In Our Ever-Changing World, Mankind Has Always Been Concerned

Mental Illness has been prevalent all throughout our history from Isaac Newton to Abraham Lincoln to Sylvia Plath and so on. These illnesses can be as minor as a slight bipolar disorder or as severe as schizophrenia. In recent years, mental illnesses are becoming more prevalent in our criminal justice systems than anywhere else. Mental illness is becoming an association with crime and based on the information that has been found, this paper will attempt to further define the problem of mental illness within our criminal justice system and offer alternatives or insights as to how to possibly help with this problem.

Suicide among police officers is a dramatic example of what can happen when those entrusted with the protection of others fail to protect and care for themselves (Suicide and the Police Officer, 2006). Police officers tend to create an identify for themselves in order to seem powerful, in-charge, and unwavering in the line of duty, when in reality the persona that they create can lead to officers breaking down physically and mentally (McCord 368). After an officer joins the police force, they are expected to accept the fact that there will be violence and trauma in their line of work. There are no mental health checkpoints that officers are required to meet in order to continue working in these stressful conditions, forcing

Individuals suffering from mental illnesses tend to fall victim to the criminal justice system due to their uncontrollable actions that result from their mental illness symptoms. Within the United States two to three hundred thousand people in prison suffer from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, severe depression, and bipolar disorder. Sadly, the majority of prisons are deficient in providing the appropriate resources to treat these individuals; people with mental illnesses are too frequently socially mistreated, neglected, and misunderstood within the confines of a prison. Prisons are deficient in correctional staff trained to suit mentally ill inmates, in

Formal options (hospitalization and arrest) may be time consuming for the officer as well as not be in the best interest for the person that is mentally ill whereas, sometimes officers are sometimes left unable to resolve the matter informally because of the inexperience and unfamiliarity with de-escalation techniques. Law enforcement officers are trained to assess the situation and take the best course of action to resolve the issues, especially when dealing with the mental health community the goal is that the situation can be resolves peacefully. However, recent interactions between law enforcement agencies and mentally ill suspects have had some disappointing results (Teplin, 2000).

The scope of Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) is limited due to the newness of this model being implemented in different police departments across the country. The CIT model is being implemented in over 400 programs with different aspects taken from the original model. (Draine,J.,Ottati,V.,Schaefer,M.Watson,A.2008)Focusing on the how police officers deal with the mentally ill, and the spread of the police based CIT programs.

The recent increase in emergency 9-1-1 calls involving mentally ill persons has heightened the awareness of the Criminal Justice System. Across the nation, law enforcement encounters with mentally ill persons have become more frequent, and the use of deadly force against mentally ill persons has increased. Since the deinstitutionalization of the mental health system, law enforcement officials have been tasked with controlling deviant and sometimes criminal behavior of persons who suffer from mental illness. As a result, law enforcement agencies have implemented crisis intervention training (CIT) and diversion tactics due to the numerous challenges faced when serving the mentally ill. Major deficiencies in the mental health system and State legislations have hindered progressive efforts towards assisting mentally ill persons. With the dramatic consequences associated with untreated mental illness, it is certain that law enforcement officers will experience an encounter requiring knowledge, specialized training, and the ability to build collaborative partnerships.

According to Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Gugliemi, “they don't track PTSD numbers, Nationwide, it's estimated as many as 18 percent of police are suffering from PTSD”(Doane). He once described it as, "a hidden enemy. We don't really know it. We don't really understand it," Gugliemi explained. Leaving officers untrained in the matter of mental health illness has led to many officers not getting the proper care and treatment individually. Some may argue that counseling is given, and that police officers are able to go to these sessions. However, the “counseling [offered in the force] is not mandatory” (Doane). Making counseling mandatory would remove the stigma of asking for help, and would also [hopefully] help the officers who are dealing with or have experienced on the job traumatization. Asking for help can be very degrading, and could make someone feel weak in the eyes of society. Having a shrink/therapist is frowned upon and opens doors to nasty comments and hushed whispers. You might even be labeled crazy or something just has to be wrong with you, why else would you have one? For police, their job is high demand and their emotions are often tucked away as soon as they step into their uniform. Mandatory counseling will inform and help police officers and their superiors who have preexisting trauma, dealing with, or is being exposed around possible situations that can lead to

Furthermore, tremendous advances have been made in the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses in the recent decades. Nowadays, someone with a mental illness is treated with respect, just like every other person, because, in fact, everyone is equal. Society’s goals today are to treat and support the mentally ill individuals enough so they can live in

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).

is going to be a threat to themselves or to the public if so they will

However, upon analyzing the incident involving the force of police and mentally ill, have flaws in which is why the altercation resulted in the victim’s death. In the case of Forcillo discharging the nine shots at Yatim fatally killing him, it projected his thoughts a misjudgement. In belief and through misjudgement it may be Forcillo was unaware that Yatim was under the influence of drugs, therefore his belief was that Yatim was mentally insane. By training the police force to detect the usage of drugs within the person by body language instead of finding or smelling the evidence, it will eliminate the assumption that the suspect has the intentions of their actions. Policies issuing on the topic of mental health during criminal acts are not an unlikely occurrence. Nevertheless, careful considerations should be made towards cases involving intoxication or high levels of drugs. In cases that the individual is aggressive or unresponsive to demands of the correcting officers, violent actions to detain the individual must be limited to not harm or have the individual harm themselves at any cost. The self-preservation of life mentioned in Police management of mental health crisis situations in the community: Status quo, current gaps and future directions should be the main priority

There has also been law enforcement shootings that were based solely on ego and lack of regulation. But the ability to differentiate the mental crisis and the asshole needs to be a skill that any law enforcement officer should have from day 1. The ability to read people and their body language is essential. The ability to reason or attempt to reason with a distressed person is essential. And 40 hours of training is a great start, but it is not enough. This can be laid out in a different manner to explain the problem. Out of 16 weeks of police training, there is only one week utilized to teach a professional how to talk someone out of doing something damaging to themselves or anyone in the vicinity. There has not been a good working knowledge on body language, negotiations, and calming an irate person in that week. Let alone a person who has a serious mental health issue who is not in their right mind.

illness has the potential to take full control over a person’s life, creating many obstacles from

Despite the fact that law enforcement officers deal with a great deal of stress, for fear of being labeled weak, troubled, or ineffective, officers generally avoid seeking help. According to numerous research investigations noted in the article, training active-duty or retired law enforcement personnel to be mental health paraprofessionals has been a successful way to reach out to officers in need of crisis intervention following a critical incident. By using a paraprofessional that is already integrated into the law enforcement culture and providing them with some crisis intervention tools under the supervision of a licensed mental health worker, law enforcement officers are provide with access to mental-health critical

Image a life where you have difficulty defending yourself and nobody can clearly understand you. Now visualize trying to convince others that you are innocent of a crime. Since the early 80s, more than sixty mentally ill criminals have been executed the US (Mental Illness on Death Row). This paper will discuss the relationship between the law and the challenges faced by mentally criminals from tries to appeals and execution. It provides examples of some of the more famous cases of the execution of the mentally ill and describes current legislative. But we would try answer the whether the mentally disabled criminals should be charged with a death penalty. Throughout this paper, we will use Borromeo 's definition of someone with mental issues. He stated "mental retardation is a lifelong condition of impaired or incomplete mental development..." ( Borromeo 178). Some examples of these illnesses include but are not limited to major depression, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder .