<p>This book focuses on the difficulties that medical and health care providers, correctional administrators, and policy makers face in delivering care to incarcerated juveniles and adults. Sometimes the demands on these practitioners can be overwhelming. Each year in the United States thousands of infants are born behind bars, and at least 3,000 inmates will die in state prisons alone. Practitioners confront an array of serious health care problems, from providing emergency care, preventing the spread of communicable diseases, managing chronic illnesses, and preparing for pandemics. A significant concern is that inmates with untreated health problems pose a significant challenge to community health. Over 14 million arrestees cycle through juvenile facilities or county jails, and some 650,000 persons are released from prison each year. As a result, there has been increased attention focusing on the connections between correctional and community health. The contributors to this volume examine these challenges, highlight successful medical and health care programs, and outline an agenda for future research.</p>

Issues in Correctional Health

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Newgate Press

<p>On any given day, there are over 100,000 youthful offenders held in a variety of residential placements, from community-based wilderness experience programs or group homes to high security facilities that are almost indistinguishable from prisons. In addition, thousands of juveniles are incarcerated in adult jails or prisons and some will serve the rest of their lives behind bars. Despite a 200-year history of holding juveniles in these settings, there is a gap in our knowledge about what actually occurs within these places. There are assaults, murders and suicides, as well as staff and resident misconduct, medical misadventures, unintentional injuries and mismanagement. On the other hand, there are thousands of hard-working, dedicated, and professional staff members in these facilities who enthusiastically work toward the rehabilitation of these young people. The contributors to this volume examine some of the key issues and trends within contemporary juvenile corrections, highlight promising rehabilitative practices, and identify the challenges of working with these youth.</p>

Juvenile Corrections

Ruddell, Rick

Thomas, Matthew O.

This book presents an extensive overview of the main issues surrounding violence in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities. One in one hundred American adults are currently incarcerated and the threat of violence in these facilities affects not only the inmates who reside there but also the custodial and professional staff. Despite recent reductions in lethal violence over the past two decades, each year approximately 70 homicides occur in these facilities and tens of thousands of incidences of non-fatal violence occur. The threat of violence may, in many cases, force treatment and rehabilitation efforts to take a backseat to institutional and personal safety concerns. Further, the aftermath of violence for victims, perpetrators, and witnesses poses serious issues for the community as the overwhelming majority of inmates eventually return home. The contributors to this volume examine these issues, highlight promising violence prevention and reduction strategies, and outline an agenda for future research.

Understanding Correctional Violence

This book draws upon the observations of contributors who wrote about American jails prior to the 1940s. They provide readers with a comprehensive account of jail operations and conditions from the turn of the 20th century until the Great Depression. During this time, jails were labeled a "human dumping ground" and that description was accurate given the dismal conditions that many inmates endured: men, women, and juveniles were often held together in makeshift jails. Seldom was much thought given to their care and jails were often places of filth, depravity and deprivation. Some of the jailers who operated these facilities were as corrupt, violent, and immoral as the inmates they were responsible for supervising. Like today, most inmates had not been found guilty of a crime and many were in jail because they could not scrape together a few dollars for bail or a fine. Other jail inmates were witnesses, runaway juveniles, or persons with mental illness who were held in the local jail because no other residential alternatives existed. Yet, despite this depressing appraisal of jail conditions, many of the contributors were optimistic about the possibility of jail reform. While local jail conditions are far more humane and professionally operated today, this book outlines how many still suffer from the same problems identified almost a century ago.

American Jails: A Retrospective Examination

For fifteen years Joseph F. Fishman was a federal jail inspector, and in that role he visited over 1,500 American jails, giving him considerable insight into the challenges of local corrections at the turn of the 20th century. He called jails "human dumping grounds" and in this book he painstakingly described facilities he had inspected throughout the United States: antiquated, overcrowded, filthy, and with few comforts for the inmates-most of whom had not yet been convicted of any crime. Fishman's descriptions of inmates with late-stage syphilis, morphine addictions, and those with mental illnesses are contrasted against sheriffs and jailers, whom he accused of corruption as well as indifference, immorality, and abuse.  During this era, local jails held a variety of inmates, from juveniles who had run away from home to adult career criminals, and Fishman described how men and women, the young and old, as well as the innocent and depraved were often housed in the same cell for months.    Throughout his book, Fishman expressed his frustration with local jailers, who kept inmates idle; observing that jails often became schools of crime where relatively minor offenders were admitted but were discharged as hardened criminals. Initially published in 1923 this book was well received by critics of the day, who saw this exposé as a way of increasing public attention for jail reform. While current jail conditions are more humane than those reported in this book, it is ironic that many of the challenges confronting jail administrators and staff today (including chronic under-funding, overcrowding, and the need to care for special needs inmates) are the same that Fishman identified almost a century ago.

Crucibles of Crime: The Shocking Story of the American Jail

Fishman, Joseph F.