Bureau of Justice Satistics Show Prison Health Care in Crisis

Bureau of Justice Study Statistics Show Depth of Prisoner Health Issues

 

by Derek Gilna

 

            A special report issued by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in February, 2015 documents what prison rights advocates have known for years, that “half of state and federal prisons and local jail inmates have serious chronic health problems." The study concluded that prisoners are nearly twice as likely to have either a chronic medical condition or an infectious disease.  Of course, the federal government does not point an incriminating finger at itself for not properly addressing those health concerns.

            These chronic conditions include cancer, high blood pressure, stroke-related problems, diabetes, heart-related problems, kidney-related problems, arthritis, asthma, and cirrhosis of the liver.  The study also states that "(t)wenty-one percent of prisoners and 14% of all jail inmates reported ever having an infectious disease, including tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)."

            The study also noted that America's prisoners are also getting older, and the jails and prisons are becoming inundated with individuals with serious, chronic health problems consistent with that demographic comes heart and liver disease..  Despite this fact, twenty percent of jails and prisons do not evaluate all prisoners upon their entry into the correctional system, which means that many health problems also go undiagnosed.  Prisoner rights advocates have long maintained and the study agrees that prisoners have high incidence of diabetes and liver problems, due to alcoholism or drug use.

            Also not dealt with by the study is one serious deficiency of correctional health care; if a member of the general public gets ill, he either goes to the doctor, a hospital, or calls an ambulance.  In any event, that individual is treated by caring, well-trained medical professionals.  If a prisoner falls ill, he must navigate the Byzantine system that prescribes Tylenol for serious medical complaints and does its best to delay, discourage, and  deny proper medical care.  Needless to say, the BJS statistics do not measure how many prisoners needless suffer or die because of this "deliberate indifference."  Unfortunately, from the emails and correspondence I get, the number is way too high.

 

Derek Gilna  113 McHenry #173, Buffalo Grove, IL  60089