New question: In the concurrent “Ask the Convicted Felon Thread” ans answer was:
Yahg! Do inmates actually do this? Does it mask the results of a drug test or does it just destroy their innards?
(It sounds like the kind of fallacious bad advice or misguided information you’d hear in high school, like “a cop can’t arrest you if he isn’t wearing his hat…” “drink bleach to foil a drug test…”)
Sorry, I just realized that my question may be asking you to confirm a possible “method of doing something illegal” which is naughty on the boards. Let me rephrase my question:
Do you treat inmates who have followed such advice? And what are the medical consequences of inmates who try to “cleanse their systems” that way?
Related/inspred questions:
What about prisons stills? Are they as common as in the movies and what kind of nasty stuff are prisoners consuming when/if they try to brew their own booze?
Originally posted by bernse *
** Anyone ever attempt to bribe you? If so, by what and for what?*
Nope. they have nothing I want.
How many prisoners are in the prison? How many do you see on an average day?
1600. 20 or so, varying complexity. In addition to my administrative duties.
** Are you the only physician on staff?**
No. See previous response in this thread for details.
**What does your wife/s.o. think of you working at a jail? Was she scared? Were you at first? If so, are you still? **
She was nervous at first, as was I. Neither of us are anymore. Just cautious.
Originally posted by CrankyAsAnOldMan *
** Do you miss working with children? Do you miss pregnancies?*
Nope. Kids were ok, but I don’t miss 'em. Delivering babies was fun, but I gave it up back in 1990.
**And what the hell–why is the human body designed in such a way that ingrown toenails are common among youth? Sounds like mother nature screwed up. **
Take it up with the designer, I guess.
Originally posted by Eats_Crayons *
** Do you treat inmates who have followed such advice? And what are the medical consequences of inmates who try to “cleanse their systems” that way?*
I haven’t yet, but I’d treat them the same as any toxic ingestion. And doing that stuff will not help a person beat a urine test.
**What about prisons stills? Are they as common as in the movies and what kind of nasty stuff are prisoners consuming when/if they try to brew their own booze? **
It happens, they make stuff out of fruit juice and bread in their own toilets. We don’t deal with it much here in the health unit. I never managed to get my dog to stop drinking out of the toilet, I don’t think I’ll try to change the inmate’s behavior much in this regard.
Ew… (we really need a pukey smilie). That answers my next quesiton – I always wondered where they kept the “still” because I’d always pictured that contraption from MAS*H. – Thanks! Cool thread!
My husband will start his new job as prison guard next month. How soon can I expect a complete personality change in him? And, how likely is it for guards to be injured by inmates?
Depends on his current personality. And I’m pretty sure a lot more officers get hurt horsing around with each other here than are injured by inmates. The warden runs a pretty tight ship, at least in our institution.
How is the racial mix? Black/White/Hispanic/Asian/other?
How about ages: Oldest, youngest, average age?
*Originally posted by DMark *
**How is the racial mix? Black/White/Hispanic/Asian/other?
How about ages: Oldest, youngest, average age? **
I don’t have the figures, but black are represented in greater numbers than in the general population. Lots of whites, hispanics, a smattering of asians.
Oldest? 87. Youngest, 17. That’s just off the top of my head too, but there might be older ones in the infirmary.
And here’s what the system copes with.
inmate who received heart transplant dies
By law we must provide the same standard of care to the inmates that the public at large is receiving, without regard towards the cost to the taxpayers. How 'bout them apples?
Our inmates must pay $7.50 to see me if they request the visit. Whatever I do or don’t do for them after that payment is not paid for out of their pocket. Of course, if they pay $7.50 to come and ask for oxycontin for their sore toe, they’re SOL. No refunds. But if they pay $7.50 to complain of their chest pains, and they turn out to need a heart transplant, and they qualify medically, and one’s available and they’re next up on the list (without regard to their inmate status) they get it.
I have mixed feelings about that as a citizen and taxpayer and physician. But as a prison doc, I tell them what I think they need medically, and do what I can to get it for them.
He’s sweet and good natured.
Then his work will only improve him, or he’ll do a Jeckyl and Hyde and turn 180 degrees.
My apologies if this is too forward, I wanted to ask the question at the time, but felt that would be insensitive.
I know that recently there was a major traffic pileup near you. In fact you posted that it affected you personally, so if this question is too forward or inappropriate please accept my apologies.
I work in a hospital, although not in a medical capacity. Anyone who has worked in a hospital has experienced the “disaster plan” and the “disaster drill (or whatever it was called at your institution).”
My question is this, are you required to be involved in such plans? I am sure you are required to have disaster plans internally, but do they involve outside events? Did you see patients from this accident? Do you even have a trauma unit?
I can see where the logistics would be impossible, attempting to keep inmates separate from others, etc. So in a situation like that, with a large number of injured, what do you do? Do you have privileges at the local hospital so you can help out? I guess what I am asking is, what is your part in the public health system in an emergency, or are you totally separate from your state’s plan?
I am sure I will have more questions later, great thread.
etherman, I’m not in any outside agency’s disaster plan, but if a disaster were big enough, I’d just go to the nearest ER and volunteer my services. I don’t have active privileges anywhere in the community.
It would be impossible to deliver disaster care here, we’re basically a doctor’s office behind 7 locked doors, with minimal access to stat labs and xrays. If I need FAST answers on our inmate’s problems, I have to send them out.
This may have been generically covered under your references to staff professionalism, but what kind of nutrition do they get? IE, do they get enough fruits & vegs & fiber, or is it all “tube steaks” (hotdogs), beans (healthy, cheap), high fat content, and lowgrade stews?
After 20 years confinement in one prison, you’d expect bad or marginal nutrition to have measurable effects on the individuals. Do you see this? Are studies done?
Great Thread.
Now for a completely useless question:
Have any favorite tattooes you’ve seen on an inmate?
Nearly any medical diet can be ordered (low cholesterol, diabetic, low protein, etc) and the inmates not on specific diets generally have access to a wide variety of very healthy food, but as a whole, they tend to make bad food choices (not unlike the general public). so we see lots of guys packing on the pounds here.
One warden in the system tried to crack down on the stuff sold in the canteen, mandating mainly healthy foods there, and had to cope with a LOT of upset inmates. Frankly, they took the conversion to a smoke-free prison better than they took no twinkies in the canteen.
No studies have been done, so I’m just guessing, but I’d say 2/3 of the inmates pack on pounds, and maybe a quarter lose weight (generally by working out a lot, occasionally from depression). Few, IMHO maintain their admission weight.
The officers (guards) get meals served to them according to their contracts, so they eat the regular prison chow daily. And with their jobs being one of sitting in front of monitors and desks all day, you can guess what happens.
Frankly I don’t even notice. I chart where tattoos are on their body, but I rarely notice. I’ve a psychiatrist friend who got tattooed all over when he was in the army, with such provocative and outrageous designs that he’s not allowed by his wife to let their kids see him in a swimsuit, or even in shortsleeve shirts.
I have no question.
I just want to thank Qadgop for these threads.
I’m learning a lot.