Poor Health and Victimization in U.S. Jails
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Health conditions and victimization among incarcerated individuals in U.S. jails – ScienceDirectIn the above paper, the researchers have researched the health conditions and the victimization among inmates in American jails. The method used was a cross-sectional one to assess the needs of 3650 jail inmates and look into their health conditions compared to the general public outside of jails. They also looked into victimization and how this affects the inmates negatively to a very great extent. The results were that the inmates have failing health compared to the general public in the outer sector. One of the contributing factors towards victimization is having a physical disability or mental illness. The research acknowledges that few people can look after those who go in there
within the prison system.
The victimization and failing health result from interaction with the criminals who victimize the newly brought inmates. For example, if a person gets in there and their belongings are stolen, they do not have a place or a person to report. They are likely to suffer to a great extent. Their health also gets into danger if, for example, what is stolen is something like their beddings. Their findings state a very close relation between victimization and poor health conditions of the inmates. Their research also found out that a particular type of individuals are taken advantage of when they get into jails, including chronic illness, severe mental illness, anxiety disorder, disability, and chronic physical illness. This research implies that most people involved will take their work seriously and make sure that jails and prisons are correctional facilities and not places where individuals are exposed to diseases and victimization.
There is a very high number of those incarcerated in the United States. For example, in 2018 alone, there were 10.7 million admissions of offenders into the American jail system. This means that even though there are many prisons and jails, there is congestion in the prisons. This study looked for the difficulties that the individuals in the prisons go through and how these challenges are related to their health conditions, focusing on victimization and its effects on the health of those incarcerated. This study has focused its research on the relationship between the mental health conditions, physical health conditions, and other disabilities among the inmates with the illnesses prevalent, and its findings inform us that it is not the best environment for a person to thrive in their health and other conditions related to their health. This is because there is a lot of victimization.
There is the victimization of this kind because there is a very high number of inmates, and therefore it is difficult for the administrators to look out for all those who behave in a way that is not pleasing. This means that in the jail system, it is a survival for the fittest, and therefore those who are unable to do this suffer at the hands of their fellows. Most of the individuals in the jail system are also law offenders, and their likelihood of bullying their fellow, especially the new ones and those who have health conditions like poor health, is very high. Therefore those who are physically well built make life difficult for those who are not physically well built, and this means that they suffer under them as there is less fear of what might be done to them as they are already in jail.
Reference
Grosholz, J. M., & Semenza, D. C. (2021). Health conditions and victimization among incarcerated individuals in U.S. jails. Journal of Criminal Justice, 101797.
