Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Escalating costs of healthcare
Why is healthcare increasing
Escalating costs of healthcare
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Escalating costs of healthcare
One of the bigger issues that come up when dealing with medically ill inmates is the cost. When the inmates get older, they start having more illnesses that cause them to need more treatment outside of the prison. They start needing to go to hospitals and having surgeries instead of the medical facility in the prison. If they have to stay in the hospital for a few days, then they need guards to stay with them which costs more money. Another issue is the amount of medical care they receive. If the inmates do get medical care, it is very minimal. For example, in the book it says, “Dentistry typically consists of pulling teeth rather than crowning or even filling them”(pg. 157). Some prisons have more medical care than others depending on who
People expect a penitentiary to hold inmates, especially dangerous ones, for as long as the court determines they should serve. Kingston Penitentiary has been doing that for many years. But it has also dedicated to the reform of inmates. What that means has changed dramatically over time. (Curtis et al, 1985)
Budget cuts in prison are affecting mental health care for prisoners. Budget cuts are eating away the funding for mental health care "police officers in Reno with mental health counselors to reach out to the mentally ill, whether they’ve committed crime, are a threat to themselves, or could be in the future ,and are Already starved for services, troubled citizens sometimes tumble into homelessness and alcoholism and tussle violently with police, who are usually ill-equipped to help them"(Kihmm). They will not be able to receive the proper medication they need. These inmates that are ill are just finding bad ways to not feel the sickness they have. Most of the ex cons just go back to jail, because of there mental illness. There untreated mental
illnesses. It is estimated that about 50 percent of prison population suffers from some sort of mental illness. The most common mental illnesses that mostly make up this population are anxiety, antisocial personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder.
Wildeboer, R. (2013, May 27). Inmates Claim Poor Medical Care in Illinois Prison System. Retrieved from Illinois Public Media News : https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/inamtes-claim-poor-medical-care-in-illinois-prison-system
To Health Service In Correctional Evironments: Inmates Health Care Measurement, Satisfaction and Access In Prisons.” Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 50.3. (2011): 262-274. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 May 2014.
Wouldn’t it be completely irrational to sentence every mentally ill individual to jail purely because they suffered from a mental illness? Often, mentally ill people behave in an eccentric manner and allure the attention of police officers who do not differentiate the mentally ill from mentally stable people and immediately charge them with misdemeanors. There are approximately 300,000 inmates, with the number increasing every year, which suffer from a mental illness and do not receive proper treatment. Jails are not adequately equipped to care for mentally ill inmates, which can lead to an escalation of an inmate’s illness. Society has failed to provide enough social resources for citizens suffering from psychiatric illnesses in its community, transferring mentally unstable individuals between mental institutions and jails, when in fact adequate aid such as providing proper medication, rehabilitation opportunities, and more psychiatric hospitals in communities is a necessity to reconstitute these individuals.
Overcrowding is one of the predominate reasons that Western prisons are viewed as inhumane. Chapman’s article has factual information showing that some prisons have as many as three times the amount of prisoners as allowed by maximum space standards. Prison cells are packed with four to five prisoners in a limited six-foot-by-six-foot space, which then, leads to unsanitary conditions. Prisons with overcrowding are exposed to outbreaks of infectious diseases such as, tuberculosis and hepatitis.
Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.
According to Goomany & Dickinson (2015), there are many concerns that prison may not be an applicable setting for prisoners to be rehabilitated. Many prisoners have pre-existing mental health complications, and prison life can lead to deteriorating mental health issues, increased severity of the disease, and increased risk of prisoners harming themselves. In fact, mental health problems within the prison system are the leading cause of illness for prisoners. Scheyett, Parker, White, Davis, & Wohl (2010) states “A recent report by the United States Department of Health and Human Services indicates that an estimated fifty-six percent of state prison inmates had symptoms or recent history of a mental health problem; forty-seven percent of these reported three or more symptoms of major depression, compared with 7.9% of the general population of the United States” (p. 301). Research has shown that inmates that experience mental health issues are far higher than other prisoners in the general population to commit suicide during their first week of incarceration. Moschetti, Stadelmann, Wangmo, Holly, Bodenmann, Wasserfallen, & Gravier, (2015) comments that 35.1% of prisoners examined during a recent survey suffered from some form of mental disorder and among all inmates forty percent had at least one physical chronic health
They have a special service provided in prison. Ruiz v. Estelle (1980) established components needed to deliver adequate mental health treatment in prison. On jail, they don't have the right to force them to take medications or services. In 2009, Two Inmates committed suicide and three others attempted suicide. One inmate had a psychotic breakdown assaulted a corrections officer. Some jails back then didn't had special cells designed for the mentally ill but when they are brought out of a cell some are separated from other inmates, while others are not. Mentally ill inmates need a special housing, jails have a fewer options for handling inmates from the other inmates population who have disciplinary problems. Mentally ill inmates often stay in the jail longer than they should because of the overcrowding at state hospitals or they don't have who to take care of them. I think we can safely say there is no doubt that jails and prisons have become America's Major mental health facilities. For Example, 60 percent of males and 80 percent of female inmates in state prisons, and 65 percent of female and 60 percent of the male in jail will experience a mental health problem requiring mental health services in jail. U.S courts have clearly said that prisoners have that right to receive medical and mental
Prison has been around in human society for many millions of years. Having someone who disobeyed the law of that village, town, city or country punished in some form of institution, cutting them off from people, is a common concept – a popular and supposedly “needed” process society has taken to doing for many years now has been put under the spotlight many times by many different figures and people in society. The question remains – do prisons only make people worse? Many articles have been published in many journals and newspapers of the western world (mainly the USA, UK and Australia) saying prison only makes a person worse yet no complaint of the method has come from the less liberal eastern societies; this only proves how in countries where the rights of humans are valued such issues as if prisons only make people worse are important and relevant to keeping fair to all.
For example, in Oklahoma, prisons are usually on lockdown due to the lack of enough officers to secure the prisons. The staffing is at only seventy five percent putting prisons on what is called a warehouse mode. This means that inmates are stored with minimum or no rehabilitation efforts. Within Oklahoma, paroles have no choice but to be deigned off by the government if they are to be set free into the community again. Because finances re so limited within these prisons, they were forced to come up with an alternative. A low cost solution that they have come up with is to have other prison inmates trained to be orderly’s to work in the infirmary. This allows these inmates to help in providing care for the sick and elderly patients within the prison. It is researched and studied and only about one in every three elderly inmates, return to
Medical testing is a common thing. Everybody knows the importance of it. The thing is not everybody knows how a lot of the experiments are conducted. For the people who do not know animals are abused and mistreated for the sake of medical research every day. Even though animal research has played a key role in the advancement of medicine it is still inhuman, because only 6% of animals are used for medical testing. (About My Planet) Prisoners should be used in the place of animals for the advancement of medical history. There have been multiple cases and stories where prisoners have been abused through medical research, which the reader will realize as this paper is being read. All of these incidents with the prisoners are not as nearly graphic or inhuman as animal testing. Animal testing is cruel, they have no choice, whereas prisoners would have a choice. Prisoners on death row should be able to volunteer for medical testing and scientific research, rather than animals that have no choice.
Elderly inmates are the fastest growing in the United States prison populations which poses difficult challenges for correctional and public health entities and dying alone in prison can be merciless. Prisoners not having family, friends, or any visitors while incarcerated usually die a lonely, painful, isolated death. Hospice programs, in prisons, started in the late 1980s due to increased deaths of prisoners with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) to be addressed in two prisons, one in Springfield Missouri and the other in Vacaville, California. Because of these two prisons, others started to adopt the hospice programs to provide dying prisoners humane treatment and to not have to die alone. Dignity, communicating respect, and compassion
According to Hidden Homelessness, a survey of more than 400 rough sleepers by Sheffield Hallam University a fifth of homeless people have committed "imprisonable offences" to spend a night in the cells.