11/8/2023 0 Comments James parsons white pages new yorkFor these and many other reasons, said Parsons, “Jails and prisons are an important place for us to be focusing in targeting public health interventions.” He added that about one in five people who pass through prison or jail have been in solitary confinement in the past year, and a study in New York City jails found elevated rates of self-harm among people held in solitary confinement. Fifteen percent of individuals experiencing state-level incarceration reported violence-related injuries. With regard to violence, suicide, and self-harm, suicide accounted for 30 percent of deaths in jails between 20, Parsons observed. Rates of hepatitis C in correctional settings are 8 to 21 times those seen in the community, and tuberculosis is more than 4 times as prevalent. HIV/AIDS is two to seven times more prevalent than in the general population, and an estimated 17 percent of all people with HIV in the United States pass through prison or jail each year. ![]() “Then they come back again.” Brown also noted that people in prisons have a longer time to undergo treatment, which can result in fewer mental health problems in prisons than in jails.īeyond mental health, between 39 and 43 percent of people in custody have at least one chronic health condition, Parsons stated. “When their court case is heard, they're back in their community and they're not getting care again,” she said. However, treatments are not always up to date, financial resources are limited, and treatment does not follow people once they leave jail. Brown said that the treatment options available for people with mental illness vary greatly from jail to jail but that mental health care is “quite good in Philadelphia,” with psychiatrists and psychologists who try to help everyone who needs treatment. In Pennsylvania's Cook County, which houses an average of 9,000 inmates daily in jail, 25 to 35 percent suffer from mental illness. Yet, many people with mental health issues use street drugs as a form of treatment rather than going to a health care provider, Brown stated. And inmates with a dual diagnosis of addiction and mental illness do worst of all. Inmates battling addiction fare worse: about half are convicted of a new crime within 3 years. Within 3 years of being released, 37 percent of incarcerated individuals who leave state prisons with mental illnesses are reincarcerated, compared with 30 percent of those who do not have mental health problems, Brown observed. Of the women with mental illness who are in prison, nearly three-quarters met the criteria for substance dependency or abuse, and almost 64 percent had used drugs in the month before their arrest. Of those with mental illness, 68 percent report that they had been physically or sexually abused in the past compared with 36 percent of those without mental illness. Only about one-third of those women experiencing prison receive treatment. ![]() ![]() Of prison and jail inmates, 44 percent have been told in the past by a mental health professional that they have a mental health disorder.īrown pointed out that, in state prisons nationwide, females have a higher rate of mental health problems, 73 percent, as compared with 55 percent among males. Similarly, rates of mental illness are much higher among incarcerated populations as compared to the general population. Rates of substance use disorders are between five and seven times higher among people who are incarcerated than in the general population, though less than 15 percent of the people with diagnosable substance use disorders in jails and prisons receive appropriate treatment. Prisons house many people with very poor health, and the correctional environment makes those conditions worse, Parsons observed. “Mass incarceration is one of the most significant drivers of public health in our time,” Parsons stated. As such, incarceration is a critical social determinant of health. It directly and indirectly affects the health of individuals and communities, increasing rates of illness while simultaneously undermining the supports that contribute to community health and well-being. “The criminal justice system is a driver of health inequity that impacts the well-being of communities around the country,” said Parsons in his overview of incarceration in the United States.
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