Essay On How To Deal With Special Needs In Prison

Going to prison can be a horrifying stressful and hard event for people that are in good health. People that go to prison with mental illnesses or serious health conditions face increased stress when they are thrown into the prison system. At times these patients/inmates can be a danger to themselves and other inmates if they are not treated properly. Being able to treat people with special needs in prison can be somewhat of a problem. Making sure the inmates that are able to be, be included in the general population, while deciding who cannot be and where to house them, are a few of the issues the prison administration has to deal with. It is hard for prison staff to decide who has to be separated and who can be in general population by a single encounter but they often have to make that call during the initial screening. Inmates with special needs require more supervision which means more staff and monitoring as well as more medications usually which cost the prisons more …show more content…
“Prevalence estimates for specific mental disorders among state inmates were schizophrenia (2%–4%), major depression (13%–19%), bipolar disorder (2%–5%), dysthymia (8%–14%), anxiety disorder (22%–30%), and posttraumatic stress disorder (6%–12%)… (Cropsey, Wexler, Melnick, Taxman & Young, par.4, 2007)”.
In conclusion it is seen that the treatment of inmates with mental illness and special needs is something we are aware of. Like most changes it is something that is slowly being worked on and cannot be fixed overnight. By prison administration focusing on the issue and keeping the staff well trained and educated they should have a better time providing adequate care for these types of inmates. All levels of staff should be involved in the process to help provide the best care while keeping the staff, other inmates and community