In comparison with the U.S. population, the BJS reports that inmates infected with AIDS are more than 2 ½ times higher than the overall American population (Maruschak, 2008). Further comparisons reveal that approximately 46 of every 10,000 inmates deaths were attributed to the AIDS virus, …show more content…
Corrections, 2017). Whereas, the majority result of changes in laws and policy were not due to crime rates (Trends in U.S. Corrections, 2017). Prison overcrowding and fiscal year burdens on states are the results of this dramatic increase (Trends in U.S. Corrections, 2017). Additionally, with the strict drug and violence penalizations and sentencing, the prison population is rapidly aging that creates, even more, healthcare concerns (Schiff, 2014). Therefore, with the chronic and infectious diseases, mental illness, elderly population, obesity, and other related medical conditions, place an overwhelming burden of expenditures that rest within the correctional budgets that assume the entire cost of care (Schiff, …show more content…
M. (2008, April 22). Number of HIV-Positive State and Federal Inmates Continues to Decline. Retrieved May 26, 2017, from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/hivp06mpppr.cfm
Maruschak, L. M., & Beck, A. J. (2001). Medical Problems of Inmates, 1997. Bureau of Justice Statistics | Special Report, NCJ 181644, 1-12. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mpi97.pdf
Maruschak, L. M., Berzofsky, M., & Unangst, J. (2015, February 5). Medical Problems of State and Federal Prisoners and Jail Inmates, 2011-12. Bureau of Justice Statistics | Special Report, NCJ 248491, 1-23. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mpsfpji1112.pdf
Schiff, M. (2014, November 4). Examining State Prison Health Care Spending: Cost Drivers and Policy Approaches. Retrieved from http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2014/11/04/examining-state-prison-health-care-spending-cost-drivers-and-policy-approaches/
Trends in U.S. Corrections [PDF]. (2017, March). Washington: The Sentencing Project. Retrieved from