Alabama Prison Recidivism

In recent years, correctional facilities have begun to experience an influx of inmates who suffer with mental illness. Per Morgan, et al (2011), ?the United States has three times more individuals with severe mental illnesses in prisons than in psychiatric hospitals.? Most prisons in this country aren?t equipped to properly care for the mentally ill persons who enter the facility. Individuals with mental illness are more likely to be placed in prisons rather than a mental health institution to receive help to deal

Despite the fact that my parents have worked in the criminal justice system for many years, I have never given much thought to the treatment of prisoners. As we learned from the readings, the current state of the United States criminal justice system is imperfect to the point of cruelty to those involved in it. This is truer for individuals with a mental illness. Due to a lack of psychiatric facilities throughout Alabama and overcrowding of those that do exist, many criminal offenders with mental illnesses are sent to prisons instead. State prisons are currently overcrowded, leading to substandard conditions such in almost every aspect.

Everyday correctional officials work to deal with mental health inmates. Often hotly debated, many search for ways to work with this growing population. Glaze and Bonczar (2009) estimate around 2.3 million people are incarcerated within the US and of those, 20 percent suffer from some form of mental disorder. Even with such a high number, the rate of mental illnesses within the prison system is on the climb. Many of these inmates will remain incarcerated and receive little to no treatment for their mental issues. This essay, will look at the practices associated when dealing with mental illness and discuss the strategies on dealing with this growing issue.

Given the number of incarcerated inmates who suffer from some form of mental illness, there are growing concerns and questions in the medical field about treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system. When a person with a mental illness commits a crime or break the law, they are immediately taken to jail or sent off to prison instead of being evaluated and placed in a hospital or other mental health facility. “I have always wondered if the number of mentally ill inmates increased since deinstitutionalization” Since prison main focus is on the crimes inmates are incarcerated; the actual treatment needed for the mentally ill is secondary. Mentally ill prisoners on the surface may appear to be just difficult inmates depending on the

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

According to a 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that over half of the inmates in both prisons and in jails had a problem concerning their mental health (James & Glaze, 2006). The estimates in this report were separated by federal prisons, which contained 45 percent of inmates suffering from mental illness, 56 percent in state prisons, and

The implementation of the Prison Reform Bill Act No. 2015-185, that was passed in early 2015, was established to help prevent overcrowding in prisons and improve the overall well being of the facilities used for convicted people as well as the staff. This also was intended to imprison less nonviolent offenders and help reduce the amount of criminal behavior they can potentially be engaged in after their conviction (Funderburk). Criminal Justice Oversight and Implementation Council, established in 2014, is imperative to reform the criminal justice system in Alabama. The

This research paper discusses the issues of people who suffer from mental illness being placed in jails instead of receiving the necessary treatment they need. The number of inmates serving time in jail or prison who suffer from mental illness continues to rise. In 2015 the Bureau of Justice reported that sixty five percent of state prisoners and fourth five percent of federal prisoners suffered from mental conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Individuals who suffer from these problems require special mental health treatment for their needs to be met. Many of our prisons and jails lack the necessary resources to care for these inmates and because of that inmates who do not receive the treatment they need are at a higher risk of becoming a repeat offender. Despite the research and findings that show that the criminal justice system is unable to deal with issues dealing with the mentally ill there has been limited solutions put in place. Given the challenges the criminal justice system faces it is important to address the problem and come up with better solutions. This research paper will discuss the various techniques and solutions that scholars have propped and their effect on the issue of mentally ill criminals and how the criminal justice system should approach the problem.

Mental illness is a problem that occurs in all nations around the world. This is even more true for the populations in correctional facilities for both men and women. The overwhelming number of persons in correctional facilities with health issues is caused by: the rational that people with mental health disorders are a threat to society; narrow mindedness and low tolerance for people who are different from us; no resources to acquire the proper care needed. These mental health problems may have occurred prior to incarceration, and may nurtured further by the stressful environment of prisons, or they may have also been caused by being incarcerated in the first place in addition to other prior issues. Correctional facilities is not the place for the mentally ill, instead they should be treated for there illnesses. The purpose of this paper is to depict both the problem of inmates with mental health disorders in correctional facilities and the challenges faced by correctional staff. Secondly, denote possible interventions (treatment) for inmates with mental health issues. Next, support this information with studies about mental health in correctional facilities. Lastly, offer reasons it is important to combat the problem of mental illness in correctional facilities in order to better serve their well being needs.

There are approximately 1,600,000 million inmates are behind bars in America (Glazer, 2014, para. 11) . Without a doubt, much of state prisons are overcrowded, which can lead to, very dangerous situations and environments. Due to the overwhelming number of inmates incarcerated it is difficult to deal with medical and mental health problems in prison. If most inmates complain about not feeling well or have symptoms, medical condition or disease that is not immediately, they would get some form of medication and get turned life back without seeing a doctor for a proper medical exam. A clear majority of the health care professional that work in the prison systems are very under qualified to work in such dangerous and trauma environments like prisons

This paper will demonstrate whether the length of prison stay for an inmate effects recidivism. Determining whether the prison sentence for an inmate will deter the criminal from any criminal activity or if they will recidivate is a key component to see if a prison sentence keeps a criminal from engaging in any criminal activity. The paper will discuss whether the longer the prison sentence will reduce recidivism or if the minimum of a sentence will have a higher recidivism rate. The research conducted will help determine whether a prison sentence has any effect on the relapse of criminal offenders. This research could help a judge determine to give the appropriate prison sentence to a criminal. The research conducted comes from a

Freedom Project is an organization that trains prisoners in non-violent communication (NVC) and mindfulness training. They organization organized two studies to discover and summarize the results of the nonviolent communication and mindfulness training offered by the freedom project for inmates. The researchers were justified in doing the study because communication skills were found as a necessary element in the pro-social behavior, also the researchers found that the increased usage of communication skills can be an important factor in decreasing violence and aggression. The non-violent communication process has been used as to train, educate, and acknowledge prisoners to pay attention, noticing other’s behavior, and acknowledge others’ feelings and thoughts. The researchers came up with three hypotheses: there is a correlation relationship between freedom project training and recidivism rate among inmates, trainees who were reoffended who have a

As a general public we pay monetary expenses as well as the very way of jail, regardless of how compassionate society endeavors to make it, delivers a situation that is unavoidably crushing to its occupants. Numerous Americans have faith in our present jail framework, furthermore trust that it is a compelling type of discipline for the criminal. Some would say that culprits could live good, enlightened lives in jail then graduate to better than average, acculturated lives in the free world. My inquiry to these individuals is; in what manner can hoodlums live edified lives in a situation that just offers turmoil and mellow types of political agitation? It is understood what goes ahead in secret in jail; appalling outrages that make the head

The documentary “The released” shared a very important and serious social issue, which is mental illness of prisoners. The film described the inside of the Ohio prison system as it resisted to provide care for prisoners that have mental health problems. The system there allowed prisoners to leave the jail and either go to a shelter or a residential treatment center, to get the health care they need. After the release, prisoners need to take their medications and keep track with a psychiatrist or a mental health care center. However, most of the prisoners didn’t do what is required, most of them didn’t keep up with their medications and end up by going back to jail. The reason of the release was to give them chance to recover by taking medications

Megan Ferrell, I agree applied research can be used in finding ways to lower the recidivism rates for offenders released from prison. In fact, there has been applied research that found when spending more time in prison the recidivism rate is reduced (Mears, Cochran, Bales, & Bhati, 2016). Mears, Cochran, Bales, and Bhati when doing their research identify three sets of hypotheses about time served and recidivism relationship (Mears, Cochran, Bales, & Bhati, 2016). They examined data on 90,423 inmates that were released from Florida prisons and found a pattern of greater time served initially increases recidivism but after approximately one year, it decreases recidivism and after two years there were no effects shown (Mears, Cochran, Bales,