The Conditions of Prisons Worldwide

Society usually does not concern themselves with people in prison but what they fail to realize is that they could be the ones incarcerated. Every day, there are people who state they do nothing wrong to be put in prison but anyone can watch the news, and it states how people were on vacation and something unexpected resulted in their incarceration while in a foreign country. The conditions in both American and Third World prisons have poor living conditions and deprive prisoners of health care that cause them to be susceptible to life threatening diseases. Society needs to be aware of these conditions and the possibility that it may happen to them; these conditions are not suitable for human beings. Prisons worldwide have poor living conditions. There are prisons in other parts of the world that conditions are unspeakable, and just inhumane. The living conditions in the majority of United States prisons can be very poor; there are not enough beds or cots because of the overpopulation. There was a new story on a prison in Arizona where the warden had the inmates sleeping outside under canopies. The inmates still had beds or cots, but they were outside in the natural elements with no protection from the weather. Those conditions are not nearly as bad as some of the prisons in the third world countries. In Syria, prisoners are treated like slaves and are even beaten with pipes, other weapons, and even tortured to death. In Argentina, there are more than 1,000 prisoners, and the facility only caters to 600. The prison facilities worldwide are in some manner lacking good sanitation and good living conditions as well as torture of the prisoners, and the mistreatment of them. ("Third World Countries”, 1996-2011). Because of the conditions this is a violation of their human rights as well as cases that have led to death because of the lack of human decency. The Kolisetty (2010) website states because of such conditions worldwide, the Amnesty International’s 2009 State of the World’s Human Rights report documented the overcrowding and the widespread of inhumane conditions in Countries ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe. ("Amnesty International Report 2009 The State Of The Worlds Human Rights", 2009). The prisoners are treated with the lowest priority even though they are human beings and should be treated humanely, no matter what crimes caused them to be incarcerated. (Kolisetty, 2010). The Kolisetty (2010) website states the Department of State’s 2009 Country reports on Human Rights Practices also reported life threatening, poor, and inhumane conditions in more than 100 countries in the areas of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere, which receive some form of assistance from the United States. (U.S. Department of State, 2009). Prisoners also have to deal with the deprivation of food and health care provided to them as well. ("The 10 Worst Prisons In The World", n.d.). The facilities in Brazil do not even use anesthetic for patients, they are kept from acquiring any form of anesthetic to numb the pain or even lessen it. The facilities have hardly any running water, sometimes due to the prisoners not allowed to have running water or there just is no type of water systems with the prison facility itself. The prisoners in the majority of these Third World prisons have gone days without anything to drink or water for showers. (Prisons Shut Down The Prison-Industrial Complex", n.d). The prisons in the United States do have water systems and running water for showers, kitchens, and water for drinking; the prisoners can use the water and are not kept from the water as if they are in other countries. In some instances as punishment when sent to solitary, they may have less food and water distributed to them as a means of discipline. Prisons in the United States may not have the food sources they want, but the prisons are not deprived from eating. There was an incident where a Warden in a United States prison was caught feeding the prisoners road kill. The Third World countries that have poverty depraved towns, have a lack of food resources which is mainly caused due to the poverty of the town as well as having unclean drinking water, or any water at all. All prisons no matter whether in the United States or in Third World countries have high rates of disease and death among the prisoners, although the is medical care, the treatments given sometimes is inadequate or in some countries nonexistent. The "Federal Bureau of Prisons Report On" (2000) website states there are various diseases that a prisoner can end up getting such as: viral hepatitis (A, B, C, and D), HIV infection, tuberculosis disease, tuberculosis chemoprohylasis, sexually transmitted diseases, endocarditis prophylaxis, and varicella. Some disease is caused by the high rates of malnutrition, disease from inadequate water and food, and improper hygiene; the majority of the diseases are passed from one inmate to another sexually. The main cause of disease in the United States is mainly caused by the sexually transmitted diseases spread from inmate to inmate. Because there is no contraceptives in prisons and there is no way for the prisoners to take the necessary precautions, this can lead to an outbreak since the facility does not take the proper precautions with the inmates, which again leads back to the lack of poor medical care. In Kenya, the prisoners are without any type of clothing, so they are naked. (Kolisetty, 2010). This can lead to horrible diseases due to infections as well as infections from the infections that the prisoners have from the unclean water and lack of sufficient food and proper storage thereof. The prisons in the United States and Third World Countries have diseases due to the poor sanitation of the facilities. There are some facilities where the prisoners are being forced to sleep and live in areas where there is human waste, due to the proper lack of sanitation disposal; some of the facilities do not even have toilets to use, let alone the proper sewage systems. (Kolisetty, 2010), “According to the 2009 report by the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the former prisoners are more likely to spread their diseases in which they contracted in the prison, and transfer them to the local population.”
In conclusion, common people in society as well as prisoners can be subjected poor living conditions at anytime, deprivation from food and proper health care, and various diseases in the American and Third World prisons. The prisoners are vulnerable to these conditions because of overpopulation, lack of sufficient food and water sources as well as insufficient medical care. The world needs to be aware of all these conditions because anyone can be visiting a country and can be put in prison at any time; whether they are in the United States or in a Third World Country any person can go to prison at anytime. These prisoners are human beings and should be treated as such, if any person was to be incarcerated for whatever reason, that person would want to be treated in a civilized manner and should not be treated any differently.