Mental Illness In Prisons

Mental health services in St. Louis have undergone a multitude of changes as stigmas towards mental health issues have begun to change. Traditionally, mentally ill individuals were thought to be lacking religion or in trouble in the eyes of God, and this thought process was believed until after the Middle Ages. These beliefs may have changed, but the attitudes towards the mentally ill were continued into the 18th century and beyond, which caused an increase in the stigmatization of mental illness, and thus subjected these individuals to humiliating and unhealthy conditions found in the original confinement of mentally ill patients, asylums. The government created mental health asylums, which separated these individuals from their societies,

There have been scholarly works published about both Kirkbride asylums and insane asylums in the United States in general. Dr. Henry M. Hurd, a Superintendent at John Hopkins Hospital, wrote a four-volume book called The Institutional Care of the Insane in the United States and Canada in 1916, which was one of the first comprehensive scholarly works on mental hospitals in the United States. His view is important, as he admonished the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII), a group of superintendents over insane asylums, to change its name and focus, as it had changed since Kirkbride’s time. He gave histories of these mental hospitals, and his figures are used through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Another earlier source on this subject is Margaret McCulloch’s “Founding the North Carolina Asylum for the Insane.” Her article focused on North Carolina and

“The first institutions were” built in large towns “with private funds” (Cayton). For example, “Boston’s first institution was built “with private funds” (Cayton). After the first institution was built other communities began to establish institutions. These institutions housed more than just the mentally ill. They took in the poor, homeless, old, and “disabled”. Institutions were more than a housing for the mentally ill, they were a shelter for people in need. But the ill were better off on their own. Institutions back then had horrible living conditions, including dungeons and chains for the mentally ill. Institutions were more like prisons rather than hospitals. “The mentally ill were” housed in “dark, damp, and poorly heated wing of hospitals” (Cayton). Some these institutions used full body restraints for patients who were too out of control. This was what the first institutions were

The mentally ill were cared for at home by their families until the state recognized that it was a problem that was not going to go away. In response, the state built asylums. These asylums were horrendous; people were chained in basements and treated with cruelty. Though it was the asylums that were to blame for the inhumane treatment of the patients, it was perceived that the mentally ill were untamed crazy beasts that needed to be isolated and dealt with accordingly. In the opinion of the average citizen, the mentally ill only had themselves to blame (Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, 1999). Unfortunately, that view has haunted society and left a lasting impression on the minds of Americans. In the era of "moral treatment", that view was repetitively attempted to be altered. Asylums became "mental hospitals" in hope of driving away the stigma yet nothing really changed. They still were built for the untreatable chronic patients and due to the extensive stay and seemingly failed treatments of many of the patients, the rest of the society believed that once you went away, you were gone for good. Then the era of "mental hygiene" began late in the nineteenth century. This combined new concepts of public health, scientific medicine, and social awareness. Yet despite these advancements, another change had to be made. The era was called "community mental health" and

Many cultures have viewed mental illness as a form of religious punishment or demonic possession. In Ancient Greek and Roman writings mental illness was categorized as a religious or personal problem. Individuals who are mentally ill are once again being mistreated by society and being place in prison. Prison is not a place for people for are mentally ill, jails were created as a form of criminal punishment for offenders and not a home for people who are mentally ill. In many cases, the welfare of offenders are not acknowledged because their is a misconception that all people with mental disabilities are a danger to the public. People become a greater threat to themselves that others when they are not receiving the appropriate care. Providing

Jails have been described as “de facto mental hospitals” because they have filled the void created when state psychiatric hospitals began closing in the early 1960s through a process known as deinstitutionalization. Supporters of deinstitutionalization thought the process would help individuals suffering from a mental illness live more self-reliantly while being treated by community mental health programs. However, the federal government did not provide the necessary funding to meet the mounting demand for these programs, leaving numerous untreated. Individuals with serious mental illnesses are often poor or homeless and are likely to have substance abuse problems. Therefore, when they are left untreated, they are more likely to commit minor crimes that have been the focus of law enforcement in recent years (H. Richard Lamb and Linda Weinberger).

The number of aging people in the prison system has and will continue to have a major impact on health care. Not only while they are in jail but once they are released the cost of health care for these individuals is still a burden. While incarcerated many illnesses go untreated. Usually there are a couple different factors in this situation, one is mental health and the other is unmet psychosocial needs. Many people that are employed by the prison system don’t have the proper training to know how to test for the vast mental illnesses that need to be tested for. Then on the other hand if they have the training they are understaffed and don’t have time to get to everyone that needs the help. While there has been many studies on how to improve health care while in prison, there is still a lot of research that needs to be done to get a better handle on the financial aspect.

Prisoners with substance abuse and psychiatric disorders are a large number of people in correctional facilities at the county, state, and federal level. Even though, correctional facilities weren't intended to be mental health facilities, they are having to provide services anyway. The staff are not trained to help with the problems but they are having to do it regardless. Purpose of providing these services is to return them to the community peacefully. On the other hand, the number of mentally ill in correctional facilities has increased because there have been cuts to community help to prevent them from getting in trouble. Due to the fact that, federal funding was taken away there wasn’t money for mental health institutions. As a result

When discussing the criminalization of mentally ill persons within the prison system, it is important to know the history of mental illness in the prison system. In1841, Dorothea Dix began her Asylum Movement. She saw how deplorable the conditions were for mentally ill inmates in the prison system and insisted on change. The mental ill inmates were treated very poorly, being beaten, starved, and sexually abused. Dix brought her findings to the legislature of Massachusetts and funds were then set aside to expand the mental hospital in Worcester. This was then duplicated across the country and many of the mentally ill were taken out of the prison setting and moved to get appropriate care (history.com staff, 2009). This was in the 1840’s. Dix’s efforts helped to decrease the amount of mentally ill in jails without appropriate care. Her efforts resulted in prisons containing only 0.7 per cent of mentally ill inmates (Chaimowitz, 2012, p 1).

Treatment conditions and understanding of mental illness have drastically improved Most mentally ill patients were locked away in places referred to as “insane asylums,” in which patients were often sedated for easy control Prior to the 1960s. Because of new drugs that reduce or eliminate many symptoms and changed attitudes toward mental illness brought about by the work of sociologists and psychologists, many asylums closed and thousands of patients were released to community group homes, halfway houses, or independent

How are mental health disorders developed? Researchers say it is as a result of people living in poor and dilapidated conditions. For example, imagine living in a non-therapeutic, stressful environment for decades. It would be safe to say this would eventually bring about some mental complications later in life. Mental illness has always been a major concern in today’s society. Unfortunately, due to harsh sentencing laws created by our most trusted politicians, prisons are becoming overcrowded with mental patients. Combined with a shortage of beds in mental hospitals has turned many of these facilities into makeshift psychiatric wards.

Research carried out on mental health among ethnic minorities in prison has revealed that there is fewer mental ill health among African-Caribbean prisoners than among white prisoners. Still, these findings may be due to the failure of staff to recognise and a reluctance to look for help among this group of prisoners. In connection to this, Haycock proposed that primarily white prison officers selectively deal with intentional self-injury and that notably lower rates of Intentional self-harm among black prisoners is not simply because they seldom self-injure, but more so due to officers disregarding it. (Knight, L, and Stephens, m. 2009).

In addition, persons with mental disorders are clearly overrepresented in the prison system, when compared to rates of persons in the community with mental disorders, studies found “that prevalence estimates were three to 12 times higher than in community samples, reaching as high as 64%,” (Prins, S. J., 2014, p. 862) with “prevalence” being defined as the commonness or occurrence of a mental disorder. The reasoning behind this skewed representation has continually puzzled researchers and led to a confusing and vague consensus as to how big this problem actually is. Despite the advances in abnormal psychology in recent decades, it is often difficult to see or measure the extent of mental illness, especially in an environment always

Even though prisons or jails were not designed to house persons with mental health illnesses, they are the number one mental health institutions in the land (“Suicide in North Carolina Jails,” 2017, pg. 4) (Fellner, 2006, pg. 391). When these people with mental health issues do commit crimes, it is essential that they get the proper treatment needed while at the same time carrying out punishment for the criminal act that they committed. The statistics differ as to what source they derive from but the Bureau of Justice states that there are more than 2.3 million people that flow in and out of the jail and prison system each year (Wagner & Sawyer, 2018). When they think they have nowhere else to go, and they feel as if they have no hope, suicide

Gray, Diane. "The History of Early Insane Asylums and Mental Illness." Web. 28 Mar. 2011.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/221343/the_history_of_early_insane_asylums.html?cat=70.