Dead or Alive: the Criminally Insane Essay

Regardless of what you might see on TV the verdict of “not guilty by the reason of insanity” is an immensely rare plea for anyone. A majority of offenders with a mental illness still end up incarcerated. Even though the United States only makes up 5% of the world's population we account for 25% of the world's prisoners. Which converts to 2.2 million prisoners and about 1.2 million of those people have a mental illness (Fellner). Mental illness within our jails and prisons has become very prevalent within our correctional systems over the last 10 years. The number of men and women who have a mental illness that end up in jail or prison grows day by day. For those who do not go into the prison with a mental illness, will very likely develop some form of mental illness after being released from incarceration. The mentally ill do not belong in prison, the purpose for incarceration is retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation, and though it is originally meant for all of these purposes, it has lost its meaning. Correctional facilities are not built to provide treatment for the mentally ill, and the people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness cannot get the long-term treatment they need inside of a prison cell.

In Texas, a man with schizophrenia was executed (Kelsey Patterson) even after the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency after learning of his time spent in mental hospitals and his unintelligible rambling.

There are laws and decisions of United States government and higher orders that present controversy to the people of America. In the state of Texas the application of the death penalty is difficult to interpret, especially for the mentally ill, because there is no written law or bill that explains the execution implication in complete detail. The death penalty is a capital punishment of death for those who have committed such high crime. This penalty goes for everyone who does such act no matter who you are, how rich how poor, or where you stand in society. For the longest time, even with the mindset and understanding that those who commit crime to a certain level can receive the execution punishment, the concern and debate whether the mentally

In our county, state and federal correctional institutions across the United States, inmates are being imprisoned for awaiting trial, during trial or convicted for some crime. According to the Bureau of Justice (BJS, 2006), Fifty-six percent of inmates in a state prison and forty-five percent of inmates in a federal prison, suffer from or had a past of mental illness. In our American society, individuals who suffer from mental illness seem to be publicly perceived as a nuisance. This can be due to the fact that the media over the years consecutively scrutinized individuals who use the insanity defense in criminal trials. The insanity plea is negatively publicized if the defendant is using it in a high profiled case which their actions resulted in severe harm or death to another individual. In addition, the public perceives the use of this plea as a scapegoat for the defendant to avoid serving punishment in a penal environment. Mentally ill individuals, who are being civilly committed or charged with all levels of crimes, are being heavily prosecuted and sentenced into correctional facilities rather than psychiatric hospitals. This leads me to discuss the lack of treatment for patients in Bridgewater State Hospital (BSH) located in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. This three hundred and fifty bed facility houses Massachusetts most criminally insane. This facility is also use to evaluate patients/inmates for competency to stand trial and for those who get civilly

Many people do not understand the seriousness of having a mental disorder. Society does not deal with mental illnesses correctly. People do not see anything wrong with putting these sick people in jail. If more time and effort went into the prevention and earlier diagnosis of these disorders, we could completely avoid the controversial topic of whether or not those with mental illnesses should be put in prison. In

Over the years, Americans have become more aware of mental illness, as a whole; however, there has been little growth in how to detect and diagnose mental disorders (Chodosh). According to the Bureau of of Justice Statistics, “61 percent of state prison inmates with a current or past violent offense have a mental health problem. Up to 20 percent of all inmates have symptoms of serious mental illness, including 15 percent of state prison inmates exhibiting signs of psychotic disorder” (James). Considering such a large amount of inmates have some type of mental illness, there needs to be some system to help treat them while they serve time. There is no system used by the court of law to differentiate the “mentally insane” from those who are mentally ill due to the fact that there is no solid test that is consistently used to determine mental insanity (Banner). By getting rid of the insanity plea the United States Court of Law can focus on inmates with all types of mental disorders, no matter the severity. After each defendant's trial, they should be examined by several psychologists to test their mental health. From there they can receive treatment while being monitored in institutions created for the mentally ill prisoners. By getting rid of the insanity plea altogether, more focus can be put on each person convicted and their mental needs, therefore decreasing untreated mental illness in the

In my opinion it is not morally permissible to execute convicted murderer who was sane at the time of his crime but now is insane because of his current medical situation he should not be executed has to be forgiven. Insane people cannot realized or feel guilty about wrong action they have taken when they were insane. There is no sense of punishing someone who is mentally incompetent. Because of his medical condition it would be morally acceptable to be forgiven some who has done their crime when they were sane. I think in my view every person have right to get medical treatment no matter who he/ she as a medical treatment it is permissible to medicate insane people. But before executing it is very important to make sure insane people are

At what point do you decide someone should be in prison and not a hospital? The mentally ill should be helped and not be put in prison. Their background, such as their childhood, should be taken into account when deciding what their criminal sentence should be. The mentally ill should be helped, not punished, which is why they should be put in mental institutions not prisons.

Statistics show more than 2 million mentally ill people are sent to prisons each year. Most of them spend twice as long in these facilities as compared to those that are mentally stable, this is because the mentally ill can’t follow rules and end up having more time added to their sentence. 13% of the mentally ill in prison spend an average of 2 years in solitary confinements during their stay in prison. Such individuals are bound to be volatile when released into the general population. While incarcerated they should regularly check on their mental health and put under medication when and if necessary. This will serve to better their mental health as well as reduce cases of defiance to the prison rules. In some cases instead of incarcerating all people found guilty of committing a crime, in case of mentally challenged people, they should either be taken to mental facility for better care and treatment or for the less severe cases, given medication and having an officer of the mental health care checking on them every now and then. These methods are better than incarceration as the problem which is their mental health is being treated rather than being prevented from

Mental illness, is a range of illnesses that affects your psychological and emotional well-being. When our minds are affected by a mental illness, usually all parts of the body are affected. It can be given through genetics or trauma/abuse in your lifetime. Some signs of mental illness can be shown if, they have low or no energy, they feel strangely angry, upset, worried, confused or scared. There are different types of mental illnesses. Anxiety and panic disorders, bipolar disorder and eating disorder are just a few of the entire list of illnesses. There are a lot of discrimination and stigma towards people with mental illness, especially people with schizophrenia who are labeled as “crazy”.

Insanity shouldn't be recognized as a valid defense or an excuse to keep someone from going to prison. Releasing an insane individual back into the public is dangerous for the people around them. It's much safer for our society if insane criminals remain locked up in jail or a mental hospital. Let's think back to Andrew Goldstein, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was in and out of a mental hospital for seven years, just two weeks after being released from the hospital he kills a woman by pushing her in front of

To begin, many people who suffer from mental diseases have been killed due to the death penalty. Ten percent of people on death row have extremely severe mental issues (The Facts: 13 Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty, n.d.).One seventy-four year old man from Missouri, Cecil Clayton, was killed after killing a cop although he

This article confirms mentally ill people do not belong in jail. They belong in hospitals or places with services to help them, but as in many cases the only option left is jail for those that need help.

I would define mental illness as a disease or sickness much like cancer. It has biological components (predisposition for mental illness) and environmental components (societal/cultural input). In this definition, mental illness is similar to cancer in that it is not contagious, but rather develops out of some reaction within, whether from a chemical imbalance, malfunction of the brain, or inability to cope with the difficulties life brings. In some situations, mental illness, in my opinion, develops from being too self-involved to the point of neuroticism. Thus, for cultures that put an emphasis to the extreme

Properly treating and providing adequate resources for those who are mentally ill has long been an issue in America. Most often the mentally ill are treated as criminals, locked away in jails instead of allocating resources to better train police officers in encounters with individuals who suffer from these mental ailments; housing these individuals in satisfactory mental health facilities instead of jails would better suit their needs. A stigma has been placed upon mentally ill individuals, they are seen as being dangerous, irate, and more likely to partake in criminal activity. There is a necessity for police officials to be properly trained in how to recognize as well as how to handle a mentally ill person, jails along with prisons must cease being used as housing quarters for the mentally ill, individuals in impoverished, minority communities need to have the same access to mental health facilities and resources as people in middle-class areas are privy to, and lastly mental health screenings should be a prerequisite to gun ownership to help ensure the decrease in mass shootings committed by those who are of ill mind.