If an offender is mentally ill can he or she truly be rehabilitated. If these offenders committed harsh crimes and would not successfully intergrade back into society they should be kept in jail under the original prion concept. Having them around other could do more wrong than good. If one cannot be rehabilitated and taught one should not be given the same treatment as those who can. The offenders should remain in solitary condiment, or executed according prison guidelines.
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.
Annotated Bibliography Mass incarceration of the mentally ill: Should we revert back to Institutionalization? Etter, Gregg W. Sr., et al. " The Jail as a Dumping Ground:
Their are around 500,000 mentally ill people that are put away in prisons and jails. In the documentary “The New Asylums”,Ohio's state prison system reveals the issues that are ongoing with mentally ill inmates. The major problem we have today is that no one is taking care of the people of these people. Most mentally ill people live by themselves with no family or friends to take care of them and they are off their medications. The mentally ill come in to prison on non violent offenses such as disturbing the peace, trespassing, etc. After leaving mental hospitals they usually end up on the streets and become homeless.
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.
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.”
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.
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
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.
Untreated mental illness is dangerous and over time we have learned that locking people with a mental illness is not the solution but makes it worse. People with untreated mental illness face many consequences. “People with untreated psychiatric illnesses comprise 250,000 people, of the total homeless population” (mentalillnesspolicy.org). The quality of life for these individuals is extremely heart breaking, and many are victimized regularly.
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.
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.
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.
Mentally ill prisoners in prison should be well taken care of. These offender need more care than those without a mental illness due to the illness they have they could hurting innocents civilian and guards or other prisoners like themselves or even themselves. Mentally ill offender need more medicines, Improve conditions, and the cost to keep them. Medicines Mentally ill offenders need as much more medicine than inmates without a mental illness,
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.
