User talk:Nr584/Prison Healthcare

Hi everyone, as students at Georgetown University currently taking a course on “Medicine, Race, & Gender” over the summer that studies the historic neglect of certain identities by the medical field, we’d like to second the suggestion of user Angelalin79 on addressing the current disparities in prison healthcare within the article. In addition to inequalities on the basis of gender, the quality of care inmates receive is also highly dependent on race and ethnicity, sexuality, and socioeconomic class. Below is a summary of our ideas for expansion and possible sources to use:

Additions: As user Nicolekoonce mentions, the female inmates face physical and mental disparities on the basis of sex. Their treatment within prisons largely differs from the treatment of male inmates. I think that it would be beneficial to mention how gender disparities present themself in the treatment of mental health. The APA has published a study that claims that 73% of women in state prisons have mental health issues in comparison to 55% of men in state prisons[1 ]. This difference is even greater for women belonging to marginalized groups who are at greater risk due to factors such as domestic abuse, poverty, or drug abuse.

Speaking of marginalized communities, Black communities face different healthcare treatment in comparison to other racial groups. Outside of prisons, it is difficult for Black and brown communities to attain proper healthcare. Compared to other racial groups, Black men are the most likely to utilize prison healthcare than any other race due to inaccessibility otherwise[2 ]. Adequate health insurance, medical treatment, and regular medical visits are difficult to attain, and many Black citizens depend on prison care to supply this need.

Revisions: It could be mentioned under the Ethics and Rights section how much of prison procedures are reflective of the prison/medical industrial complex, including the forced medication of many inmates. As part of our class, we read prison abolitionist Angela Davis’s account of her own time in arrest where authorities pacified anyone they deemed to be psychologically abnormal, a diagnosis that especially harmed black women, through the indiscriminate prescription of psychotropic drugs (Ben-Moshe et al., Disability Incarcerated). The Supreme Court case of Washington v. Harper cemented the reduced rights of inmates over their bodily autonomy, ruling that the incarcerated, if deemed to suffer from a serious mental disorder, can be involuntarily medicated without their consent by the state. It may be helpful to outlink to [|here] for greater context. In regards to the History section, mention of patients’ descriptions of their symptoms being undermined and disregarded due to accusations of “malingering to avoid labor” on slave plantations could also include the precedent of abusing these slaves for medical research. Other articles to link out to for more information on how the black body was seen as inherently inferior, genetically more prone to diseases, and more tolerant of pain include: [|Medical Apartheid], [|Tuskegee Syphilis Study], [|Scientific Racism], and [|Medical Experimentation in Africa]. --Nr584 (talk) 03:37, 6 July 2021 (UTC)Nr584