Are Mental Illnessed Offenders Good Or Bad?

Are mentally disordered offenders mad or bad? Many individuals can argue whether individuals are committing crimes due to their illness or if they are rotten individuals. This essay includes an overview of mental disorders, illness the difference between the two and also the provision for mentally disordered offenders. Furthermore, based on statistics found by research from various sources a summary concluding whether the argument is more towards mentally disabled offenders being mad or bad.

When an individual has a mental disorder it’s defined as a change in the way they may act, feel and think; it would affect his daily activities. There are several types of mental disorders, two of which are of the following, anxiety and depression, which
Depression while in prison is a very common illness, which then leads to suicide. 17% of the individuals who committed suicide suffered from a mental illness at the time; 12% of the individuals in prison suffer from depression, and 5% of these individuals show psychotic symptoms; 10% are alcohol dependent, 5% are dependant on drugs and 8% have personality disorders. (‘The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness’, 2014) This portrays not all individuals are ‘mad’ when they commit an offence but going to prison and being labelled a ‘bad’ criminal can mean they are diagnosed with an illness after being convicted due to several conditions such as the guilt, the label, judgements by society and maybe lack of relationships and communication; this can make them start to feel really lonely which can then lead to depression. Rates of self-harm and attempted suicide as mentioned before are high; according to the study by (Rutherford, Samele and Duggan, 2008) there were 61 prisoners who committed suicide and 23,026 self-harm incidents took place. This shows not all offenders in prison are mad, but for many of them being in prison will lead them to develop some sort of mental illness most likely depression and/or anxiety. Prison can have all sorts of affects on the offenders; some individuals who are extremely ill may not understand what and why they are being punished for, these individuals are more likely to get more ill, get depression and some may lose hope and reoffend once they are out. Mental illnesses affect the individual’s brain, the way they think and sometime what they do; not all offenders are