“There is, in fact, hardly an argument that can be advanced for the stern suppression of crime by penal methods that does not apply equally to the suppression of disease. . . . “ Medical service in the penal and correctional institutions throughout the United States has been reported at various times to be below the level of medical care for the general population. In 1939 McCartney2 noted that...

Some of the most neglected, misunderstood, and unseen individuals in our society are the more than one million women in our jails, prisons, and community correctional facilities. Although the rate of incarceration for women has increased dramatically (tripling in the last decade), prisons have not kept pace with the growth in the number of women inmates, nor has the criminal justice system adap...

Because certain groups at high risk for HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) come together in correctional facilities, seroprevalence was high early in the epidemic. The share of the HIV/AIDS epidemic borne by inmates of and persons released from jails and prisons in the United States (US) in 1997 was estimated in a previous paper. While the number of inmat...

While legislatively sanctioned discrimination against the mentally ill in general society has largely disappeared, it persists in correctional systems where inmates are denied earn-time reductions in sentences, parole opportunities, placement in less restrictive facilities, and opportunities to participate in sentence-reducing programs because of their status as psychiatric patients or their ne...

BACKGROUND Persons held in correctional facilities are at high risk for HIV infection and their prevalence of HIV is substantially higher than in the general population. Thus, the need for proper surveillance and care of this high risk population is a paramount public health issue. This study aims to evaluate an organization-level intervention strategy for improving HIV services for persons in ...

A growing number of correctional facilities train inmates to provide end-of-life care for dying inmates. This study explores the phenomenological perspective of inmate-caregivers participating in an inmate-facilitated hospice program (IFHP) with regard to meaning and purpose in life, attitudes on death and dying, and perceived personal impact of participation. Twenty-two inmate-caregivers were ...

The aim of this study of prison health care staff in Prison Health Care and Nursing Units is twofold. The first one is to consider those aspects of the legal system applicable to them as government employees of the General State Administration at the service of Prisons, highlighting the peculiarities of the legal regulations that can be applied as a result of providing said service. The second,...

Many convicted offenders suffer from major mental disorders. These offenders commit crimes with great frequency. They do not receive mental health care and are often found in isolation cells of correctional facilities. The present investigation examined lifetime multiple disorders, measured by the DIS, among a representative sample of male penitentiary inmates. Pure forms of the major mental di...

BACKGROUND Consumption of illegal drugs is a public health problem in Mexico, and the prison population is a vulnerable group with higher rates of prevalence than in the general population. The objective of this study was to determine the main socioeconomic variables associated with drug consumption in the prison population. METHODS Utilizing data from the Second Incarcerated Population Surve...