Ethical Dilemmas In Prisons

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Jails and prisons are filled with unethical people that have made bad choices. Unfortunately, those convicted are not the only unethical people inside these prison walls. Some prison guards and prison employees also make unethical choices. They abuse that power bestowed upon them. Both sides, convicted individuals and prison officials, learn to manipulate this environment. There are also ethical dilemmas unique to the prison setting; health services (mentally and physically), solitary confinement, strip and cavity searches, overcrowding, etc. The United States is less than 5% of the world’s population but has the largest prison population in the world. Per an article in the Prison Policy Initiative, the “American criminal …show more content…
Under the Eighth Amendment, correctional facilities are legally mandated to provide adequate health care. Unfortunately, inmates do not always receive the medical care they need and are entitled to. About one-third of the prison population suffers from health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV, heart problems, etc. that require regular attention. Some of this is contributed to the fact that older inmates are the fastest growing group of our prison population. Just because a person is incarcerated should not change the level of care they receive. With the growing number of people incarcerated, underfunding and understaffing of medical professionals are being blamed for not being able to handle the demand. This causes in many cases inmates to suffer needlessly from the lack of adequate medical care. Chronic illnesses that go untreated, can eventually result in death (ACLU, n.d.). Healthcare providers who work in the correctional setting also have an ethical responsibility for ensuring that the patients have access to the care they need. One of the most ethical concerns for these providers relates to showing respect, fairness, truthfulness and commitment to inmates in this type of environment. Our jails and prisons are filled with inmates in need of psychiatric care. Prisons are now one of the primary care providers for those with mental illness mainly due to lack of alternative facilities. This is ethically catastrophic in many ways. “Correctional medical facilities were never constructed with parity between physical and mental health abilities” (Dubler, N., 2014). Prison guards and personnel received minimal training on how to interact and handle mentally ill individuals. The problem correctional facilities must deal with is having adequate personnel to
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