Journal of Correctional Health Care
Article Abstracts
Volume 11, Issue
1
·Profiling
Mentally Disordered Prison Inmates: A Case Study in New Jersey Nancy
Wolff, PhD; Tina Maschi, PhD, LCSW, ACSW; J. R. Bjerklie, MA This
paper profiles the behavioral health and criminal justice
characteristics of the universe of male special needs inmates (N
= 2,715) in New Jersey prisons. Mentally disordered inmates were
found to vary significantly and systematically in their
treatment needs and their risks to the community. The lack of
homogeneity within the mentally disordered inmate population
suggests the need to classify need-risk clusters within the
offender group, develop programs that respond to particular
need-risk clusters, and match types of mentally disordered
offenders to these specialized programs. Recommended is a
cafeteria-style approach to treatment planning that recognizes
the complexity of problem behaviors and the variation in the
presentation of these problems.
·“Well
Enough to Execute”: The Health Professional’s Responsibility
to the Death Row Inmate Eugene V. Boisaubin, MD; Alexander G. Duarte,
MD; Patricia Blair, JD, LLM, RN;
T. Howard Stone, JD, LLM Capital
punishment is one of the most controversial issues in America
and also creates unique problems for the medical professionals
who care for persons sentenced to death. An introductory true
case vignette describes a death row inmate who overdosed on
sedative medication 48 hours before his scheduled execution and
was rushed to a university hospital for care. After treatment
and stabilization, he was returned to prison where he was
immediately executed by lethal injection. This clinical case
raises several professional, legal, and ethical issues,
including how general medical care should be provided to the
death row inmate and how this care might be influenced by the
increasing proximity of execution. Presented last are new
guidelines for medical care on death row that balance the
physician’s professional obligations to the inmate as patient
against the requirements of the criminal justice system.
·Gender-Specific
Health Education in the Juvenile Justice System Patricia
J. Kelly, PhD, MPH, RN, FNP; Elisabeth Martinez, BA; Martha
Medrano, MD Adolescent
girls in the juvenile justice system have high rates of sexual
risk behaviors and minimal access to health education or
gender-specific programs. This article describes the
implementation process and results of a pilot intervention study
conducted in a juvenile detention center. The results of Girl
Talk-2, a peer-led curriculum addressing knowledge and attitudes
about sexual risk behaviors and violence prevention, were
compared to a control curriculum consisting of lecture and video
materials on the same topics. Analysis of pre- and
postintervention data for 28 girls in the intervention group and
26 girls in the control group found similar levels of knowledge
change in both groups, but greater changes in precursors of
behavior change, including self-efficacy, the benefits of sexual
protection, and nonacceptance of partner violence, among
the intervention group. The process evaluation provided
suggestions for implementing future programs.
·Knowledge
Is Not Always Power: HIV Risk Behavior and the Perception of
Risk Among
Women Prisoners Janet
L. Mullings, PhD; James
W. Marquart, PhD;
Tara Carr, MA; Deborah J. Hartley, MS This
study examined the relationship between drug treatment,
perceptions of risk, and HIV risk behaviors among a sample of
female offenders. Women who had participated in prior drug
treatment were more likely to have engaged in both drug and
sexual HIV risk behaviors. These findings emphasize that current
HIV drug counseling, education, and prevention programs aimed at
women offenders may not effectively change the risky behaviors
of those populations. Increasing numbers of female offenders
entering prison with histories of high-risk activities suggest
that correctional health care administrators rethink current
means to assess, manage, and deliver treatment programs to
female inmates.
·Chlamydia
Prevalence Among Adolescent Females and Males in Juvenile
Detention Facilities
in California Maggie
Chartier; Laura Packel, MPH; Heidi M. Bauer, MD, MS, MPH;
Monique Brammeier;
Malaika Little; Gail Bolan, MD
With the advent of urine-based chlamydia tests, screening can be
conducted in juvenile detention facilities. To determine
chlamydia infection rates among female and male juvenile
detainees in seven detention facilities in California,
urine-based chlamydia testing was conducted from September 2000
through July 2002. Participants provided data on demographics
and use of health care services. Among the 1,284 females,
chlamydia prevalence was 12.9%; among the 4,778 males,
prevalence was 6.0%. Overall, 54.3% of females and 70.5% of
males reported not having received primary care in the previous
year. High chlamydia prevalence combined with poor access to
primary care among adolescents in detention warrants screening
for chlamydia in juvenile detention facilities.
·Tuberculin
Testing and Treatment of Latent TB Infection (LTBI) Among
Long-Term Jail Inmates Christopher
H. Hayden; Bonita T. Mangura, MD; Ileen Channer, RN, BSN;
G. Elaine Patterson, EdD; Marian R. Passannante, PhD; Lee
B. Reichman, MD, MPH, FCCP
Studies have documented that a high proportion of reported
tuberculosis (TB) cases (up to 40%) have a history of
incarceration. However, TB prevention efforts in jails are
hampered by the short length of stay and the poor completion of
therapy among inmates released prior to completing recommended
treatment for latent TB infection (LTBI). This study assesses
the degree to which recommendations for tuberculin skin testing
(TST) and treatment of LTBI are being carried out among
long-term inmates (incarcerated more than 90 days) in a jail
facility. Through a retrospective review of medical records, the
authors found that most inmates (86%) received a TST and that
most inmates(85%) with a positive TST received a chest x-ray. By
including inmates with a documented or oral history of a prior
TST, 22% (20/91) were positive and considered to have LTBI.
However, only one inmate with a positive TST was placed on
treatment for LTBI. All 19 inmates not placed on treatment had a
length of stay sufficient to have completed therapy prior to
release, and 7 of these had medical risk factors for developing
active TB. The authors discuss obstacles to full implementation
of current recommendations and suggest potential approaches to
addressing these obstacles.
