User:Madison Roy/Louisiana State Penitentiary: Difference between revisions

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The pandemic has also caused many familiar debates surrounding inmate rights and wellbeing to resurface. For instance, the pandemic has placed additional emphasis on the familiar conversation of the humanity of solitary confinement in prisons. Isolating prisoners with COVID-19 often takes a form similar (or nearly identical) to placing them in solitary confinement. Researchers argue that it is essential to explicitly clarify the difference between an inmate being placed in solitary confinement as the result of committing some transgression and someone being placed in medical isolation to slow the spread of COVID-19. Though many argue that the use of non-medical isolation in prisons is inhumane and wrong, medical isolation is ethical and necessary according to many others. Sparking this debate once more, the pandemic has bolstered arguments from individuals on both sides of the spectrum.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cloud |first=David H. |last2=Ahalt |first2=Cyrus |last3=Augustine |first3=Dallas |last4=Sears |first4=David |last5=Williams |first5=Brie |date=2020-07-06 |title=Medical Isolation and Solitary Confinement: Balancing Health and Humanity in US Jails and Prisons During COVID-19 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-05968-y |journal=Journal of General Internal Medicine |volume=35 |issue=9 |pages=2738–2742 |doi=10.1007/s11606-020-05968-y |issn=0884-8734}}</ref>
The pandemic has also caused many familiar debates surrounding inmate rights and wellbeing to resurface. For instance, the pandemic has placed additional emphasis on the familiar conversation of the humanity of solitary confinement in prisons. Isolating prisoners with COVID-19 often takes a form similar (or nearly identical) to placing them in solitary confinement. Researchers argue that it is essential to explicitly clarify the difference between an inmate being placed in solitary confinement as the result of committing some transgression and someone being placed in medical isolation to slow the spread of COVID-19. Though many argue that the use of non-medical isolation in prisons is inhumane and wrong, medical isolation is ethical and necessary according to many others. Sparking this debate once more, the pandemic has bolstered arguments from individuals on both sides of the spectrum.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cloud |first=David H. |last2=Ahalt |first2=Cyrus |last3=Augustine |first3=Dallas |last4=Sears |first4=David |last5=Williams |first5=Brie |date=2020-07-06 |title=Medical Isolation and Solitary Confinement: Balancing Health and Humanity in US Jails and Prisons During COVID-19 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-05968-y |journal=Journal of General Internal Medicine |volume=35 |issue=9 |pages=2738–2742 |doi=10.1007/s11606-020-05968-y |issn=0884-8734}}</ref>

==== Violations of Inmate Rights ====
In 2021, a federal judge found that the Louisiana State Penitentiary violated the Americans with Disabilities Act through its treatment of inmates requiring rehabilitative services.<ref name=":1">Rold, William J. "Federal Judge Finds Unconstitutional Health Care and Violations of Americans with Disabilities Act at Louisiana State Penitentiary; Injunctive Relief to Follow."</ref> The evidence in this finding, which highlighted the poor leadership and supervision present at the penitentiary, included over 600 instances of neglect towards inmate care.<ref name=":1" /> This, in turn, negatively impacted all of those inmates and more, leaving them to face both physical and mental repercussions.<ref name=":1" /> Particularly relevant to mental health, the evidence in this decision included material showing that the penitentiary does not accommodate the needs of disabled inmates.<ref name=":1" /> Instead of being allowed to participate in programming for the general population of inmates, inmates with physical and mental disabilities are assigned orderlies.<ref name=":1" /> Without providing a detailed description, the article states that the orderlies are permitted by the penitentiary leadership to extort the inmates to which they are assigned.<ref name=":1" /> The judge, Chief U.S, District Judge Shelly D. Dick, ultimately ruled that the Louisiana State Penitentiary had committed a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and concluded his opinion by describing fifteen areas in which the prison was in need of injunctive relief.<ref name=":1" />

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[[Category:Wikipedia Student Program]]

Revision as of 01:52, 25 October 2022

Article Draft

21st Century History

Angola's testing protocol was extremely problematic given the makeup of the population. Many prisoners at Angola are older men with pre-existing conditions that make them more vulnerable to catching the virus and suffering extreme complications from it.

Relatives of inmates report hearing from their family that they felt that if they contracted the virus they would not be treated. At least four prisoners who died in Angola due to COVID were denied medical help for days prior to their deaths.[1]

This trend is not entirely unsurprising, based on the reality that prisons are hotspots for COVID-19 given their remarkably large populations housed in dramatically overcrowded quarters.[2] Many questioned if the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was capable of handling a contagion like COVID-19. The Bureau of Prisons utilized many familiar resources, like the transfer and conditional release of prisoners, to help mitigate the spread of the virus within the prisons themselves. However, it is unclear if these strategies were effective, as the true extent of COVID-19 cases and impacts in prisons is extremely difficult to quantify.[3]

Inmate-Quarters

Louisiana routinely reaches weather over 90 degrees Fahrenheit for many months of the year. Angola's lack of sustained air conditioning is a public health concern.[4] Additionally, lack of air-conditioning in extreme heat, which is a situation common in Angola, is linked to mortality in similar scenarios.[5]

Inmate Mental Health

According to an American Psychological Association report from 2005, more than half of all incarcerated people in the United States (including those in State prisons, Federal prisons, and local jails) had at least one mental illness.[6] Further research went on to show that up to 15% of this population had four or five comorbid mental health conditions, an astonishing number that far exceeds the prevalence of such conditions in the general population.[7] Additionally, the prevalence of mental illness in prisons is chronically under-researched and explored. Oftentimes, they are dismissed as being solely substance abuse disorders, and comorbid disorders are frequently dismissed as a possibility.[8]

Mental Health and Faith at Angola

Though studies on the mental health of inmates incarcerated at the Louisiana State Penitentiary have not yet been conducted, it is fair to assume that the rates of mental illness would be similar to what we see in prisons across the country. What we do know well about Louisiana State Penitentiary regards some of their non-traditional mental health interventions. One such initiative is a faith-based prototype program for mental healthcare and inmate rehabilitation known as the Angola Prison Seminary. This model focuses on introducing inmates to faith and helping them to find value and purpose through it – be that internally or externally through serving as an Inmate Minister. Through this position, inmates are trained to offer counseling to other inmates, deliver sermons at religious services, officiate funerals for fellow prisoners, and deliver care packages to ill inmates. This model proved to be particularly effective in Louisiana State Penitentiary, especially with its "sidewalk counseling" component. In this type of guidance, the counseling inmate asks leading questions and helps to guide the other inmate to answering their own question, without revealing any type of positionality. This model positively impacted both the counselor and the advisee, as the counselor felt an increased sense of self-worth by helping someone else, and the advisee felt heard and seen, maybe for the first time in his life.[9]

Faith is referenced many times as being a catalyst for positive change in the lives of lots of Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates. Author Mark Baker describes this connection in his book entitled You Can Change: Stories from Angola Prison and the Psychology of Personal Transformation. Here, Baker discusses how the high rates of reincarceration among Louisiana State Penitentiary inmates serves as an extremely demoralizing and discouraging reminder of the historical and systemic factors that landed them behind bars in the first place. Given the highly religious background of many of the inmates, who come largely from Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states, faith has proven to be a very strong motivator for many of the inmates in Angola. Baker discusses how inmates exposed to religious practices while incarcerated often went on to find a higher purpose in themselves and better avoid future reincarceration.[10]

This faith-based approach to mental healthcare is also seen in palliative care at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Due to the largely older population of inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary, the prison sees much higher rates of intakes than release as many men pass away while incarcerated. In partnership with the University Hospital Community Hospice program based out of New Orleans, the Louisiana State Penitentiary has introduced a hospice program for terminally ill inmates.[11] Inmate Ministers are able to assist in counseling with the ill inmates, as well as help them practice faith if they are interested in doing so. As seen with the other responsibilities they were assigned, this serious duty proved beneficial to not only the recipients, but the Inmate Ministers as well.[9]

Though the blend of mental healthcare and faith interventions has been controversial and yielded mixed results in many spaces, research suggests that it is working positively in Louisiana State Penitentiary. Though it is unclear why, the large role of religion, particularly Christianity, in the Southern United States, could be a major factor in this occurrence.

Traditional Approaches to Mental Healthcare in Prisons

Given that mental illness is such a common occurrence in United States prisons, penitentiaries, and jails, there are certain standardized aspects of care that are common to many facilities. One of these elements is the role of prison staff (mainly prison guards) in the mental healthcare of inmates. Research shows that prison staff are an incredibly valuable resource in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders in inmates as they have near constant contact with the prisoners throughout their entire sentence. Psychiatrists Joel A. Dvoskin and Erin M. Spiers divided up the main roles of prison staff in regards to mental healthcare into four objectives:

  1. Counseling and psychotherapy
  2. Consultation
  3. Special housing, activities, and behavioral programs
  4. Medication

They go on to show how prison staff, when working together with medical staff and mental health professionals, can accomplish these goals and help improve the wellbeing of their inmates.[12] Unfortunately, at Louisiana State Penitentiary, major staffing shortages and lack of connections to medical professionals built into the penitentiary's infrastructure make this type of coordinated intervention extremely difficult, if not impossible.[13] While these types of problems are common to most prisons in the United States, the need for mental healthcare at Angola may be especially pronounced due to the nature of the crimes many of the inmates have been convicted of, as well as the difficult backgrounds of many such inmates.

Prison staff also serve an important role in the prevention of inmate suicide. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections requires a 14 day psychological assessment and detailed review be conducted for each inmate upon intake and before transfer to the prison at which they will be held. Staff play a critical role in suicide prevention, and so are trained in depth on identification and detection of suicidal behaviors.[14]

Another common mental health and rehabilitation program often seen in United States prisons and jails is educational programming. This technique is utilized in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, as they offer courses, certificates, and even degree programs to men incarcerated at Angola. Research into these programs at the Louisiana State Penitentiary found that participating in educational initiatives helped inmates re-establish their social identities, gain meaning and purpose from their daily lives while incarcerated, and afford them a sense of control. All of these impacts positively impact inmate mental health, largely by reducing feelings of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. [15]

COVID-19

As is the case in many settings, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a drastic impact on the mental health of inmates in United States prisons. The pandemic has shown to have a substantial negative impact on inmates across the nation, though the topic is poorly researched due to little funding and regard for the issue. Similarly to other settings like primary and secondary schools and universities, professionals are unsure of the best ways to address the impacts of the pandemic on mental health. Researchers have concluded that addressing these mental health impacts and validating them is a large piece of beginning to reconcile these negative feelings in inmates.[16]

The pandemic has also caused many familiar debates surrounding inmate rights and wellbeing to resurface. For instance, the pandemic has placed additional emphasis on the familiar conversation of the humanity of solitary confinement in prisons. Isolating prisoners with COVID-19 often takes a form similar (or nearly identical) to placing them in solitary confinement. Researchers argue that it is essential to explicitly clarify the difference between an inmate being placed in solitary confinement as the result of committing some transgression and someone being placed in medical isolation to slow the spread of COVID-19. Though many argue that the use of non-medical isolation in prisons is inhumane and wrong, medical isolation is ethical and necessary according to many others. Sparking this debate once more, the pandemic has bolstered arguments from individuals on both sides of the spectrum.[17]

Violations of Inmate Rights

In 2021, a federal judge found that the Louisiana State Penitentiary violated the Americans with Disabilities Act through its treatment of inmates requiring rehabilitative services.[18] The evidence in this finding, which highlighted the poor leadership and supervision present at the penitentiary, included over 600 instances of neglect towards inmate care.[18] This, in turn, negatively impacted all of those inmates and more, leaving them to face both physical and mental repercussions.[18] Particularly relevant to mental health, the evidence in this decision included material showing that the penitentiary does not accommodate the needs of disabled inmates.[18] Instead of being allowed to participate in programming for the general population of inmates, inmates with physical and mental disabilities are assigned orderlies.[18] Without providing a detailed description, the article states that the orderlies are permitted by the penitentiary leadership to extort the inmates to which they are assigned.[18] The judge, Chief U.S, District Judge Shelly D. Dick, ultimately ruled that the Louisiana State Penitentiary had committed a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and concluded his opinion by describing fifteen areas in which the prison was in need of injunctive relief.[18]

  1. ^ Webster, Anat Rubin,Tim Golden,Richard A. "Inside the U.S.'s Largest Maximum-Security Prison, COVID-19 Raged. Outside, Officials Called Their Fight a Success". ProPublica. Retrieved 2022-10-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Burki, Talha (2020-05). "Prisons are "in no way equipped" to deal with COVID-19". The Lancet. 395 (10234): 1411–1412. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30984-3. ISSN 0140-6736. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ Hummer, Don (2020-10-02). "United States Bureau of Prisons' Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic". Victims & Offenders. 15 (7–8): 1262–1276. doi:10.1080/15564886.2020.1829765. ISSN 1556-4886.
  4. ^ Verderber, Stephen (2005). Compassion in architecture: Evidence-based design for health in Louisiana. Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Study.
  5. ^ Rogot, Eugene; Sorlie, Paul D.; Backlund, Eric (1992-07-01). "Air-conditioning and Mortality in Hot Weather". American Journal of Epidemiology. 136 (1): 106–116. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116413. ISSN 1476-6256.
  6. ^ James, Doris J.; Glaze, Lauren E. (2006). "Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates". PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e557002006-001. Retrieved 2022-10-22.
  7. ^ Sirdifield, Coral; Gojkovic, Dina; Brooker, Charlie; Ferriter, Michael (2009-04-01). "A systematic review of research on the epidemiology of mental health disorders in prison populations: a summary of findings". The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. 20 (sup1): S78–S101. doi:10.1080/14789940802594445. ISSN 1478-9949.
  8. ^ SCHETKY, DIANE H.; HALLER, LEE H. (1983-05). "Parental Kidnapping". Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry. 22 (3): 279–285. doi:10.1016/s0002-7138(09)60378-2. ISSN 0002-7138. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b Hallett, Michael; Hays, Joshua; Johnson, Byron; Jang, Sung; Duwe, Grant (2016-08-05). The Angola Prison Seminary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-30061-8.
  10. ^ Baker, Mark W. (2020-01-28). You Can Change. 1517 Media. ISBN 978-1-5064-5565-5.
  11. ^ Evans, Carol; Herzog, Ronda; Tillman, Tanya (2002-08-01). "The Louisiana State Penitentiary: Angola Prison Hospice". Journal of Palliative Medicine. 5 (4): 553–558. doi:10.1089/109662102760269797. ISSN 1096-6218.
  12. ^ Dvoskin, Joel A.; Spiers, Erin M. (2004-03-01). "On the Role of Correctional Officers in Prison Mental Health". Psychiatric Quarterly. 75 (1): 41–59. doi:10.1023/B:PSAQ.0000007560.09475.a0. ISSN 1573-6709.
  13. ^ "WAFB Channel 9". https://www.wafb.com. Retrieved 2022-10-22. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  14. ^ Hayes, Lindsay M (1995-03). "Prison Suicide: An Overview and Guide to Prevention (Part 3)". Crisis. 16 (2): 63–65. doi:10.1027/0227-5910.16.2.63. ISSN 0227-5910. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Antoine, Kristen. [http://dx.doi.org/10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.4345 Prison to School to Redemption: A Full Circle Channel to the Complete �School-to-Prison Pipeline�] (Thesis). Louisiana State University Libraries. {{cite thesis}}: replacement character in |title= at position 72 (help)
  16. ^ Johnson, Luke; Gutridge, Kerry; Parkes, Julie; Roy, Anjana; Plugge, Emma (2021-05). "Scoping review of mental health in prisons through the COVID-19 pandemic". BMJ Open. 11 (5): e046547. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046547. ISSN 2044-6055. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Cloud, David H.; Ahalt, Cyrus; Augustine, Dallas; Sears, David; Williams, Brie (2020-07-06). "Medical Isolation and Solitary Confinement: Balancing Health and Humanity in US Jails and Prisons During COVID-19". Journal of General Internal Medicine. 35 (9): 2738–2742. doi:10.1007/s11606-020-05968-y. ISSN 0884-8734.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Rold, William J. "Federal Judge Finds Unconstitutional Health Care and Violations of Americans with Disabilities Act at Louisiana State Penitentiary; Injunctive Relief to Follow."
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