Correctional agencies face many issues when housing inmates but it is more challenging for the agencies to house older inmates. Elderly inmates tend to deal with multiple health complications which cost corrections agencies thousands of dollars each year. Further, some elderly inmates are considered to be at high-risk for being suicide and be victims by other inmates (Haner 2017). The number of inmates who fall into this classification is increasing throughout time. Elderly inmates need more attention and care because it's the facilities duty to keep them safe and healthy. This group of inmates require the facilities to have more personnel and also have some special personnel who can take care of them. Such as psychiatrist, social workers, …show more content…
These costs are relate to the chronic, complex, and serious nature of health problems. These are often so weakening that geriatric offenders are to be considered at security risk. As a result, the prison administrators are now progressively considering to transfer their low-risk elderly inmates to less-expensive community based programs, like group homes, congregate care facilities, and state nursing homes. So far it has been seen that community based programs are not willing to accept older multiproblem inmates with health-related limitations (Curran, …show more content…
Social workers can use this demographic imperative and the aforementioned legal mandates as an opportunity to intensify the implementation of specialized programs to meet those needs. These needs are considerable, encompassing such areas as the following: mental, physical, and preventive health care; educational, recreational, and vocational activities; physical exercise and rehabilitation programming; dietary care; and long-term geriatric nursing. Prison staff will require training programs to learn how to address these areas (Cianciolo & Zupan, 2004). Furthermore, prison staff should be familiarized with the normal process of aging; they can begin to establish empathy in training sessions that make use of glasses that blur the vision, wheelchairs, bandages, and other props that simulate the physical disabilities older adult inmates experience. Staff feelings about the aging process and personal fears about growing older also need to be addressed (Curran, 2000). Training modules should include instruction in the communication skills needed with older adult inmates as the process of aging can affect both the clarity and the speed of speech as well as thought
When envisioning a prison, one often conceptualizes a grisly scene of hardened rapists and murderers wandering aimlessly down the darkened halls of Alcatraz, as opposed to a pleasant facility catering to the needs of troubled souls. Prisons have long been a source of punishment for inmates in America and the debate continues as to whether or not an overhaul of the US prison system should occur. Such an overhaul would readjust the focuses of prison to rehabilitation and incarceration of inmates instead of the current focuses of punishment and incarceration. Altering the goal of the entire state and federal prison system for the purpose of rehabilitation is an unrealistic objective, however. Rehabilitation should not be the main purpose of prison because there are outlying factors that negatively affect the success of rehabilitation programs and such programs would be too costly for prisons currently struggling to accommodate additional inmate needs.
Vogel, Nancy. “Rehab in Prison Can Cut Cost, Report Says; Crowding Exacerbates High Recidivism Rate by Denying Inmates Useful Treatment, Experts Find.” Los Angeles Times: 0. Jun 30 2004. Proquest. Web. 24 Feb 2014
Throughout history, changes have occurred all around us. More specifically, our correctional facilities. As community members commit crimes, our jails and prisons provide the deterrence, punishment, retribution and rehabilitation needed to become a successful member of the community again. When offenders enter into the correctional facilities, restrictive housing and administration segregation play a role in providing safety to inmates and to staff members. By looking at how restrictive housing and administration segregation was established, evolved, and how it plays a role in today’s society, we as citizens can learn about our correctional facilities and the tasks they use to keep inmates safe and correctional staff.
Thousands of people statewide are in prisons, all for different reasons. However, the amount of mental illness within prisons seems to go unaddressed and ignored throughout the country. This is a serious problem, and the therapy/rehabilitation that prison systems have do not always help those who are mentally ill. Prison involvement itself can contribute to increased suicide (Hills, Holly). One ‘therapy’ that has increased throughout the years has been the use of solitary confinement, which has many negative effects on the inmates. When an inmate has a current mental illness, prior to entering into the prison, and it goes undiagnosed and untreated, the illness can just be worsened and aggravated.
It is undeniable that mass incarceration devastates families, and disproportionately affects those which are poor. When examining the crimes that bring individuals into the prison system, it is clear that there is often a pre-existing pattern of hardship, addiction, or mental illness in offenders’ lives. The children of the incarcerated are then victimized by the removal of those who care for them and a system which plants more obstacles than imaginable on the path to responsible rehabilitation. Sometimes, those returned to the community are “worse off” after a period of confinement than when they entered. For county jails, the problem of cost and recidivism are exacerbated by budgetary constraints and various state mandates. Due to the inability of incarceration to satisfy long-term criminal justice objectives and the very high expenditures associated with the sanction, policy makers at various levels of government have sought to identify appropriate alternatives(Luna-Firebaugh, 2003, p.51-66).
Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.
A huge factor in the prevalence of mental health problems in United States prison and jail inmates is believed to be due to the policy of deinstitutionalization. Many of the mentally ill were treated in publicly funded hospitals up until the 1960’s. Due to budget cuts and underfunding of community mental health services we ...
With advanced technologies in health care, the average lifespan of humans is around eighty-eight years, and these numbers are growing rapidly. Most elderly outnumber the younger within our population now, and with more of the baby boomer generation reaching the gold years, this number will rise exponentially. The cost of healthcare rising and the amount of Medicare funds decreasing makes caring for that loved one challenging. Statistics by Dr. Feng presented, “Individuals are living much longer; family structures are changing; women have entered the workforce. With no national health insurance program like Medicare and with the one-child policy that places elder care responsibilities on fewer shoulders” (Dr Feng). To some, the question of placing an elderly family member in long-term care facilities is a difficult one to consider. All too many times the elderly abandoned are not seeing families until visitation funeral ceremonies.
Longitudinal research has been conducted comparing the rate of violence in male and female prisons. It is important to do research on this topic because it does not only lead to the conclusion of where is violence prevalent, but focuses on other aspects as well. It focuses on the psychological, social, and sexual side of the inmate. This topic does not only focus on who has the highest rates of violence, but why does that sex have a higher rate. This topic looks deeper at the differences between male and female inmates and what causes them to have high rates of violence. Most people would say that male prisons have a higher rate of violence due to biological reasons. People tend to think that males are more aggressive therefore violence is prevalent in male prisons, yet there is a lot more to this idea.
The “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” policies of the 1970s – 1980s have caused an over populated prison system where incarceration is policy and assistance for prevention was placed on the back burner. As of 2005, a little fewer than 2,000 prisoners are being released every day. These individuals have not gone through treatment or been properly assisted in reentering society. This has caused individuals to reenter the prison system after only a year of being release and this problem will not go away, but will get worst if current thinking does not change. This change must be bigger than putting in place some under funded programs that do not provide support. As the current cost of incarceration is around $30,000 a year per inmate, change to the system/procedure must prevent recidivism and the current problem of over-crowed prisons.
Another problem with prisons are the terrible conditions and poor medical supervision that is provided. Diseases can be spread easily in highly populated prisons so it is highly recommended that prison facilities are clean and hold prisoners to their made capacity. These conditions can even affect prisoners long-term. Some prisoners have shown to have psychological problems because of the conditions they experienced in prisons. Prisons are created to reform prisoners, not harm them. Health care in prisons has been a problem for many years. It got so serious at one point, that in 1972, a Health Advisory Committee was set up to commend the matters affecting the health of prisoners. This committee gave prisons standards to follow, but prisons
Families are often forced to choose between supporting an incarcerated loved one and meeting basic needs for their families and themselves. For many families the loss of income from the relative who goes to jail or prison results in deep poverty and can last for generations to come. Alongside physical separation, the
...inical professor at the University of Colorado. Unless the country develops a decent mental health care system, this issue will continue (Qtd. In “Prison Health Care, 3). More than 2 million inmates in U.S. prisons suffer from mental illness, addiction, infectious, or chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS and diabetes (“Prison Health Care”, 1). About a quarter suffer from severe depression and a fifth from psychosis (2). The majority of prisoners have no health problems at the time they became incarcerated; once imprisoned, they acquired a mental disorder (1). In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners have the right to free health care due to the Eighth Amendment (4). Yet, prisons fail to provide health care of decent quality. Some prisons do not even have licensed physicians (5). Most doctors do not wish to work in a prison, therefore resources become substandard.
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague or correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exist in the majority of or state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numb...
ELDERLY: SHOULD THEY SUFFER IN PRISON OR SIMPLY BE RELEASED? Karenna Cruz American Public University System. This paper will explore the question of whether the elderly imprisoned and in deteriorating health should reside in prison or be released. Should the government continue to house and pay the expenses of keeping the elderly incarcerated, or should they be released if they are simply near the end of their life and are unable to commit any further crimes? The Concerns of Keeping Imprisoned Elderly Offenders Today, there are prisons across the United States of which house elderly inmates who can barely walk, talk, and function within their daily life without the help of prison employees or volunteers.