Mental illnesses are often stigmatized and ridiculed, and many people have difficulty grasping how serious they can be. The public’s major concern in this controversy would be recidivism. But once people are educated they will realize that many mental illnesses are treatable and their victims can lead productive lives in society if they receive proper help and medications. Public fear or rejection may lead a victim of mental illness to self-harm or more violence. The tragic crime has happened because of an illness and it does not mean that the victims will always be predisposed to violence. What they need is understanding, treatment, and acceptance. Tim Mclean’s family, maybe with time, has an opportunity to help educate Canadians about mental…
We tend to hear a lot in the media that most violence comes from people with mental illness, but do we really know if this is the truth? As Anaya states in her essay “Mental Illness on Television” that “the media tend to always isolate or not mention people with a disability or show that they are not normal which is wrong” (54). This relates to Nancy Mairs essay “Disability” were she talks about physical disability and how the media doesn’t show it as a normal feature of life, but since she wrote it thirty years ago there has been progress in the media. On the other hand Anaya‘s main point is that the media should show mental illness as a feature of normal life as well not a threat which I strongly agree with.…
Last but not least mental illness is another population that the criminal justice system serves. Probably one of the more troubling aspects of the criminal justice system has to deal with. It seems that these people just seem to fall through the cracks of the system.…
The medieval times brought us men in shining armor and women captured by dragons for those knights to rescue. It also brought upon the dark ages which unfortunately risen the popularity of the lunatic (insane) asylums. In those days, people who were determined to be mentally ill were given a place to stay where they were treated for their illness. In todays’ society we have gone away from institutionalizing individuals because of mental illness and looked toward alternative ways of treatment most notably by prescribing psychiatric medication. This tactic was implemented to put the mentally ill back out onto the street and minimize the overcrowding that was happening in the institutions. Today most of the “asylums” have been shut down and for some reason most of the mentally ill are being housed in our state and federal prisons.…
People commit murder for many reasons, whether it is out of anger, love, jealousy, pure rage, etc., but why is it that we never speak of those who just seem more inclined to the extreme emotion, or lack of, that can lead to murder? In fact, “Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S.—10 million, or 4.2%—experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.” (Mental Health by the Numbers) Based on the statistics, a decent chunk of Americans are burdened with a serious mental illness (S.M.I.), but not all of those who are impacted take the next step to get help.…
Perhaps the most complicated consequence of the interaction between the mentally ill and the criminal justice system is the reality of incarceration. Unfortunately, it is too often the case where a person with schizophrenia is convicted of a crime and incarcerated, but as a result of their mental illness negatively impacting their trial. This was the case of Theodore Kaczynski, a man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and accused of sending bombs through the mail. Kaczynski “continued to tell the judge and his lawyers that he did not want to be labeled mentally ill” and thus his lawyer could not use a defense of mental illness (Reisner et al, 87). Subsequently, Kaczynski was sentenced to life without parole.…
There are now far more persons with mental illness in our nation’s jails and prisons than in state mental hospitals. See Michael Winerip, Bedlam on the Streets, N.Y. TIMES MAGAZINE (May 23, 1999). A September 2006 Department of Justice report stated that as of mid-2005 “more than half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem, including 705,600 inmates in State prisons, 78,800 in Federal prisons, and 479,900 in local jails.” Doris J. James and Lauren E. Glaze, Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates, U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (Sept. 2006).…
Mentally ill offenders are a growing population in the prison system and different actions are needed to treat, aid, and skillfully support these people. Today these offenders expenses in medical and special care escalate as well as people being trained to care for these individuals. Furthermore how do these offenders act inside the prisons once incarcerated and what characteristics are these offenders categorized…
Davis argues that it is unfashionable to imply that mentally ill people are disproportionately involved in criminal or violent acts” (174). He also points out that the media, “by selective reporting,” have exaggerated the crime rates of mentally ill people and therefore have contributed to the perception of this group as a threat to society, “further maligning an already stigmatized group” (174). The author explains that methodological problems in research have shaped the widespread belief that mentally ill people are more dangerous. His findings are that “psychiatric patients tended to get arrested at a higher rate”; factors associated with offenses by mentally ill people were the same as those associated with offenses by members of the general public”; and that “the problems experienced were likely a function of the system, with less accessible community resources contributing to a diversion of some mentally ill patients into the criminal justice system.” Based on his research, David concluded that the answer to whether mentally ill people are more dangerous is uncertain. He expanded, saying that “If one assumes that psychiatric patients are being arrested at higher rates, one cannot simplistically infer that psychiatric patients constitute a menace to…
The population of the mentally ill in prison is growing in result of the individuals not being treated properly in the community and while in prison. Officials believe that if you confine dangerous criminals it will decrease their sense of violence; however, Segregation is not an effective form of punishment for these individuals. Fitter treatment needs to be provided in prison for prisoners with mental illness as well as after their release. If the prison system does nothing, then mental illness associated with criminal behavior will be a never ending cycle in our society. Solitary confinement is detrimental to mental health; the conditions of solitary confinement increase the prisoner’s symptoms and mental illnesses and provoke…
With the closing of the large intuitions in the early 1990s and the rise of smaller units being set up within communities, the policy change ideology was for individuals who have a mental illness to live independent lives, and to learn skills to function within society. It was deemed that these vulnerable individual’s faced more risk from staff than what small risk they posed to others. ( k272, Reader, p.138). However if there was a need for intervention then there would be the power to detain that person against their wishes in hospital to ensure their safety and that of others. The Mental Health Act (1983) is the piece of statute law in the United Kingdom which allows this. This act is reviewed and regulated by the Mental Health Act Commission (MHAC). With this change in policy, there has been panic due to perceived risks which are faced by the public from individuals whom suffer mental distress. This has been reinforced by the media. (K272, Unit 14, p.40). These fears which the Public share are firstly exaggerated and are inaccurate with respect to the correlation between mental illness and violence. ( K272, unit 14, p.38, Start et al, 2004, ). Research has shown that self - harm and suicidal risk is much greater, than that of violence to the public, even though the media represents, it differently. (Mind, 2006).…
Incarceration of the mentally ill is a social problem because studies have shown that a significantly high percentage of individuals incarcerated in the United States have been diagnosed with a mental illness. A Stanford Law school study has shown that prisons and jails have become the new mental health care facilities. In their study, they highlighted the findings of the National Sheriff’s Association and Treatment Advocacy center, that ten times the amount of mental ill individuals are incarcerated rather than being treated in mental health facilities. The Stanford Law school…
In the past, and still occuring now, people with mental disabilities were often thrown into jail for the wrong reasons or while in jail were treated inhumanly. It states in the journal Prisons of the Mind: Social Value and Economic Inefficiency in the Criminal Justice Response to Mental Illness, “statistics show that between 30 and 40 percent of mentally ill individuals in the jails...had no criminal charges pending against them, while jails report frequently holding people with mental illnesses simply because there is no other place to put them,” this means that many people who need help and assistance for their illness are often thrown into a prison and neglected because that is easiest for the people in charge, rather than seeking out help…
A definite con in the mental health court system is the number of mentally ill people that have been killed in the last year. I read one story about a woman that was mentally ill and had a hand drill that she was using, police were called and the woman was shot to death because the police assumed it was an Uzi and it was broad daylight. That’s just one story. There have been at least 14 men and women with a mental illness killed in the last year. In last year’s case, there was a mentally ill woman that stabbed her grandma to death and then told the courts that she could kill again. That woman walked away free. Is mental illness a way out for getting away with murder? There should be training on the proper way to deal with someone mentally ill who has become…
In conclusion, many problems stem from mental health illness when brought against the criminal justice system. Mental health illness can contribute to jail and prison overcrowding, high crime rates, drug addiction, and many other problems. After the wide deinstitutionalization of state hospitals, jails and prisons have seen an increase in the number and percentage of individuals with mental health and substance use. Furthermore,…