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Mental Illness In Corrections Essay

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Corrections agencies Corrections agencies often deal with inmates who have special requirements that must be met in order to properly care for them. Many inmates require treatment for illnesses and disabilities and can not be treated similarly to others. Sometimes those arrested are not legally in this country; this causes problems related to communication.

Mental Illnesses
A mental illness is a special health condition that affects a person's mood, behavior,and thinking. People with mental illnesses can be especially hard for corrections agencies to deal with due to their proclivity for unpredictability by the less educated members of society along with the less educated correctional officers.
What Mental Illnesses may Offenders Suffer …show more content…

People who suffer from psychosis have a mental detachment from reality and in most cases they see things that are not there, hear nonexistent comments,questions or sounds, and suffer from paranoia. Illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can cause psychosis, but conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder seem to be more prevalent in institutions across the country. It is important to distinguish that not everybody who suffers from these afflictions commits crimes. A large percentage of the time they contribute to society as most people do and are not violent.
Who is More Likely to have a Mental Illness
Men are more likely,by a slim margin, to be diagnosed with a mental illness than women. Women are more likely to develop mental illnesses later in life while men may develop them while they are prepubescent,this does not account for those who are never diagnosed. There is a staggering number of the United States homeless population that suffer from mental illnesses that may cause them to commit crimes and impede them from …show more content…

There are quite a few ways illegal immigrants affect corrections, the largest of which is the obvious language barrier that can form. The language barrier is a gargantuan factor in how corrections are carried out because if they can not speak English they usually are not eligible to join any rehabilitation programs offered by the prison. The system also works against them in a few other ways as commented on by a law practitioner and author for the Department of Justice Programs government website” The language barrier excludes Hispanics from many, if not all, of the correctional rehabilitation programs such as vocational education, counseling, and drug abuse rehabilitation. Hispanics and other inmates who speak only non-English languages also lack understanding of prison rules and criminal justice procedures. Bilingual inmates tend to prey on Spanish-speaking inmates, and prison staff tend to underestimate Hispanic inmates' abilities, since the inability to speak English is viewed as a lack of mental

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A major issue is with our justice system is either ignoring or don’t recognize convicts with mental health issues, which leads to lengthier convictions and higher rates of recidivism. Ignoring or not recognizing the convict’s mental health issues just gets them incarcerated for a longer time and they never receive the right treatment to get better. Due to our country’s prison not having the right or proper treatment for the mentally ill will make it harder for them to adjust when the release back into society. One of the main reasons why our prisons don’t have the correct treatment centers for the mentally ill is because it just not affordable to have non-prison facilities on the prison campus. One solution that has been tried is to create a “supermax” prison, which is facility that known for segregation, lockdown, or solitary confinement.

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The video named, “The New Asylums,” is about people in prison who have mental illness. Many people who have mental illness are held in prison throughout the America instead of hospitals or facilities, and they are more tend to be homeless before arrested and put in to jail. According to video, there are some mental health treatment meetings in prison. However, some psychologists think that people who have mental illness in prison need hospitalization. Moreover, the video claims that inmates who has severe mentally illness cant follow the rules.

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However, research has consistently found that certain mental health disorders, such as antisocial personality disorder and psychosis, are associated with an increased risk of violent behavior (Monahan, 1992).Studies of the relationship between mental health issues and antisocial behavior typically examine a range of behaviors, including violent crime, aggression, and substance abuse. For example, a study by Swanson and colleagues (2006) found that individuals with serious mental illness were no more likely to commit violent crimes than individuals without mental illness, but were more likely to be victims of violent crime. However, other research has found that individuals with certain mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia, are at increased risk of violent behavior (Fazel et al.,

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Disorders are the disturbance of normal functioning within the body and mind, including mental illnesses. People with disorders need attention and care to help them keep their sanity. Unlike mental health hospitals, prisons and the U.S. Criminal Justice System does not give individuals with disorders the treatment they need and deserve. Due to the fact that prisoners with disorders are not given the treatment they need and are taken advantage of, our U.S. Criminal Justice System needs to include staff that help prisoners avoid certain unwanted behaviors. One problem within the U.S. Criminal Justice System is that prisoners with disorders are not given the treatment that they need.

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In accordance to the National Comorbidity Study negative risk factors that aide towards mental illness are low income, little education, and no occupation. Given these risks an individual is almost three times more likely to have a psychiatric disorder. Socioeconomic status regarding race, gender all play a prominent role. There are disparities that exist for released mental health inmates especially for minorities, they experience a great disadvantage of finding employment due to a criminal record and mental health status. To add mental health former inmates strive to survive however, given two weeks of medication, faced with poverty, and no other available resources as a consequence re-enter the prison system.

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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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Offenders with these disorders could be dangerous to other or even themselves. The offenders with disorders like those stated before are close to being released back into society which must be frightening if they do not take their medicines. 2 Improve conditions Mental offenders are thrown in a correctional facilities due their crimes, but these offenders should be in a prison or a correctional facility where they do not get the help they need. When in a prison some of these offender could be and will be picked on like a schoolyard which might led to a suicide attempt. A report on mental offender in california have reported that over 30,000 prisoners confined in the state prison.

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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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There are more people incarcerated who have a mental illness that there are in psychiatric hospitals. (Psychology Today). Mental Health America reports that “there are more than 1.2 million people currently residing in prisons and/or jails with a mental health condition and lack of access to mental health care”. (MHA). 40% of adults with a serious mental illness will be arrested at some point in their lifetime, usually for disturbing the peace or for a petty crime which are caused by their mental illness.

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