Infectious Diseases within Inmate Populations - Essay Example

Running head: INFECTIOUS DISEASES Infectious Diseases within Inmate Populations You're The prevalence of infectious diseases among the prison population has become an increased concern within the body of law enforcement officials such as prison guards, police officers, and leading legal officials who represent the prison systems. Therefore this research focuses on exactly what forms of infectious diseases are the most extreme in the prison population and what is being done to try and minimize the problem. Prison guards in particular have certain guidelines that they follow in order to protect their own health effectively but they must also try and stabilize the health of inmates in the prison as well. Therefore the literature explicitly discusses the legal berth of the new protocols that have been established and the role of health care providers inside the prison environment. The research has been carried out this way to give more of an interpretation on the realism of the prison environment and what is currently proving adverse and hard to control. The conclusion summarizes the main points and brings emphases to the strategies that have been implemented in the last few years to keep down the rate of infectious diseases among the inmate population. Infectious Diseases within Inmate Populations In just the past five years the amount of people being incarcerated in America has increased dramatically, topping the statistics of other countries who incarcerate individuals on a yearly basis. Because of this continuing problem disease has become eradicate in the prison environment and there are times when the attempt to control it is overwhelming to prison and public officials (Needels et al 2005). However, in years dating back to the mid 1900's, the spread of disease in prison was even more intensive than it is today. The only difference was the occurrence of disease was kept concealed and many people were exiting the prison system with infectious diseases without being aware of them. Upon recommitting crime many would reenter the prison system already carrying an infectious disease such as Hepatitis or HIV, unintentionally spreading infectious diseases without being consciously aware of it. Therefore in order to appropriately detour disease in the prison and jail systems in the future there needs to be extreme precautions and remedies put into affect in today's time before this issue expels over into the community as an epidemic of disease related illnesses. Of course, one of the most difficult infectious diseases within the prisons in the United States is the wide spread illness of HIV. In fact it has been a difficult disease to try and combat for many years but this is due to the fact of the activities within the prison systems that can lead to the acquisition of HIV in the inmate population. For instance, many prisoners engage in activities such as homosexual acts, unsterilized needle usage for tattooing and drug use, unsanitary habits, etc; within the prison environment which leaves them open to contracting a major disease such as this one and therefore the contraction of it within an inmate population is extremely high and very difficult to keep at a minimal level. However peer education has proven to be an essential way to provide prisoners with literary materials that help them to understand how to protect themselves from contracting such serious illnesses like Hepatitis and HIV (UNAIDS 1996). Nevertheless, there are still many prison and jail systems that are highly lacking in intervention methods to control infectious diseases. This poses many concerns for the officials who work inside the prison for not only are the inmates health issues a concern but the health of those trying to maintain law and order within the prison environment, and those who visit inmates from the neighboring communities becomes a major problematic area for health officials trying to keep disease to a minimum. This is why it was previously stated that there needs to be reliable methods established now to eliminate or simply lower disease because the longer it continues to go without proper attention the more the seriousness of disease spreading into the community can become. Therefore there are now strict guidelines and health protocols that are and have been being established to try and curtail the growing epidemic of infectious disease in prison, especially due to the fact that HIV is only one of the disease spreaders within the inmate population. Not only is there extensive disease in prison environments but recent literature has been compiled which details that the jail system population has widespread infectious disease problems as well (Kountz & Wood 2005). However, as has been stated the legal system has many implementations that are already in effect to combat infectious diseases such as Hepatitis, STD's, and HIV as well. Just this past year there was a problematic viral infection that occurred among the prison and jail population in the state of New Jersey but due to effective communication and strategies to correct the spread of the infection between prison, jail, and health officials the outbreak was contained. The bacterial infection was a new strain of disease to the health officials, now known as, "MRSA" or "Staphylococcus Aureus" (Kountz & Wood 2005). It did take very precise and systematic health steps to minimize the spread of the disease and to properly treat those that were found to have contracted the illness. Some of the steps that many jail and prison system do utilize to keep the spread of disease at a minimum are noted in the following bulleted outline. Bureau of Prisons working effectively with administrative leadership to pool gathered data together in order to provide enhanced infection control strategies Procedures such as isolating the infected, and wound culturing to test for skin infection within lesions Health material passed to the inmates to inform them of new diseases and what the signs and symptoms would be (Kountz & Wood 2005) There are many other effective methods as well but these three are some of the most effective found to date to try and control and minimize infectious disease in jail and prison system populations. It is also believed by the CDC that as long as there are open communication outlets for prison officials to discuss health concerns with the health department, the future of disease being spread in the jail and prison environment can be economically minimized (UNAIDS 1996). While skin infection and diseases such as the one just mentioned can be effectively combated it appears, STD's and HIV are two infectious mixtures of diseases that are apparently more complicated to try and eradicate from the inmate environment. This again poses concern because although the people in prison and jail are placed there due to crimes they committed they still deserve to have good health care and not have to worry about becoming seriously ill for the rest of their lives. This is why some health officials, and prison officials as well feel it is important to try and find ways to improve upon the quality of the lives of those with infectious diseases in prison, specifically those with HIV that can not be properly alleviated of their symptoms the majority of the time (Day 2004). Not only does there need to be improvements in the monitoring and healthcare of those with HIV or possibly becoming diagnosed with it but there also needs to be the same type of concern for those with STD's as well. There are programs such as "Prisoners for AIDS counseling and Education" that do seem to provide some relief in attempting to eliminate the spread of infectious disease in prison by open discussion of the disease implications and what to prepare for if a inmate does contract a disease such as HIV. However, due to the ignorance associated with diseases such as these many prisoners are treated unfairly which leads them to keep their disease concealed and thereby they can not receive the treatment that they need. Not only this, but the threat of the disease being spread becomes even more possible due to a lack of educating those who are carriers of it. Research has found that once inmates become aware of how to not pass diseases such as these along to others then the majority of them are more careful with their interactions with other inmates which do help in disease control (Day 2004). In 1996-97 alone, the prevalence of TB and STD's in prison environments urged the justice system to try and devise plans to correct the statistics associated with them. They went about making provisions that would allow for properly educating prison officials in ways that would possibly prevent the transference of diseases like TB and HIV onto inmates who were vulnerably exposed to the infections (Gostin 1995). In fact during this time the laws were very strict on those inmates who were diagnosed with diseases like TB because prison officials were aware of what the outcome could be if there was a pandemic of such a disease in a prison environment. This of course justifies the reasons why there need to continue to be ways to minimize and eradicate diseases such as these out of the prison and jail systems. The future of the judicial system is at risk of concreting problems onto the outlying communities if they do not guarantee control of infectious diseases in jail and prison. This is due to the fact that as has been stated, when prisoners are released they can unwittingly pass on the diseases to innocent civilians who are not aware of the environment from which they came from and of which jeopardizes their own health by coming into contact with these past inmates. For emphases into this discussion, the judicial body believes that former legislative laws from the past should continue in order to secure better health protection for prison officials, the community, and those inmates who are not known carriers of any infectious disease (National Institute of Justice 1995-97). In fact these past legislative laws helped prosecutors as well because if a prisoner was found to be HIV infected and knowingly involved himself or herself in actions that would place others at risk of contracting the disease, then some of these laws gave prosecutors authority to charge these individuals with secondary crimes while in prison. Another example of how effective these various legislative acts were is in the state of California. California laws allowed prosecutors and law enforcement officers the ability to prohibit the release of prisoners who were known carriers of HIV, if they had knowledgably engaged in profane activities putting other inmates at risk of contracting the disease regardless of whether they were up for parole or preparing for release from prison or jail (National Institute of Justice 1995-97). This helped in minimizing infectious diseases from spreading outside of the prison environment and therefore extending into the community setting. This isn't to say that the law banned prisoners from release simply because they were HIV positive. What it is saying is that those who showed aggressive tendencies towards others with full knowledge that they had a highly infectious disease were prevented from being released at an earlier date and also their appeal hearings were shortened in time to disallow for the possibility of them gaining a way to exit the prison system early as well. There are many laws that are just as effective as the ones that were passed through legislation years ago which do appear beneficial but possibly not as thorough. However, the prison officials and health officials can do well to minimize infectious diseases if they follow the guidelines that they have been given and also if they begin requiring mandatory screening of prisoners in regard to infectious disease testing. By placing screenings such as PPD's, STD detection, and HIV screening then the prison population can be equipped to better prevent against an epidemic occurrence of infectious diseases from escalating further (National Institute of Justice 1995-97). To conclude, this research has discussed how past laws have influenced the current policies and laws associated with trying to minimize and prevent the spread of infectious diseases in prison. There has been discussion on how the prison officials, prosecutors, and other legal bodies can safe-guard the publics' health as well by allowing for specific disease screenings in jails and prisons. This has been defined to not only lessen disease prevalence in prison and jails but to also protect the communities from those who are infected and attempting to spread disease as well. All of these various implementations that have been discussed are believed to be worthwhile in continuing to try and keep down the occurrence of widespread disease in the prison and jail systems. However, in finality there does need to be more secure and guaranteed ways of ensuring quality health to those who do have to come into contact with a prison environment or those who have recently been released from one, in order to lessen the chances of contracting a deadly disease. References Day, Ronald. (2004, October). HIV/AIDS in Prison: Crisis of the Confined. Body Positive Magazine, 17, 3, 1-10. Gostin, L. O. (1995). The Resurgent Tuberculosis Epidemic in the Era of Aids: Reflections on Public Health, Law, and Society. Maryland Law Review 54, 50-67. Kountz, David & Wood, Robert. (2005). The Burden of Infectious Diseases during Jail Confinement: Screening, Treatment, and Future Directions. Retrieved July 1, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.prisoncommission.org/statements/kountz_david.pdf National Institute of Justice (1995-97). HIV/AIDS, STD's, and TB in Correctional Facilities. Retrieved July 1, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.iaen.org/files.cgi/16673_176344.pdf Needels, Karen & Burdumy, Susanne & Burghardt, John. (2005, 30 August). Case Management for Former Jail Inmates. Journal of Urban Health, 82, 3, 420-433. UNAIDS. (1996). HIV/AIDS in Prisons. Retrieved July 1, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.aidslaw.ca/Maincontent/issues/prisons/fsu_eng_complete.pdf Read More