Mental Illness Attention On Four Men: Article Analysis

In the realm of prosecuting violent crime, a dichotomy of belief exists surrounding mental health. We can choose to believe that not all violent criminals suffer from a mental health disorder. The alternative is to believe that the perpetrators of these violent crimes by nature are mentally ill; this assumption, however, undermines an entire criminal justice system which places treating mental health as a far lesser subordinate to removing criminals from society. It’s clear that the criminal justice system in the United States doesn’t favor the latter. While the threshold for diagnosis of some mental illness is relatively low, legally “the bar for exemptions of incompetence or mental retardation require an extreme level of debilitation” (Wallace). This legal standard cultivates an expectation that criminals are no more complex than the

In early American history, individuals with mental illnesses have been neglected and suffered inhuman treatments. Some were beaten, lobotomized, sterilized, restrained, in addition to other kinds of abuse. Mental illness was thought to be the cause of supernatural dreadful curse from the Gods or a demonic possession. Trepanning (the opening of the skull) is the earliest known treatment for individuals with mental illness. This practice was believed to release evil spirits (Kemp, 2007). Laws were passed giving power to take custody over the mentally ill including selling their possessions and properties and be imprisoned (Kofman, 2012). The first psychiatric hospital in the U.S. was the Pennsylvania Hospital where mentally ill patients were left in cold basements because they were considered not affected by cold or hot environments and restraint with iron shackles. They were put on display like zoo animals to the public for sell by the doctors (Kofmen, 2012). These individuals were punished and isolated and kept far out of the eyes of society, hidden as if they did not exist. They were either maintained by living with their families and considered a source of embarrassment or institutionalized

Furthermore, there are a number of barriers that prevent police from effectively dealing with people who have a mental illness. These include gaps in the community mental health service, and mix feelings about the nature of the responsibility when officers are responding to mental illness calls (Adelman, 2003). Barriers that are involve is, the inadequate advance information, when a situation arise police dispatchers do not ask for more information of what to expect when arriving to the scene as well any specific detail about the mental ill person such as, if the person has previously contacted the police before. Not

This legal issue addresses how police services are being given very little training into circumstances involving mentally ill perpetrators and examines how and why they are given no formal screening process in identifying those who have a mental disorder.

This responsibility on police stems from two common law principles: “power and authority of police to protect the safety of the community, and the parens patriae doctrine which grants state protection for citizens with disabilities such as the acutely mentally ill” (UBC). While police have long had a responsibility to protect and HANDLE those with mental health issues, police interactions with PMI’s have increased over time. Several interrelated factors have contributed to this increase, most notably: the switch from institutionally to community based mental health care, changes to involuntary commitment for treatment, and a lack of funding for mental health care programs and services.

In the Article ”Where Police Violence Encounters Mental illness” Matthew Epperson informs readers of the massive amount of violent interactions police officers encounter with mentally ill people, however his main focus is not to blame the police officers but to reinforce mental health treatment. Epperson brings evidence from his experience as a social worker at the county jail “- one of my former clients who was a college student in the late 1990s and who had several tense exchanges with the police as his symptoms worsened.”(Epperson, par.3) Epperson's position on police enforcement worsening mental health issues then leads his claim that if we enforce mental health care system and police informant as one then it will resolve to keeping mentally

The purpose of Rick Parents (2011) study was to shed a light on policing tactics and use of force when dealing with a situation containing a person suffering from a mental illness, and how to properly distinguish when the use of force in necessary. Rick Parent (2011) has also brought to light the training techniques in place that help officers make the best possible decisions in moments of crisis, and how further examining those training techniques and improving upon them can potentially have an overall positive effect on the officer and the suspect.

In this article , the author Professor James Alan Fox discusses that it is an average of 9,289 people killed by someone with some type of mental health issue. Also, he speaks about the FBI’s crime reports between the years of 2007-2011. Statistics had shown that the U.S had an average of 13,700 homicides. He states that, if lives need to be saved, then the people that are making these deaths happen have to receive some type of treatment. Fox article is a reliable source because he discusses the failure of how the ones’ committing these crimes are still out here on the streets. He is a reliable source because he is a Professor at Northeastern University of Criminology, Law and Public Policy.

Barr says the criminal justice system is” continuously expanding,” and police have virtually no training or resources for handling people in psychiatric crises. She says in New York City, over one million people suffer from mental illness, with 100,000 people living with severe on going psychiatric problems such as schizophrenia. Additinally Barr states, an estimated 12,000 mentally ill homeless people live on the streets. She says the New York City Police Department responds to every 911 call regrading a person in psychiatric distress, regardless of whether a crime has been committed. She says annually, the New York City Police Department responds to at least 50,000 calls involving EDPs or (“emotion-ally disturbed persons”).

is no longer hidden but confronts us demanding an intervention that will disrupt its history. Critical analysis places us all in the glaring light that pans negligence, but it is the policymakers that stand in the focus of this beam while the rest of us are in its important penumbra. Policymakers are challenged to 1) restore and increase proper community mental health structures, 2) deinstitutionalize mental ill-health patients, 3) train police officers, and also personnel serving

There have been many times throughout Canada and the U.S. when officers have killed or injured an individual with a mental illness which could have been avoided if their main focus was to provide support rather than punishment. Within the article, it is discussed how an individual with schizophrenia trains officers on how to deal with an individual like himself. Rather than charging an individual for trespassing while having a psychotic episode, provide that individual with support and take him to a place where he can get support rather than jail (Gonzales & Dayak, 2006). The majority of the jail population is of individuals with a mental illness who could use proper treatment and support rather than being in jail (Gonzales & Dayak, 2006). With providing places for individuals with an illness to go to rather than jail, jail populations will go down and be less expensive and difficult to run. Bexar county recognized there was an issue with the way they were dealing with individuals so a program and institution was made for providing individuals with a mental illness to go to and stay at rather than jail, which in return has saved their county nearly five million dollars a year (Gonzales &

Some of the most painful and torturous of all illnesses are those of the mind. There are many of instances of insanity among humans throughout history, some dating back to around 400 B.C. (PBS). These people were not considered human, but instead they were looked at as animals. There were several attempts to “cure” people of this kind, yet most were inhumane and brutal forms of torture. Many times, especially in early history, these people would be locked away and treated as if they had no purpose but to waste space. The way mentally insane people were treated throughout history was brutal and horrific.

The rise in mental health issues procreate a stigma that this illness will magically disappear. In fact, several Americans have underlying or suppressed mental health concern that are left untreated or misdiagnosed. Attention to the mass murdering and active shootings create a reality that our word is ill prepared to handle the volume and caseloads of post traumatic war victims, abused youths and unfortunate mentally ill elderly.

Deinstitutionalization, which occurred in the latter half of the twentieth century cause adequate mental health services to be insufficient for the mentally ill population. Mentally ill individuals were send back to society despite of their prevailing circumstances. The lack of assistance made mentally ill individuals to commit a high percentage of crimes due to their state of mind. Mentally ill individuals who had committed crimes were being incarcerated instead of forcing them to receive mental health treatment. According to Schneider (2008) the percentage of mentally ill entering the Criminal Justice System has increased 10 percent per year over the last decades. The rapid increase of mentally disorder inmates has caused prisons to obtain the responsibility for mentally ill individuals and provide them with basic mental health services. However, prisons are not providing the adequate mental health treatment which in result causes mentally ill individuals to continue with their insane behavior after prison time. The recidivism rate is higher than 50 percent among the mentally ill prisoners who are released (Collins, 2015). The revolving-door- like fashion system which causes mentally ill inmates to return to prison indicates that the need to provide services outside of those institutions for offenders is necessary. Mentally ill individuals have continuously increased in prison population because courts have been implementing the idea that criminals should receive

These five officers are capable of being products of a prejudice household, therefore causing them to grow up with a certain mentality regarding mentally ill people, or people of color. These stigmas get passed down throughout the family, causing individuals within that family to act in coordination with the values instilled within that household. Another possibility concerning the biology of the officers would be that, due to their conventional childhood development, they are lacking in empathy for people who’ve had to mature in spite of their mental illness(es). They have no knowledge in terms of how mentally ill individuals react to specific situations, consequently, responding to the matter in an entirely different way than they would’ve if they had been exposed to that lifestyle. Their reaction to the situation could cohere with the perspective of a traumatized family member. During some period in their lives, it is conceivable that someone dear to them had been greatly wounded by someone that was African American or mentally