Today the prisons are so different from what they used to be in the recent past. Prisons have been overcrowded in such a way that cell that was made for one person is now being shared by at least three persons. This has led to the violation of the prisoners’ constitutional protection from cruelty and unusual punishment. Most of the prisoners are suffering from communicable diseases while others are infected with HIV virus. When these prisoners are put in the same cells with the prisoners who are health, they expose the health prisoners to the danger to becoming infected. This makes some of them to come out of the prison when they are really weak and they cannot do anything to help themselves. The prisoners who are infected with HIV virus are likely to spread it through homosexual activ
...ities, rape or drug use. These prisoners usually share the injections that they use in injecting drugs their bodies. Not everyone on the prison is infected with HIV virus but once they are brought together, they get influenced and since not everyone has an injection to use, they are forced to share. This exposes the prisoners to the risk of getting infected. There those who share tattoo and hypodermic needles and this too exposes them to the risk of getting infected with HIV.
There are strategies that need to be put into practice to help reduce the rate of infections in the prisons. The first strategy that can help in reduction of these transmission is segregation. The people who are infected with HIV should be separated from those who are not infected. By so doing, transmission of HI
in prisons will be reduced to a great number and this will enable the people to stay well and avoid unnecessary infections. The other strategy that can be used is that of education. The prisoners can be educated on the infection of HIV virus, how it can be transmitted in details and the effects of the virus. They should also be taught on how they should prevent themselves from being infected and if need be since the prisoners are still human, they should be provided with preventive measures.
For those who are already infected, they are supposed to be taught on how to take care of themselves and also on how they are supposed to get on with the medication. They should also be shown love as this is the only way that they can feel accepted in the community.
There are also gyniatrics offenders who are still in the prisons and these nee special attention due to their old age. This have not been attended well because the prisons lack attendants for such. The numbers in the prisons are going up whereby the current population is 124,900 prisoners and it is projected that the number will rise to 400,000 by 2030. This will call for an extra medical care because even today the medical facilities are being overstrained by the current population.
It is clear that even the rehabilitation centers may be of little or no use since there is no likelihood of committing violent offences which may need one to be taken to a rehabilitation center. There are those who end up suffering from mental illness and this makes it to handle them and the only
thing left is to take them to the medical hospitals. The number of prisoners who are suffering from mental illness have increased and this has made it difficult to handle them. There is an estimate of 1.25 million inmates who have mental illness and 56% of these are kept. Most of them are women and a good number is not intellectual and even if they are taken to rehabilitation centers they cannot go through training courses successfully. Some of the prisoners find it difficult to adjust to the prison life hence they feel oppressed.
References
- Haney, C. (2006). Reforming punishment: Psychological limits to the pains of imprisonment. American Psychological Association.
