Public Health And Mass Incarceration Analysis

According to the American Psychological Association, a 2014 article states, “Mental illness among today's inmates is also pervasive, with 64 percent of jail inmates, 54 percent of state prisoners and 45 percent of federal prisoners reporting mental health concerns” (Incarnation Nation). This statistic is appalling and should not be considered an acceptable number. More than half of jailers and prisoners report mental health concerns; this is static that should not be taken lightly and needs to be addressed. Mentally incarnated people and prison cells do not go well together; it creates a recipe for disaster for the individual suffering behind bars. The purpose of prison is to “retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation”

The incarcerated population are typically of low socioeconomic and low education levels. (4) Interestingly, low socioeconomic status and education levels on their own are directly linked with poor health. (5) When these social determinants of health are combined with prisonisation; the adaptation process in which incarcerated individuals adjust themselves to behavioural standards within the institutions which are not comparable with those of life outside prison.(6) This confines the already vulnerable to an environment of violence and drug use, which leads to further decline in health status while serving sentences. (1) In addition to the low socioeconomic status and education level of prison inmates, we can also establish that inmates are predominately male when compared to the

Dominique Robert’s (2008) theoretical framework in the article “Prison and/as Public Health. Prison and Inmates as Vectors of Health in the New Public Health Era. The Case of Canadian Penitentiaries” focuses on structural elements that explain the use of correctional health care in the prison setting today and how this plays a role in the broader public health strategies in the outside community. He does this by explaining factors such as “the mobilisation of prison as a tool for the new public health” and "the production of inmates into healthcare ‘consumers’, along with the role of actuarial justice.”

2 million people fill the prisons and jails in the U.S. The U.S. locks up more people than any other nation and 2.3 million people are confined in a correctional facility. This is what mass incarceration is. After slavery ended the system began to support the guilty and rich rather than the innocent and poor. African Americans were also arrested for minor crimes as simple as looking at white men or women in the eyes could led them to getting arrested. Plea bargains created a frightening sigma in regard to fighting for their innocence. The lasting effect of mass incarceration begins with the idea with war on drugs. A rise in recreational drug use in the 1960s led to President Nixon’s focus on targeting substance abuse. After he declared the

Mass Incarceration is a huge problem in United States culture. No other country in the world incarcerates its population the way that America does. “The U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world – both per capita and in terms of total people behind bars. The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet it has almost 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population.” Worse yet the majority of the incarcerated individuals belong to a minority group despite not participating in illegal activity any more frequently than their white counterparts. Is the United States criminal justice system racist and if so what is the cause behind this racism. After the end of slavery, many southern black Americans traveled to the north to escape endless violence and discrimination. In the south they could only find low paying field jobs whereas in the northern cities there were steady factory jobs promised as well as the hope that discrimination could be escaped. The northerners while against slavery were not egalitarian and were not in favor of hoards of black Americans surging into their cities and taking jobs away from the white working poor. The need for social control by white Americans only grew with the population of black Americans living in the cities and working in the factories. The rhetoric of “law and order” first came about in the late 1950s as white opposition to the Civil Rights Movement was encouraged by southern governors and law enforcement.

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

Prisoners are, by and large, people who have been failed. According to the Prison Reform Trust, 62% of male and 52% of female prisoners have at least one personality disorders. Many people incarcerated are people with mental health issues. According to the American Psychiatric Association, on any given day, between 2.3 and 3.9 percent of inmates in state prisons are estimated to have schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder; between 13.1 and 18.6 percent have major depression; and between 2.1 and 4.3 percent suffer from bipolar disorder (Holder). American jails have become mental health facilities. This is not what a prison should be used for.

What is mass incarceration? Mass incarceration is the process by which people are brought into the criminal justice system and put in prison. Since the 1970’s, incarceration rates in the U.S have risen at an exponential rate and are at an all time high today. In the 1970’s President Nixon declared a war on drugs. This war lead to massive police force and prison expansion. The law cracked down hard on on all drug offences, and in 1986 established mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for all drug use. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “nearly 50% of all prisoners in state prisons are locked up for nonviolent crimes”[3] such as drug use. The time spent in prison in the U.S is, on average, longer than that of all other countries that incarcerate people who have been convicted of crimes. Despite the U.S housing only about 5% of the world's population, it accounts for nearly 25% of all incarcerated people in the world. The rise of mass incarceration in the U.S has led to serious racial, economic and social problems.

However, in the recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the rate of crimes. This has resulted into a rapid increase in the number of criminals being incarcerated in jails and prisons. It has also led to overcrowding in the prisons. As a consequence, the maintenance, management, and administration of prisons have become increasingly difficult, complex, and challenging. Similarly, the overcrowding of inmates in prisons has led to the emergence of various social vices such as homosexuality within the correctional facilities, discrimination of inmates based on their gender and race, physical abuse of inmates by their colleagues, and outbreaks of diseases such as cholera (United States, 2011). The federal and state governments have also been forced to spend billions of Money to ensure that prisons are properly maintained, well managed, and appropriately administered. In addition, most people who were convicted and incarcerated were usually treated in a cruel and brutal manner. These challenges within the criminal justice and judicial systems led to the increased need to develop alternative ways of punishing persons who commit crimes in the

The criminal justice system has become an ad hoc medical and social service delivery institution with more than eight million offenders under correctional control. Offenders have more physical, substance-abuse disorders, social and psychological deficits than the general population. According to Estelle versus Gamble, correctional institutions are required to provide reasonable care for all offenders who are incarcerated. Other issues such as psychological and social services have become a burden. A recent survey of prison administrators sheds light on the capacity of offenders that needed medical, psychological, and social services for offenders. The survey also dissected the analysis of the organizational factors that may affect whether an

Having poor heath care within the prison system is something that is very dangerous. It can lead to things such as accidental deaths, worsening pre-existing conditions, and conditions occurring that could have been prevented if the proper care was

Mass Incarceration is a predicament in the U.S. because in the land of the free, there are more than two million people in prison. Prisons are homes to the majority of twenty-two percent of the U.S. population. The U.S. has a massive incarceration rate, seven hundred and sixteen per every one hundred thousand. The U.S. makes five percent of the world’s population and the third country in which most people live in but number one incarcerating humans.

Finally, a concern with inadequate health care in prisons is that when prisoners are released, they will spread any contagious diseases and illnesses. They may also leave without having full control of their mental illnesses and that could compound into even larger issues when no longer incarcerated, as their access to society is not restricted.

With the 2,220,300 adults incarcerated in US state and federal prisons, prisons are beginning to exceed their capacities (Motavans 1). The ratio of prisoner to prison guard designed safe by the Untied States government is 3:1 for maximum security prisons, 5-10:1 for medium security prisons, and 50:1 for minimum security prisons. However, many federal and state prisons double the exceeded amount (Zuckermann 3). This not only poses a threat to the guards entrusted with maintaining order in the prisons but the prisoners as well. With the surplus of incarcerated criminals, the majority of which are non-violent offenders, sanitation conditions in prisons are declining (Pitts 126). The medical supplies distributed to prisons by the government are closely budgeted and allotted. With the increase of prisoners, the majority non-violent offenders, the medical supplies needed are stretched very thin. Moreover, with the dense overcrowding in prisons the water supply, used for consumption, cooking, cleaning and sanitary reasons e.g. showers, is limited. This not only leads to health concerns but can have an immense impact on inmate moral. The impact of these overcrowding conditions can lead to violence, rioting and even death (Pitts 125). To make matters

In the New York Times editorial, “End Mass Incarceration Now”, The Editorial Board argues that there needs to be an immediate stop in the amount of people being incarcerated because there is injustice and it is costing too much money for the United States. The Editorial Board begun by saying that mass incarceration is causing societal and economic damage. They say that the sole reason why there is mass incarceration is because of injustice. The Editorial Board backed up this mass incarceration by bringing up an interesting statistics report by the National Academy of Sciences that stated how there has been a vast increase of the prison population in the United States since the late 1900s. The Editorial Board then mentioned how a big chunk of these prisoners were sentenced to prison for committing nonviolent crimes. They explain that the reasons for this is because of harsh sentencing due to politicians not wanting to be soft on crimes and the United States using incarceration as a way to solve its problems, based on a report by the Human Rights Watch. This all brings up the point that there is injustice in the United