Being a nurse means we care for everyone no matter the situation. We attend to a diverse population ranging in age, ethnicity, height, weight, and so on. In nursing school we call this culturally competent care. Meaning as health care providers we effectively deliver treatment that will meet the social and cultural needs of every individual. But how do we care for those shunned in our American society? State and Federal prisons jail individuals who suffer from mental health issues, substance abuse problems, chronic illnesses, and a wide variety of other health problems. “The term prison is generally used to refer to a state-level institution where inmates are assigned after sentencing” (Gibson & Phillips, 2016). Prisoners can range from 18-year-old
In the United States of America there are currently two prison systems in place; the Federal prison system, and the State prison system. Every state in the U.S. has its own Department of Corrections, which is tasked with handling crimes committed at the state level (Allen, 2017). The state where the crime occurred has jurisdiction over the individual that committed the crime. An individual, whom has committed a crime within a state’s jurisdiction that results in a long sentence, is sent to the state prison system in that particular state (Allen, 2017). A long sentence encompasses a period of time which exceeds a year, and a day; which is the length of time given to an individual convicted of a felony crime. An individual convicted of a misdemeanor crime which is accompanied by a sentencing length of less than a year, will serve their respective sentence in a jail. Once the individual has received their sentence, they will go through an initial classification process (Allen, Latessa, and Ponder, 2013). The purpose of the initial classification process is to identify the individual’s custody level, work assignment, and treatment. The initial classification process will differentiate between those individuals that present different security risks, and supervision concerns. Factors such as the individual’s current offense, escape potential and prior criminal history are factored in during the initial classification. Also, an individual’s background attributes, such as mental
While state prison systems is meant to house criminal like rapists, murder convicts as well as people who are convicted of violent gun offenses, Federal prison system has been designed for housing criminal convicted of violating Federal laws, for example immigration violators, robbers of federally chartered banks and large-scale drug.
Over the past forty years the increased of mass incarceration within the Federal Bureau of Prisons has increased more than 700 percent since the 1970’s, between the different type of ethnicity. Billions of dollars have spent to house offenders and to maintain their everyday life from rehabilitation programs, academic education, vocational training, substance abuse programs and medical care. The cost of incarceration climbs according to the level of security based on violent and non-violent crimes. Fewer staff is required in minimum and medium-security prisons that house low-level offenders. Incarceration is likely to serves as one indicator of other co-occurring risks and vulnerabilities that makes families particularly fragile. Mass incarceration is likely to increase if awareness is not implicated to reduce the rate of imprisonment and broken families to take back their communities and reclaim their hope for the future.
The United States prison system struggles eminently with keeping offenders out of prison after being released. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than third of all prisoners who were arrested within five years of released were arrested within six months after release, with more than half arrested by the end of the year (Hughes, Wilson, & Beck, 2001). Among prisoners released in 2005 in 23 states with available data on inmates returned to prison, about half (55 percent) had either a parole or probation violation or an arrest for a new offense within three years that led to imprisonment (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014). Why are there many ex-offenders going back to prison within the first five years of release? Are there not enough resources to help offenders before or/and after being released from prison.
Prison’s were established a long time ago to try to put an end to the rapidly increasing crime rate, however over time we are seeing the effectiveness of the most prisons decreasing. As a result of this epidemic, prisons have a higher recidivism rate and over 40 percents are currently operating over maximum capacity (Holder.) Through different types of research, we are finding out that our prison systems are no longer effective and there is a serious need for improvement. The United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we incarcerate almost ¼ of the worlds prisoners (Holder.)
Hart and Mareno (2013) wrote in their article, Cultural challenges, and barriers through the voices of nurses, nurses are being tested in today 's healthcare environment to provide culturally competent care to their patients which consist of a diverse population. Nurses, according to Hart
In today’s mainstream prisons there has been a dramatic increase in the number of U.S. citizens who are being incarcerated every day. In the article State Incarcerations: Global Context, Chang (2013) reports “The U.S. incarcerates 716 people for every 100,000 residents…our rate of incarceration is more than five times higher than most of the countries in the world”. The 716 individuals who were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails, about half this number among the population of those who are
Today in the United States a land that claims to be the freest nation on the face of the Earth more people will wake up inside of a federal/state prison or a county jail cell than in any other country on the planet. As of 2012 this figure was a staggering 2,228,400 (jail 744,500; prison 1,483,900) add in to this the additional sum of just over 5 million people on parole (851,200) and probation (3,942,800) giving us a grand total of over 7 million citizens under some level of Federal or State supervision (Glaze and Herberman). This is up from only 1,840,421 in 1980 a percentage increase of 281.56% (Glaze and Herberman). As of 2012 over half of the inmates in the federal prison system (50.6%) were incarcerated for drug charges (Caron and Golinelli) while according to 2011 statistics just under 17% of state prisoners were locked away for offenses related to illegal substances (Carson and Sabol). The cost of maintaining this level of incarceration is in all honesty a tremendous burden upon both our justice system and our tax base. If you were to go to the website www.drugsense.org you would see their drug war clock which increases by $500 every second based upon the National Drug Control Policy’s 2010 statistics (Drugsense.org). The country needs to make serious changes in order to alleviate this Promethean like burden that has been placed on our tax payers and our infrastructure. Our system desperately needs reform in order to rescue society from these metaphorical
For several decades there has been a considerable increase incarceration rate in state and federal prisons. This is due to the public demanding more castigatory laws along with harsher sentencing policies. In the United State there 2.3 million people are incarcerated in prisons and jails which make the United States the lead in the incarceration rate (Wright, 2010). Truth in sentencing law made it essential that offenders serve a significant portion of the prison sentenced handed down by the court before he or she can be considered or eligible for release. Policies implemented before reduced the quantity of time an offender served on a sentence, such as parole board release, goodtime, and earned-time are constrained or get rid of under
There are so many problem in the Unites State Prison system because of overcrowding. First I am going to talk about what cause the overcrowding in the Prison system. After that I will talk what are the affect we are facing now days for overcrowding in the prison system. Than what should we do to stop prison to get overcrowding and how is going to help out society.
The “Prison Industrial Complex” was a term that was used by anti-prison activist within the prison abolishment movement to argue the attendant interest of prison industrialization, and t development of a minority prison labor force (Davis, 2003). This giant prison enterprise is an essential component of the U.S. economy, and has as its purposes such as profit, social control, and an interweaving of private business and government. These giant financial institutions recognized that prison building is one of the fastest growing industries and one of the best stock performers in the United States. The notion that global private cooperation’s currently rely on the prison complex as vital source of profit gives reason to believe that prison privatization trends of both the increasing presence of corporations in the prison economy and the establishment of private prisons connect to the historical efforts to create a profitable punishment industry based on free black male laborers.
Other than the major issues of overcrowding, there are other issues throughout the inner workings of the system, of which includes treatment towards prisoners, budget assessments and limited rehabilitation programs to improve re-entry of former prisoners back into the system. Within the confines of various Federal Correctional Complexes, located throughout the nation, many of the country’s most heinous criminals are harbored, waiting for an imminent death in solitary confinement. It is here that lethal injection, one of the extreme forms of punishment is administered upon these indicted felons. There is even a chamber specifically created to accommodate for this act of destruction on true evil. Aside from federal orders of execution, any criminal that is put into custody under the walls of the Federal Bureau of Prisons is fully under the jurisdiction of the BOP rather than the judicial court. This further implies the tremendous amount of trust that the state puts into the BOP. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, also known as the BOP, has been a chief and vital agency in establishing a solid administration towards the care of prison inmates. The BOP is also accredited as being an irreplaceable overseer towards prison services. Established in 1930, it has proven time and time again that it is the “big dog” when it comes to the declining crime rates all across the United States; this is clearly shown through the fact that a whopping amount of 82% of inmates are being held in the
Defendant Smith has been arrested for possession of enough ecstasy for two hits and has admitted to using alcohol, cocaine, and marijuana in the past. Clearly this indicates that he has a drug problem. However, he has no prior criminal record, has held down a job in construction for the past two years, and has a child for whom he must pay child support. He has fallen behind as of late and may be tied to his drug abuse, for which he has never received counseling or treatment. Give that he has never received treatment, has a job, and a child to support, I would recommend that he be placed into a Drug Court Program.
President Obama has been on a mission to reform the United States Jails and Federal Prisons. The number of incarcerations have been on the rise since 1980 and it continues to quadruple. State and federal prisons are over crowed with non-violent offenses. With overcrowded jails it has caused the economy more money and created dangerous living environments. Instead of incarceration what should be given is a realistic alternative for their actions. The government will also spend less money.
A murder suspect who escaped from a Mississippi jail was shot dead by a family he held hostage for several hours inside their home Thursday, police said.