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Female Offenders In Prison Analysis

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Correctional institutions are a rapidly expanding throughout the United States unfortunately, and with them comes the individuals on both sides of the bars. The individuals behind the bars are just as important as the ones standing in front of them. Correctional officers are a huge part of the criminal justice system and their mental health and burnout is a serious factor to consider when looking at how important they are to our criminal justice system. Keeping enough officers to deal with the rising amount of offenders is a huge issue within our correctional institutions. Due to the responsibilities correctional officers have may seem to be linked or contribute to the burnout rates seen. Special offenders such as females and veterans play …show more content…

This type of education is beneficial not only to the correctional officers that work with these inmates; but also any mental health professionals they may come in contact with, as well as for their own well-being. According to Psychological Services, female inmates with mental health issues have risen almost sixteen percent over the last ten years (Derkzen, D., Booth, L., Taylor, K., & McConnell, A. 2013). The research within this particular study wanted to see how females are affected differently than male inmates with similar mental health issues. When incarceration begins, female inmates are two times more likely to suffer from a mental illness than their male counterpart at just over 22 percent. Male inmates are just over 10 percent. The most common mental health disorders that affect these female inmates are substance abuse, depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, as well as personality and anti-social disorders (Derkzen …show more content…

This action can hurt them and potentially make their stay longer since medical adherence can increase violent tendencies towards people around them. Those individuals usually happen to be other inmates, correctional officers, and mental health professionals. If one of these end up hurt due to the actions of an inmate off medications, that can increase time incarcerated, hospitalization, and even additional charges (Ehret 2013). This could potentially continue the cycle and even though release may occur, there would be high recidivism rates. Near the end of the study as more inmates were released the number participating in the trial diminished. More research is definitely need to show more of a correlation with concrete proof but there was a very visible trend between medical adherence and how it can affect the female inmates. The burnout rates among professions within correctional settings are much higher than similar professions in different settings. Burnout is a very real thing that happens to be common among correctional officers and correctional mental health professionals. When burnout is experienced, it consists of three main areas. The three areas are depersonalization, decrease in the perception of personal accomplishment, and the biggest of the three-emotional

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