Role Of Mental Illness In Prisons

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.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and of that over sixty percent of jail inmates reported having a mental health issue and 316,000 of them are severely mentally ill (Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Correctional facilities in the United States have become the primary mental health institutions today (Adams & Ferrandino, 2008). This imprisonment of the mentally ill in the United States has increased the incarceration rate and has left those individuals medically untreated and emotionally unstable while in jail and after being released. Better housing facilities, medical treatment and psychiatric counseling can be helpful in alleviating their illness as well as upon their release. This paper will

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

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

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.

Prisons are home to 33,000 mentally ill patients in California, alone. Filling 30 percent of California’s overall prison population, the prisons are becoming unconstitutionally crowded (Source C). In a Federal District Court ruling in Sacramento, “Judge Lawrence Karlton noted that the treatment of the seriously mentally ill continues to violate prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment” (Source C). Poor staffing is not fully to blame for inadequate care, insufficient treatment space, and suicide rates. When President Kennedy began the community mental health centers movement, he deprived the mentally ill of shelter which forced patients to live in the streets (Source A).

I was not surprised to discover that half of all inmates had a mental illness (Hoke 3015). Hoke analyzes the social elements that make an impact on those persons with known mental illnesses in prison. Noting policy changes that have increased prison rates for mentally ill people, Hoke presents a good argument on how mentally ill inmates are treated within the criminal justice system. Her research seemed to be thorough and convincing. She maintains the idea that mentally ill inmates do need help making a successful transition upon release through steady employment and housing.

The solution to the problem is to provide sufficient funding to the community-based mental health system so people could be helped before they become part of the prison system. Services like medication therapy and monitoring, residential services, rehabilitation services and support services are successful in bringing the severely mentally ill back to communities. As a rule, community services are also less expensive. Instead, we see mental health agencies being closed and stripped of their budgets. As a result the mentally ill have no place to go for treatment and support.

Once released from an institution a mentally ill person, without the support of the community and much needed medication, might find themselves feeling very scared and threatened by interactions with the community. This leads us to another problem, which is crime and the mentally ill. About one thousand people in the U.S. are murdered by severely mentally ill people who are not receiving treatment. These killings are about 5% of all homicides nationwide, and help show once again how important it

Today’s correctional facilities are taking on chronically mentally ill individuals causing them to be over-crowed with lack of resources and proper care. Prisons and jails were not built to houses the severely mentally ill, this was never the purpose of prison because they simply do not have the proper training or adequate care for such a high maintenance inmates. State prisons have become the new de facto psychiatric hospital for those who need mental health treatment. This developing problem come from the severely mentally ill being admitted into correctional facilities, which ultimately stemming from the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill from government funded mental health treatment centers. The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill took effect those who needed resources and care went without treatment, which only increases the symptoms related to their disorder causing them to engage in petty crimes sometime followed with more serious offensive landing them in jail or prison. Ultimately, mainstream prisons are not equipped to handle mentally ill inmates. Prisons need to offer some type of effective and extensive mental health services to treat those inmates who

Gregg Barak (2007) pointed how American’s failing mental health care system has attributed the overrepresentation of the mentally ill in U.S jails “Because of the large-scale denationalization of mental health facilities in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of people struggling with mental illness on their own has risen over the past three decades, and social institutions have been less than responsive to their needs.” (Barak, 2007: 587) Steven Raphael and Michael Stoll (2013) drew attention to the overrepresentation of mentally ill offenders in U.S jails and prisons. “Approximately half of state and federal prison inmates and over 60 percent of jail inmates report having mental health problems or symptoms indicative of mental illness. The

The organic source of mental illness and “appropriate” ways to treat/care for those suffering with a mental illness has been professionally, legally, and ethically debated for years. Society’s depiction of mental illness and skewed perceptions of this population has deemed those with a mental disorder incurable. These thoughts and beliefs date back to the 17th century and continue to be an undercurrent in today’s society, even after many efforts have been employed to properly inform society. In the book Crazy: A Father’s Search through America’s Mental Health Madness, the major premise of this book is to shed light and bring awareness to the multifaceted complexity of mental health. One major argument in this book is that of jails becoming the new asylums. Created as a infrastructure to house and care for those with an mental illness, its closure left this population displaced in the community without proper care or treatment; creating an inevitable cycle of jail, mental hospital, court, release, and repeat. Throughout this cycle, those with a mental illness often encounter harsh living conditions and become victims of violence; living in confinement, while not receiving adequate care. Additionally, treatment is administered for competency not sustainability, so those with a mental illness often endure enough treatment for them to stand competent in trial. No forms of sustainability are implemented for this population to reside in the community, resulting in relapse; often

Most rehabs do not offer mental health treatment the extent that is needed for most addicts. To assist the person to fight their drug addiction they must receive the correct treatment. Our government over the last 50 years has removed mental health treatment from our society. You know just as well as I do there is nowhere to take anyone to receive the right mental health care that they need, so the officers drop them off in the booking room of the jail if they can get away with it. When Bedford County take the correct steps to treat drug addiction, you will see people realize that they are at rock bottom at a higher rate than what is taking place at the moment. But water boarding mental health offenders is not the ticket for sure. There are