Identifier	Thesis 1838
Author	Johnson, Andrew
Title	Female Usage of Psychotropic Medication in Federal Prison
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date	2005
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Notes	In the federal prison system there is five prison dedicated solely to housing female inmates. In federal prison, female inmates are diagnosed as being mentally ill at a higher rate than male inmates. Approximately 13% of federal female inmates are classified as being mentally ill (Ditton, 1999). According to McCorkle (1995), the number of beds in private and public mental hospitals declined from 451,000 in 1965 to 177,000 in 1985. During that same time period the prison population doubled. With this increase, new challenges for federal and state prisons have come about. Fulfilling the needs of female inmates differs greatly that that of male inmates. Some of these differences are medical needs, drug treatment, and childcare responsibility. The most significant changes have occurred in the mental and physical health of inmates. Female inmates have more medical problems than male inmates, and female inmates over the age of 50 require the most medical attention out of any other group in the prison system (Nadel, 1996). Further, female inmates tend to have more mental health issues in prison than male inmates (Nadel, 1996). However it is believed that many male inmates never admit they are mentally ill. Possible reasons may be the stigmas involved in prison, and fear of showing weakness among other inmates. This research examined the use of psychotropic medication with female inmates in a federal prison. The study looked at how many female inmates were on psychotropic medication, which ones were referred to the psychology department, how many inmates on medication were substance abusers, and behavioral changes once they were on the psychotropic medication. Data was collected from three different sources. First a questionnaire was given to the inmates who agreed to participate via informed consent. Approximately 300 inmates participated, and 65 were on psychotropic medication. Next data was collected from the inmates Pre-Sentencing Report. Lastly data was collected from the Federal Bureau of Prisons sentry database. The data was coded for confidentiality and statistical testing was performed. The study reported different reasons for usage of psychotropic medication. First 59% of the inmates on psychotropic medication were being treated for depression. Next 11% of the inmates suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Overall the study shows that female inmates received psychotropic medication more than the average state and federal female inmates, and was almost twice as high when compared to male inmates in state and federal prisons. With the amount of female inmates coming into prison increasing, this use of psychotropic medication could create a problem in the future for both staff and inmates. This topic of study was chosen because there is little research examining female usage of psychotropic medication. Female inmates are the fastest growing demographic with the prison system, but most research of incarcerated offenders is conducted with males and juveniles. The study was able to reveal several interesting findings. First, a majority of the inmates on psychotropic medication were suffering from depression. Second, 75% of female inmates on psychotropic medication were substance abusers. Third, inmates suffering from anti-social behavior or anger received a high number of incident reports. Fourth, almost half of the inmates on psychotropic medication were alcohol abusers. Further research in any of these areas would be warranted and the more that is learned about female inmates the more we can improve their treatment while incarcerated.
Subject	Women prisoners -- Medical care -- United States Psychotropic drugs
Department	Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Advisor	Cox, Stephen M
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	713734921
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Female Usage of Psychotropic Medication in Federal Prison

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