In the United States approximately ...

In the United States approximately 13 to 18 million clan are incarcerated in state or federal prisons or local jails at any given time. (1) Approximately 682 the bulk of mankind per 100,000 are incarcerated, and during the 1990 the increase rate was approximately 6% annually. (2) It was estimated that the United States would have pair million people incarcerated by the fall of the curtain of 2001. (3) Approximately 63 million persons or 3.1% of the country's adult population, are below some form of correctional reign over either through probation or incarceration in a state or federal prison or a local jail. (4)

promotes may come in contact with persons who are under some form of correctional mastery in many health care settings (eg hospitals, outpatient settings, corrections combination of parts to form a wholes clinics). Nurses must educate themselves about this patient population to provide safe, effective health care to these patients.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

In conversations about incarceration, the denominations jail and prison often are confused. Jails and prisons, however, are different symbols of facilities. Jails house populace who are awaiting the disposition of their case or transfer to another facility and those who have been convicted and will be incarcerated for les than united year. Jails often are located in urban settings within the city limits, and they provide housing for population of varying custody levels. For example, when incarcerated, jail inmates are held in the same facility regardless of their crime or perceived class of dangerousness. They may be housed in different sections of the facility for security reasons, with those inmates perceived to be more dangerous than others being closely supervised. Jails provide many exemplars of health care services (eg sick call, ongoing treatment for chronic illnesses, limited prenatal care). Jails usually are located in complete proximity to major trauma center because of their urban settings.

Prisons, however, provide housing for nation who have been convicted and sentenc to assist 366 days or more. Prisons usually are located in abstracted regions and may house prisoners of various custody on a levels In prison, custody level is determined at a reception center and inmates are sent to the appropriate facility based forward their need for supervision or perceived quality of dangerousness. Prisons are federal, state, or privately scud facilities. (5)

CHARACTERISTICS OF PATIENTS WHO ARE INCARCERATED

Of those race currently incarcerated, approximately 90% are male. Between 54% and 59% of all jail and prison inmates have a high denomination diploma. An estimated 4% to 8% of individuals who are incarcerated are not US citizens. More than one-third of jail inmates have a certain sort of physical or mental disability. (6)

Individuals may be in custody or subject to correctional control in a variety of ways (eg in prison or jail, forward probation, performing community service, participating in a mix with drugs diversion program). Others may be incarcerated in long-term mental health facilities as a consequence of their crime. Estimates are that between 10% and 25% of all tribe who are incarcerated at any the same time are diagnosed as mentally ill. (7)

Women make up an ever-increasing portion of the prison population. In 1998 approximately 32 million women were arrested, accounting for approximately 22% of all arrests that year. During that same year, approximately 1% of all women in the United States were beneath some form of correctional reign over In 1996, women in jail comprised between 5% and 10% of the jail population. They greatest in quantity frequently are incarcerated for nonviolent, drug-related offense Approximately 50% of women in jail report experiencing physical or sexual abuse before incarceration; 27% report being raped. (8) Between 1997 and 1999 more than 1300 babies were born to mothers in custody in US prisons or jails. (9)

Incarceration and the war forward drugs. The war on mix with drugss consists of a series of economic and regulatory policies that have issueed in an influx of the public into jails and prisons with following billions of dollars spent supporting the criminal justice scheme in the United States. The "prison industrial complex" a terminus coined by Angela Davis, PhD addresses to what extent these policy initiatives are approached in the same manner as the military was built during the 1950 and 1960 (10)

The total number of folks sentenced in the United States between 1985 and 1995 increased 84% Of this increase, 52% is attributable to opinions related to drug crimes. During this 10-year period, there was a 331% increase in remedy sentences, with the number of family sentenced for drug-related crimes increasing from 24200 to 104400 (11) The war forward drugs has resulted in an incarceration rate of more than 70% for nonviolent delinquents many of which may be amenable to treatment instead of nonrehabilitative confinement.

novel data on crime and unsalable article use show that 51% of all convicted inmates state they were subject to the influence of illegal mix with drugss or alcohol at the time of their offense Eighty-three percent of state prisoners admit to using put drugs intos at some point in the past, and 57% say that they used mix with drugss within one month of committing the offense for which they are incarcerated. Of those incarcerated, more than one-third of state prisoners admit that they committed their popular offense while under the influence of unsalable articles (12) Mentally ill offenders report the highest rates of remedy use at the time of incarceration, with 60% to 65% of prison and jail inmates with mental illness reporting illegal remedy use. (13) Drug use is a factor in the lives of population before incarceration and may be an instrumental reason wherefore crimes such as theft, larceny, and forgery are committed.