NCJ Number
94108
Journal
Journal of Prison and Jail Health Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall/Winter 1983) Pages: 112-118
Date Published
1983
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Discussion of the moral claim of prisoners to psychiatric care and treatment should focus on the general nature of rights, the moral rights that all or most people have, and the particiular rights of prisoners.
Abstract
The rehabilitative aims of punishment make the case for providing psychiatric care for prisoners. If incarceration is justified, the foreseeable psychological consequences would seem to be justified as well. However, this argument supports only that degree of stress consistent with the purposes of punishment. Prison conditions that unduly cause stress would not be justified, and prisoners who develop psychological disease from excessively harsh conditions would still have a claim to care for the resultant disease. In fact, incarceration that creates psychological illness is inconsistent with rehabilitation. For conditions which existed before incarceration or which are related to the purposes of punishment, the right to care may be attenuated, however. The argument that the penal system should provide for inmates' psychological needs raises a problem of fair allocation of resources. Nevertheless, because many current penal institutions are literally sickening, prisoners may have greater claims to resources than nonprisoners. Five references are provided.