Health Negligence within the Prison System due to Overcrowding

In California, prison overcrowding has become so extreme prisoners have taken the issue to Federal Court. Current inmates issued lawsuits claiming suffering from physical and mental illnesses due to inferior health care caused by overcrowding. The inmates request the court to limit California’s 33 prisons to a population of 104,000, which would mean a release of 52,000 prisoners. The inmates’ arguments began last Tuesday, November 18, 2008, gaining the support of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), which have many prison guards appearing as witnesses on their behalf. Attorney Gregg Adam acknowledged, “overcrowding increases violence behind bars, spreads illnesses and has a dehumanizing effect on correctional staff.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/19/BAAV147D2S.DTL

Gary Benson, one of the most compelling witnesses for the inmates, was a guard working in a medical triage unit at Folsom State Prison. Benson admitted, “as many as 50 inmates at a time typically wait two to five hours inside a 12 by 20 foot holding area for medical or mental health treatment. He claimed he also regularly sees inmates in communal showers with bleeding, oozing, staph infections. Benson said he contracted an antibiotic-resistant staph infection in July 2006. Inmates with the infections are not segregated and such diseases often spread in the prison.” http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=6305853

Another guard, Brenda Gibbons who works at Salinas Valley State Prison stated that “suicidal inmates were kept overnight in cages the size of telephone booths until crisis cells became available.” http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=6305853

The states main arguments were that California spends $14,000 a year per inmate on health care, a great deal more than the national average. They also argue that California has significantly enlarged medical staffing in prisons since 2006.

This is a very intriguing case because the courts are becoming involved in trying to solve the overcrowding and health care catastrophe inside of California’s prisons. If the courts rule in favor of the inmates it would cause 52,000 prisoners to be released to county jails, treatment centers or parole. If this were to happen there would be an outcry from the Republican Party and those who support being “tough on crime.”

This case signifies how truly unhealthy and horrific conditions inside California’s prisons have become. The prisoners are not the only people who suffer from these conditions, as the dire conditions have adversely affected the staff as well. The conditions are drastically wearing on correctional officers who do not feel as safe or as in control in the institutions as they used to. This problem is made very apparent in this case because the CCPOA support the prisoners’ claims.

With minimal progress being made in reducing population and making the prisons safer, this case may bring about the drastic change that is needed in the California prison systems. Although I do believe that people should serve time for their wrongdoings and violations of the law, I don’t believe that they should have to be forced to live in inhumane conditions. Hard working correctional officers who make an honest living and put their life on the line everyday should not be exposed to ever-increasing risks because of overpopulated prisons. A substantial release of low-risk prisoners may be what California needs to decrease the ever-growing problem of prison overcrowding. The criminals released would still be monitored and would have to, for example, meet with parole offices, have regular drug test, and participate in rehabilitation and counseling. The benefit of making prisons safer and more humane outweighs the threat of releasing low- risk criminals who are crowding our prison system.