NCJ Number
172068
Journal
American Jails Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: (September-October 1997) Pages: 10-12,14-15,17-18,20
Date Published
1997
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Judicial intervention in the delivery of medical services in health care in correctional institutions is examined, with emphasis on its history, the development of health care accreditation standards, and the impact of recent incarceration policies on correctional health care delivery.
Abstract
Corrections policies have evolved and changed over the country's history. Courts rarely involved themselves in the area of prisoners' rights until the 1960s. However, over the past 30 years, increased public and judicial awareness of corrections have helped produce many advances in correctional health care. Courts have required correctional health care to improve to at least a bare minimum, as represented by the "deliberate indifference" standard. One result was the development of professional health care delivery standards and accreditation procedures. These standards helped ensure that prisons were doing at least the minimum required by law and medical practice. However, jails have reacted more slowly to the move to accreditation. Recent changes in corrections policies have changed incarceration rates. The result is that the inmate population is becoming older, sicker, and more likely to be incarcerated for a longer period of time. Thus, correctional health care is experiencing difficult choices concerning how to care for inmates and what level of care is required either ethically or by law. Illustrations