Deinstitutionalization In Mental Health Essay

The deinstitutionalization of state mental hospitals has left many individuals untreated and in the community where there come under police scrutiny due to their odd behavior, that is a manifestation of their illness. Majority of mentally ill offenders have not committed a serious crime and are subjected to inappropriate arrest and incarceration (Soderstrom, 2008). This new policy has become quite a concern to the fact that the correctional environment has proven to show no positive results in the mental health of the offender during their time of incarceration or upon their release date and thereafter (Soderstrom, 2008).

The incarceration of those who are mentally ill is on the continual rise. Many states juggle with the decision of placing offenders in Mental Hospital or locating them in State Prisons. Latessa and Holsinger (2011) discuss two major reasons for the increase of those with mental illness within the prison system. First, many states have no longer allow for the insanity plea during criminal trials, thus those who suffer from mental illness are not required to receive mandatory mental treatment. This is due to the discomforting idea that criminal offenders should not be given the same living conditions as those whom are patients of mental wards. Secondly, longer sentences have created a surplus of mentally ill offenders needing treatment. Soderstrom (2007) added that the lack of mental health support systems in

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 United States criminal justice system has been continuously increasing incarceration among individuals who suffer from a sever mental illness. As of 2007 individuals with severe mental illness were over twice as likely to be found in prisons than in society (National Commission of Correctional Health Care, 2002, as cited in Litschge &Vaughn, 2009). The offenses that lead to their commitment in a criminal facility, in the majority of cases, derive from symptoms of their mental illness instead of deviant behavior. Our criminal justice system is failing those who would benefit more from the care of a psychiatric rehabilitation facility or psychiatric hospital by placing them in correctional facilities or prisons.

Attitudes toward the mentally ill started to change in the 60’s and 70’s from both the communities and professionals. The two began to recognize that the mentally ill had rights to live an independent life style like that of ordinary citizens. Before this, people with mental illness or developing disabilities had been institutionalized, giving strong medications, sedated and isolated from the rest of society. Living amongst the community, they receive their medication as well as interact with the general public. In addition, they also interact with security personnel and law enforcement officers, and all too frequently with unfortunate consequences. (Russell, 2012).

The solution to the problem is to provide sufficient funding to the community-based mental health system so people could be helped before they become part of the prison system. Services like medication therapy and monitoring, residential services, rehabilitation services and support services are successful in bringing the severely mentally ill back to communities. As a rule, community services are also less expensive. Instead, we see mental health agencies being closed and stripped of their budgets. As a result the mentally ill have no place to go for treatment and support.

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

Once released from an institution a mentally ill person, without the support of the community and much needed medication, might find themselves feeling very scared and threatened by interactions with the community. This leads us to another problem, which is crime and the mentally ill. About one thousand people in the U.S. are murdered by severely mentally ill people who are not receiving treatment. These killings are about 5% of all homicides nationwide, and help show once again how important it

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

For a start, as my semester topic, I subjectively selected to focus on individuals diagnosed with a mental health illness and how they are overrepresented within the criminal justice systems/continuum, specifically, the prison/penal system. In this paper, I will first introduce/describe what mental health looks like within the penal system and why it has become problematic, not only for forensic social workers, but for all criminal justice professions; such as; the court systems, law enforcement departments, parole and probation, prisons, and reentry to name a few. Overcriminalization, as discussed in lecture has become exacerbated by many motives, one of them being individuals with a mental health illness targeted and warehoused throughout

A majority of the book involves an examination of the debate between advocates for patients’ right to adequate treatment and advocates for patient’s civil rights. Another one of Earley’s major arguments was that jails were not suitable environments for individuals with SMI. He found that inmates were being shuffled between jails, psychiatric hospitals, and courts. Through his observations, and interviews, Earley determined that jails were not equipped to treat individuals with SMI. Thus, these individuals were never actually being rehabilitated. Overall, Earley’s arguments were consistent with the idea that individuals with SMI should be receiving consistent treatment. His personal experiences with his son seemed to have a significant influence on his beliefs about individuals with SMI, as he assumed that individuals with SMI did not have insight into severity of their own mental illnesses. His arguments mostly stemmed from his role as a parent struggling to navigate the mental health and criminal justice systems as a result of a crime committed by his son.

Jails have been described as “de facto mental hospitals” because they have filled the void created when state psychiatric hospitals began closing in the early 1960s through a process known as deinstitutionalization. Supporters of deinstitutionalization thought the process would help individuals suffering from a mental illness live more self-reliantly while being treated by community mental health programs. However, the federal government did not provide the necessary funding to meet the mounting demand for these programs, leaving numerous untreated. Individuals with serious mental illnesses are often poor or homeless and are likely to have substance abuse problems. Therefore, when they are left untreated, they are more likely to commit minor crimes that have been the focus of law enforcement in recent years (H. Richard Lamb and Linda Weinberger).

The homeless- found on city park benches, street corners, and subway grates. Where did all of these people come from? One third, to one half of the homeless suffer from a mental illness. A lot is said about the homeless-mentally ill, but what their plight says about us may be more significant. We still have not found a place for those who are both poor and insane. Once there was a place for them; the asylum fulfilled the basic needs of thousands for decades, but now these institutions lay empty and in ruin. Has the hope to heal the mentally ill also been abandoned? Is there once again a need for the asylum? The disbandment of the asylum was the first step in ending segregation for those

Mental health courts play a huge role in resolving court problems that continues to grow nationwide. Even though mental health courts share much in the same manner as other critical courts, imperative contrasts have developed. For instance, mental health courts differ as far as charges are acknowledged. These courts are not just strategies within the court system to framework a better reaction/response from the offenders or defendants with mental illnesses but are more so upheld and similar to programs that are identified as discharge and directional agendas for dysfunctional behaviors.

The mentally ill have always been oppressed in different ways. From multiple psychology classes I have learned that mentally ill individuals have been accused of witchcraft because of acting strange, they have been executed because of the misunderstanding of their illness, and they have been locked in