Essay Sample on Prisons Face Healthcare Crisis: Prisoners Deserve Better

Life in prison is faced with many challenges and among them is the quality of healthcare, if at all there is any. The provision of healthcare services is an essential part of any prison activities. Prisons remain the majorly hit healthcare crisis zones characterized by an increased number of deaths caused by preventable or curable diseases (Gatherer et al. 2010). Prisoners deserve better healthcare services since their environment and living conditions predispose them to health hazards (Moller & World Health Organization, 2007). Most prisoners are denied such services not because they are not available but because they are looked down upon. Regardless of the general view that inmates are law offenders, they need to be treated like other human beings as they serve their sentences. Healthcare provision is a significant part of prison life which be given ultimate priority to prevent the escalating death of inmates and further improve their health.

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It is important to ensure that the purpose of healthcare service provision in prison is similar to that of the rest of the population (Moller & World Health Organization, 2007). Inmates are more insecure than the outside population due to the kind of life they encounter in prisons. They lose the social component of life in that they are unable to control some aspects of their life and that way, they lose the sense of belonging to the environment. The inability to access information and normal contact with family and friends brings further impact to their lives. The environment poses a mental health danger to inmates since they are deprived of the ability to make some decisions hence making them feel much insecure loss of personal security (Gatherer et al. 2010). Another devastating issue is that they are unable to even decide on whether they should be treated. Equally, the medical care practitioners assigned to take care of prisoners do not have the freedom to choose their patients. This restriction puts them in greater danger and if the diseases are not controlled or treated appropriately, they end up being fatal and later causing death.

Prisoners have a right to good healthcare services just like other citizens and it should be provided in a secure environment that does not endanger their life (Moller & World Health Organization, 2007). However, the prison environment also poses a challenge for healthcare providers. The populous nature of most prisons has led to the transmission and increase of most respiratory diseases. Also, hygiene is another contributor to healthcare provision. Most inmates become sick because of eating partially cooked food and other foodstuffs they are subjected to. It was found out that inmates with high experience and knowledge of how the virus is spread are busy fleeing the area due to the danger in which they are exported. Measures to ensure a clean environment should be taken to ensure the limited spread and development of new disease cases.

The best way to ensure effective healthcare and good health among inmates is to adopt the whole-prison approach which can be achieved through the following; creation of a caring culture and an environment that fosters rehabilitation (Gatherer et al. 2010). The environment should favor humility rather than hostility. Let the prisoners talk to other people with confidence hence protecting their social wellbeing. Regular visits and allowing interaction with their families. It is also important to provide regular training on the basic ways of staying healthy and ensure that prisoners practice them. This routine will go a long way in ensuring that the number of illnesses reduces and in turn reducing the resources spent on healthcare.

Detainment facilities need to know that detainees need quality healthcare services. Sufficient assets ought to be diverted to jail services administrations to give detainees a standard of social insurance that is at any rate comparable to that given to other people (Moller & World Health Organization, 2007). Further, it is essential for them to get more time in the outdoors; that is, they can be involved in daily mandatory manual activities that will keep them healthier than just keeping them behind bars. This aspect will be an added advantage to the prison economy due to free labor and reduce the cost of medical care. And, given that many inmates originate from underrated and poor communities, they are in unanticipated fragility hence their health should of ultimate priority.

An essential consideration in detainment facilities needs to manage an extremely wide scope of basic issues. Detainees have a higher probability of practically developing any clinical issue compare to the general public due to their financial conditions, medication and liquor use (Moller & World Health Organization, 2007). No conditions are special to jail, yet many are increasingly predominant among detainees, including suicide hazards, addictive disarranges, mental clutters and communicable diseases. A few conditions can be advanced by the jail conditions, for example, airborne infections can spread further to disaster levels due to congestion. Tension, gloom and other psychological wellness issues can also develop due to the prevailing prison conditions. Therefore, it is important to ensure good health among inmates as they serve their sentences.

Most prisoners are highly drug dependent. For instance in the European Union, an average of about 16 percent and 79 percent of inmates regularly abuse various drugs (Moller & World Health Organization, 2007). Treatment ought to be favored over imprisonment where conceivable, jail can be a chance to assist detainees with to recover and be rehabilitated from drug dependency habits. On the other hand, the jailed population consists of a high number of individuals enduring psychological wellness or social issues due to poor conditions and the absence of mental health services. In many nations, individuals with psychological issues who have not committed a crime, or those judged of minor offenses are sent to jail as opposed to giving them proper care (Moller & World Health Organization, 2007). This act continually increases their problems rather than solving them.

The nature of care ought to be guaranteed by ensuring the following. Medical professionals working in jail ought to endeavor to have mastery, at any rate when all is said in done clinical practice, emotional well-being, addictions and disease control. These abilities ought to be reflected in social insurance staff from different controls. Dental experts ought to be all around prepared in extreme dental illness. Large foundations with pro offices, (for example, clinics and daycare) ought to have sufficient setting up levels and abilities to manage truly sick patients (Gatherer et al. 2010). All human services experts ought to be appropriately prepared in the limitations of clinical practice, reliable practice, and cooperation aptitudes, and adherence to strategies intended to maintain the certainty of helpless individuals who are patients in detainment facilities.

Prisoners' health life should be enhanced and their rights protected. In contemporary society, people do not care about the essence of providing necessary health services to law offenders. Most prisons lack basic human services and their prevailing conditions overlook, disregard and undermine the health of prisoners. Other prisoners develop medical problems while in jail on account of undesirable and unhygienic jail conditions and poor control of irresistible infections. Healthcare in detainment facilities is a genuine general medical problem, which states neglect and as some of the individuals in jail come back to the community, they continue the spread. Therefore, the wellbeing of inmates is a matter of utmost importance to society.

References

Gatherer, A. et al. (2010). Public health leadership, social justice and socially marginalized. Public Health, 124: 617-619.

Moller, L., & World Health Organization. (2007). Health in prisons: A WHO guide to the essentials in prison health. Copenhagen: World Health Organization.