Correctional facilities already face inadequate funding, and a 50% reduction in the community and prison treatment funding will enhance massive challenges in enhancing adequate medical services for the inmates. A reduction would enhance barriers to effective services within the correctional facilities. Most of the correctional facilities are already struggling with inadequate funding, which pushes them to use a narrow criterion among inmates to determine the kind of treatment they provide. A reduction in the correctional facilities funding would prevent the appropriate treatment procedures for the sick inmates. Most individuals will be locked out from receiving the required treatments due to the unavailability of testing capacity (American College of Physicians et al., 1992) .
A reduction in correlational treatment funding will force many facilities to remain with the only option of dumping the severely sick inmates in outside medical facilities. Most facilities relate a sick inmate’s medical situation to drug and substance abuse, which makes them determine the kind of treatment even without taking medical tests on such individuals. This is already an existing problem in that most of the facilities lack adequate resources to determine the kind of ailment that a sick inmate has. A further reduction in the funding will mean that the facilities will not be in a position to afford money to even buy over the counter drugs for the sick inmates, leaving them with the only option of inmate dumping as such inmates will be sent to new programs in other institutions as a way of the facility getting rid of them (Farabee et al., 1999) .
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Inappropriate medical referrals in correctional facilities can be avoided if the institutions recruit wardens to preside over the general population and the treatment yards. This initiative requires adequate personnel as a single warden cannot take care of the two departments in one facility. A reduction in funding means that correctional facilities will not be able to afford adequate personnel to cater to the departments. With the current financial situation, most of the correctional facilities can only afford a single officer to cater to health-related issues, which is an overwhelming task for one officer.
The recruitment and training of the medical staff in correctional centers are already a cost-intensive initiative. It is expensive to locate and recruit qualified medical staff because most prisons are located in remote regions. A reduction in prison treatment programs will make it impossible for the institutions to hire medical staff, which will create disaster in prisons as the inmates will not receive medical assistance. The limited human resource personnel and the high turnover of prisoners in need of medical assistance will make medical staffing a problem for the prison-based treatment administrators. The most intensive criminal justice treatment programs can only be implemented if the correctional facilities receive adequate funding. Cutting medical funding by 50% will enhance inadequacy in the required medical programs.
Most of the correctional facilities already experience challenges recruiting medical staff in remote areas, as most medical professionals demand high pay (Finn, 2000). The relocation issues are related to the hard-working conditions within the rural regions where prisons are located. It will be more challenging for correctional facilities to acquire medical staff if there is a further reduction in the prison treatment program funding. This will lead to correctional facilities that cannot afford to pay medical workers, which will be an added problem to inadequate medical personnel’s already-existing problem. A negative turnover in the medical staff positively undermines the stability and effectiveness of the existing treatment programs.
Cutting on the funding will lead to a crisis among the inmates. Most of them will suffer from severe medical conditions without accessing adequate testing and treatment procedures. It will make it impossible for the correctional facilities to implement effective medical programs requiring skilled personnel due to the lack of funds to pay for the required resources.
References
American College of Physicians, National Commission on Correctional Health Care, & American Correctional Health Services Association. (1992). The crisis in correctional health care: The impact of the National Drug Control Strategy on correctional health services. Annals of Internal Medicine , 117 (1), 71-77.
Farabee, D., Prendergast, M., Cartier, J., Wexler, H., Knight, K., & Anglin, M. D. (1999). Barriers to implementing effective correctional drug treatment programs. The Prison Journal , 79 (2), 150-162.
Finn, P. (2000). Addressing Correctional Officer Stress: Programs and Strategies. Issues and Practices. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=183474
