NCJ Number
79186
Journal
Journal of Prison Health Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring/Summer 1981) Pages: 56-66
Date Published
1981
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This essay traces the parallel evolution of thought in the areas of corrections and correctional health care in order to explain why care was part of the cure, why prisoners' rights to health care were unrecognized, and why the responsibilities of the professional health care community were largely ignored.
Abstract
Historically, health care programs in America's prisons and jails have reflected the trends of criminal justice theory and practice as well as the social, legal, and political ideas of the times, rather than ideas and developments within the health care profession. The philosophical foundations of the American criminal justice system are based on the 18th century English system. Medical thought during the 1700's perceived disease as a natural outcome of vice, and the poor were susceptible to the former because they were addicted to the latter. Reformers of the British correctional system in the late 1700's had to convince magistrates that various medical regimens would instill moral reform and also cause humiliation. Thus, baths, better diets, shaving of heads, and whitewashed walls were touted as means of imposing the will of the State on offenders through total environmental control. This penitentiary outlook became the basis of correctional practices in the United States. The article points out that recognition of prison administration as a distinct profession only occurred in the 1940's and 1950's. Following the movement of rehabilitation reform in the 1960's, health care professionals became involved with the corrections system. The Commission of Accreditation for Corrections in 1977 published standards for operating jails and prisons, including standards for the delivery of health care services. In the 1980's, the task of creating a proper balance between the health care professionals' goals of caring for prison inmates and the correctional personnel's goal of maintaining security will be the major challenge. Eleven references are provided.