As of June 2008, more than 13.6 million people passed through gaols and prisons across the United States. In other words, one in every 131 people was incarcerated at some point during that twelvemonth ( US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009 ) .
Inmates come ining gaol installations report a myriad of ague and chronic wellness jobs including high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, ague and chronic hurting and substance maltreatment upsets ( Freudenberg, et al. , 2007 ) . With the rates of captivity being so high, the odds are favourable that a certain prevalence of inmates will come in gaol with studies of substance maltreatment and, in peculiar, prescription opiate maltreatment.
A common intervention for chronic hurting upsets is the prescription of opioid medicines. Gross saless of the most common prescribed opioid medicines ( oxycodone, codeine, oxycontin, dolophine hydrochloride and others ) have increased from 50.7 million gms to 126.5 million gms in the 10-year period from 1997 to 2007. Further, the NIH-sponsored 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health ( NSDUH ) revealed that about 20 million Americans, or eight per centum of the population at the clip reported a history of non-medical usage of prescription drugs ( utilizing prescription drugs non really prescribed to them ) at some clip in their life-time. ( Manchikanti, et al. , 2010 ) .
Scope of the Problem
Even though Americans make up a little per centum of the universe population- merely 4.6 % – we use more than 80 % of the universe ‘s supply of opiates and an amazing 99 % of the universe ‘s supply of hydrocodone. Furthermore, Americans use over two-thirds of the planetary supply of illegal drugs such as cocaine, diacetylmorphine, Methedrines and marihuana. Of those describing the non-medical usage of prescription opiates in the NSDUH survey, over 50 per centum reported acquiring the drug free from a friend or comparative, and in over 80 % of the instances the opiates were prescribed to the friend or comparative by a medical supplier handling their chronic hurting. 40 % reported buying the drug from another individual in exchange for money or other drugs ( Manchikanti, et al. , 2010 ) .
It is estimated that 6 to 15 per centum of the population in America abuses drugs of all types, and that illicit drug maltreatment and intoxicant maltreatment leads to over 100,000 deceases yearly ( Ruetsch, 2010 ) . It has been reported in the current literature that about 500 billion dollars are spent yearly in the US on costs related to the medical and condemnable affects of maltreatment of prescription drugs ( including opiates and stimulations ) and that the per-person health care costs between drug maltreaters and non-abusers is over $ 13,000 ( Strassels, . 2009 ) .
Jails tend to be concentration evidences for persons with wellness jobs, mental unwellness and substance abuse- most with co-occurring issues. Harmonizing to a survey in the New York City Jail, one of the county ‘s largest gaol systems, over 80 per centum of female detainees and 50 per centum of male detainees reported a history of illicit drug maltreatment on consumption. Of those, 59.5 % of adult females and 32.5 % of work forces were incarcerated for drug ownership or gross revenues, 17.8 % of adult females and 28.1 % of males for belongings offenses including burglary, and 6.5 % of adult females and 15.6 % of work forces for offenses of force against people such as robbery. ( Freudenberg, et al. , 2007 ) . With a sample of about 2,000 inmates, the New York survey can be easy generalizable to other gaols across the state.
Because of the high concentration of substance maltreaters that become incarcerated, sites of captivity such as county gaols can supply a wealth of valuable information on the position of drug maltreatment within a community and factors that may be a consequence of, or contribute to, that maltreatment. The intent of this paper will be to develop a survey based at a big, urban county gaol, to research the prevalence of substance maltreatment ( peculiarly prescription drug maltreatment ) and its association with the existent, prescribed intervention of chronic hurting ( whether or non the opiate is prescribed to the detainee or non ) , the usage of other illicit drugs ( such as marihuanas, cocaine and diacetylmorphine ) , and the nature of the offense ensuing in apprehension ( offenses of ownership, violent offenses against people, and so on ) .
Conceptual Model
The conceptual model of Richard Jessor ‘s Problem-Behavior Theory would be appropriate for a survey researching the behaviour of illicit drug usage. The theory has been demonstrated in the empirical literature to be a forecaster of psychosocial “ proneness for engagement in jobs behavior ” . The concepts within the theory of sensed environment, personality and behaviour have the implicit in premiss of individual and environment interaction doing behaviour. In 1977, Jessor and Jessor reported “ the cardinal personality and perceived environmental variables have proved predictive of both cross-sectional and developmental fluctuation, and, taken together, they normally account for between 30 % an 50 % of the discrepancy in behaviours such as illicit drug usage ” . ( Jessor & A ; Jessor, 1977 ) .
Similarly, the Social Cognitive Theory of Albert Bandura has been used to depict the person-environment-behavior interaction and includes the construct of self-efficacy, or a individual ‘s perceived control over their behaviour and may be used as an alternate conceptual model for this survey.
Research Questions and Hypothesiss
Research inquiries proposed for this survey are as follows:
Is the self-report of prescription drug maltreatment associated with the self-report of other illicit drug usage ( such as marihuanas, cocaine, diacetylmorphine, etc. )
Is the self-report of prescription drug maltreatment associated with the self-report of chronic hurting upsets?
What type of offenses are those who report prescription drug maltreatment arrested for?
Proposed hypotheses are as follows:
Detainees who report prescription drug maltreatment do non describe the maltreatment of any other illegal drugs.
Detainees who report prescription drug maltreatment do non describe co-occurring chronic hurting upsets.
Detainees who report prescription drug maltreatment are non arrested for offenses affecting the ownership or sale of illegal drugs, belongings offenses or violent offenses to people.
Ethical Considerations
Whenever carry oning research with inmates as topics, certain ethical issues must be considered. First, the inmate population frequently have different wellness and societal features than the general population ; acknowledgment of and grasp for these differences is important to understanding the population to be studied and for the development of instruments, reading of instruments, and edifice trust with research topics. Second, several ethical considerations specific to the correctional population must be considered. The confidence of processs for inmates to give informed consent prior to engagement, the disposal of instruments specifically written for participants of lower instruction and socioeconomic position, and the absolute bar of any sensed coercion to take part in research are all important ethical issues when be aftering a plan of research with the incarcerated. ( Freudenberg, 2005 ) . To outdo roll up the needful information for this survey and to decide major ethical issues sing research with inmates, a chart-review format will probably be used.
Decision
The maltreatment of opiates, either prescribed or non prescribed, has serious deductions on the wellness of the single maltreater, health care costs and public wellness of the community. Because significant Numberss of Americans become incarcerated yearly, and the prevalence of reported substance maltreatment ( notably prescription drug maltreatment ) is high, gaols can offer a wealth of information on the national load of drug maltreatment. Exploration of the factors that may lend to mistreat and the societal effects of offenses committed as a consequence of substance maltreatment are extremely of import to the wellbeing of communities.
