Traumatic Brain Injuries in Prison - Essay Example

These incidences are seen to increase as one ages where one becomes a danger to those around them. When a person that has suffered from TBI gets incarcerated, the cognitive and behavioral tendencies related to TBI make it difficult for them to adjust to prison life. For this reason, rehabilitation efforts get complicated especially since TBI resultant habits such as drug dependency and psychiatric problems make it difficult for a prisoner to adjust to prison life and life after their conviction (Ferguson et al 11).

A large number of prisoners serving their sentences are doing so while suffering from TBI and this complicates the rehabilitation efforts and their ability to function properly when they get back to society. There are approximately two million people living in jails and prisons in America, 25-87% of these are reported as having suffered a TBI or head injury. Further broken down, women imprisoned for violent crimes have a higher chance of having suffered a TBI or another kind of physical abuse prior to their crime.

Also, women with a substance abuse disorder are likely to suffer from a TBI while in prison (“Traumatic Brain Injury…”). This is an alarming situation as TBI often leads to long-term cognitive impairment making it difficult for persons suffering from it to go through their daily activities and sustain jobs; particularly with persons who are come from prisons or jails. It becomes important to highlight the burden that TBI casts on persons suffering from it. The long-term cognitive impairment depicts its first detrimental effect, which is that it is a disabling injury and this is evidenced by the fact productivity lost as a result of TBI is at 15.

7% and this is 14 times that linked to spinal cord injury. The number of persons suffering from TBI is likely to be higher as there are persons that are likely not