Mental Disabilities In Prisons

This paper explores the topic of mental health within prisons and how it affects the inmates. The report of my findings were through research of twelve articles, two credible website sources, and a published textbook.

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

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

Texas has approximately 24.3 million residents according to 2010 state statistics from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Close to 833,000 adults live with a serious mental illness. Within these 24.3 million residents of Texas in 2008, approximately 37,700 adults with a mental illness were incarcerated (NAMI.org). Additionally, there is an estimated 31% of female and 14% of male jail inmates nationally live with serious mental illness. We see this because there are inadequate public mental health services to meet the needs of those suffering. Texas public mental health

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

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

Throughout the years, the United States criminal justice system has been constantly incarcerating individuals who endure from a severe mental illness. People who suffer from serious mental illness are doubtlessly to be discovered in prison. There is a significant amount of mentally ill offenders that are placed in the state and federal institutions. The mentally ill are overpopulating the prisons. The criminal justice system is a deficiency for those who can profit more from the help of mental health treatment center or psychiatric hospital by sending individuals to correctional facilities or prisons. Today’s jails and prisons are being labeled as the new mental health hospitals for the mentally ill offenders. Commonly in today’s society, it generally takes other individuals who are willing to educate and support the mentally ill person into becoming successful in life.

In the Frontline presentation, “The New Asylums”, the program explored the lives in prison of several Ohio inmates. The presentation presented numerous distinct issues of the treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system. The most significant issues presented within the program were the medical treatment received both in and out of the prison system, factors that influence punishment, isolation and medication, the length of the sentencing the mentally ill receive, and why prisons seem to have become the new asylums.

Mental illness is a very serious situation considering that many jails have more ill people that any hospital. Prisons are not set up for ill people. But they pick the mental ill people form the streets do to the fact they can not support them self. The main goal for this institution is to help out the mentally ill. Some inmate’s target the weak, and the inmates that need help would become easy prey. If an inmate even looks at an ill person it is a clear target that can easily be harmfully harassed. I am against mental ill inmates being in prison and jail considering that they can not defend them self.

The articles inform that more mentally ill people are in jail than in hospitals. According to statistics 159,000 of mentally ill are presently incarcerated in jails and prisons, mostly of crimes committed because they were not being treated. Some of them become violent and may terrorize their families and neighborhoods. Tragically, most of those instances of incarceration are unnecessary. We know what to do, but for economic, legal and ideological reasons, we fail to do it.

A major issue facing the prison system and society is the fact that prisons are not equipped to meet the needs of older prisoners and older prisoners are not adequately prepared to-renter society.

In 2012 doctors performed a study on the prevalence of substance use and serious mental illnesses such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia in incarcerated women. There were a total 491 participants from prisons in Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. These participant’s ages ranged from 17 to 62 and about 75% of these women were mothers of children under the age of 18. One in five women had been incarcerated for two weeks or less and about half of them had been incarcerated for less than five weeks. The occurrence of mental disorders in this study was higher than they thought it would be. They found that there was no major difference in the percentages of women from rural and urban locations.

In this society it is easy to dismiss people as crazy, lazy, or violent without knowing a person’s full background. We all come from different walks of the life and we have a tendency to turn a blind eye to that fact. I look at our prison system and see an array of people incarcerated for many different reasons. The background and upbringing of a person plays a vital role in the type of person someone is going be when they grow up. A person who grew up in a home of violence will have to make a decision about their future. The things seen as a child will either cause a person to break mentally or they will have the determination to do better for their family and themselves. In some cases, a person will have to seek help in order to obtain

For most people, serving a prison sentence is punishment enough, but for the population of disabled inmates, it’s almost like they’re being punished twice. Most prisons are not equipped with the tools necessary to deal with disabled inmates properly, and as a result, those inmates end up suffering the consequences. Along with this, some prisons fail to acknowledge or ignore the fact that these inmates have a disability, and therefore do not make the proper accommodations for them. It has been found that “for 31 percent of inmates in state prisons nationwide who report having a physical or cognitive disability, abuse and neglect can be common features of prison life, according to a recent report by Disability Rights Washington.” (Vice News)