In this month’s correctional healthcare news round-up Lorry Schoenly talks with regular panelists, Catherine Knox and Sue Smith, about aging and disability issues in correctional healthcare. Catherine is an independent consultant with nursing and leadership experience in the Oregon Department of Corrections, the Washington Department of Corrections, and Cali […]

This episode's guest is Margaret Noonan, Statistician with the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics in Washington DC. She’s the program manager for the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program at BJS. The program began in 2000 with the passage of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act, which tasked BJS with collecting deaths occurring in jails […]

The February 2012 News Round Up focuses on Mental Health treatment in the correctional setting. Lorry is joined by regular panelist Sue Smith and guest Rosanne Harmon, a Psychiatric Mental Helath Nurse Practitioner with the Oregon Department of Corrections. In early February, MSNBC online reported on a huge jury award - $22 million - to a man held 22 months […]

Communication is a key component of delivering correctional healthcare. Correctional nurses must overcome many communication barriers in order to manage patient care in a jail or prison. Various communication networks are necessary. Nurses must communicate well with other nurses, among the healthcare disciplines and with custody officers to accomplish paiten […]

The correctional health care news from 2011 is discussed by Lorry Schoenly and regular panelists Catherine Knox and Sue Smith, correctional nurses with clinical, education and management experience. Key themes from the previous year were healthcare legal claims, medical cost shifting, medicaid funding potential and transgender treatment. […]

Originally aired December 22, 2011: Jeffrey Keller, MD, FACEP, discusses the thorny issue of self-reported food allergies in the correctional setting. There are many misconceptions about what consitutes a food allergy. In addition, food preferences can be inappropriately identified as an allergy. How should correcitonal nurses sort out food allergies? Dr. Ke […]

Originally aired October 4, 2011: Lorry chats with Kevin Connor, BSN, RN, CCHP, President of the California-Nevada Chapter of the American Correctional Health Services Association about the image of correctional nursing. Kevin is Communicable Diseases Coordinator for the San Bernadino Sheriff's Department and works out of the West Valley Detention Cente […]

Originally aired September 17. 2011: Lorry talks with Dr. Tina Maschi, assistant professor at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service in New York City about her work on behalf of prisoners. She is a 2010 recipient of the competitive Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program Award, which is funded by the Harford Foundation and t […]

Originally aired August 28, 3011: A chat with Ann Norman, SEN, RGN, a long time prison nurse now advising the Royal College of Nursing where she assists in the development of policy support for members locally and nationally across the 4 UK countries. In her role she actively support the interests of prisoners and detainee, prison and police custody nursing […]

Originally aired June 29, 2011: Paul "Trey" Flores, BSN, RN, CCHP shares an insider look at nursing in county jails and detention facilities. He should know, having worked a variety of these settings from small 400 inmate sites to those with over 3,700 average daily population. […]

Originally aired May 26, 2011: Lorry interviews Tre' O'Brien, BSN, RN, CCHP-RN about her work in developing critical thinking skills for correctional nurses. Tre' has been a registered nurse for over 23 years with experience in nursing including acute care, outpatient services and management. She has worked in correctional nursing for the past […]

Originally Aired April 7, 2011: Guest Gregory Famiglio, MD discusses his experiences with seizure management in the inmate population, especially the challenges of psychogenic seizures and the female population. Dr. Famiglio practices in a female prison in the Pennsylvania Prison System. […]

Originally Aired March 25, 2011: In this episode Lorry talks with Susan Tiona, MD, who is heading up a project which applies the Health People 2020 effort to the US inmate population. Dr. Tiona is a familiy practice physician currently practicing in a medium security prison in Colorado. More Health Inmate 2020 info can be found at thier wesite: http://www.he […]

Originally Aired February 17, 2011: Kat Major is an RN working a mobile unit that intervenes in psychiatric emergency situations in California. Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) members ride with law enforcement during off-hours to respond to calls concerning mental health clients. Learn more about this unique service and the corrections connection. […]

Originally Aired January 13, 2011: Josiah Rich, MD, MPH, of Miriam Hospital and Borwn University talks about his research in preventing and treating HIV in the inmate population. Dr. Rich is the director and co-founder of the Center for Prison Health and Human Rights at the Miriam Hospital Immunology Center and is recent recipiant of one of 12 NIH grants to […]

Originally Aired December 16, 2010: Effective communication improves patient safety and assures quality care, yet is a great challenge in the sometimes fragmented correctional healthcare system. Idaho Prison System nurse leaders share their tips for improving clinical communication including using the SBAR model for nurse-physician interactions. […]

Originally aired November 20, 2010: Valerie Lane, RN, CLNC, discusses legal risk for correctional nurses. Valerie is a certified legal nurse consultant specializing in correctional cases and has worked many years in the California Corrections System. […]

Originally aired October 27, 2010: A chat with Gail Kwarciany, RN, MSN, about her work with inmate cancer patients at UTMB, Galveston. Discussion includes the challenges of cancer care behind bars and the special needs of inmates with cancer. […]

Originally aired August 31, 2010: Susan Loeb, PhD, RN, discusses the National Institute of Nursing Research Grant funded project to include End-of-Life Care in corrections. Dr. Loeb is Associate Professor of Nursing at the Pennsylvania State University and Faculty Affiliate in the Gerontology Cneter and Bioethics Program. She is Principle Investigator for th […]

Originally aired August 19, 2010: Sue Smith, RN, MSN, CCHP-RN, joins Lorry to discuss the issue of failure to rescue. First recognized in acute care facilities, failure to rescue has come to be associated with understaffing, lack of communication, healthcare staff who become overly task oriented and to lack of vigilance. In the correctional setting, inmate-p […]

By Lorry Schoenly Those of us working in corrections have known for some time that our population is aging. Look around most housing units or rec yards and it is clear that the numbers of over-50 inmates are growing. A recent report confirms this, stating that the number of prisoners over age 65 had grown 94 times the rate of the total prison population in j […]

A CorrectionsOne member in Utah sent in these photographs. He said, “this shank was made out of our lexan storage box. It was approximately 8 inches long and ½ inch to ¾ inches in diameter. It was cut out using the nylon thread from the mattresses. This weapon can be made within a matter of minutes with the thread, and then can be sharpened to a point on the […]

A common weapon in the correctional setting is easily made with the sock and a lock. By placing the lock inside of the sock and letting it slide down to the toe, one has a long handled blackjack variety of bludgeoning implement. And this is a demoralizing choice of attack tool, especially while it is spinning. And it goes beyond appearance. It not only looks […]

This tactical tip begins a new section on CorrectionsOne that is going to examine incidents that bring into questions what officers have done in specific circumstances. Rather than evaluate the relative merits of the case, we are going to look at the officer safety techniques, tactics, and strategies that affected the outcome. Since I am now retired from the […]

By Dr. Bruce Bayley Introduction In the first segment of this three part series, this article examines some of the research surrounding the primary reason we incarcerate those who violate our laws – punishment. Please keep in mind that these reviews are not position pieces, but simply an overview of the current research that addresses each topic. We are not […]

In part two of this series, we heard from the private corrections providers. Their story was a simple one: We manage facilities more cost effectively because we operate like a business. For this segment, I had hoped to have the uniformed corrections staff unions weigh in on the subject. After all, when the debate turns to the privatization of a correctional […]

As state representatives and senators move deeper into this winter’s legislative sessions, familiar criminal justice topics become fodder for discussion, task force study, and eventually bills for consideration. A recurring theme has become a broken record echoing in the marble halls of state capitols. Reducing recidivism is a perceived solution to budget-bu […]

Three things crossed my path that influenced the writing of this article. First, I was recently asked to develop a class on emotional intelligence for a probation department in Texas. It seemed like an interesting request, not one of the most common topics to train on. So I dived into the assignment a few days ago, beginning to prepare for the day-long cours […]

American Airlines Flight 63, carrying 197 people from Paris to Miami was diverted to Boston on December 22, 2001, after Shoe Bomber Richard Reid tried to ignite his shoe filled with explosives. "At the end of the day, I know I did the actions," Reid said when entering his plea. "Basically I got on a plane with a bomb. Basically I tried to igni […]

Layoffs are actually going to happen at the end of this month. Even during the great depression California did not lay off "prison guards." Their salary was cut, but they didn't lose their jobs. A combination of the recession, budget pressure, court action and political reality of realignment has taken its toll.On February 29 of this year a to […]