U.S. Jails & Prisons: More Deaths Despite Lower Population - Essay Sample

Introduction

United States Department of statistics shows that there is a significant increase in the number of people dying in jails and prisons. From 2012 to 2013 the number of people who died in custody increased from 958 to 967 even amidst a decline in the population by 4%. Most of the people dying during incarceration it is due to heart diseases as well as suicide since 2000 with suicide taking the most number of people who die in police custody. US Department of Justice shows that the suicide cases in jails are on the rise between 2012 and 2013 by 14%. The report indicates that also deaths due to diseases are on the increase by 4% with heart disease, liver disease, and cancer is a significant cause of death. The deaths in prison due to AIDs and respiratory-related illnesses is on the decline with 30% and 12% consecutively. The report shows an alarming rise in deaths in police custody, which needs immediate attention and deliberation to create solutions.

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Assessment of Suicide in Forensic Setting

The assessment of the suicide problem scenario in prisons should begin by assessing the overall scenario to identify the problem, its cause and the potential interventions to end the rising number of deaths while in police custody (Woolf et al. 1996). The results and the quality of the assessment outcomes highly depend on the composition of the task force who will be instrumental in the investigations (Mathieu et al. 2014). As such, the following is the most suitable combination of the task force to investigate the rise of deaths while in custody in the United States.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Officers

The rise of deaths of prisoners in custody should be treated as a neglect of duty for the prison warders and officers who are given the responsibility of ensuring the wellness of the prisoners while in incarceration. The case of negligence and incompetency should be investigated by the FBI and the recommendations used to improve training for the prison warders or charge those culpable of gross negligence.

Qualified Doctors

A doctor in the task force will ensure that the overall health needs and safety requirements for those in custody are met by assessing the nature of the health of those in custody. This approach can help to create informed recommendations to reduce the number of deaths by improving the overall health of the prisoners.

Prison Social Worker/ Psychiatrist

A good taskforce should take account of the knowledge of prison social worker or a psychiatrist who understands the psychological health of those in custody.

Qualified Engineer

The taskforce will require the competence and knowledge of an engineer to establish the overall nature of the prison infrastructure. Infrastructural knowledge can be used to ensure that the prisons are humane and do not violate the individual rights of the inmates.

As such, a capable task force should be diverse to ensure that a problem is assessed from all possible angles which improve the overall results.

Nature of the Interventions

Forensic assessments are instrumental in making informed decisions on the potential interventions that can help reduce the rate of suicide in the United States' jails and prisons. Good interventions should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-oriented (Hedin & DeSpain, 2018). A good policy intervention should be based on reliable information, and the diverse nature of the task force will ensure that only the most appropriate and informed interventions are put in place to help actually bring down the deaths in prisons. Specific interventions are objective-based which can involve improving the psychological health and resilience of prisoners, providing residence counselors in prisons and improving jails and prisons infrastructure to improve the overall living conditions of the prisoners (Luke et al. 2018). The interventions should be time-oriented by ensuring that they immediately take force and help to improve the health and welfare of the inmates. All this is achievable due to the availability of informed choices from the forensic assessment results.

References

Hedin, L., & DeSpain, S. (2018). SMART or Not? Writing Specific, Measurable IEP Goals. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 51(2), 100-110. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0040059918802587

Luke, D. A., Sarli, C. C., Suiter, A. M., Carothers, B. J., Combs, T. B., Allen, J. L., ... & Evanoff, B. A. (2018). The Translational Science Benefits Model: A new framework for assessing the health and societal benefits of clinical and translational sciences. Clinical and translational science, 11(1), 77-84. Retrieved from https://ascpt.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cts.12495

Woolf, S. H., DiGuiseppi, C. G., Atkins, D., & Kamerow, D. B. (1996). Developing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines: lessons learned by the US Preventive Services Task Force. Annual review of public health, 17(1), 511-538. Retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.pu.17.050196.002455

Mathieu, J. E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Donsbach, J. S., & Alliger, G. M. (2014). A review and integration of team composition models: Moving toward a dynamic and temporal framework. Journal of Management, 40(1), 130-160. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206313503014