The New Asylums Summary

The Frontline episode “The New Asylums”, dove into the crisis mentally ill inmates face in the psychiatric ward in Ohio state prisons. The episode shows us the conditions and every day lives of mentally ill patients in Ohio state prisons, and explains how these inmates got to this point. It appeared that most of these prisoners should have been patients in an institute of some sort, out in society, but unfortunately due to whatever circumstances they ended up in prison. According to the episode, most of the inmates end up in prison due to them not coping with the outside world on their own. Prior to becoming imprisoned, the inmates had difficulties dealing with the outside world. Mainly due to lack of necessary

Synopsis The Lost Virtues of the Asylum The article written by Oliver Sacks highlights the attributes of the asylum while unfolding its malfunctions that caused value deterioration. The article speaks to its original intent of the asylum establishment, explaining its efforts to provide adequate care to those with mental illness.

The inhumane conditions seen in state prisons today eerily mimic many of the same issues seen in state psychiatric institutions prior to the 1970s. These institutions sought to solve the problem off overcrowding by deeming many of them stable enough to leave, even though many of them were not. The patients were placed into group homes instead of hospitals. This caused an influx of people with mental health problems into a society where they could not function. Many of them inevitably ended up committing crimes, pushing them into the

With states closing many of its mental facilities in the communities, there were a lot of people in need of outpatient care who fell through the cracks of the system and ended up in prison. Prison is where many of them died from inadequate treatment. Prisons were suddenly receiving inmates with the following types of mental illnesses: Schizophrenia, bipolar, and deep depressions. These prisons just did not provide these inmates with any medication during their incarceration. Because the community based health services is lacking, and patients aren’t receiving sufficient outpatient care, it makes the effectiveness of deinstitutionalization a serious problem. Without the availability of 24/7 psychiatric services that are well structured, I believe that deinstitutionalization is what is accounting for the increase of the mentally ill inmates in the correctional facility.

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 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 this article, the incarceration of the mentally ill is encouraged because it is safer than keeping them in mental institutions. It claims that mental institutions are extremely dangerous by their very nature and the nurses there are trained to treat the mentally ill, not to keep them from hurting themselves or other people. In prisons however, the

They say that the prisoner’s behavior needs to be monitored before release, and the likelihood of them not being able to support themselves outside of prison in terms of treatment. Our community and environment is part of what makes us who we are. When releasing these inmates with schizophrenia their environment needs to be looked at to see how successful will this person be outside of prison. They need to have a strong support to make sure they are taking their drugs or other forms of treatment continue. If these inmates are released into a toxic environment it is likely they will fall back into the schizophrenic tendencies and possibly end up back in jail. These ex-inmates need to be able to asses themselves as well outside of prison, so they can go get the help they need. If the individual has little self-awareness they cannot even realize they are getting worse and just continue like everything is normal, and end up falling back into their old

I did not find that much crossing over between, “The New Asylums,” and the article by Dolch. The video talks about how mental hospitals are closing and putting unstable mentally ill patients on the streets. Then they act out in the “real world” and get thrown in jail or prison. The article talks about a case study, different types of mental illnesses, the medications, and how they affect men and women differently. I best crossover between the two is how they talk about hospitalization is only short term treatment. On page 24 of the article it says, “Hospitalization is mostly used in the short term, while medications are tried out and the patient is made safe and stabilized.” This connects to the video because they talk about how if a mentally ill inmate acts out, then he/she is put into the prison infirmary for only a short term just like being at a hospital. Once the inmate becomes stable, they are put back into the prison. Unfortunately, this does not work out well because the prisons are not equipped or

The cornerstone of the Renaissance Treatment Center is a not-for-profit corporation that specializes in addiction and mental health issues. They provide counseling, for substance abuse, domestic violence, and mental illnesses, whose primary involvement is with the criminal justice system. Personally speaking, the needs that are possibly lacking are those that are out of the agency’s control. Nevertheless, the agency is faced with issues that are beyond their control, and into the hands of either the justice system or the clients. These lacking needs include; making recommendations for clients that the client’s parole officer can override, and they have no control over whether or not a client decides to complete the program.

The film New Asylums focused on the way which Prisons dealt with inmates who were mentally unstable or ill. It followed the stay of a couple prisoners, described their illness and interviewed them on their personal view on how they felt about their situation. It also provided input from the prison’s health professionals and the prison workers. The beginning of the movie addressed the concern that people who were mentally ill and imprisoned were forgotten. The rest of society seems to think that if these people are locked away the issue is gone.

The correctional system is a home to thousands of schizophrenics, paranoid, and psychotic individuals (Navasky & O'Connor, 2010). Police are forced to take many people with schizophrenia, paranoid, and psychotic individuals off the streets because the nation's psychiatric hospitals are closing (Navasky & O'Connor, 2010). Instead of being placed in a state mental facility, mentally ill patients are placed in prisons. The environmental stress of the nation’s psychiatric hospitals being shut down caused many individuals to fend for themselves. They suffered; they did not have a home to go to or someone to care for them. In the end, their mental health deteriorated, in which they were forced into the correctional system. In the video, they

Dismantling our mental health has led to an increase of prisoners in the united states. Instead to putting people mental asylums, we are putting them in prison, and that is all

The documentary “The released” shared a very important and serious social issue, which is mental illness of prisoners. The film described the inside of the Ohio prison system as it resisted to provide care for prisoners that have mental health problems. The system there allowed prisoners to leave the jail and either go to a shelter or a residential treatment center, to get the health care they need. After the release, prisoners need to take their medications and keep track with a psychiatrist or a mental health care center. However, most of the prisoners didn’t do what is required, most of them didn’t keep up with their medications and end up by going back to jail. The reason of the release was to give them chance to recover by taking medications

It had been almost a year since the asylum had been abandoned. There had been rumors that there are still the ghosts and even people still in there. None of this feared Jake. A few times he had pondered if he should explore it. “There is no such thing as ghosts, I’ll be fine.” He said with a snicker. He made up his mind that night and rummaged through his home for a flashlight along with a camera. He got in his car, “It’s about time I prove everyone wrong.” He stated as he drove off into the night. He arrived at the asylum, it had gave off an eerie vibe. He grabbed his items and hopped the fence. Staring at the building, he started to lose courage. What had seemed like a small building from the distance, had seemed like a one hundred story