Medical devices made into weapons by prisoners: an unrecognized risk

The alteration of a knee immobilizer into a sharp weapon by a prisoner prompted us to survey neighboring penal institutions to determine the frequency of such events.

We mailed a nine-item survey to all detention facilities in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. A second survey was sent to nonresponding institutions 6 weeks after the initial mailing.

The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, the designated facility for evaluation and treatment of prisoners from the county jail and state penitentiary.

Survey respondents included 25 state penitentiaries, 31 county jails, 1 state minimum-security facility, 1 state maximum-security facility, 1 work-release center, 1 county detention center for drunken-driving offenders, and 1 federal penitentiary.

Of the 81 institutions surveyed, 77% responded to one of the two mailings. Forty percent responded in the affirmative when asked whether stolen or unauthorized medical equipment from outside their institutions had been discovered among inmates. When respondents were questioned as to whether medical equipment, prescribed or not, had been used or altered in a criminal manner, 34% responded "yes." Medications and medical appliances were listed in the responses.

A survey of 81 local and neighboring penal institutions in a three-state area revealed that the illicit use of medicine and medical devices by prisoners is a legitimate safety concern of prison personnel and health care workers when medical care for inmates must be sought outside the security of their institutions. The modification of medical equipment into weapons by incarcerated patients, although clearly recognized as a security and safety problem by police authorities, appears to be unappreciated by health care workers providing episodic care to inmates.