The Bio Psychosocial Allows The Person / Group / Community Seeking Assistance For Tell Their Own Story

Overall, the United States prison system and society’s view of African Americans needs to change. People need to make sure that the mistakes society has made in the past do not repeat themselves. In order to fix many of the existing problems it is important to focus on reforming the prison system. Doing so would prevent many future cases of injustice and racial

A bio-psychosocial describes an approach systematically considers biological, psychological, and social factors and their complex interactions in understanding health, illness, and health care delivery. Biological factors include defective biological processes compounds that lead to biological dysfunction and illness. Psychological factors are about the individual’s emotions, behavior, and mental processes. Social factors include social status and relations. These factors are all considered in an attempt to understand the underlying factors of such disease.

Currently there are over 2.3 million people in American prisons and jails at any given point, but 11 million people a year will cycle through the system (Wagner, 2016). In the case of Estelle v. Gamble dating back to 1976, it was established that under the eight and fourteenth amendments a prisoner had rights to medical care. (Oyez, 2016) The term health disparity describes the differences in treatment and services of illness, disability, injury or mortality by a certain population (Artiga, 2016). Mental health, addiction, sexually transmitted diseases, communicable diseases and chronic conditions are all significant disparities that affect the

Why is discrimination present in the United States criminal justice system? How is the system setup for people of color to fail? This social problem is interesting for many reasons. Many people believe that racism is still a key factor in today’s society. The justice system, which should stand for equality and peace, in reality does spread the public’s beliefs of racism and an unfair justice system. 74.0% of blacks do not agree that the justice system treats people fairly and equally(Hurwitz and Peffley,769) More than three quarters of a million Black men are now behind bars, and 2 million are under some form of correctional supervision(Brewer and Heitzeg,628). Many activists and civil leaders would find this problem very interesting.

A biopsychosocial model is a deep interrelation of all of this three-factor such as biological factors(genetic and physical history), psychological factors (cognition, will, and emotions), and social factors (socioeconomic status, culture, religion, and technology). When a combination of all of this three-factor working together, it will lead to an outcome of an illness, however, each of this factors on its own is very insufficient to lead to an

African American men make up 1% of our nation’s population but half of our prison population. The bitter truth is that some of our youth is more likely to end up in jail than attend college. The poor do not have access to high-quality education and resources as those who are in the middle and upper class which limits their amount of opportunities and expectations. Many of these citizens may suffer from mental illness as well. According to research, the rate of mental illness is four to six times greater within a prison as compared to the outside world (Quigley). There is little to no treatment prevalent in jails for these people. The structure and aftermath of living in jail stains an individual’s reputation, future and mental state.

The factors relating to the disparities among the African American population and the utilization of mental healthcare services is a concept that communities should become aware of and educated on. According to survey conducted from the San Diego County Adult and Older Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) system and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, African Americans were more likely to be incarcerated Compared with Whites, whereas incarceration was less for Latinos, Asians, and other racial-ethnic minority groups, Patients who received an adaptive service after release were less likely to be re incarcerated than patients who did not (Hawthorne, William, Folsom, David; Sommerfeld, David H; Lanouette, Nicole, Lewis, Marshall; et al

As a caseworker at Community Legal Aid, I have first-hand knowledge about the services provided to individuals who need representation at times when they feel the system is working against them. Two of the four cases I have worked on this semester involves a landlord taking advantage of the tenants while the other two center clients with mental health issues. The fact that two out of my four clients have mental health issues, and are facing criminal charges, is no coincidence. Individuals with mental health issues, people of colour, groups with low socioeconomic status, and other minority groups, are clearly

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.

According to corrections.com many of minorities entering the facilities have mental health issues. Many have never had treatments and act out, it is why he or she continues to return for that treatment to help them. There has been concerns that can help the agency become better and achieve the agency as one with the issues arising more popular today 15% have mental illness.

Foremost, specialty court intervention provides a chance for social workers to promote a new type of social justice. Therapeutic justice principles not only focus on treatment services for criminal offenders, but it also includes promoting autonomy, emphasizing non-paternalism, a volitional choice to change unwanted behavior, and recognizing procedural and distributive justice (Redlich & Han, 2014). Promoting therapeutic justice will help fight against the social injustices embedded within the criminal justice system. However, some research has indicated that the specialty courts’ selection bias has racial, gender, and economic disparities (Sarteschi, Vaughn, & Kim, 2011). In other words, socioeconomic demographics still may negatively impact social justice.

Mental illness is another issue that is not adequately being addressed. Many kids that are being incarcerated are not getting the mental health treatment that they are needing. Countless families are postponed from services due to the absence of obtainable mental health services (Barksdale, Stephan, & Westin, 2014). Many times Juveniles come into group homes and have not been taking their medication because they have been on the run. Some families know that something is wrong but are at a loss of how to get help or where they should turn to get help.

As a significant increase in police contact with people with mental illness has a raised, proper training and inpatient services have decreased in the growing needs of individuals suffering mental health emergencies. Shown in the disproportionate arrest and incarceration of people with mental illness, which is a huge concern for policymakers, communities and law enforcement agencies. With police officers being among the first responders to these crises or often the only source of immediate service for urgent mental health activities.

It is imperative that social workers on a macro level continue to implement policies and procedures that would better service the client population. According to the New York City Department of Corrections (2017) there were 54.4% African-Americans housed on Rikers Island. There were 33.1% Hispanics on Rikers, 7.3% whites, 1.8% Asian, and 3.4% were other (New York City Department of Corrections 2017). Since the population is predominately people of color, I feel that there should

Prison overcrowding has become a serious problem at all levels of the U.S. prison system. The size of the U.S. prison population is staggering. The U.S. has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with one in 35 people in the correctional system. In 2013, it was estimated 6,937,600 adults were in some form of correctional control (Jackson 8). Ethnic minorities, especially African-American males, have higher incarceration rates than others, especially whites; although they are only about 37% of the U.S. population, they are about 65% of those in prison (Jackson 13). Federal inmate populations have increased over 50 percent since 2000, causing a 30% overcrowding rate overall and a 52% rate at high security prisons (United States, Government Accountability Office). Prisons also manage more prisoners with mental health issues, an older prisoner population and more female prisoners (Jackson 9).