Mentally Ill In Prisons

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. The study also says that among female inmates one third of them have some type of mental disorder. In prisons and jails, prisoners sit in their cells majority

The state is responsible, and the Part of the blame for this growing issue in our country. The result of the deinstitution movement in the 1960’s. This movement Majority of state of mental hospitals. This was because of the introduction of anti-psychics. Also people thought that that mentally ill patients should be helped and treated in their communities not inside of mental health hospital or insane asylum’s. Also Medicare, Medicaid and health insurance providers didn’t cover a patient stay at a mental health hospital. This was great for the people who received the help they need to function in our society. However is was bad for other who didn’t received adequate support and treatment in ended up in our into our corrections system. In 2009 to 2012 Illinois was one of ten states in the country that cut mental health funding by 32%. This was an attempts to fix the state’s fiscal crisis. Also in 2012 Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel order to close down six of twelve mental health care faculties. Only leave the city with six have remaining facility. This put’s a burden on the person that needs help because now they to get to a remaining faculty most of the time using public transportation we is a hassle. So this is when some people use drugs to self-mediate. Cook county sheriff Thomas dart is an advocate of helping the mentally ill inmate with receiving the help that they need. He says that the inmates should be treated like patients rather than inmates. And also while in cook county jail the inmate receive the help that they need. He says he problem is when a mentally ill person gets releases without their meds and treatment and support the usually end up back in jail and this becomes a repeated cycle. Ironically by Illinois cutting their mental health funding it only costed them more money. The state saw a 131 million dollar increase in spending for mental health. It’s estimated that it cost $150 a day to incarcerate a