Litigation

80 percent of prisoner's found to have sustained brain injury

By Michael Kaplen

A fascinating story appears on the AP wire service today concerning a survey done of prisoner's by the Wyoming Brain Injury Association.  The Wyoming Brain Injury Association found that more than 80 percent of the state's inmates have a mild to high likelihood of having suffered brain injury.

The association worked with the Wyoming Department of Corrections to survey a sample population of 200 offenders in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins and Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk.

The survey did not actually medically diagnose people with brain injuries but asked them a series of questions about their injuries, hospital stays and difficulties with daily life to determine the possibility of injury.

Considering the behavioral affects of brain damage, the fact that most prisoner's sustained a brain injury some time in their lives is no surprise to me.  Hopefully prisoner's who have sustained a brain injury will be identified so that they can obtain proper cognitive support and rehabilitation.  At the present time their is apparently no screening in place to determine mild and moderate brain damage in prisoner's. 

The Wyoming Brain Injury Association has also offered to institute support groups for brain injured prisoners and to provide educational assistance to correction department officials about traumatic brain injury.

You can read the full AP story by clicking here.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on January 25, 2008 (boomark / email).