CJA/234
October 7, 2013
Prisoners with Special Needs
A special need inmate has a physical or mental disability that limits their capacity to function in the normal inmate population. The United States is made up of individuals of all walks of life. The prisoners held in American prisons are no different. The United States prison system does not discriminated among its prisoners. These prisoners may have physical or mental disabilities however, if they committed a crime and are sentenced to spend time in prison then that is where they go. The fact is these inmates have special needs and are not special. They have been incarcerated for a reason.
The most common special needs prisoners are mentally …show more content…
Federal and state levels have a hard time finding the funds to treat the mentally ill who have been incarcerated. Many times mentally ill inmates go undiagnosed or their needs are not met because corrections officers do not know how to handle them. If these offenders are not properly cared for their physical and mental state will deteriorate. This causes them to be much more of a burden on society and the prison system financially ("National center for biotechnology information, u.s. national library of medicine", …show more content…
Inmates are required to serve 85% of their sentence before they can be released. Life sentences are used for often than before (CJi Interactive, University of Phoenix, 2011). Discretion of the judge has been taken away because of mandatory sentencing. Without mandatory sentencing the judge could his discretion and sentence these aging offenders to another sentence other than incarceration (Seiter, p, 223, 2011). The cost to care for an elderly inmate is three times more than the average inmate or $60,000 a year. Policies are needed specifically geared toward the elderly to help care for them (CJi Interactive, University of Phoenix, 2011).
Juveniles 18 and younger are committing more violent crimes. For this reason Legislation is being sought after to try juveniles as adults. These offenders have been sentenced as an adult and are held in adult prisons but, are developmentally immature. An issue to consider is, segregation of the juvenile, staff specifically trained, and educational programs available. Also treatment programs must be available and designed for the youth (CJi Interactive, University of Phoenix,