Juvenile Incarceration : Mentally Ill Offenders

As a whole, literature on the topic of mental illness in our country and specifically in our criminal justice system had a reoccurring theme. There are millions of individuals who suffer from mental illness but are improperly being handled through the criminal justice system. These individuals are deemed criminal just by their acts and their mental health state is not overly examine. Jails and prisons are being overcrowded. State prisons and jails are overpopulated anywhere from 15 to 32% (Spending Money in All the Wrong Places: Jails & Prisons).

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.

Despite the fact that my parents have worked in the criminal justice system for many years, I have never given much thought to the treatment of prisoners. As we learned from the readings, the current state of the United States criminal justice system is imperfect to the point of cruelty to those involved in it. This is truer for individuals with a mental illness. Due to a lack of psychiatric facilities throughout Alabama and overcrowding of those that do exist, many criminal offenders with mental illnesses are sent to prisons instead. State prisons are currently overcrowded, leading to substandard conditions such in almost every aspect.

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

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

Around the 1970’s and 1980’s around the United States many mental hospitals were shut down. There were many reasons why they closed these Asylums was because money, and knowing that there was only about twenty county asylums were built around the country. The asylums also known as the Looney bin was established in Britain after passing in 1808 county asylum act. There were so many patients in these asylums around the world in 1955 about 558,239 severely mentally ill people in the United States were accounted for. Now in these times any mentally ill people don’t get help they just go straight to jail without proper diagnosis or treatment. People need to know these people need extreme care and treatment. Even regular people or considered the norm in today’s society eventually go crazy when they’re in prison too long. We have as much people that are mentally ill as regularly incarcerated. There is one prison in Houston Texas that does take care there mentally ill. We have about 2.2 million

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.

Mental illnesses are extremely pricy and dangerous. The staff has to be extra cautions with mentally disabled prisoners because they are more dangerous. The prison system does not have enough money to be able to maintain high-risk prisoners. “The average cost of keeping an older inmate incarcerated is about $69,000 a year”(Regan) it’s an outrageous amount of money. A Tennessee State prison gave Dr. Regan, Alderson, and Dr. William Regan gave data on older inmates who had mental illnesses. The study focused on the population and their mental disorder and the crime committed. 671 prisoners where tested in the study and 109 people where diagnosed with a mental illness: Out of the 109 people with a mental disorder only 13% where women and 87% where men. The most common crime for both genders with a mental disorder was murder. Women who committed murder suffered from depression illness. Men who committed crime in their older age committed sex crimes and where diagnosed with dementia. Our prisons are not equipped to be able to handle mentally disable prisoners. Mentally disorder people need to be in a mental house that can help them. It is not right to incarcerate someone who is sick.

When a mentally ill offender is brought before the court, the appointed judge has to make a difficult decision, determining whether treatment or punishment would be more effective in the case. Cases may differ, some may be more deliberate and perplexing while others are straightforward, but more research is needed for cases involving the mentally ill no matter how simple they may seem. Many factors are measured when a mentally ill criminal is prosecuted, such as their illness, the severity of their illness, and what type of crime they committed. Some firmly believe that prisons are where all criminals belong, no matter their mental state, but there is also another side. Others are making their opinions known, and fighting for treatment for these offenders.

Those who have mental illness are placed in prisons and community health programs when they should be in psychiatric hospitals. Correctional facilities are becoming the norm for the mentally ill, making mentally ill in the prisons an epidemic in the United States. According to research, approximately 700,000 have active symptoms of severe mental illness more than half of the prison population in the U.S. suffers from mental issues. (Lundahl, Kunz, Brownell, Harris & Van Vleet,

Another treatment offered is institutionalization programs. These programs are the least effective in my opinion. They offer prison like settings without the proper programs for rehabilitation. I realize that these “criminals” are still children and

Obviously, prisoners who have mental illnesses should be under control of prisoner psychologist and proper therapy should be provided. Moreover, if the illness progressing and mental disorder is already serious, prisoner should be treated in hospital.

Mentally ill persons within the criminal justice system are a very common occurrence. There are three to four times more mentally ill persons in the state prisons and jails then in the general population (Osher, 2005, pp.

Incarceration of the mentally ill has been a major controversial topic that has been discussed for many years. There are many problems regarding the incarceration of individuals with special needs. Many individuals who are mentally ill are charge with crimes that are very minor crimes that are more relatively symptomatic of their mental illness. In a studies done by Etter G, which report the characteristics of a group of individuals who are mentally ill gasped as the result of probate petitions over a time period of twelve months. The arrest characteristics of a group of former and current inmates incarcerated in a large Kansas jail who were seen by mental health services during their incarceration over a six-month period are examined, case studies of two mentally ill persons who were incarcerated in the jail are presented, and the implications that mentally ill persons pose for jail operations are discussed (Etter G, 2008). His conclusion examined that the reductions of workable mental institutions leads a potential threating encounters between law enforcement and individual who are mentally ill. These subjects that are let go by mental institutions to our society without support and some do not receive a proper treatment while out of the facilities are a major danger for law enforcement. According to Etter (2008) “limits the effectiveness of community-based treatment”.

There are several different types of offenders in prison. Among the prison population are mentally ill prisoners, special needs offenders, and substance-abusing offenders. These special offenders affect the jail and prison systems at state and federal levels because they require more intensive or specialized services to be successfully reintegrated into society. If they do not receive special attention, they can harm themselves or others, or become sick from substance related illnesses. Mentally ill offenders must have access to psychiatric health, mental health therapies, psychotropic medications, and types of special offenders need to be separated from the rest of the prison population to prevent them from hurting other inmates. They also must be monitored at all times so they do not