Essay On Mental Illnesses

Do you believe that the mentally ill should be held accountable for their actions or do you believe that they shouldn’t be punished for being mentally ill? They 're many different mental illnesses/disorders where each one causes an individual to act and function a certain way, leading them to homicidal and suicidal. Some mental disorders are anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders and even psychosomatic disorders. Many people have a different perspective about this. They believe that the mentally ill offenders should not be held responsible for their actions for precise reasons but I believe that the mentally ill offenders should be held accountable for their actions.

I believe so many are diagnosed with mental illness in the criminal justice system due to their repetitive actions of law breaking. In the beginning, these offenders are unaware a mental illness exists. So many offenders have pre-existing mental illnesses which are untreated; others may acquire a mental illness while incarcerated. This could be due to aging, or an occurrence which takes place in prison such as segregation. Separating humans from and isolating them from any population is

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.

While it is inevitable that some prisoners will have psychiatric problems, it would be beneficial to reduce the rates. In Canada, there are some attempts to do this. Under section 672.38(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada, each province has a Review Board to handle people who are found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder (NCRMD) or unfit to stand trial. A person with a “disease of the mind” may be deemed NCRMD if they are incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or omission or of knowing that it was wrong. This is a fairly high standard, which requires a significant degree of mental impairment. If a person is found to be NCRMD, the court or Review Board must decide to discharge the accused absolutely,

Americas correctional system has multiple issues. The system needs a complete reform from the ground up. One of the main issues that I will be focusing on is the mentally ill offenders that are incarcerated in our prison systems. There are the mentally ill who had a pre-existing condition before they were sent to prison as well as those who do enter the prison system with no mental illness, can develop some type of mental illness when they are released due to the harsh conditions that are present in today’s prison systems. The number of men and women who come to prison with some form of mental illness continues to grow by the

When a person with a mental disorder commits a crime, what should be expected of that person? Well that person is expected to get arrested and go to jail. But this person has a sickness that is different from all the other inmates. Does this sickness get recognized? It should because if not then it may become a problem for everyone. People with severe mental illness do not necessarily think the same way other do which is a even better reason to want to help them learn how to control their sickness. So here it is, the big question. Should mentally ill inmates be allowed to receive treatment or should their punishment be more important? This question embodies controversy but it is not a question that needs to be ignored. Should they get treatment for their mental disability over prison.

According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, 75% of females and 63% of males in local jails have suffered from mental illness. This means most criminals are dealing with serious mental health issues and aren’t getting the help they need. Thus, leading them to commit unlawful crimes. They are mentally ill and are committing these crimes due to the fact that they aren’t receiving treatment and aren’t being assisted. Additionally, many times when people are diagnosed, they often reject a professional’s diagnosis and treatment. They feel as though they are mentally healthy, and the thoughts they think and decisions they make aren’t unethical or immoral. This mentality stems from the ignorance common people have on mental illness. When these people

Does society think that mentally ill people are supposed to go to jail for murders that they commit? Does society think that mentally ill people should be ignored in jail, deprived of the treatment that they need? About 9 million people are imprisoned worldwide, but the number with serious mental disorders is unknown. We do know that worldwide, several million prisoners have serious mental disorders, but how does the prison address these issues? Unfortunately, prisons are ill-equipped to respond appropriately to the needs of prisoners with mental illness. Prison mental health services are all too frequently woefully deficient, crippled by understaffing, insufficient facilities and limited programs. The public treats mentally ill people very

Although these statistics do not say whether or not these people are capable of understanding the long term consequences of their actions, it does show that our current system is failing to give these people proper treatment. There are a large number of people who suffer from mental illness and the system is not large enough to accommodate all those who need help (Nieto, 1999, pg. 4).

Schizophrenic disorder has been the blame for many criminal activities over the years. If a person gets diagnosed with a mental problem and shows any sign of bad behavior leading up to criminal act, their mental illness is always the first that people looks at. However, the mental illness is never the issue, therefore, mental illnesses -with the right

One way to reduce the problem of mentally ill people in jail is that the government provide more money to prisons to be people out regular prisons. The government should create specialized hospitals oh prisons to treat these people. Once the person is cured, they are sent to the common prison. I think it's unfair that people with mental health problems and people who have committed crimes knowing what they were doing are together. The person with mental problems may not know what he was doing. It is unfair to send people with mental illness to prison because mental illnesses incapacitates the human brain and corrupts thoughts and feeling of the people. Give inmates the chance to rehabilitate in mental hospitals in order to lock them behind

Throughout history, people with mental disorders have been treated differently than those who do not. Those with mental illnesses were thought to be possessed by evil spirits and were put in prisons and special institutions to separate them from society. Furthermore, mental disorders, specifically schizophrenia, are a contributing factor to crime. Although someone with a mental illness may have lost touch with reality, they are still responsible with their actions, and possibly, the crimes they commit. Therefore, even though an individual may have a mental disorder, they should not be exempt from the death penalty (Mental Disorders 1 and 2).

Mentally disordered offenders have a misconception and a stigma attached to them. A mentally disordered offender is said to be mentally ill, and with the word illness inside the term a common assumed realization is that they are sick and need to be cured with medical attention (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). Mental illness is defined as “a disease of the mind that is judged by ex-perts to interfere substantially with a persons ability to cope with life on a daily basis (Bartol & Bartol, 2011).” However, all ranges of a mentally disordered person is still accountable for their decisions because they are still able to make such decisions (Bartol & Bartol, 2011). For exam-ple, Bartol and Bartol (2011) give a scenario where a woman tried to plea insanity for drowning her children because she was saving them from damnation. Ultimately she was committed and was found not guilty because of faulty testimony from the forensic psychologist

I think it is absolutely imperative that we have laws such as the "guilty but mentally ill" and "diminished capacity defense/verdict. If your cognitive thought processes are compromised how can addressing the mental disorder be omitted from the process? How can it not be taken into consideration? We thoughtfully understand and warn about cycles of abuse, the victim becoming the perpetrator etc. but we do nothing to deal with these issues at the point we are dealing with an offender. I can't imagine anyone wants to simply absolve people of their crimes, the issue at hand is what is going to benefit society, a person sitting in a closed environment for a number of years not receiving treatment or a person being sentenced to a psychiatric facility to treat the issues that caused the criminal behavior? This seems to have a sort of common sense to it but it isn't always that easy for people to imagine, especially when we start using adjectives like monster and evil. This recent case I am attaching below is a good example of a treatment sentence in place of a harsh or lengthy punitive sentence that asks us to weigh these issues. In deliberating these questions the public is also sorely uninformed about most mental health disorders. A good example is "intra-family incest", as this case I've linked was. The public tends to put all people in one category, but the truth is that yes, all pedophiles are indeed child molesters but not all child molesters are pedophiles. This is very difficult for most people to grapple with or even care about, but in the world of re-offending and threats to the public, these distinctions become very important. In dehumanizing those people in society that we find too abhorrent or too difficult to understand we tend to cry for the noose no longer seeing them as human beings,

Violent crimes occur more than one could even imagine. However, there is definitely a questionable aspect to these crimes within their court procedures. If one were to take a closer look at specific court procedures of crimes having to deal with mental illnesses, it will be determined that it is viewed differently oppose to a sane person. When taking mental illnesses into consideration when referring to criminal behavior, there is an obvious difference between actions. There begins to be a question of responsibility within these criminals. It is fair to say that there is a difference with court procedures. The imperativeness of the courts is extremely important when referring to any case. There are biological and social risk factors that pertain to any given case. There is a question as to if these should be taken into consideration when enduring the court process as an entirety. By taking a deeper look at the biological aspects within a case, the justice system will be able to give more accurate sentences.