Mental Health And Mental Illness

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.

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

Everyday correctional officials work to deal with mental health inmates. Often hotly debated, many search for ways to work with this growing population. Glaze and Bonczar (2009) estimate around 2.3 million people are incarcerated within the US and of those, 20 percent suffer from some form of mental disorder. Even with such a high number, the rate of mental illnesses within the prison system is on the climb. Many of these inmates will remain incarcerated and receive little to no treatment for their mental issues. This essay, will look at the practices associated when dealing with mental illness and discuss the strategies on dealing with this growing issue.

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

Mother Behind Bars examines a lot of inadequate policies and procedures that these states have in place for federal and state correctional facilities. This report card bring up the issue on prenatal care, shackling, prison nurseries, and family based treatment as an alternative to incarceration however in this paper I will focus on the restraints on these pregnant inmates. New Jersey received a grade of D for shackling policies. Besides New Jersey thirty-seven other states obtain a D/F for their failure to comprehensively limit, or limit at all, the use of restraints on pregnant women transportation, labor, delivery, and postpartum recuperation (National Women’s Law Center, 2010). The use of restraints can compromise the health and safety of the women and the unborn child. Shackling pregnant women is dangerous and inhumane; women prisoners are still routinely shackled during pregnancy and childbirth. The reason these women are shackled is for safety and security, despite the fact that shackling pregnant women is degrading, unnecessary and a violation of human rights some state still condone this practice.

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

In the past thirty years, the incarceration of women has risen exponentially. Poverty, lack of access to education, abuse, addiction, mental health and parenting issues all impact women’s criminality and health before, during and after they are incarcerated (Hannaher, K., 2007). By 2010 there were nearly 206,000 women currently serving time in the criminal justice system. As the years go by, the numbers are constantly increasing (Women Behind Bars, 2015). The number of pregnant women incarcerated has also been on the rise. Most incarcerated women do not receive proper prenatal care before entering the criminal justice system. Because these women are from mostly poverty neighborhoods, they are more likely to endure domestic violence, poor

According to a 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that over half of the inmates in both prisons and in jails had a problem concerning their mental health (James & Glaze, 2006). The estimates in this report were separated by federal prisons, which contained 45 percent of inmates suffering from mental illness, 56 percent in state prisons, and

Maternity care for women in prison has not been respectable. Prison health care is undergoing a modernization program with a requirement that prisoners receive health care to the same standard as those not imprisoned. An article written by Sally Price describes the findings of a research study into the maternity services for women in prison. She provides a background to the project and describes the pregnant prison population and the current services available to them. What is evident from the findings is that the standard of care for women in prison is variable, dependent upon the establishment in which they reside. Two different studies showed results involving the incarcerated pregnant woman. The first study questioned wardens about

(Ferst & Erickson-Owens, 2008) Many of these women were lacking education, had been unemployed or underemployed and were lacking adequate health insurance prior to being incarcerated. (Siefert & Pimlott, 2001) In general, most women enter the prison system with a plethora of physical and emotional obstacles; in addition, the health concerns of pregnancy and childbirth increase the challenges presented to institution medical staff to provide the necessary medical and emotional support that this woman will need. The prison health care system has improved considerably over recent years, especially in the area of women’s health and mental health services, often times due to intervention by health, women and civil rights advocacy groups. (Birth, 2000)

It is shown that the inmate population for prisons and jail has high rates of very serious illness, limited access to care. According to the first nationwide study of inmate health and health care approximately, more than 800,000 inmates which would be at least 40 percent

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at any given time 6-10% of the ~113,000 women serving time in prison in the United States are pregnant. Per statistics released by the Women’s Prison Association (WPA), the number of mothers who are incarcerated has increased 112% since 1991, with this, the number of babies born in prison has also increased. Several prisons across the United States have adopted the prison nursery as a part of rehabilitation of women in prison with children.

Many individuals feel the only way to repair the United States current system of diagnosing and treating inmates with mental illness is to completely rewrite the system and increase funding. Kathryn A. Burns writes in her article, Psychiatry behind bars: Practicing in jails and prisons, that despite the increase in the number of psychologists and psychiatrists practicing within the jail and prison system, most have had little or in some cases no training, education, or even orientation for these types of settings. While forensic psychiatry fellowship requirements include experience in treating acutely and chronically ill patients in correctional systems. Although general psychiatric training doesn’t discourage correctional ex¬perience, it is not a requirement. Any forensic requirements of general psychiatric residency are limited to evaluation of forensic issues, report writing, and testimony. Burns continues to describe in her article how even with the 1976 United States Supreme Court ruling, stating that the “unnecessary and wanton inflic¬tion of pain”… proscribed by the Eighth Amendment was to include not only how correctional facilities cared for the medical needs of inmates but also their mental needs, little has changed within these facilities. Inmates within jails are at a disadvantage due to the lack of time spent in these facilities. Jails often house inmates for shorter periods of time, usually one year or less, have rapid turnover,

Furthermore, female inmates are another challenge for correctional administrators. For example, an important and alarming issue such as overwhelming pregnancy and abortion related health care factors can become expensive. These inmates need special clear, intensive monitoring and observation. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “200,000 women are living behind prison or jail walls and thousands of these women are pregnant and dependent on the correctional administrators for health care.” (para. 1). Even though correctional administrators are legally obligated to meet their needs, there are guidelines that they must follow. These guidelines are put in place to further assist correctional administrators so that they are not violating the rights and well-being of female inmates who are already pregnant or considering on having a child while incarcerated.