Vulnerable Population (Prisoners)

The Vulnerable Prisoner Population

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January 17 , 2007

The prison population in the United States can be a very vulnerable group of human beings , due to the very nature of incarceration . Inmates are more likely to suffer from depression and mental health issues , more likely to contract a potentially deadly disease such as AIDS or hepatitis C , more likely to either commit suicide or be a victim of homicide and more likely to suffer from lesser issues such as malnutrition . They are

subject to feelings of loneliness and isolation at a much , much higher rate than the average person , and additionally there are even more vulnerable groups in prisons such as the elderly the young , women and veterans of war

As of December , 2005 , 2 ,193 ,798 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails , which is an increase of 2 .7 since the ending of 2004 . This equals some 491 prison inmates for each 100 ,000 residents in the United States . The number of women inmates , while a mere fraction of the entire prison population has increased at a statistically higher rate than men - the number of women prisoners increased 2 .6 from 2004 while the number of male prisoners increased 1 .9 from 2004 (Prison 2005

. 1 . Crimes committed by women are increasing at an alarming rate , and while women are presently less than 8 of the prison population , that number can be expected to keep increasing as a steady pace . Women are not as likely to commit violent crimes such as murder however they are quickly catching up to men in white collar crimes and drug related crimes . The advent of methamphetamine has brought a huge increase in the number of women apprehended with an illegal substance and more and more women are being sentenced to many years in jail , away from their homes and children because of the severely addictive nature of methamphetamine . In the past five years , prison officials have seen a whopping 500 increase in methamphetamine crimes among males and females

Of the a violent crime , 21 for property crimes , 20 for drug-related crimes and 7 for crimes of violating public . The ethnic makeup of the prison population as of 2005 broke down to include 3 ,145 black males per 100 ,000 black males in the United States as compared to 1 ,244 Hispanic male inmates per 100 ,000 and 471 while male inmates per 100 ,000 (Prison 2005

. 2 . This startling statistic shows the disparity between the number of white males incarcerated as compared to the number of black males . Many of the black males currently residing in prison are either repeat offenders or have violated their probation and been sent back to prison

There are many health issues involving the inmate population while we would all expect that HIV is a serious issue , mental health is also a serious health issue for the already vulnerable prison population . In fact...