ipl-logo

Mentally Ill In Prison Essay

716 Words3 Pages

Mentally ill individuals are present in jails and prisons at disproportionate rates. The problem will not be significantly improved by programs alone. To fix the problem: the reach of standard mental health needs to be expanded, the mentally ill need to be diverted early in the criminal justice process. Criminal justice professionals need to have better training in dealing with and recognizing mental illness, data needs to be used more effectively, and aftercare programs for the mentally ill need to be in place for them when they are released from jail or prison. It is for these reasons that there is a disconnect between legal concepts of insanity and psychological concepts of mental illness. Ethical concerns are raised when arresting and prosecuting the mentally ill because the issue of culpability is raised. The mentally ill may not be fit to stand trial or even be aware of what they are doing. However, the incidents of their criminal behavior must be dealt with. If mentally ill is defined as experiencing symptoms or receiving aid for mental health, then that is approximately 56% of state prisons and 64 of jail inmates. Even if adjusted to serious mental illness like: psychotic, mania, severe and depression, this is still about 10% - 20% of jail and 25% prison inmates. It is quite come for the …show more content…

It may be substantial if organizational changes in how police departments and mental health agencies cooperate in providing services in a timely manner. Some evidence suggest the mental health courts have a noticeable impact on the recidivism time for the mentally ill. It would be useful for correctional officers to receive more training because especially when it comes to jails and prisons, the mentally ill do not respond to orders the same

Show More
Related

Summary Of The Schorr's Case

1655 Words | 7 Pages

Police are routinely cast into conditions in which they have to recognize and quickly adapt to situations involving mentally ill suspects. This may be the reason police officers are known as “streetcorner psychiatrists, de facto mental health service providers, or psychiatrist in blue.” Some studies report that ten percent of all police contacts are with people with a serious mental illness. Other studies report that people with a serious mental illness represent six to eight percent of all state prisoners, while other data claims that over half of state prisoners have a serious mental illness. Further, people with a serious mental illness will spend more time incarcerated than people who do not have a serious mental illness.

Read More

Review Of Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

831 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Annotated Bibliography: Mass Incarceration Of The Mentally Ill

670 Words | 3 Pages

This is important information to understand and be aware, due to the increased number of mentally ill jailed, in life imprisonment, or on death row. Understanding the history of the problem and how it came to be can help the system gain knowledge on how to find a solution. The authors citing statistical information helped reinforce their argument however some information was observational. Observational information is good data however it cannot be used to determine causation. More information on the mental patient’s rights movement would have helped to understand a different aspect of the argument but overall an insightful

Read More

Treatment And Crime Reduction Act Of 2004: A Literature Review

1051 Words | 5 Pages

The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004: Problems and Prospects by Christine M. Litschgea and Michael G. Vaughn, is a research article whose focus is three-fold. First, the researchers review the literature available on the elements that have contributed to the increasing levels of incarcerated persons with severe mental illness (SMI). Secondly, they analyze the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA), and assess if this law can reduce problems associated with incarcerated persons with SMI.

Read More

A Call For Reform In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

1191 Words | 5 Pages

Furthermore, the failure to address mental health needs within the prison system exacerbates these issues. The Equal Justice Initiative reveals that more than half of all Americans in prison or jail have a mental illness. Prison officials often fail to provide correct treatment, resorting to physical force and solitary confinement, which can worsen mental health problems. The Equal Justice Initiative reveals, “More than half of all Americans in prison or jail have a mental illness. Prison officials often fail to provide appropriate treatment for people whose behavior is difficult to manage, instead resorting to physical force and solitary confinement, which can aggravate mental health problems.”

Read More

Confederate Memorial Day Essay

828 Words | 4 Pages

Another issue that the American prison systems were facing was their constant practice of locking away mentally ill individuals to very long prison sentences that only seriously worsened their conditions, and even made their chances of overcoming mental illness, nearly impossible. Even medications that were prescribed to these individuals made them suffer serious and sometimes even worse, side effects. Although some states banned the high rates of mentally ill individuals to prisons, this only meant they were more targeted and thrown in jail for petty offenses by police. Many prisons do not have the resources, nor the skills needed to adequately and appropriately care for the mentally ill, therefore many of them suffer and even die from this

Read More

Empathy In Criminal Justice Essay

1266 Words | 6 Pages

A major demographic of people that are being treated unfairly within the justice system are the mentally ill. Because of the modern lack of empathy within the system, those suffering from mental illness are not receiving the treatment and care that they need, which is limiting the justice that the system is producing. Mental illness is rarely considered when assessing crime, and this has led to large quantities of prisoners being mentally ill. In “Just Mercy”, Stevenson says, “America’s prisons have become warehouses for the mentally ill” (Stevenson 186). Because courts have a lack of empathy regarding the mentally ill, these people are being piled up in prisons, making up the majority of the population.

Read More

Community Mental Health Act Of 1963 Essay

1349 Words | 6 Pages

The shift is attributed to the unexpected clinical needs of this new outpatient population, the inability of community mental health centers to meet these needs, and the changes in mental health laws (Pollack & Feldman, 2003). Thousands of mentally ill people flowing in and out of the nation 's jails and prisons. In many cases, it has placed the mentally ill right back where they started locked up in facilities, but these jail and prison facilities are ill-equipped to properly treat and help them. In 2006 the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that there were; 705,600 mentally ill inmates in state prisons, 78,000 in federal prisons, and

Read More

Mental Illness In Correctional Facilities

475 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Mass Incarceration Pros And Cons

1535 Words | 7 Pages

Laci states that in state prisons from 1997 to 2000, “191,000 prisoners described themselves as mentally ill- 16 percent of the population” (Prisons and Jails: A Deterrent to Crime?). It is crucial that people with mental health issues be treated in order to achieve a state of peace. However, they are thrown in prison where they can be extremely ill-treated many times. One cannot expect the poor prison conditions and the misunderstanding guards to give them the special treatment that will keep them from reoffending. It is too often that prisoners are either arrested with a mental condition or develop it in prison because of the circumstances in which they are put.

Read More

Mentally Ill In Prisons

984 Words | 4 Pages

Today there are more mentally ill people in prisons and jails in the United States than any hospital or psych facility in this country. Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois is the largest mental health institution in the country. When a mentally ill person gets arrested for a violent crime they stay three to four times longer than a regular violent offender. “One third of those incarnated in cook county jail suffers from psychological disorders.” According to a 2006 Justice Department study, more than half of prisoners in the United States Suffer from some sort of mental health problem.

Read More

Mass Incarceration In Prison

1491 Words | 6 Pages

Conversations about criminal justice reform have to include the issue of incarcerating the mentally ill if the United States is serious about reducing mass incarceration and recidivism.

Read More

Mental Health History Essay

1675 Words | 7 Pages

About 29 percent of the mentally ill incarcerated in 1992 were held with no charges against them. They were waiting for a bed at a hospital, psychiatric evaluation or transportation to some kind of psychiatric hospital. The mentally ill do not have adequate access to mental health services in jails; about 1 in 5. A lot of the mentally ill are arrested for misdemeanors. The mentally ill are also incarcerated for less serious charges than those who do not have a mental illness.

Read More

Essay On Mental Illness In Prison

332 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Argumentative Essay On A Mental Health Issue

947 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Mentally Ill In Prison Essay

Related Topics

Open Document