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Mental Illness In Prison Essay

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Incarcerating people with mental disorder Prison is now America’s new home for mentally ill people. Perhaps, warehouses for the severely mentally people. Two million people who suffer from mental illness are being put behind bars. According to Dahlia Lithwick, “in 2012, approximately, 356,368 inmates with severe mental illness were in prisons and jails, while 35.000 patients severely ill were admitted in state psychiatric hospitals”. She further adds, “Ten times more mentally ill people are now in jails and prisons than in state psychiatric hospitals”. This reveals that, the enormous increased of the mentally ill person in the criminal justice is a crucial problem. Jailing people with mental illness is true because jails and prisons have …show more content…

Thoroughly, mentally people after being released have difficulties to access through the mental health services and supports because prison and jail don’t have the right access for these people and therefore, these programs will serve them to bond with the community and not feel left out. According to David C. Kondrat, William S. Rowe, and Melanie Sosinski “a major obstacle for inmates reentering the community is connecting with mental health services, with over 80 percent of inmates having difficulty accessing mental health treatment upon release ( Lamberti & Weisman, 2004 pg. 101)”. This illustrates that, mentally people after being released have difficult to access through the mental health services and supports. So literally, these programs will serve them to bond with the community and not feel left out. Consequently, the transition planning program also serves as a transition from prison to community which enhances on planning and preparation for inmates to feel at home. On the contrary, the FACT program is an adaptation of assertive community treatment as a way of addressing the negative impacts of deinstitutionalization on people with mental illness (Stein & Test,

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