Subscribe to FeedAshworth Student, Betty Ray Mydland, Discusses Health Care Within The Prison System…
Thanks to Mike for permission to use this Photo.
Healthcare within the prison system has been an ongoing debate for decades. In researching the pros and cons of healthcare within the prison system, it is interesting to note that the argument is not, so much against healthcare for those incarcerated, but rather the level of services given.
In considering whether inmates should, receive better medical care than law-abiding citizens is an uninformed question at best. No single person should receive “better” or “worse” than anyone else. To promote this violates every concept of the International Human Rights Law, to say nothing of the civil rights that are not, relinquished upon sentencing. With these issues on the scene, inmates must receive medical care that is equal to law-abiding citizens, as they are still “natural born citizens” with certain inalienable rights.
Secondly, when one individual accepts the legal position of “guardian” of, another person that is, in some way, unable to care for themselves, that guardian is required by law to provide care that is humane. Hence, inmates are wards of the state, and the state is required to provide the health care. To withhold medical care in this genre would be the same as a parent denying medical care to their child.
In rendering health care to inmates, many factors must be, considered. First, communicable diseases such as, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis. These, when go untreated in an over-crowded environment, exposes not only other inmates, but their caretakers as well, thus spreading the disease outside the confines of the institution. Although many people believe that inmates are getting better treatment for these diseases than law-abiding citizens, this simply is not true.
The medical profession is required by law to administer aid in the prevention of the spread of communicable diseases whether anyone can afford it or not. This fact was brought to my attention, at, a Life Skills Seminar I was giving for, the Adult Probation Department in, 2002, by a speaker with full-blown AIDS.In asking the question, “are inmates really getting better healthcare than law-abiding citizens”? I think not. It has been noted that, “While the diseases that affect prisoners are unique to this patient population in prevalence and disease severity, many class act law suits against state and federal prisons have brought to light the issue of medical neglect within prisons.
Understanding Prison Healthcare Inmates should receive the level of healthcare that ensures the safe health of other inmates, as well as those who work within the system. In regards to organ transplants, well, in my opinion, they should be at the bottom of the list.
REFERENCE:
Understanding Prison Healthcare, 2005. Retrieved from the World Wide Web October 31, 2008:
http://movementbuilding.org/prisonhealth/
Betty Ray Mydland
Student
Ashworth Criminal Justice Program
