The time spent waiting in jail can be counted by months, years or even decade, especially in the USA where an average prisoner stays on death row for 15 years. It is a great suffering to watch the days passing by, wondering when they will end. Is it right to couple this sufferings with more physical pain? If the complications from the medical testing are dire, the helpless people have no way to escape from this torture. No therapy will be provided to alleviate their condition.
That's compared to only 40,000 in mental hospitals." Prisons were never designed as facilities for the mentally ill, yet that's one of the roles it plays. Prisoners have rates of mental illness-including such serious disorders as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression-that are two to four times higher than members of the general public. There were designed mental institutions/hospitals for mentally ill people, but due to poor economic conditions, a lot of hospitals were shut down or overcrowded and people who were caught by the police committing crime because of their illness were sent to prisons instead of mental hospitals. And prisons don't have the right resources for treatment of all these diseases.
Segregation of HIV Positive Inmates The United States prison population increased drastically over the last 20 years where approximately two million people are currently incarcerated in jails or prisons. The latest data reported by the Bureau of Justice (Maruschak 2) revealed that there are 21,462 HIV positive prisoners incarcerated in federal and state prisons in the US. During, mid 1980s HIV and AIDs “were not fully understood by scientists, policymaker’s and medical personnel” (Human Rights Watch); therefore correctional departments created and implemented very restrictive policies regarding HIV prisoners. It is believed that these early restrictions contributed to the current isolation of the HIV population. Furthermore, HIV prisoners
An Institute of Medicine report estimates that medical errors cost the nation 17 billion dollars in preventable medical errors each year (“A Guide,” 2011). In addition, these errors rob the medical community of the trust and confidence of its patients. This paper will explore: why the Joint Commission goals are important, examples of problems that have been experienced, potential hindrances to meeting these goals, and strategies to help maintain adherence to these goals. It goes without saying that it is of paramount importance to the safety and well-being of a patient to be correctly identified and to have medications administered safely. There are hundreds of patients in a hospital; and at any given time there may be several with the same last name.
Jails and prisons have been built since the first of organized society, for a way of “housing” and segregating those citizens that commit criminal offenses. Prisons are designed to keep general society safe from any of the various types of criminals, from the cyber-criminal to burglars to murderers. Prisons are also how we penalize criminals for their undesirable behavior. “In 2003 there were over 2.1 million people housed in America’s federal and state prisons and jails. For the past thirty-one years the prison population has increased annually, with little evidence of slowing down.
The justice system needs to adopt new rehabilitation strategies to make sure prisoners can reintegrate into society. In an article by Jeremy Coylewright he states that in the year 2002 over 600,000 inmates were released from the state and federal prisons. This averages out to be about 1,600 people a day! These numbers are very disappointing when you compare them to the recidivism rate. About half of the criminals released were previously incarcerated at least once and about two thirds of those released are expected to be rearrested for another felony within three years of their release date.
Factors that are taken into account when addressing the mentally ill are deinstitutionalization, more community and civic involvement, and formal training for the law enforcement who deal with this growing population. America’s prison system serves as the new asylum. After many mental institutions closed beginning in the mid 1960’s few alternatives materialized. Many individuals with mental health issues turned to the streets, where untreated they became vulnerable to drug abuse, crime, and joblessness. Roughly 5% of all adult Americans suffer from a serious illness according to a 2012 report by a division of the 2012 US Department of Health and Human Services.
There’s not alot of training inside most if the prisons, our state would benefit from a CAP program. That really becomes to work for the offender it would give themselves-self-worth & self-respect. I have a brother that served 12 years in High Desert Prison, upon his release, he was on Parole for the first few months he was doing great, not doing any drinking, drugs, Burglary. The things that got him into prison system in the first place, it just seems to me that when there off P&P, everything goes away first, the drinking starts, then the drugs, and maybe he just got really great friends. But I tell ya he has a house, car, wife and he lives with not job-not that he hasn’t tried.
The enormous growth in the national prison population has intensified the problems presented by the needs of mentally ill inmates. A report released by Human Rights Watch late last year—“Ill-Equipped: U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness”—examines in depth the situation of the adult mentally ill in state and federal prisons. The report is long and well-researched, blending material from legal documents, court records, academic studies, site visits, interviews and letters. Originally established in the 1970s to monitor compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords, Human Rights Watch has developed into a more broadly focused international observer of government policies and practices affecting human rights
In the United States, the promise of “justice for all” is for many citizens too often just a promise. At almost each point at which individuals enter the system – from the moment of initial arrest, to courtroom proceedings, and eventual re-entry, the criminal justice system badly needs reform. Though constitutionally entitled to counsel, many citizens charged with criminal conduct face court proceedings without benefit of reliable counsel. Defended rights are not equal, a wealthy defended has the resources to hire a private counsel and experts, where as the poor only have access to public defenders. Although equality of justice has long been an ideal of the American system of jurisprudence, it is manifestly impossible of realization.