How do prisons handle the special medical needs of the disabled?
Blind, deaf, confined to a wheelchair?
How about a dwarf? I can’t imagine a Little Person enduring the tender mercies of hardened criminals.
I often wondered this at times when I’ve seen episodes of Lockup or other prison documentaries. They should devote at least one episode to the lives of those sitting “on wheels and behind bars” for life. 
(or other chronic disability)
Tennessee has Deberry Special Needs Facility for inmates with medical needs that can’t be addressed in other facilities. An acquaintance of mine is a LPN there.
New York has special units for inmates who are disabled.
Little People have special concerns. They have to worry that their archnemesis will get locked in the same prison they’re in and drown them in a toilet during a riot.
I have always wondered about someone like myself who is in chronic pain and needs narcotics all the time. Not on a regular schedule for some of them. How would I get Percocets as needed? Do they assign a nurse to me, because you know they aren’t going to hand me the bottle.
The Prison infirmary houses our quadriplegics and others who need 24 hour nursing care. Lots of paraplegics manage themselves okay on normal units if they have handicapped cells and other assistive devices. Special units with inmate helpers for those that need help navigating, dressing, feeding themselves, etc. Need oxygen? Oxygen concentrators can be used in many normal housing units, just like they’re used at home.
No special units for the little folks, unless it’s felt they may be preyed upon. Then it’s off to more secure wings along with former police officers, effeminate males, and convicted judges and politicians.
Deaf? Make sure they are given visual or other cues to stand for count. Pencil and paper for communication if they can’t lip read.
We can accommodate a lot. We’ve got people in comas who are never leaving prison. Alive, at least. We manage.
Potential slight hijack here, forgive me, but what does a quadriplegic do to get sent to prison?
A quad is not always totally paralyzed. As long as some function of the upper body is lost, the person is classified as a quadriplegic.
Probably nothing, but someone could be paralyzed during their time in prison.
Same as anyone. Get convicted of a felony.
Same thing as a dumbass, break the law. :rolleyes: (or yeah, commit a felony)
A person having their functional ability impacted in all four limbs does not preclude them from committing felonies. Do people really think this? What about all the white collar crimes, bribery, murder (uh, guns, poisoning, etc.) and everything else that wouldn’t require an able body? :eek:
Our quads tend to fall into two categories:
Those who became quads as a result of the actions that got them sent to prison (drunk driving ending in a crash, getting shot by cops, jumping off a building trying to flee cops.)
Those who did their crime as quads, usually medicare fraud or kiddy porn. Usually done by computer.
I would think, in the case of a convicted felon with severe disability, that convict is already imprisoned in his own body, and some kind of compassionate dispensation could be granted by the courts.
I mean, its not like you can escape from yourself.
I don’t want to make this personal but suppose a blind man raped you. How would you feel if the judge said, “I’m not going to send this guy to prison. He’s blind and that’s punishment enough.”
I feel that if a person is capable enough to commit a crime then he’s capable enough to do the punishment for that crime.
Yes, most definitely.