Criminal justice organization faces complex and major challenges. It is worth noting that the criminal justice organization is responding to the challenges through diverse initiatives. The chronic health issue is one of the problems affecting the criminal justice organization. This is linked to the increase in operating costs. It is essential for the organization to comprehend the personal and health lives of the employees. One of the reasons for this concern is employee’s health. Analytically, the payout that the organization makes on chronic health issues has tremendously increased. It means that the resources which are meant to enhance criminal justice system are channeled towards the treatment of employees with chronic illnesses. The issues are both long term and short term. The disability of employees rendered by chronic illness affect operations in the criminal justice system (Marini & Stebnicki, 2012). This is because sick employees are less productive. The drastic health concerns affecting the criminal justice organization is the long term disability caused by mental illness, organ problems, cancer and other chronic diseases.
Notably, most of the men and women in state prison and jails are suffering from persistent mental and chronic illness. This means that criminal justice organization have to establish treatment services for the inmates (Roth, 2011). A chronic condition is the most debatable issue in criminal justice system. The aging and younger inmates with chronic illness in correctional facilities are on the rise. The organization has to invest in the health care of the employees and inmates.
People who are attached to the criminal justice system have a higher rate of chronic health issues that the other population. The arrests are streamlined towards communities with low income, which means that they are medically underserved (Schiff, 2014). The Affordable Care Act tend to strain further the criminal justice expenses. This is because the organization has to develop new strategies designed at equalizing health care.
The costs that are incurred by the criminal justice system is analyzed in various perspective. The organization is spending more on health care because of the complexity of health care system and chronic illness. In fact, the costs incurred are attributed to aging and ailing offenders medically challenged correctional facilities, and employees suffering from chronic illness. Older inmates in correctional facilities lead to increased cost of medical care. The costs incurred include provision of balance diet to patients and provision of long term drugs (Roth, 2011). Also, the ailing employees become unproductive, which paralyzes most operations in the organization.
The health benefits package should be focused on reducing the costs and enhancing the health of individual with chronic illness. One of the strategies is outsourcing health care. The criminal justice system should look for outside partners to provide inmates with health care services. This reduces the cost of providing health care and enhanced quality of care (Schiff, 2014). The organization should also invest on telehealth. This entails the use of technology to support long-distance services. The costs will be reduced because it eliminates guarding and transportation expenses. Also, adopting geriatric parole policies is an essential way of reducing health care costs. The policy allows inmates with chronic illness and older to be released. This strategy has the potential of saving the organization a lot of money.
In the general perspective, health care spending in correctional facilities is a fiscal challenge to state and federal government. The challenge arises from the older inmates and chronic illnesses. Criminal justice system should manage the health care effectively to reduce health care spending. The experts have to analyze the cost-drivers and implement strategies that reduce the costs. These strategies include outsourcing care, telehealth, and geriatric parole.
References
Marini, I., & Stebnicki, M. A. (2012). The psychological and social impact of illness and disability. New York: Springer Pub. Co.
Roth, M. P. (2011). Crime and punishment: A history of the criminal justice system. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Schiff, M. (2014). Examining State Prison Health Care Spending: Cost Drivers and Policy Approaches. MacArthur Foundation.
