Mental Illness And Mental Health

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.

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.

But the people that do not have that opportunity are offered little help in finding somewhere to live. Employment is also an issue faced. Many places do not want to hire someone that has been in prison before. Also, the level of education that the person has is a contributing factor to employers saying no to ex-prisoners. Often times background checks are initiated with the application process of a job and when someone tells them that they have been convicted of a crime the employer is a little more hesitant on hiring this person. But on the other end, only about 62 percent of potential employers would not consider hiring ex-inamtes, only 32 percent reported using background checks on a consistent basis. 38 percent of the potential employers would consider hiring ex-inmates (Police Operations).

There are more reasons why its hard for recently released prisoners to find a job including the stigma that goes along with being a convicted offender. “There are several reasons why incarceration reduces the employability and subsequent earning potential of released inmates. First, the stigma attached to incarceration makes it difficult for ex-prisoners to be hired. Employers are reluctant to hire individuals with a criminal record, because it signals that they may not be trustworthy. A survey of employers in five major cities across the country revealed that two-thirds of all employers

Harrison and Nadeau (2007) discusses how jails and prisons has been the last place for an individual with serve mental illness, which leads to substance abuse and repeat offenders in the criminal justice system. Harrison and Nadeau (2007) compares a sample of inmates with no medical history on repeat

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration among the developed countries, with 2.2 million currently in jails and prisons. The number of inmates with mental disorders has been increasing during the past three decades, most likely the result of the deinstitutionalization of the state mental health system. Correctional institutions have become the de facto state mental hospitals. There are more seriously and persistently mentally ill people in prisons than in all state hospitals in the United States. When incarcerated these people face many disadvantages on top of their sickness. They do not receive the psychiatric help they need, nor do they receive proper medication or therapy. In addition, the guards do not know how to properly deal with people with mental disabilities. With so many issues in the criminal justice system there is no room for improvement for these inmates.

Overcrowding prison has become a huge problem within the United States, which lead to seeking in alternative options. Since there isn’t enough space or resources applicable to provide for all those who are diagnosed with mental issues, a shift to community supervision have taken place; probation and parole being the greatest form of supervision. The National Institute of Corrections continues to state how parole and probation are overrepresentation of those who are mentally ill, with rates two to four times greater than the general population. Even with this being true, the combination of the cost of imprisonment, treatment needs and

In the early 1950’s and 60’s, there were a great number of mental facilities in operation and the number of mentally ill locked in prisons was not as bad as it is today. We as a society seemed to gone in reverse and returned to the practice of locking up the mentally ill up in prison while closing mental facilities over the years. Mental health services have been crippled by the shutting down of mental health facilities and reliance on health care insurance to address the needs of those who require treatments necessary in order to enable them to function in society. Whether this is reflective of a change in society as to how the mentally ill should be treated or strictly a result of drained funding remains to be seen. Currently many correctional facilities are working tirelessly with the community in bridging the gaps, and making treatment a priority in an attempt to minimize the number of mentally ill patients from coming to

With the termination of state psychiatric hospitals and the decline in funding for mental health benefits, many individuals with severe mental illnesses are entangled in the criminal justice system. Moreover, the country's jails and prisons have become hospitals for people with mental illnesses, many of whom also battle with substance abuse. There is a crucial need to repair a defective system. The criminal justice system must address the mass incarceration and impede public expenses that do not generate beneficial results in terms of providing valuable services and keeping extremely mentally ill persons out of the countries prisons and jails. Concentrating on this inadequacy will require the state and county policymakers to join forces; developing

This "background study examines how individuals with mental illness are handled and treated in the criminal justice system and discusses the suggestions of unsatisfactory or inadequate care for these individuals. In particular, the main objectives are to review current practice in the processing of mentally ill offenders, assess the societal and economic costs associated with recidivism and insufficient care for this population, and highlight promising strategies to tackle challenges involved in the reintegration of mentally ill offenders into society".

According to Morrissey, et al (2016), individuals with mental illness are three times more likely to be incarcerated, with over 100,000 in jails, over 250,000 in prisons, and over a million on probation or parole in mid-2016. One study estimated that 15-25% of adult prisoners suffer from mental illness, compared to 5-8% of the general public (Falconer, El-Hay, Alevras, Doch erty, Yanover, Kalton, Goldschmidt, & Rosen-Zvi, 2017). Compounding the problem, it has been estimated that nearly 30% of jails are holding mentally ill individuals who have not been charged with a crime but are simply waiting for a psychiatric evaluation or a bed to open in a hospital (Ellis & Alexander, 2017). Prisons and jails are now referred to as the “new asylums” and “warehouses” (Felthous, August 2014). While some prisons have special mental health units, such units often do not have enough beds to provide for the number of severely mentally ill prisoners who need them (Lord,

Care and treatment for the Mentally Disordered Offender (MDO) has always reflected society’s intolerance and punitive attitude, typified by a desire to remove persons with mental illness from public sight (Gostin, 1983). Traditionally, health care for this population was provided in institutions until the 1950s. De-institutionalisation and large-scale closures of psychiatric institutes in the 1980s resulted from therapeutic advancement and the advent of psychotropic medication, which in turn led to a need to provide care and treatment in the least restrictive setting (Geller et al, 2006 ; Morrow e al 2003). Many patients were discharged,

This withholding of mental health treatment on the basis of the type of crime one has committed supports the hypothesis that prisons tend to prioritize punishment at the cost of denying mental ill prisoners the necessary rehabilitative mental health resources. The upsetting truth is that failure to properly treat mentally ill prisoners does not appear to be a matter of lacking mental health resources, but instead a refusal to use them.

The criminal justice system lacks the necessary fiscal resources to manage the needs of mentally ill offenders. Mentally ill offenders have limited access to mental health professionals, medical staff, and criminal justice professionals who can accurately assess, evaluate, diagnose and treat their mental health issues. “Prisons and jails have a legal obligation to provide health and mental health care for inmates” (Ford et al. (2007), yet mentally ill offenders are not receiving services they need or are entitled to receive. U.S. courts have ruled that persons incarcerated have a constitutional right to receive medical and mental health care. The care delivered must meet minimum standards (Ruiz v. Estelle), and the health care has no

There has been an concern with mental health professionals about the increasing number of mentally disordered inmates in jails and prisons. There are approximately 356,000 inmates in jails and state prisons with mental illnesses (Torrey, Zdanowicz, & Kennard, 2014). Many researchers are debating if mentally disordered inmates should be treated in prisons and jails, or if they are not equipped to care for them at all. While jails tend to house inmates sentenced with short terms, prisons house convicted and sentenced offenders serving more than 1 year. With the longer time of incarceration, prisons provide more of an opportunity for inmates to receive mental health assessments, diagnosis, and treatment (James & Glaze, 2006). It is crucial