Mental Health and Prisons
An estimated 450 million people worldwide suffer from mental or behavioral disorders. These disorders are pretty common within prison populations. This extremely high rate of mental disorders in prison is closely related to several factors: the misconception that all people with mental disorders are a danger to the public, the failure to promote treatment, care, and rehabilitation, and the lack of access to mental health services. Many of these disorders are present before prison however, mental health disorders can also be developed during imprisonment due to human rights violations.
From overcrowding, various forms of violence, enforced solitude, lack of privacy, concerns about the future, and inadequate health services in prisons its no secret that the mentally ill are mistreated and fallen through the cracks of the system. Prisons were never
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Such as impossibly large caseloads, physically unpleasant facilities, and institutional cultures that are unsympathetic to the importance of mental health services. Gains in mental health staffing, programs, and physical resources that were made in recent years have all too frequently since been swamped by the tsunami of prisoners with serious mental health needs. Overworked staff find it difficult to respond even to psychiatric emergencies, let alone to promote recovery from serious illness and the enhancement of coping skills. Budget constraints and minimal public support for investments in the treatment, not punishment, of prisoners, elected officials have been reluctant to provide the funds and leadership needed to ensure prisons have sufficient mental health resources. Twenty-two out of forty state correctional systems reported in a recent survey that they did not have an adequate number of mental health