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Mental Health in Prisons

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Mental health is an important issue within the criminal justice and prison systems as it disproportionately affects those who are imprisoned. Stohr and Walsh (2012) suggest one factor that has contributed to the growing number of mental health issues within the prison population in America where government attempted to move towards half way houses and outpatient facilities instead of mental health hospitals. Yet failures to this deinstitutionalisation movement led to jails and prisons becoming the go to places for mental health patients.

The situation in UK prisons is similar as mental disorder was found in 37% of sentenced male prisoners, 63% of men on remand, 57% of sentenced women prisoners and 76% of women remand prisoners (Birmingham, …show more content…

This can have an impact on the victim's mental health due to the traumatic experience. It was found that 80% of inmates with serious phycological distress were sexually assaulted by another inmate more than once (Beck et al., 2013). One survivor of sexual abuse in prison is quoted in Just Detention International (2013) saying, 'There’s no therapy for rape victims in prison. The prison system is incompetent to handle the mentally ill, and in fact causes the mental illness that it should be treating.'

Another pain faced by prisoners is the loss of free will and autonomy. Sykes (1958) suggests that although some inmates may welcome the strict regime as a way of keeping themselves in check, many inmates express intense hostility towards the rules. Haney (2003) argues that the failure to terminate their isolation at will has negative psychological effects on prisoners. Crewe (2015) found that inmates felt the prison officers had all the …show more content…

Wright et al. (2016) argue that drugs are easy to come by in prisons, lack of structured activity means they are often used. They cite Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons UK (2014) who found that 13% of inmates tested for drugs had developed the drug problem in prison. This shows the harm prison can cause to people who have previous not been involved with drugs. Yet there is a big gap in dual diagnoses services in prison (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health 2009), so those with mental health issues and new-found drug issues are not getting adequate care for problems the prison environment

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1290 Words | 6 Pages

Craig Haney’s article Mental Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and “Supermax” Confinement illustrates the complications faced in solitary confinement emphasizing the rise in mental health challenges imposed. Particular attention is paid to the escalation in the nature of mental health-related issues, including the negative psychological effects of imprisonment. Haney discusses these increasingly widespread and specialized units that bring forward the issues presented taking into account the notion of isolation and the association of the high percentage of prisoners suffering from mental illnesses. The article briefly assesses the recent case law concerning the difficulty of mentally ill prisoners, suggesting that the majority of broader psychological problems have been overlooked by the courts.

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In this sense, it is obvious that the PIC system falls short of prioritizing and appropriately addressing incarcerated individuals' mental health needs. This failure has serious consequences since it can worsen underlying mental health difficulties and contribute to a recurrence cycle, undermining rehabilitation and public safety efforts. This is a critical issue that must be addressed to ensure the well-being and rehabilitation of individuals incarcerated. However, it does not hide the fact that PIC does not prioritize the mental health of inmates and provides the necessary resources. The article "Analyzing the Relationship between Mental Health Courts and the Prison Industrial Complex” by Helen Zhou and Elizabeth B. Ford, investigated how mental health courts intersect with and possibly support the prison industrial complex.

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Annotated Bibliography on Solitary Confinement Cheril L. Hall American InterContinental University CRJS405 Research Methods for Criminal Justice Solitary Confinement and Mental Health An issue we have in the correctional system is solitary confinement & mental health. Solitary confinement is the practice of confining a person that is incarcerated to a small cell for around twenty-two to twenty-three hours of the day without any social contact. The problem with solitary confinement is that it is either being done to someone that is weak minded or to someone for an extended period of time.

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1191 Words | 5 Pages

Furthermore, the failure to address mental health needs within the prison system exacerbates these issues. The Equal Justice Initiative reveals that more than half of all Americans in prison or jail have a mental illness. Prison officials often fail to provide correct treatment, resorting to physical force and solitary confinement, which can worsen mental health problems. The Equal Justice Initiative reveals, “More than half of all Americans in prison or jail have a mental illness. Prison officials often fail to provide appropriate treatment for people whose behavior is difficult to manage, instead resorting to physical force and solitary confinement, which can aggravate mental health problems.”

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512 Words | 3 Pages

Research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2001) found that there were 21,714 prisoners within Australian corrective facilities as of June 30, 2000. Where subsequently, the imprisonment rate was 148 prisoners per 100,000 population (ABS, 2001). Whereas statistics from the ABS taken in 2015, illustrate that the imprisonment rate had increased to 196 prisoners per 100,000 adult populations. Moreover, the overall recorded number of prisoners as of June 30, 2015, was 33,789 (ABS, 2015). From this it is apparent that in the period from 2000 to 2015, there was a significant increase of 12,075 individuals in the general prison population of

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766 Words | 4 Pages

Is prison effective as rehabilitation for wrong-doers in the US? Shawshank’s Redemption, an all-time best movie produced in 1994 starred and led by actors Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. A story about two imprisoned men’s experience with the corrupted prison institution through their way of self-redemption. There is a line, which was well read by Morgan Freeman, I am particularly fond of. Here I quote ‘These walls are funny.

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Introduction Prior to the mid-1960 virtually all mental health treatment was provided on an inpatient basis in hospitals and institutions. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was established with its primary focus on deinstitutionalizing mentally ill patients, and shutting down asylums in favor of community mental health centers. It was a major policy shift in mental health treatment that allowed patients to go home and live independently while receiving treatment, (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). As a result of the Act, there was a shift of mentally ill persons in custodial care in state institutions to an increase of the mentally ill receiving prosecutions in criminal courts.

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There are so many mentally ill people in correctional facilities because most families do not know how to help their loves ones who suffer from a mental illness, so the call the police for help. Majority of the police officers do not know what to do or how to handle people with a mental illness disease. Police officers who are not trained to deal with the mentally ill often do not recognize that person is ill. Some police officers do not recognize if the individual should or not go to jail or a treatment center or medical facility. The impact of law enforcement and the judicial system dealing with people with a mental illness is to assist the inmates with the help they need.

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Untreated mental illness is dangerous and over time we have learned that locking people with a mental illness is not the solution but makes it worse. People with untreated mental illness face many consequences. “People with untreated psychiatric illnesses comprise 250,000 people, of the total homeless population” (mentalillnesspolicy.org). The quality of life for these individuals is extremely heart breaking, and many are victimized regularly.

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The study also says that among female inmates one third of them have some type of mental disorder. In prisons and jails, prisoners sit in their cells majority

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500 Words | 2 Pages

Inmates have already diverged themselves from the norms of society by showing and acting out. Prisoners who have: psychological illnesses, alcohol and drug addictions, and prior history pertaining to incarceration are associated to prisons and are connected to tendencies that are violent. Classification systems have been installed because of the prison systems recurrent violence. The role

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813 Words | 4 Pages

What can be done The monitoring, prevention and treatment of mental disorders, as well as the promotion of good mental health, are part of the public health goals in prisons. According to World Health Organization (2017), even in resource-limited countries, measures can be taken to improve the mental health of prisoners and prison staffs, which can be adapted to the country’s cultural, social, political and economic environment (WHO, 2017). In the British prisons, some practices and policies have also been implemented, which reflect the positive impacts of prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing. Provide prisoners with appropriate mental health treatment and care.

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More people get incarcerated for non-violent crimes and crimes caused by mental illnesses or drug abuse (Webb, 2009) and because these people get put in regular prisons, instead of in mental health facilities or facilities to help against drug addiction, where they could be treated to further prevent crimes driven by their illness (Webb, 2009), the prisons get overfilled and cannot hold the more ‘important’ prisoners that needed to be locked away from the public. A strong link of the criminal justice process is that the system tries to keep it fair for everyone. Every defendant has the right to an attorney so they can be defended properly and fairly and “Only judges who are adequately informed about a case can effectively control the proceedings and examine evidence” (Tochilovsky, 2002) It is also important for the criminal justice system that those involved show discretion and although this is not always the case, discretion by the judges, police, etc.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Statistics put together by the American Psychology Association state that, “73 percent of women in state prisons and 75 percent in jails have mental health problems, compared with 55 percent and 63 percent of men, respectively,” (Clark). This means that three quarters of women have mental health problems. This is a problem since most of these problems go either undertreated or untreated. When these women get out of prison, they cannot successfully integrate back into society due to mental illness and then end up back in the prison system as they are likely to

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947 Words | 4 Pages

Mental health issues are on the rise, especially among the youth, 6 out of 10 young people do not receive mental health treatment for major depression. Currently over 40 million Americans are currently dealing with a mental health issue and 56 percent are not receiving proper treatment. (Mental Health America). The health care reform has reduced insurance premiums for adults who have a mental health condition, however premiums and copayments are still not affordable for everyone. With the rise of mental health issues, the funding for mental illness should also increase to meet the need.

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