Criminal Justice System And The United States

The prevalence of individuals with severe mental illness entering the criminal justice system creates a social injustice and substantial cost. People with mental illness cycle thorough courtrooms, jails, and prisons, generating a concern among policy-makers, criminal administrators, practitioners, families, and advocates. These facilities lack the ability to provide adequate treatment and results in a damaging cycle. In 2000, The United States Congress responded to these individuals by authorizing Policy Law 106-515 or mental health court; combining court supervision and community-based treatment services for individuals with mental illness. Policy Law 106-515 is a therapeutic court approach which seeks to provide effective treatment and eliminate

I was not surprised to discover that half of all inmates had a mental illness (Hoke 3015). Hoke analyzes the social elements that make an impact on those persons with known mental illnesses in prison. Noting policy changes that have increased prison rates for mentally ill people, Hoke presents a good argument on how mentally ill inmates are treated within the criminal justice system. Her research seemed to be thorough and convincing. She maintains the idea that mentally ill inmates do need help making a successful transition upon release through steady employment and housing.

Courts are established social, political, and judicial institutions necessary for the manifestation of justice and the maintenance of law and order. The courts are part of the judicial branch of government, as outlined in Article III of the United States Constitution. Courts are the arenas in which the law is tried and applied. Judges are the presiding officers of the court. The United States Supreme Court is the most fundamental court because has "the authority to decide the constitutionality of federal laws and resolve other disputes over them," (United States Courts, 2012). This is true even though even though the court does not expressly enforce that law; enforcement is the province of the executive branch.

Mental health courts (MHCs) are one such diversionary mechanism that relies on community justice partnerships, involving mental health treatment and social services providers. MHCs are specialized court dockets for individuals with mental health problems. In place of traditional court processing, in which the judge reviews the culpability of a case and imposes a sentence, MHCs offer problem-solving solutions for mentally ill offenders. 5 They identify eligible participants through mental health screenings and assessments and place them in a judicially supervised treatment plan developed jointly by a team of court staff and mental health professionals (Rossman et al. 2012). When an offender successfully completes the program, MHCs may vacate an alleged charge or modify the original sentence. Community services are a key factor to helping prevent the development of the crises that lead to law enforcement involvement, to provide alternatives to incarceration when problems ascend, and to ensure support for people returning to the community from prison and jail. Scholars have proposed that if we develop community resources such as the availability and access to emergency mental health services that help to reduce the likelihood that persons with mental illnesses will

Jail diversion is a mental health platform explicitly premeditated to isolate and divert individuals with mental health, substance abuse disorders or both from the criminal justice system into a need-specific treatment in the mental health system. Specifically, the program provides linkages to community-based treatment and support services to assist the individual in reducing deviant behavior. For this reason, the individuals avoid arrests and spend a lesser period in jail. The effectiveness of the diversion program relies on various activities that involve the identification of the target group and a proper integration of the victim into the program. While there are many different types of jail diversion programs the accessibility to jail diversion programs are limited, due to the strict qualification guidelines set. In addition, the availability of appropriate mental health professionals is paramount to the efficiency of the program. It is a common belief that linking mentally ill offenders to Community-Based Services decrease their chances of recidivism and contact with security officers (Sirotich, 2009).

Mental health courts sentence mentally ill convicted offenders to long-term treatment programs rather than incarcerating them in prisons. The programs provide mental health assessments and personalized treatment plans for offenders. (Center for Court Innovation, 2013) In 1997, the first mental health court was established. (California Courts, 2014) There are now over 300 mental health courts in the U.S (Justice Center, 2014)

Authors in this article from the University of California observe and focus on the risks and rates involved in people that have a mental disorder and correlate it with incarceration as well as people with re-incarceration. While performing these studies researchers found an alarming number of people incarcerated had a severe mental illness and substance abuse issues. Much of the knowledge in numbers of people with a mental illness are brought from a correctional view, but researchers here try to also focus on numbers of people in the public mental health system as well.

A Mental Health Court represents a type of therapeutic court that sanctions the mental health population a different level of treatment and opportunities from the “normal” population. The difference between a mental health court and a regular court is that in a mental health court, they are not as concerned with whether somebody is not guilty or guilty of the offense, rather, they are focused on the individual. The Mental Health Court demonstrates compassion and empathy, while still upholding the law. In fact, focus stands as therapeutic interventions as opposed to punishments. The goal is to reconnect clients with a case manager, manage medication and treatment options, and generate stability. Going through the court process, and possible

Mental health courts change the criminal justice system. In addition to probation, jail, prison, and other forms of rehabilitation, a mental health court introduces a new option as “punishment”. Psychiatric treatment. But mental health courts also change the system in other ways, by criminalizing non-criminal behaviours. But the mental health courts that exist so far, with very few exceptions, accept only people charged with nonviolent low-level offenses. While these courts help some people get services, they do nothing to help the mentally ill facing prison or lengthy jail sentences, and they do not reduce the criminalization of mental illness. If mental health courts increase the punishment of minor offenses, as some undoubtedly do, their

Today’s correctional facilities are taking on chronically mentally ill individuals causing them to be over-crowed with lack of resources and proper care. Prisons and jails were not built to houses the severely mentally ill, this was never the purpose of prison because they simply do not have the proper training or adequate care for such a high maintenance inmates. State prisons have become the new de facto psychiatric hospital for those who need mental health treatment. This developing problem come from the severely mentally ill being admitted into correctional facilities, which ultimately stemming from the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill from government funded mental health treatment centers. The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill took effect those who needed resources and care went without treatment, which only increases the symptoms related to their disorder causing them to engage in petty crimes sometime followed with more serious offensive landing them in jail or prison. Ultimately, mainstream prisons are not equipped to handle mentally ill inmates. Prisons need to offer some type of effective and extensive mental health services to treat those inmates who

Gregg Barak (2007) pointed how American’s failing mental health care system has attributed the overrepresentation of the mentally ill in U.S jails “Because of the large-scale denationalization of mental health facilities in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of people struggling with mental illness on their own has risen over the past three decades, and social institutions have been less than responsive to their needs.” (Barak, 2007: 587) Steven Raphael and Michael Stoll (2013) drew attention to the overrepresentation of mentally ill offenders in U.S jails and prisons. “Approximately half of state and federal prison inmates and over 60 percent of jail inmates report having mental health problems or symptoms indicative of mental illness. The

In the criminal justice system, there is a controversy in the system regarding fairness or disagreement and changes need to be done. Many people believe it needs to change to improve and others believe it is unfair or dishonest in punishing people. The criminal justice system is in charge of punishing criminals and the correctional system helps inmates from committing crimes again. The goal of rehabilitation is to reduce crime in society. The criminal justice system affects all of society because it determines the punishment people will receive after being convicted of crimes.

Mental health courts are a resource given to prisoners who would normally be put in prison if they had not decided to join this special program. Mental health court is a court run program by the district attorney’s office in some counties. This program is based off of traditional court room structure but is also paired with community services. Mental health courts solve a lot of different problems within our criminal justice system. The first problem it solves is the

Since the policy was enacted in the early 1990s, three strikes laws have been one of the most controversial issues facing the American criminal justice system. In general, advocates believe that locking up criminals will protect society. Critics believe that three-strike policy can only be effective with offenders that are on their last strikes (Worrall, 2008). However, other critics explain how three-strike laws don’t significantly reduce crime because most criminals mature out of the criminal lifestyle (Worrall, 2004).

The criminal justice system is the set of agencies and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws. The system is not one single criminal justice system in the United States but nevertheless many similar, individual systems. How every particular system works in each area depends on who is in charge of the city, county, state, or federal. Different authorities have different laws, agencies, and ways of managing criminal justice processes. There are two primary systems which are, state, criminal justice systems handle crimes committed within their state boundaries and the federal, criminal justice system handles crimes committed on federal property or in more than one state. Most criminal