Essay On Inmate Co-Payment System

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

In America today, there is a trend in corrections of taking the duty of running prisons out of the hands of state and federal authorities and contracting it out to private organizations. Along with the drift to privatization is a plethora of research pertaining to the subject taking many different approaches to analyzing the effectiveness. The majority of research focuses on one of three areas. The first questioning whether or not it is cost effective to make the switch. The second being the ethical problems that can and have risen from the privatization of prisons. The third being a wide painting of the change and the implications it has on society as a whole.

In the 2011 case of Brown v. Plata Judge Kennedy stated that the prisons in California were beyond overcrowded which lead to lack of proper medical and mental health care, which violated the cruel and unusual clause of the Eight Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (Brown v. Plata, 2011, 1). It stated that California prisons were built to house approximately 80,000 inmates but by the times it went to the Supreme Court it had nearly doubled the original number (Newman and Scott, 2012, 548). It also stated that a prison which deprives prisoners of adequate medical care is an inadequate living facility for any human (Brown v. Plata, 2011, 13). Failure to comply with adequate medical services would cause inmates physical torment which in return would violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause (Newman and Scott, 2012, 549). As a result of overcrowding and lack of proper mental and medical health care the State of California was ordered to reduce their prison population by one-third by May 2013 (Owen and Mobley, 2012, 47).

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

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.

Private prisons have a monetary incentive to keep their prison filled to the max (Mason, Too Good to be True Private Prisons in America). Public prisons on the other hand spend more money and effort on rehabilitation efforts and reintroducing people back into society in a healthy manner. One way in which private prisons reduce costs is by cutting the amount of training and pay prison staff are given as well as the number of staff which in turn leads to a less safe prison. The statistics point to an increase in riots, inmate violence, and even assault on prison staff (Mason, Too Good to be True Private Prisons in America). The quality of healthcare is another major issue in private prisons compared to public prisons and is one such reason why the amount of money spent per prisoner is less in private prisons (Smith, Why the U.S. Is Right to Move Away from Private Prisons). As well as spending less on those who need it, private prisoners do a certain amount of cherry picking taking only healthier and thus cheaper prisoners to hold within their \walls (Smith, Why the U.S. Is Right to Move Away from Private Prisons). Private prisons state innovation and creative methods as the reason for saving money as opposed to public prisons but there

The claim that prison privatization demonstrably reduces costs and trims government budgets may detract from the critical work of reducing the state’s prison population.

However, the article “No escaping Medical copayments even in prison” written by Michael Ollove states that the requirement of inmates to pay a co-pay will discourage them from seeking medical care when not needed. When incarcerated, spending time in the infirmary for minor ailments is a positive alternative to being in the general population. If payments are required to see a doctor or nurse prisoners will be deterred from

As the number of prisoners have constantly been rising at an exceedly fast pace, several governments around the world have embraced the use of private prisons. Private prisons are confinements run by a third party, through an agreement with the government. In the United States, it is estimated that there are over 1.6 million inmates, of that there are 8% that are housed in privately-operated prisons. While the other 92% are housed in the public prison system. Private prisons have existed since the 19th century. Their use increased in the 20th century and continues to rise in some states. When a government makes an agreement with a private prison, it makes payments per prisoner or vacancy in jail on a regular basis for maintenance of the prisoners. Privatization became involved due to the fact that prisons were becoming overpopulated. Public prisons contracted the confinement and care of prisoners with other organizations. Due to the cost-effectiveness of private firms, prisons began to contract out more services, such as medical care, food service, inmate transportation, and vocational training. Over time private firms saw an opportunity for expansion and eventually took over entire prison operations. However, now their security, how they treat the inmates, and their true cost effectiveness has come into question

But unlike federal prisons, private ones focus on maximizing gain rather than saving money, and maximizing gain becomes possible with the business practices aforementioned. Not only has the prison itself been privatized, but also the food and medical care. One company in particular is the Aramark Corporation who provides food to prisoners at a lesser cost. If there’s one thing not to be thrifty about, its food, and this proved to be true when there were serious cases of prisoners being mal fed reported all throughout the system. There were 65 reported cases in Ohio alone of food failing to be provided or running out of it, and 5 cases of maggots being found in the food. The Aramark Corp. has also changed their recipes to include cheaper and sub standard ingredients in their food. These prisons are failing to provide these prisoners with basic human care, because the fact that they’re in prison doesn’t change the fact they’re

In order to state a constitutional claim under the Eighth Amendment for lack of proper medical care, a prisoner must meet a three-fold test. First, the actions or inactions of prison authorities must correspond to a "deliberate indifference" standard. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97 (1976). Secondly, that deliberate indifference must be directed "to [a] serious medical need [ ]". Id. In order to state an Eight Amendment claim for denial of medical care, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the actions of the defendants or their failure to act amounted to deliberate indifference to a serious medical need. Id. at 106. Additionally, there must be some personal involvement on the part of prison officials. West v. Atkins, 815 F.2d 993 (4th Cir. 1987), rev 'd. on other grounds, 487 U.S. 42, 106 S.Ct. 2250 (1988). “Deliberate indifference to a serious medical need requires proof that, objectively, the prisoner plaintiff was suffering from a serious medical need and that, subjectively, the prison staff were aware of the need for medical attention but failed to either provide it or ensure the needed care was available.” Blackwell v. Webb, et al., Civil Action No. RDB-13-1947, at 10.

There are approximately 1,600,000 million inmates are behind bars in America (Glazer, 2014, para. 11) . Without a doubt, much of state prisons are overcrowded, which can lead to, very dangerous situations and environments. Due to the overwhelming number of inmates incarcerated it is difficult to deal with medical and mental health problems in prison. If most inmates complain about not feeling well or have symptoms, medical condition or disease that is not immediately, they would get some form of medication and get turned life back without seeing a doctor for a proper medical exam. A clear majority of the health care professional that work in the prison systems are very under qualified to work in such dangerous and trauma environments like prisons

With numbers this high, bureaucracy should re-evaluate the conditions in which prisoners live. Harmon even stated, “Prevention and treatment programs are extremely uneven in quality and quantity and, in some respects, fundamentally inadequate.” Prisons Violate the U.S. Constitution according to American Civil Liberties Union, by disregarding Estelle v. Gamble- ignoring a prisoner 's serious medical needs can amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Privatizing prisons may be one way for the prison population to get back under control. Prisons are overcrowded and need extra money to house inmates or to build a new prison. The issue of a serious need for space needs to be addressed. “As a national average, it costs roughly $20,000 per year to keep an inmate in prison. There are approximately 650,000 inmates in state and local prisons, double the number five years ago. This costs taxpayers an estimated $18 billion each year. More than two thirds of the states are facing serious overcrowding problems, and many are operating at least 50 percent over capacity. (Joel, 1988)” Private prisons may be for profit, but if they can solve the issue of cost then it may be a

While, the issue of the incarcerated population having the privilege of this scarce medical resources is extensively and generally approved or compelling recognition within the correctional health profession and there is a case-law supporting the matter of concern, that the statues of a person as an inmate must not preclude such person as a patient from receiving adequate care in respect to serious health needs, regardless of the cost of such treatment. They also have all the social and moral values since the law does not exempt them from citizenship (Puisis, 2006, p.23).