What happens to those who are severely disabled while in prison?
What happens to those who are severely disabled while in prison?
For some reason began going down a rabbit hole thinking about this. Let's say you are blind, and reliant on a guide dog, but end up in prison for a non-violent crime like possession of illegal drugs. Are you allowed to keep the dog? No, right? But if you are entirely reliant on the guide dog to perform daily tasks, how do you manage in prison? What about people who are seriously disabled in other respects, like wheelchair users or those missing limbs, or those with serious mental disabilities? I'm asking for answers both from countries that actually treat prisoners like humans and the US
(US)For people who have conditions requiring regular medication (diabetes, organ transplant recipients, etc)... i have generally heard that prescriptions are confiscated, and they are frequently dead by the time the drugs are approved.
More or less, yep. Privatizing the legal slavery of targeted populations has worked wonders for the Justice™ system here in the US. 🤦🏾♂️
So many stories of people needing their medicine, and going into spams, but the cops just say it is all fake and purposely ignore the person.
Cops are trained to always assume the person they are interacting with is lying to them, so it makes sense they would think complaints about medical needs are just a ploy of some kind. That is why they ignore people saying they can't breathe, much less someone who tells them that they need medication or other medical attention.
ACAB.
A lot of the time, they just suffer without the aid they need.
I varies a lot though, depending on where and what your disability is.
Wheelchairs do exist in prisons. Wheelchair users often use the ground floor cells.
People with guide dogs generally don't need them in the restricted environment of a prison because they can simply memorize the layout like they would their home. Guide dogs are for more dynamic situations usually.
Serious mental disabilities often end up in mental institutions instead of prisons, they're often found not criminally responsible for their actions.
Serious mental disabilities often end up in mental institutions instead of prisons, they're often found not criminally responsible for their actions.
do you have a source for this one
You hear about this in the news all the time for mental illnesses.
Dude tried to get help four times, failed, killed his mom, was found not criminally responsible and "The judge ordered that Raefe be sent to a psychiatric hospital. Such a setting will be his reality for the foreseeable future"
It also happens in terms of people with diminished capacity, but they're often found unfit to stand trial in the first place. Here's what happens with that in Canada for example. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/law-crime-and-justice/criminal-justice/prosecution-service/reports-publications/mentally-accused.pdf
I feel like "often" is an overstatement. Replace that with "sometimes" or "occasionally", and I would agree.
Most states have medical prisons to detain those with special needs.
Here is an example of one.
https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/facility-locator/cmf/
Sometimes they’ll be paroled if they are Low risk. That way the tax payer isn’t financially responsible.
Ironically medical care is a right to prisoners but it’s not for everyone else.
Ironically medical care is a right to prisoners but it’s not for everyone else.
Medical care in US prisons is largely handled by a few for-profit companies that make money by providing inadequate care or refusing care at all. Prisoners routinely die from medical neglect. Healthcare behind bars is more capitalism, not less.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMms2211252
Oh, and healthcare is not a right, it's the State's duty to care for people in it's custody. That means prisoners have no agency over their care. For example if you're arrested at an accident, the EMTs gain consent from the police, not the patient. This is how EMTs can administer anti-psychotics and strong sedatives on the sidewalk after the pigs have kicked your ass.
Americans with disabilities aren't cared for even outside of a correctional setting. I'm sure it is even worse inside of one. I know I've read of multiple instances of people dying or suffering severe consequences because they are not in control of their medication while in custody and it is withheld from them. And that's just medication; you don't need to be disabled to need a medication.
Edit: The medication cases tend to come up in jails rather than prisons.
What is the difference between a jail and a prison? As a non-native speaker I've learned that they are synonyms.
A jail is where you are held before and during your trial, prison is where you are sentenced to serve out longer terms.
To add-on to other comments, it should be mentioned that the two terms are often used interchangeably, despite the differing meanings.
I'm not confident anyone in this thread really knows what they're talking about
Ummm, from what ive seen, the general vibe is, you know how your boss would like to chain you to a desk in an office and ignore all your human wants and just make you a mindless drone that does their bidding, and as long as you are chained at that desk, you know that every couple days/weeks/months they will suddenly cater to your needs for a 45min to 4hr task, and based on how they like your performance, you stay chained to that desk or you get your needs catered to just enough to make you want to do WHATEVER you just did again?
That's what jail/prison is.
Human rights removed. Behavioral programming at maximum.
If I lost my leg right now, I would be destitute.
2 years in a prison and I'd probably be one-leg-hopping all over the place. Or buried out back. And we are learning that American police stations and prisons have a problem with literal shallow graveyards behind their buildings.
One of the major explainers about why badges hate 1st Amendment Auditors.
Just to clarify, nobody is entirely reliant on a guide dog. A guide dog is a tool that assists someone in certain situations, there's loads of tools blind people can use to navigate, they may have a preference but the prison systems don't really care much.
In sentencing, disability can often be used to get a judge to look at a non-custodial sentence, or custodial in an alternative environment, it can even be a mitigating factor to get a lesser sentence.
But if they do get put in there, then it depends so much on the system. In some countries they will treat you very well, in others you'll not survive long.
Huge difference: do you have that condition before you go to prison, or does it start afterwards?
If you have it before (plus all the papers certifying it), then they are going to care properly. Doctors & judges can even decide that a person is unable to go to prison (this happens often when people are very old).
If you get it later, then the procedures take awfully long, and in the meantime you will probably not get all the care that you need. Plus some really bad treatment by other inmates.
Talking about Germany.
In the federal system they have prisons with built in long-term medical to facilities.
They're able to provide every kind of medical treatment and procedure necessary even hospice.
However, if the prison doesn't want to deal with treatment due to financial concerns they'll do what's called a " compassionate release" usually for terminally ill prisoners.
It looks better for the prison if one of their guests don't die while incarcerated.
Fed to bears.
They're made into chilli
Soylent Green.