Mental Illness As Depicted In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

In “Just Mercy” Bryan Stevenson talks about the layers to each incarcerated individual. He talks about the repeated connections between issues such as mental illness and harsh home environments to juvenile offenders and mass incarceration. Stevenson goes into depth about the different internal and external issues that many incarcerated have. “In fact, there are more than three times the number of seriously mentally ill individuals in jail or prison than in hospitals; in some states that number is ten times. And prison is a terrible place for someone with mentally illness or a neurological disorder that prison guards are not trained to understand.”(164) Mentally illness is major in society and requires lots of care. It plays a big role in people's

This is where the importance of Bryan Stevenson's organization in events has importance. After giving details in the background of cases he is able to talk about cases of not criminals but people with their own stories. Bryan Stevenson talks about the way the mental illness of Mr. Jenkins was never looked into by his previous lawyers. Stevenson says “His lawyers did no investigation of Mr.Jenkin’s history prior to trial, and he was quickly convicted of murder and sentenced to death.” (171) The lack of interest on these topics by the court further proves Stevenson's argument. The organization also works for bigger and more generic cases such as what is done in cases of juvenile offenders being punished as adults. These kids aren’t seen as criminals but as someone who has only known a harsh life. Stevensons fights for these kids he mentions his standpoint in these cases “We argued that these harsh punishments were created for adult criminals and were never intended for children. I also told the court that to say to any child of thirteen that he is fit only to die in prison is cruel.” (224) Overall Bryan Stevenson presents prisoners as people before what they’re known as in society,