Theu.s. Prisoners ' Rights : Denying Health Care Causes Serious Consequences

We have prisons all over the United States that are overpopulated and this can lead to many problems. While being incarcerated for a crime, all inmates have the right to proper health care. When a person who is in prison gets sick, they do not have the liberty to make an appointment with a doctor, go to the emergency room, or even run down to the local pharmacy to get some over the counter medications. Inmates are solely at the hands of medical

The overcrowding prison reflects that the inmate population has grown much faster than the funding for prisons, which is controlled at the state level. In most cases, state funding has not come close to keeping up with the rise in the prison population, leading to decrepit prison infrastructure that is wholly inadequate for housing such large numbers of inmates. Without capacity to house inmates properly, some prisons have resorted to having prisoners sleep in gymnasiums, and many have overcrowded cells to accommodate the extra bodies. This overcrowding has led to deteriorating cleanliness of prisons and declining safety. Today, non-violent prisoners are forced to live in close quarters with violent ones, and the results are predictable.

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

It worsens their sickness. This also entails that more people will be out in mainstream prison, meaning more that the prison guards have to deal with. They’re probably going to have to add more cells in prison and hire more guards to keep the prisoners in line.

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.

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

All inmates become psychologically institutionalized or dehumanized, and over time lack socioeconomically sound. The cost of tax costs that are unjustified, by raising accodational price along with unethical policies for future generations. With the death penalty there were breached issues such as the death penalty, wrongful execution and botched executions, which makes up 3% (Science Daily, 2012) . The meaning behind botched execution was biased on face value, which became unfair and eliminated in certain states, and states its " an evitable part of our criminal justice system" (McCleskey v. Kemp, 1987). Medical health care for all just recently became available through ObamaCare and correctional facilities seem to correlate, the basis of needs to these participants. The breach of ethical behavior is these inmates are surrounded by health hazards of others bodily fluids in such tight quarters. The injuries are inflicted from inmate brawls or inflicted by correctional officers, that can lead to trips to the infirmary. From a utilitarian's perspective it seems to cause more financial issues that good for society. The inmates that are serving time

One problem in America is how inmates are treated. They are not treated like humans but rather animals, and dangerous to people. However, this is untrue. Some prisoners are not dangerous and some even assumed innocent. Our jail and prison systems treat offenders like they are trash and not worthy of anything in life. Therefore when they claim that they are sick they do not get adequate health care.

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

A U.S. prisoner’s rights after conviction are unjust and unconstitutional. The way they are treated and looked upon is disgusting. As Americans, we should be better. We should treat everyone as equals, even criminals because they are humans too. Prisons have been known to date back to around 1852 (“Private Jails in the United States”). Since that time we have managed to find way to violate religious and constitutional rights in the simplest manners. The United States should not let these criminals roam free, but we also can’t stand by and watch.

Prisoners should be required to pay co-payments for the medical services that they receive in prison. The purpose of incarceration is to rehabilitate offenders to become active and productive taxpayers in their community. In order to do so, they should be held to the same standards that average law abiding citizens are. The two articles noted that even if the inmate does not have the funds to pay for the co-payments, they will not be denied treatment. Prisoners are guaranteed the same basic rights as everyone else and that includes their right to autonomy; in which they can receive or deny treatment.

In 2006, United States District Judge Thelton Henderson ruled that federal oversight of the state prison system was needed after determining that an average of one inmate per week died as a result of medical malpractice or neglect (Californiahealthline.org). Prisons are sometimes very understaffed not to mention that they are not equipped to handle the different types of illnesses that are brought to the prison by

ACLU states, “Spending even a small amount of time in California’s overcrowded, dangerous prisons is not pleasant. Spending thirty years there, growing sick and old, and dying there, is a horrible experience. This is especially true given the unconstitutional failure to provide adequate health care to California’s prisoners.” Not only will I be dying in prison but I wouldn’t be able to get health care. Every human no matter what they have done in their lives deserves basic health care. According to this website people on Death Row get treated better than the LWOP prisoners which I think is so unfair. So like I said in California Life without parole really does mean life without parole. Which I think it should be throughout the world. Even though I’m grateful that my uncle was released and I finally got to meet him if that was his sentenced it should have

Going back to what prisoners lose and gain when they go to prison, the question was raised when taxpayers began to realize that prisoners get better treatment than the honest person. This was when the organ transplant situation was brought up and the process is incredibly pricey with Kenneth Pike, a convicted rapist, needing a $800,000 heart transplant. However, denying the said person of healthcare because he was in a terrible person violates the 8th Amendment and prisoners are unable to get healthcare insurance