The number of older prisoners is growing rapidly, growth driven by longer sentences and more late-in-life prosecutions for historic sex offences. (Prison Reform, 2015) Due to this more people are growing old in prisons and therefore dying in prisons. The aim of this briefing paper is to discuss whether the needs of older people in prisons are adequately met, to do this health care services and after prison care will be discussing to decide whether these areas adhere to an older prisoner needs. Prison sentencing are continuously getting longer, it is known that average prison sentences are now 4 months longer than 10 years ago at 16.4 months. For more serious crimes the average sentence is now 20 months longer than 10 years ago at 57.1 months. …show more content…
(Baidawi & Trotter, 2016, pp 356) 59% of older prisoner’s report having a long-standing disability or illness. (Prison Reform, 2016, pp 22) Although advances have been made in many jurisdictions for health care, targeted programming and specialist facilities to improve care for older prisoners it remains a key challenge for service providers. (Baidawi & Trotter, 2016. pp 355) services available for older people in prisons throughout England and wales has been under review since 2004, at this time an inspection found that physical design of prisons limited access to certain areas of the prison to older people. When inspected again in 2008 only 3 prisons had policy specifying the needs of older prisoners. (Senior et al, 2013, pp 3) A prison reform report in 2016 has said that ‘people aged 50 or older are more likely to say they had been victimized because of their disability. (Prison Reform, 2016, pp 23) older prisoners are also at a greater risk of becoming isolated with the prison environment and are also less likely to have social support through their time in prison, this puts them at great risk of developing mental health difficulties. (Senior et al, 2013, pp
Over the past couple of decades the UK’s prison population has exploded, causing an overcrowding crisis. Statistics show that intake has doubled since 1993 and the UK now has the largest population of prison inmates in Western Europe at 85,108. The Certified Normal Accommodation (CAN) for UK prisons is 75,440, so ‘the prison estate is currently holding just under 10,000 more people than it was designed to’ as reported by the Prison Reform Trust. Their research shows that ‘the 30 most overcrowded prisons in England and Wales are twice as likely to be rated as failing by the prison service’. Overcrowding is having a negative impact on the effectiveness and safety of the prisons which has been amplified by ‘cuts of more than 20% to the prison budget’ and ‘reformers argue that the best way to improve the system is to reduce both the number of people sent to prison and the amount of time they spend there’. According to The Howard League for Penal Reform, imposing community sentences on offenders rather than prison sentences, immediately diverts them away from ‘rivers of crime’, where ‘prisons are sinking under a tide of violence and rampant drug abuse’ and they argue that by simply putting people in prison they can be swept ‘deeper and
Lyon, J. (2004). Troubled inside: young people in prison. Mental Health Review Journal, 9(2), 24-27.
Jails as Mental Hospitals. A joint report of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and
To Health Service In Correctional Evironments: Inmates Health Care Measurement, Satisfaction and Access In Prisons.” Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 50.3. (2011): 262-274. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 May 2014.
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.
There are many different types of disabilities that an inmate can have, whether it’s mobility, deafness, blindness or any other type being faced in the prison system. In 2009 there was a case where a disabled paraplegic complained and reported about his living conditions and the certain things that were unavailable to him and what he was not able to do as an individual who is handicapped. The filed complaint states, “Plaintiff Tony Goodman was an inmate at the Georgia State Prison, where he was confined to a 12-by-3-foot cell for 23 hours each day. The small confines of the cell made it difficult, if not impossible, for Goodman to turn in his chair, further; his cell was not outfitted with accessible bathroom facilities (Felg).” The individual in this case was not taken care of properly and not treated as a special inmate with a disability; he was just treated like any other offender in the State Prison of Georgia.
For instance, dying in prison, The Open University, (2009) Brings with it social inequalities with limited or no access to palliative care, although basic medical needs are met. No family surrounding them. For many, the option to leave the prison will be declined for safety reasons, but for the few that can leave to die often refuse to do so. The feeling of safety and familiarity that their prison cell brings them opposed to the outside world which views them negatively. Therefore, this indicates the power over prisoners resulting in a social disadvantage and inequality, removing away their rights in death.
According to Goomany & Dickinson (2015), there are many concerns that prison may not be an applicable setting for prisoners to be rehabilitated. Many prisoners have pre-existing mental health complications, and prison life can lead to deteriorating mental health issues, increased severity of the disease, and increased risk of prisoners harming themselves. In fact, mental health problems within the prison system are the leading cause of illness for prisoners. Scheyett, Parker, White, Davis, & Wohl (2010) states “A recent report by the United States Department of Health and Human Services indicates that an estimated fifty-six percent of state prison inmates had symptoms or recent history of a mental health problem; forty-seven percent of these reported three or more symptoms of major depression, compared with 7.9% of the general population of the United States” (p. 301). Research has shown that inmates that experience mental health issues are far higher than other prisoners in the general population to commit suicide during their first week of incarceration. Moschetti, Stadelmann, Wangmo, Holly, Bodenmann, Wasserfallen, & Gravier, (2015) comments that 35.1% of prisoners examined during a recent survey suffered from some form of mental disorder and among all inmates forty percent had at least one physical chronic health
It is right for an elderly person to spend years to even a lifetime in prison? Apparently it seems appropriate to the United States. The elderly inmates are increasing rapidly as well as the cost of their health care. They become a burden in the prison's budget in addition to the citizens of this country. Many of these inmates are past 60 years old and dream of dying after being freed, however end up taking their last breath in a prison cell. Hill, Stella and Parker are examples of elderly in prison who are highly ill and continue to take more and more money while being incarceration under their conditions.
In the United States 2,193,798 people are held in Federal prisons, local prisons and local/county jails. In local prisons 64.2 % of the inmates have a mental illness, 56.2 % in Federal prisons and 44.8 % in state prisons. Most of the inmates could have prevented their stay at the prisons if they were provided help for their illness, however they were not and they still have to serve their sentenced time. The inmates locked up are abused daily by other inmates or even the officers in charge. They cannot help they have illness and it is not fair that they have to suffer a punishment worse than they already have to. They are tormented and the abuse does not help their situation, the agitation can even make their condition worse, and the treatment for their illness is low quality if there is any at all. They are given harsh punishments or can even have their sentence made longer.
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.
According to Law Street, older inmates age faster than middle aged inmates. Their physiological age is seven to ten years faster due to poor diet, exercise habits, drug abuse, and alcohol abuse. Older inmates, also, comprise the largest share of all prison deaths. From 2001 to 2007, 8,486 elderly inmates died in prison. The number of deaths increased almost twelve percent , from almost thirty-four percent in 2001 to almost forty-six percent in 2007
The purpose of this source is to evaluate and compare prisons with the death penalty. Prisons are meant to protect society, punish convicted criminals, deter criminal activity, and when possible, to rehabilitate criminals. However, there is an increase of incarcerated criminals due to rising populations and longer life expectancies. This may lead to an experience similar to facing capital punishment. Prisons will experience poorer health care and levels of sanitation, bigger risks of violence, and the likely hood of diseases. This type of environment violates constitutional rights, morals and ethics, as well as human rights. This situation could encourage the idea to thin out the population, or to abolish the death penalty because prison is a hellhole.
2nd ed. of the book. USA: Penguin Books, Ltd. [Accessed 01 January 2014]. The Prison Reform Trust.
Many people idealized the relevancy of living in a civilized world, where those who break the law are reprimanded in a less traditional sense of punishment in today’s standard. Instead of just doing hard time, programs and services could and should be provided to reform and rehabilitate prisoner. Despite standard beliefs, many individuals in prison are not harden criminals and violent offenders, many of these people suffer mental illness and substance abuse Hoke