong and will have to face the consequences for the bad choice they made and if that means suffering; that is their own fault. I think prisoners already receive too good of benefits while serving their term in jail. They have a bed to sleep on, a shower with hot water, games to play, gyms and hot meals three times a day. All of these things are at the expense of the taxpayer. The victims and their families' feelings should also be considered.

Many people question whether drug addicts should be sent for treatment in hospitals instead of prisons, Drug addiction is a very serious thing. I believe drug addicts should be treated in a rehabilitation hospital. However if they committed a crime I believe they should go to jail for it depending on the crime.

I agree that prison staff and visitors need to be searched. The reference made by Peter Esbrandt of how “prison itself is a sterile environment” is a fact. Prison was not designed with placement of contraband within the facility. Likewise, the practice of inmate’s searches slightly limit the flow of contraband. The resulting possibility of contraband introduction from outside sources (visitors and/or prison staff) is high. The general population of citizens and prison staff are law-abiding individual, however there are one or two individuals who break the rules for their benefits. According to Baynes, “…from experience that some staff, albeit a small number can be corrupted, and have been used to bring all sorts of contraband into prisons

In recent years, there seems to be more people with mental illnesses being housed in jails rather than in a facility where they can get special treatment that they may need. “Jail has been a dumping ground for those that are mentally ill for some time” (Lacey, 2016). It seems that those with mental illness commit minor crimes will end up being put in jail to only be rereleased where they will end up back in jail. It would be a wise decision to give them treatment for their mental illness rather than locking them up in a jail cell and throwing away the key. The police department in in Richmond is trying to find alternative ways to deal with people whom have a mental illness by “offering crisis intervention team training to find alternative ways

A prison warden is the chief executive of the institution and oversees the entire operation within a prison system. A prison warden needs to possess an array of skills that is capable of managing “large groups of employees, and to operate facilities in a way that keeps inmates, staff, and society safe” (Clear et al., 2013, p. 321). Studies from Clear et al. (2013) further indicate that today’s prison warden must function effectively despite decreased autonomy and increased accountability” (p. 321). The role and responsibility of a prison warden are comparable to a police chief’s because it requires extensive knowledge in administration, and experience in various areas within the department or institution.

Millions of Americans suffer from a mental illness throughout the years, and a majority of them are not getting an adequate treatment. Individuals who experience a mental illness are found in populations such as the homeless and jails. Between one-fourth and one-third of the homeless population suffers from a serious mental illness (Folsom, Hawthorne, Lindamer, Gilmer, Bailey, Golshan, Garcia, Unutzer, Hough, Jeste, 2005) and at least 16 percent of inmates in jails and prisons suffer from a mental illness (treatment advocacy center 2010). The care for the mentally ill in mental institutions has been significantly cut down throughout the passing years.

I remember thinking that it only took seven minutes to knock off Garvin’s Big Star supermarket; but life plus 60 years to pay for it! I could hear Mama’s voice I my head saying, “you may get by but you won’t get away.” And “Sin is a thrill until you get the bill.” Mama, again, you were right!

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