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. Prisoners who had healthcare before becoming incarcerated may have that ignored or taken away from them. International law provides the rights of everyone, including people who may have gotten their freedom take away. The United States of America has the world’s highest incarceration rate. Americans prison population has been growing since the war on drugs led to tough-on-crime laws being implemented in the 1980s and 1990s. (Engel, 2014) Many people enter prison knowing they will be out in a few short months, and others for life. It doesn’t seem the norm to be treating a patient while he or she is chained to the bed. However, no matter the circumstance,
Many advocates are fighting for improved medical care. It is improving slowly but surely. For example, many prisons started new counseling and education programs for HIV/ AIDS. Lawsuits and grievances are filed against prisons that are careless. The best strategy for change to occur is by having the media involved. “Lawsuits and Media go hand and hand,” Law stated. For example in Wisconsin, anonymous female prisoners called a Milwaukee newspaper to report medical negligence that led to an inmate’s death (Law, 2009). This phone call gave attention to this problem. Laws were passes to train medical personnel and for improved medical records.
The Ohio Justice and Policy center documented a claim in 2003 for three prisoner’s Rodney Fussell, Gary Roberts, and James Love. The prisoners stated that they obtained incompetent medical care. Although some may argue, they are prisoners and do not deserve medical care, they still have the legal right to obtain it. These three men suffered from Hepatitis C, and periodontal disease.
The state and federal prison systems have many inmates. These inmates sometimes arrive at prison with pre-existing conditions and many that are incarcerated for the long term develop serious illnesses during their stay. Inmates who reported a medical problem when they arrived at state prisons across the United States in the year 2004 were 57.1% men and 43.3% women reported no medical problems upon arrival. (BJS 2018) Inmates who reported 1 medical issue when they arrived were 25.8% men and 28.6% for women. The Population that reported 2 medical issues is 10.0% for men and 14.3% women, and 7.1 % percent of men and 13.9% of women reported 3 or more medical problems In the same year in the federal system 62.5% men and 47.3% women reported no
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
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.”
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
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
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
would still need a consent from their treating doctor and a record of inmate’s medical history. Inmates who aren’t being treated well in prison would be transferred to hospitals for proper treatment (Reed and Lyne, 2000).
Should prisoners receive only the very minimum necessary to keep them comfortable? Should expensive diagnostic and treatment options be made available to them? Where exactly should the line be drawn? If a prisoner does receive a lower standard of medical treatment and is later found to be innocent, what sort of responsibility do the state and society bear if he now leaves prison sicker than when he entered? Most people
Healthcare is a big topic no matter how you view it, but when looking at it from the point of a person who is in prison, it takes on a whole new view. Those who are in prison have federal and state laws that say that the prisons must provide them with medical facilities for their healthcare needs. This paper will identify a governmental agency that regulates the healthcare that is provided to prisoners in an institution within the United States, along with the foundation of such an agency and who regulates the licenses, accreditation, certifications, and authorization for employment for those who work within one of these
Private prisons face fierce criticism on how they deal with inmate’s health care. According to a nurse within one of these facilities, “private
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
(Wilper, 2009) In this article it is reported that there is high rate of chronic medical conditions. Some of the more common issues in prisons are "coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, chronic lung diseases, HIV infections, hepatitis B and C, other sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, chronic renal failure, physical disabilities, and many types of cancer.” (Bondurant, 2013) Many of these types of medical issues call for continuous treatment which in the end can pose as a
Under those circumstances, prisoner welfare often remains neglected and overlooked. Society needs to become concerned with not only the growing numbers of HIV inmates, but the potential spread within their communities. Prisoners live in a high risk environment that makes them susceptible to come in contact with the HIV disease. This exposure can come through the use of drugs, tattooing, sexual behaviors, and inadequate health care. Although prisons do provide HIV testing when inmates enter the facility it is against human rights to expose the results of this testing due to patient confidentiality. As a result, many HIV inmates go undetected until something bad happens and treatment is needed. Plus, inmates live in a constant state of violence