Occasionally we have to get someone off barbiturates or opiates. Withdrawal from the former can be fatal, so we have to proceed with all due caution. Withdrawal from the latter is not health-threatening, and the worst is over in 72 hours or so, and not much intervention is needed, unless it’s a methadone withdrawal, which lasts longer.
Our one parole hold facility gets parole violators directly from off the streets, so sometimes they must deal with alcohol withdrawal too. That too can be deadly.
I had an patient conversation. I was taking the history of a person who had social security disability.I asked " Have you ever had any serious illness?" The patient replied “No”, I asked “Have you ever been really sick, or gotten hurt?” My patient replied " No, nothing serious."
“So, why are you on disability?”
“Oh I had leukemia and they irradiated out all my bone marrow, but it wasn’t that bad”
Later, when explaining why he needed Physical Therapy, he reported “It hurts when I do THIS”
The action he performed was to stick his right had firmly in his left armpit and firmly flap his right elbow into his forehead.
The answer in New York is “sorta”. Because of the people who have religious objections we pretty much never serve pork. Beef, chicken, turkey, or fish are the common bases for meals. But we also serve an alternative meal (which is usually meatless) with each meal and the prisoner can choose the alternative if he doesn’t like the main meal. However, sometimes the alternative might be chicken which is a problem is you don’t eat that. If you’re a vegan, you’re pretty much out of luck though.
We also serve some religious alternative meals. The most common is kosher meals, which are actually popular with many non-Jewish prisoners. Theoretically, a prisoner is supposed to be part of the Jewish community in order to get kosher meals but we don’t make an issue out of it unless there’s a problem.
This might depend both on state and facility, but thinking of the movie the shawshank redemption, you ever hear of the prisoners getting a beer or two while doing something out side on a work program.
(shame I swear I tried it before I read that everyone else did. I’m dumb enough to think of it all by myself.) I can’t either, unless I bend my head forward.
New guidelines were just issued today regarding diets for religious reasons. It has specific restrictions and qualifiers, but the chaplain can approve 3 religious diets: vegan, halal, & kosher.
But they must stick with these diets, and if they’re seen eating foods that violate the dietary restrictions, they lose the diets.
Knowingly let any prisoners have alcohol would get a guard fired.
But I do recall a time when a gang of prisoners were sent to help clean up a local firehouse. Those of you who know volunteer firemen will not be astonished to hear that there had been a recent party in the firehouse. And apparently some refreshments had been left over. The prisoners had been sent out with sandwiches and two jugs of koolaid for their lunch. They dumped out one of the jugs and refilled it with the booze. Then for the rest of the day if you were in the know, the prisoner in charge of the food would pour you a class of koolaid out of the right jug. If a guard or a prisoner who wasn’t in on the deal asked for koolaid, he got a glass of actual koolaid out of the left jug.
As a smoker I was actually quite suprised how easy it was to quit when tobacco was no longer an option. I suppose the initial 36 hours sleeping in the “tank” may have helped clear some of the nicotine out of my system but the remainder of my stint went smoothly and I don’t actually remember any cravings at all.
Oh lord but that first one felt mighty fine when I got out. Oh dark mother once again I suckle at your smoky teat kind of fine.
I keep thinking, if there were a way to sequester myself beyond the option of smoking for an extended period of time without the requisite felonious behavior or Bob Barker slippers I could easily kick the habit. Until then I struggle.
