The topic about inadequate medical care in prisons is always interesting. If you are interested about it, you are suggested to read an article by Danya Ziazadeh that was shared on May 30, 2019. This one can be found on the official website of University of Michigan School of Public Health.
According to the article, the United States prison system is generally built on a male-specific model and leaves many correctional facilities significantly unprepared to meet the unique biological, psychological, and social health needs of women. Unfortunately, it gives a negative impact on the health of female inmate populations and it is clearly a challenge that has to be fixed.
In the United States, there are approximately 219,000 women incarcerated (Kajstura, 2018b). This one represents the fastest growing inmate population in the United States federal prison system and accounts for more than 30% of the incarcerated women in the world (Kajstura, 2018a).
The conditions such as poor infrastructure, unsatisfactory prison living conditions, the possibility of physical or sexual abuse, solitary confinement, intimidation and harassment by correctional officers, inadequate trauma care, and restricted access to counseling services and social support are the ones that build upon one another and worsen the negative health outcomes for female inmates. On the other hand, it is possible for the health outcomes to be influenced by a focus on trauma care, rehabilitation, comprehensive pre-release planning, and effective post-release care management and lead to decreased female prison populations and lower rates of recidivism.
The Public Health Problem
The female inmates get only limited access to quality health care. It remains a serious issue as a lot of people keep dying and some get serious illness while in prison. For instance, a lot of federal prisons do not provide health care providers who are well trained in obstetrics and gynecology, which causes the rates of screening to decrease and causes the test results to be incorrectly interpreted. Female prisoners who have the high risk of getting the diseases that can be prevented such as breast and ovarian cancers are often not screened or have abnormal screening results may go undetected (Weatherhead, 2003). According to the former inmates from the only prison for women called the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, the claims that their health care needs were unmet by the system that the prison has. They said that the access to health care was so nonexistent that it was popular as deathcare among the inmates (Prison Birth Project at the University of Michigan, 2018).
Reproductive Justice
The family planning services and reproductive health care are two of the most common issues within the federal prison system. According to American college of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, about 6% to 10% of female inmates in the United States correctional facilities are pregnant and many of them get little access to the necessary prenatal care, screenings, and social support that are important for a safe, healthy, and comfortable pregnancy and delivery.
From the data, it can be seen the importance of mother-infant attachment for infant development and maternal well-being (Goshin, Byrne, & Henninger, 2013). However, the females who give birth while serving time are separated from their infants almost right away after the birth, increasing the chance of the rates of postpartum depression and emotional trauma. This kind of separation can cause the emotional effect on the wellbeing of a lot of women inmates and has been found to raise the rates of re-entry into the prison system (Goshin et al., 2013).
Furthermore, because women are usually the ones that take care of their children, they are faced with the challenging task of maintaining and caring for their family members even though they are in prisons (Kajstura, 2018b). For the ones without a spouse or relatives nearby, it can cause the displacement of their children. It is the kind of situation that can make them more stressed as they are already in a hard situation just being in prison.
Looking Toward the Future
The most basic health needs and human rights of women prisoners are not being met, which is such a shame. The violation of these rights the women deserve, as well as the inhuman conditions in the prison, increases the chance of these women to get ill and to be caught in diseases. These women should be provided with a nurturing and rehabilitative environment. Aside from that, this kind of environment is also important for their long-term health. The wellbeing of a lot of women will be significantly impacted by prison reform that changes a system that is based in punitive into the one that that focuses more on a few things such as trauma case, social support, counseling, educational opportunities, increased familial-bonding time, a greater allowance for early release, and meaningful post-release services. It would be good for better health outcomes, a decreased prison population, and lower rates of recidivism.
References
According to the post, the article made by Danya Ziazadeh that was posted on the official website of University of Michigan School of Public Health has a few references. All the references include the ones that will be listed below:
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- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2011). Health care for pregnant and postpartum incarcerated women and adolescent females. Committee Opinion No. 511. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 118, 1198-1202.
- Goshin, L. S., Byrne, M. W., & Henninger, A. M. (2013). Recidivism after release from a prison nursery program. Public Health Nursing, 31, 109-117.
- Kajstura, A. (2018a). States of Women’s Incarceration: The Global Context 2018. Retrieved from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women/2018.html
- Kajstura, A. (2018b). Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2018. Retrieved from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018women.html
- Prison Birth Project. (2018, December 3). Panel hosted at The Intersections of Reproductive Justice and Mass Incarceration at the University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- Weatherhead, K. (2003). Cruel but not unusual punishment: The failure to provide adequate medical treatment to female prisoners in the United States. Health Matrix: Journal of Law and Medicine, 13, 429-472.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
