Prisoners With Special Needs

Prisons are made up of several types of offenders, however within the prison populations, there are those offenders which make up the special needs category or those who are known for substance abuse. The reason why these special need inmates affect the jail and prison system, both on a federal and state level would be because of the specialized attention in which they require. If these prisoners are not given the proper attention that is needed for their disability, they can because a danger to not only themselves but to everyone around them; those who have a substance abuse related illness may even become sick and possibly die from lack of care for their addiction. The way that special needs inmates affect both the state and federal prison is mostly due to the financial burden, these inmates require much more than the regular prison therefore more money is needed to care for them. Some require special facilities for their illness or special need and this can end up costing the state or federal government millions of dollars. Take a look at those prisoners suffering from mental illness or substance abuse, these prisoners require psychiatric help and that alone costs the states a whole lot of money. It was reported back in 2006 through the Bureau of Justice Statistics that there were approximately 705, 600 mentally ill inmates in the state prison, about 479, 900 I the local jail or counties and approximately 78,000 who were in federal prison; with these staggering numbers however, the rate in which mentally ill prisoners are jailed continues to increase.

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Prisoners with mental illness are required to have access to psychiatric health, medications and whatever therapy there is being offered for their mental illness; they are also required to be kept away from the general population to ensure that they are not a danger to themselves and the other inmates. Those with a substance abuse problem also require