Assessment of the Oklahoma County Jail and Jail Annex Problems.
Assessment of the Oklahoma County Jail and Jail Annex Problems.
Introduction
The assessment conducted in the correctional facility in downtown Oklahoma revealed various shortcomings that led to endangering of the lives of detainees. Additionally, the identified problems caused violations of the rights of prisoners as provided by the constitution, especially the 8th amendment. The 8th amendment requires that prisoners should be provided with adequate food, shelter and medical care. It also further states every person including detainees must be provided with adequate protection from present continuing harm or future harm that may either be caused by other parties or self-inflicted.
Chief among the identified problems is health care provision and prevention of diseases by maintaining clean environment within the facility. The most life threatening danger identified at the prison is lack of hygienic conditions and poor sanitation both of which expose the detainees to the dangers of contracting communicable diseases. This was exemplified by lack of tissue paper for the toilets as well as soaps for washing hands. The wall’s paint was worn to such an extent that it would be difficult to sanitize the walls. The problem was also aggravated by lack of sufficient housing space within the correctional facility. Overcrowding within cells forced some prisoners to sleep closer to toilets and under beds, both of which pose health threats. Additionally, the overcrowding could lead to quick spreading of communicable diseases such as Tuberculosis. There was unsanitary food service which is characterized by inadequate dish washing and damaged kitchen equipment that would pose health threats. There was also lack of provision of adequate clean drinking water as well as poor pest control within the kitchen precincts an d this poses a health hazard to the detainees. There was also observed inadequacy in provision of laundry services. This was portrayed by the fact that detainees exchanged their laundry once in a week. All these factors show that there is great a shortcoming in the preventive aspect of healthcare within the facility (U.S Department of Justice, 2008).
The other glaring problem is the lack of proper provision of health care. This was depicted by the lack of provision of quality health care. The use of old psychotropic drugs with adverse side effects such as thorazine indicates the state of affairs. There is also a great shortage of psychiatrists with only one available for the all facility on a full time basis. The American Psychiatric Association recommends that there should be at least one full time psychiatrist for every 75-100 detainees requiring psychiatric care and taking psychotropic drugs. The facility has only one full time psychiatrist that serves approximately 2500 inmates. There is also no proper treatment of communicable diseases. This is worsened by the lack of proper records with correctly collected and documented data on diseases which can assist in planning for future prevention and control planning to prevent diseases such as T.B. Facility also lacked the recommended 14 day regular health screenings that would prevent diseases. There were observed cases of delays in the provision of emergency health care services (U.S Department of Justice, 2008).
The detainees also have access to potentially hazardous material that poses danger because it can be used in suicide attempts or assault. The lack of enough staff officials to oversee supervision creates a loophole for detainees to commit suicide or assault other inmates. The materials possessed by the prisoners and commissary items such as wrappings used on them could act as fuel in cases of fire and this poses great danger in cases of fire. Juvenile cells are painted in dark colors and this reduces visibility within cells. The darkness coupled with the presence of surveillance camera blind spots allows for dangerous happenings that the staff cannot monitor (U.S Department of Justice, 2008). The facility’s staff does not conduct regular investigation of serious events in order to find out their causes and prepare preventive measures. In the few cases that they do so the reports do not reach the people on the ground so that they can review them and act accordingly.
The lack of sufficient housing leads to other problems such as overcrowding, detainee-to-detainee assaults, easy diseases spreading, and lack of segregation space for disciplinary purposes and ineffective classification of detainees. The number of staff manning the facility is also too strained to provide services effectively. This is portrayed by the fact that only two wardens man an estimated 500 unit of detainees. This provides room for illegal acts such as assaults within the prison, and this greatly reduces the safety of inmates. The facilities records also indicated a prevalence of using force in handling the detainees. Reasons that may cause the eruption of danger included lack of adequate staff, high probability in crowded environs and little or no interaction between the staff and the detainees.
Preventive measures recommended for the evident problems
Remedial steps should include provision of more staff members to ease the straining that the few staff members have to go through in serving a large number of inmates. This is bound to improve supervision and monitoring as well as lessen the need of using excessive force. The facility should have a general renovation that will ensure the cells are hygienic or at least make it easy to clean up the cells and make them more hygienic. The facility’s officials should establish a proper classification system that will classify prisoners in order to curb occurrences of assault by separating the more aggressive prisoners. The prison should also implement regular incident investigation in order to prepare for prevention of future recurrences. Regular health assessments should also be carried out.
The facility should also be adequately staffed with healthcare practitioners including enough psychiatrists to take care of mentally unstable patients to prevent cases of violence. Proper data collection should be implemented so as to keep track of communicable diseases by processes of identifying, tracking and treating the diseases. The kitchen facilities should be improved in order to provide clean and hygienic conditions for preparing food in order to avoid food contamination that may cause health problems. This should go along with regular pest control within the prison’s kitchen as well as the whole prison in order to prevent chances of pests spreading communicable diseases. Adequate fire safety should be provided by implementation of regular fire drills and provision of proper and sufficient fire fighting equipment. The provision of enough and easily accessible fire exits should also be put in place.
The main reason as to why the conditions in the prison are in such a dilapidated state is the fact that there has been no regular assessment and evaluation of the prison’s state of functioning. The fact that there was no regular maintenance on the prisons facilities, fixtures and fittings had led to the dilapidated state of the prison. Conclusively, the assessment indicates that the prisoners’ state of security was low because they were not sufficiently protected from harm. Further more their health status was under danger due to unhygienic conditions as well as overcrowding. This clearly goes against the provisions of the 8th amendment because prisoners are denied their rights, and as such the correctional facility may find itself in trouble with the legal system (U.S Department of Justice, 2008).
References
U.S Department of Justice, (2008). Investigation of the OklahomaCountyJail and Jail Annex.
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