Mentally Ill People In Jail Research Paper

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

Throughout the years, the United States criminal justice system has been constantly incarcerating individuals who endure from a severe mental illness. People who suffer from serious mental illness are doubtlessly to be discovered in prison. There is a significant amount of mentally ill offenders that are placed in the state and federal institutions. The mentally ill are overpopulating the prisons. The criminal justice system is a deficiency for those who can profit more from the help of mental health treatment center or psychiatric hospital by sending individuals to correctional facilities or prisons. Today’s jails and prisons are being labeled as the new mental health hospitals for the mentally ill offenders. Commonly in today’s society, it generally takes other individuals who are willing to educate and support the mentally ill person into becoming successful in life.

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.

One of the most controversial issues regarding the mentally ill and the prison system is the medical treatment received. According to the film, “16% of the prison population in the state of Ohio, which reflects a national average, are persons who have been diagnosed with mental illness.” Prisons began as an institution designed to rehabilitate, however, a vast majority of prisons throughout the country do not provide adequate medical care for their mentally ill inmates. However, the prisons that do possess adequate health care are most likely the first instance in which the inmates with mental illness have received any sort of treatment in their entire life. People with chronic mental illness need constant supervision which they cannot get outside of prison. Although inmates does not receive the most extensive treatment, the treatment they do receive is well beyond the treatment they would have received had they stayed out of the criminal justice system.

For starters, the only way were going to help these individuals is by giving them the proper help they need and putting them in prison or in jail is not it. Even though the facility has medication to support them, it is not enough to do any actual effect. (Anasseril E. Daniel, Care of the Mentally Ill in Prisons: Challenges and Solutions, December 07) It is good if they have medical area in the facility for them but it is pointless if it is no help. Let us say we put an offender in prison, he happens to have schizophrenia. We put him in the prison for a couple years; he gets treated like any other inmate. The time comes to release him so he is set free. How long until he commits another crime and ends up back in prison, or worse dead? I would say two weeks, maybe less. Things like this happen all time when it should not happen at all. The purpose of a prison is to make inmates learn from the mistakes they have made, but how can we expect a mentally ill inmate learn from anything if all they got was mistreatment and more reasons on why to go back the way they were. This is not something that should remain like this, it need to change now. It is not fair they suffer more than the rest simply because we see them all the same way.

Mental illnesses are extremely pricy and dangerous. The staff has to be extra cautions with mentally disabled prisoners because they are more dangerous. The prison system does not have enough money to be able to maintain high-risk prisoners. “The average cost of keeping an older inmate incarcerated is about $69,000 a year”(Regan) it’s an outrageous amount of money. A Tennessee State prison gave Dr. Regan, Alderson, and Dr. William Regan gave data on older inmates who had mental illnesses. The study focused on the population and their mental disorder and the crime committed. 671 prisoners where tested in the study and 109 people where diagnosed with a mental illness: Out of the 109 people with a mental disorder only 13% where women and 87% where men. The most common crime for both genders with a mental disorder was murder. Women who committed murder suffered from depression illness. Men who committed crime in their older age committed sex crimes and where diagnosed with dementia. Our prisons are not equipped to be able to handle mentally disable prisoners. Mentally disorder people need to be in a mental house that can help them. It is not right to incarcerate someone who is sick.

Instead of putting people with mental illness in jail they should be sent to a mental institution for help sine “ There is inadequate mental health care to prevent prisoners from becoming suicidal, to identify suicidal prisoner, or to prevent prisoners from going into a crisses” theDEpartment of justis said.

State legislators should construct laws that mandate intake screenings of all prisoners before placement in a facility. Pre-booking programs should be conducted by specialized officers trained in mental illness who would intercept subjects entering the jail and conduct a screening prior to booking in efforts to “prevent arrest through de-escalation by transporting persons to mental health centers for assessment rather than jail” (p.8). State laws should mandate treatment in a secure mental facility for the duration of their court sentence. The implantation of mental health courts would be an option of a jail diversion program that could help provide treatment (p.8). This allows the subject to be held accountable for the crime that they have committed but allows the possibility of treatment and closing the revolving door. Most individuals that have a mental illness are subject to returning to jail or prison because there is no establishment of treatment for these people (p.12). Costs studies should be conducted to evaluate the most effective way to use the taxpayers’ money. The money is going to be spent, it is just an argument of which way is most beneficial to all people. Paying the money to the jail to acted as a over secured medicine cabinet is senseless when there is a possibility for the money to be used

Mental institutions were founded to aid mentally ill individuals by providing proper care and medication. Majority of the mentally ill receive lack of attention out on the streets making their situation even worse. These individuals then commit minor crimes that will result in them going to prison for the reason of because unable to survive out in the world. The inability of survival out on the streets results in having an increasingly large handful sentenced in jail which makes a prison one of the largest mental institutions. Individual with a mental disorder see prison as the only way to obtain medication and attention.

Introduction: First the mentally ill were abandoned to the streets to join the ranks of the homeless population and to our jails. The continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has become all too familiar throughout America. Jails and prisons across the nation have turned into default mental health facilities. A system that was originally designed for security and rehabilitation is now trapped with treating the mentally ill who have nowhere else to go and eventually end up being cycled in and out of prison. This never ending cycle has led to a very sad but true reality that America’s jails and prisons have become our new mental hospitals. Mental hospitals that cannot and do not provide

In the 1830s and beforehand, jails were used for all purposes throughout the time period. The offenders held within them lived among their own filth and were treated inhumanely, because of these undesirable conditions of being put in jail, crime was decreased greatly. Though no one really cared if anyone who didn’t deserve to be in jail ended up in there anyway, like those with mental illnesses or the wrongfully accused. At the time, people viewed those with ‘retardation’ to be a family’s burden and something to be shameful of, most commonly the family would abandon the mentally ill family member at a hospital or in a public place for authorities to turn in.

By providing mental health treatment in prisons, it will improve both the quality of life within the prison of the mentally ill along with the entire prison population. Treatment is also critical because it increases the probability of the mentally ill prisoners to better adjust to life once they are released and decrease the chance of reoffending and returning to prison (“Mental Health and Prisons”). There are a few objectives for the treatment goal. The first objective is to provide mentally ill prisoners access to proper mental health treatment and care that is at least at the minimum level of what is provided in the outside community. This mental health treatment can come about by providing mental health training to prison health workers, setting up times for community mental health teams to visit the prison, or allowing prisoners access to mental health services outside the prison (“Mental Health and Prison”).

While I was aware of the challenges facing the mentally ill prisoners, I was not aware of the true extent of these challenges prior to this course. First of all, I found the treatment of the mentally ill in prison challenging to accept; especially because this harsh treatment is indicative of the larger social stigma that surrounds this vulnerable population. Furthermore, I believe transinstitutionalism’s popularity and rise provides valuable insight into the criminalisation of mental illness and as a result, the exacerbation of the challenges that this vulnerable population faces.