| Related Searches: When you are in jail, medical care often becomes a problem. Although theoretically, the institution that is incarcerating you is responsible for your well-being, medical care and mental health care often suffer. Care is often provided on a discretionary basis, and might be considered to exist only in theory. StandardsJust as there is no convenient nation-wide metric to compare public schools, there is no metric for comparing municipal and state jails. This issue does not arise in the federal prison system because the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is in charge of providing medical care for every federal correctional institution in the United States. According to the BOP, they provide "essential medical, dental and mental health" services by qualified professionals according to "accepted community standards." This claim is hotly disputed by prisoners and their families. Although the BOP reports that they hire medical doctors, dentists, nurses, psychiatrists and psychologists, care is inadequate for most of the population who are served. Federal SystemThe BOP publishes extensive papers on the incidence of various diseases and how frequently patients see doctors. However, these publications do not disclose any information on what standards apply or what specific provisions are made for particular diseases. According to prisoner accounts, a long list of horrors take place such as handcuffing quadriplegic patients, infants being born in prison toilets and terminally ill patients being ignored. Special FacilitiesIf you are in the federal system and you suffer from medical problems so serious that you can longer be in a regular prison population, you may be shipped to a federal medical center (FMC). FMCs differ from other federal correctional institutions because they incarcerate only seriously ill patients. There are FMCs in Minnesota, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Texas and North Carolina. According to the National Prison Hospice System, inmates in these institutions "have a spectrum of illnesses ranging from chronic asthma to full-blown AIDS, making ambulatory to long-term care a necessity." AIDSAccording the BOP, the rate of AIDS/HIV among incarcerated federal and state prisoners is 2.5 times that of the rate in the overall U.S. population. According to BOP, on 2007, "about 41 per 10,000 prison inmates were estimated to have confirmed AIDS, compared to 17 per 10,000 persons in the general population." Although the BOP provides very detailed statistics on the incidence of AIDS, it has never published any information about what specific treatments that are available. Poor careRegardless whether you are in the state or federal system, healthcare may be dicey. According to Community Voices, an organization specializing in the underserved, prisoners often lose their Medicaid benefits. The loss of this benefit is significant because healthcare in prison is usually worse that that provided by Medicaid. ReferencesCommunity Voices: Healthcare and Incarceration: Medicaid Termination and SuspensionDepartment of Justice: Rate of Confirmed AIDS in Prison 2.5 Times the Rate in the U.S. General PopulationBureau of Justice Statistics: Medical Problems of PrisonersCalifornia State University: Healthcare in the Federal Bureau of Prisons: Fact or FictionNational Prison Hospice Association: A Prison Hospice Model for the Future?ResourcesFederal Bureau of Prisons: FMC RochesterBureau of Prisons: Inmate ProgramsPhoto Credit alcatraz prison image by Gary Truhlar from FotoliaRead Next:
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