Here's something I don't think I've touched on as yet. It's another behavioral problem with an inmate that has come up quite regularly and we are still to find a viable solution. We have an inmate in our AdSeg unit who is (I believe) in his early seventies. Not real old for the average person, but time has played him a poor trick and he is frail beyond his years. He has mental issues and has bounced back and forth between us and "the hospital" for the last two years or so. He's afraid to be out on the hill with other offenders and refuses to leave our house. Also, the last time he went to "the hospital" they sent him back with a note saying he had alzheimers and senile dementia. And they stated that they aren't set up to take care of patients like that so they sent him back to us. Huh????
They are a hospital. They have doctors and nurses and orderlies and comfortable beds and daylight and maybe even a yard to walk around in(But I don't know that). We are an AdSeg unit for knuckleheads who can't behave themselves.
Being assigned to the AdSeg unit is supposed to be punishment. We keep them confined and we give them the minimum the state requires us to.
We are not a hospital.
We haven't been trained to care for people like this.
And when we complain about the situation we get stonewalled.
He hasn't done anything "wrong" other than refuse to leave the house. I sure don't think he's going to rob any more banks.
What do we do when nobody wants him?
Oh, to be a kid again
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When I was a child, I knew nothing about politics. My parents didn't even
vote. I think they finally started voting in the 70's. I was probably
five o...
18 hours ago
Does he have any outstanding warrents in another state?
ReplyDeleteNot as far as I know. I think he's got maybe a year left on his sentence here. The part of the computer system I have access to only tells me of warrants and detainers in this state. I'm afraid we're going to be stuck dealing with him while he deteriorates until his time is up. He won't come out to talk to Probation and Parole officers and he can't hear hardly at all so he doesn't understand when he does come out to talk to somebody so I don't think he'll be getting out early. It's a mess I just don't know how to deal with other than just keep doing what we have been doing and hope nobody gets hurt in the process. Like I said, we haven't any sort of training for this kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteit's too bad we can't be humans first. the man (no matter what he has done) needs care.
ReplyDeleteI believe he does need more care than he is getting from us. All we can do is give him three squares and a bed until the state gets off their butt and does something definitive. This is probably an ongoing problem in every state. Unfortunately, the odds are he'll die in prison before something gets done.
ReplyDeletemaybe slip it to the local news media. this is wrong!
ReplyDeletewithout risking your job, is there anything you can do? can you help ease his suffering at all? i'm so sad you are in such a position to have to watch something so uncivilized.
Unfortunately, this is an ongoing situation all over the country. It's been brought up and dismissed several times because everyone just says "Well, what can we do?" And it's true. There's really nowhere we can put him where he'll be secure and get the care he needs. If they give him early parole and put him into a nursing home and someone gets hurt the state is liable and they don't want any part of that. I don't want that on my hands, either. But I hate just watching him deteriorate. And this isn't the first one we've dealt with. There have been several just like him the last few years. Some have had medical paroles and gone to nursing homes. Some have just gone on to other prisons with bigger medical wards. A few have died. It's like nothing they ever trained me for and I'm often at a loss for what to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me vent, btw.