Mental health in a correctional setting The numbers of people with mental illnesses are rising at a high rate within jails and prisons. The United States has the highest per capita rate of people incarcerated in the world. Statistically people who have some sort of mental illness have a greater risk of being incarcerated than those without. Why is this? Over the last ten to twelve years, a large amount of treatment facilities have shut down due to funding (What source?). By shutting these facilities down, it has forced those with mental illness on the streets of America, where law enforcement has had to learn to interact, and be able to deal with them. This puts a great strain on law enforcement manpower by having to get them evaluated, which could tie the officer up for many hours and keeping them from doing their duties; this is a huge strain on the smaller agencies who may only have two to three officers on duty. What is mental health, as defined by Oxford dictionary it is “a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and …show more content…
The Reagan administration repealed the act that President Jimmy Carter in-acted and the cuts have continued ever since. By shutting down mental health facilities around the country this has forced those individuals back into the mainstream population. There has been little to no treatment and most have turned to self-medication. Many of the crimes that are committed could be prevented with proper treatment in most cases. By those individuals not receiving the treatment that is needed, it has forced law enforcement and jails to be the answer for these people. The problem with this is that jails and prisons are not trained and equipped to handle them and there is very little training given to those law enforcement officers and/or corrections officers that now have to handle