Ethical Treatment of Prisoners
Olivia G. Davis
SOC120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility
Instructor: Louis Schiano
August 31, 2014

The life of prisoners some may never know. There are those who care not to know what goes on behind that wired fence. We find that some people that are convicted of crimes that they did not commit. Some people would rather turn their heads to what actually happens in a prison institution. Prisoners may have committed crimes in their lives that have caused them to be put in facilities for a lifetime, but they are still human beings. The crime that they have committed does not change the fact that they too need the care of a Doctor. Many sickness and/or illnesses may occur while incarceration. Deontology emphasizes that dignity and respect owed to human beings simply because they are human beings. (Mosser 2010, pg. 140)These individuals deserve the right to health care that they can receive that will help them in their wellbeing. Therefore, each individual treated in a respectable way when health issues may arise within the facility while incarcerated.
According to law, U.S. correctional facilities are required to provide their inmates medical care, but with health care costs rising uncontrollably, these facilities are attempting to develop new ways to reduce this financial burden while still meeting legal requirements, creating some ethical concerns in the process. (Kelsi Johnston, eHow Contributor pg.1) The treatment in prison facilities toward prisoners with health issues or those who develop health concerns that head officials should take control over. Prisoners receive neglect in many different ways that may end their lives.
Every prison environment makes it hard to assure minimal standards for ethical research and voluntary informed consent and privacy. Privacy for those who are in these facilities has many concerns to family members who are looking in from the outside. Health issues and concerns for inmates and neglect that occurs in correctional facilities have been concerns that continue to go unnoticed. The state seems to under staff in some areas of managing inmate’s health problems. There are many who may go unattended of their health issues causing drastic or even death in the process. A prison system update yearly would help to protect prisoners and their health issues. Denying them access to medical attention is also unethical as this can result in a death. This could have been avoided with the right procedure would have taken place.
Ethics of caring for prisoners and their wellbeing may seem to be complicated for correctional officers and staff members. Prisoners and their social status closed away from society shows that there may be little or none as they are excluded from everything. There are those who experience discrimination behind a wired fence, feel the sense of being, useless or not worthy to society. Neglect to prisoners when they are in need of medical assistance causes many different affects to each individual. Describing a young man and the way he feels while being incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. This labels all prisoners as someone who does not deserve equal medical attention as to and individual who has never been incarcerated. Does he deserve the treatment that he has received in his time while incarcerated justify the actions of the officers in the facility that performed them. Should any individual in the facility be denied healthcare attention? Does it lie within the unethical treatment and abuse that occur at the hands of the corrections officers?
The committee’s review of current research indicated that the majority of research involving prisoners is happening outside the purview of Subpart C, and many prisoner studies are being conducted without review or approval by an institutional review board (IRB). Prison research committees that may serve some type of proxy IRB role only