Inmate-made weapons in prison facilities: assessing the injury risk

Details

• Personal Author:
  Baker SP ; Biermann PJ ; Chen LH ; Lincoln, Jennifer M. ; Mair JS
• Description:
  More than 2400 correctional workers in the United States required medical attention in 1999 following assaults by inmates, often with unconventional "homemade" weapons. Little information is available about these weapons. The authors surveyed 101 state prisons for a 12 month period within 2002-03, and 70 responded. A total of 1326 weapons were either confiscated (1086) or used to injure inmates (203) or staff (37). Staff were most often attacked with clubs. The prison store was the most common source of materials used to make confiscated weapons. Issued items were the most common source of materials used to make weapons to injure staff. The injury rate for staff was 1.0/1000 workers per year. The annual cost of injuries for time lost and medical care for staff was estimated at $1,125,000 in these 70 prisons. Results identify materials that should be redesigned to prevent modifications to make weapons. Prison stores and issued items deserve special attention. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Correctional Facilities Men Occupational Health Safety Women
• Keywords:
  Correctional-facilities Hazards Humans Injuries Injury-prevention Prison-workers
• ISSN:
  1353-8047
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  195-198
• Volume:
  12
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20037866
• Citation:
  Inj Prev 2006 Jun; 12(3):195-198
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr J Lincoln, Center for Injury Research and Policy, 624 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
• Email:
  jlincoln@jhsph.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  Johns Hopkins University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Injury Prevention
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f23dafd71099442b51b68430e0d90659b9e334ae824a6c9fd98e974a06569d06b667a540046c06a4cabc26bc04eb126476489cb1552de64ae113dcf2ed4026fe
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191792/cdc_191792_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 149.09 KB ]