Watching the documentary, the New Asylum opened my eyes a lot. I have heard the saying, “prisons are the new asylum” plenty of times, but I did not believe it to be true until watching the documentary. Before watching it I always viewed the prison system as a very harsh and coercive place, but now I see how much it help people with mental illness. If it wasn’t for the prison system some people would not have a place for treatment. I believe if the government had better funding there would be less reoffender. I say this because once they reenter society they are not able to adapt to normal life activities. In the documentary, the prisoners would be returning back to prison within a month. If they had more steps once they are…
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).…
Regardless of an inmate’s crimes or offenses, they are legally required to have the proper kind of treatment. If the prison can’t meet their needs then they can be transported to a facility that can help them properly.…
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…
The overall topic of my research paper is mental illness in jails. The population of individuals with a mental illness in jail with a mental illness is no small number by any means and the rate of individuals with a disability that are re-offenders is not compact either.…
The Frontline episode “The New Asylums”, dove into the crisis mentally ill inmates face in the psychiatric ward in Ohio state prisons. The episode shows us the conditions and every day lives of mentally ill patients in Ohio state prisons, and explains how these inmates got to this point. It appeared that most of these prisoners should have been patients in an institute of some sort, out in society, but unfortunately due to whatever circumstances they ended up in prison. According to the episode, most of the inmates end up in prison due to them not coping with the outside world on their own. Prior to becoming imprisoned, the inmates had difficulties dealing with the outside world. Mainly due to lack of necessary psychiatric treatment, the soon to be inmates would get arrested for things such as violent behavior, robbery, and rape. This behavior would cause them to go to jail, and after repeated offenses they end up falling into prison.…
Not only is cost an essential reason for these reforms, another significant factor is to ensure the safety and humane treatment of these correctional clients behind the prison walls. According to a report by the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “56% of state prisoners, 45% of federal prisoners, and 64% of jail inmates in the United States suffer from mental illness. Between 60 and 80 percent of individuals under supervision of the criminal justice system in the United States we either under the influence of alcohol or drugs while committing an offense, committed the offense to support a drug addiction, were charged with a drug related crime, or were using drugs or alcohol regularly” (Smart on Crime).…
This is necessary in order to create safer environments that effectively reform criminals and adequately prepare them for integration into society. The first and foremost cause is the flow of drugs into convicted populations. We need to investigate how controlled substances are being trafficked into prisons, and we need to combat the transport of contraband within the prison system. The second major cause is the lack of rehabilitation for incarcerated peoples who were substance abusers before their convictions. If an addict is convicted and does not receive adequate support and health resources to overcome their addiction, the convict is more likely to abuse drugs in prison and become a repeat offender after prison. It is estimated that while over 65% of prisoners can be classified as clinically addicted, only 11% of prisoners receive proper treatment for a clinical addiction. In order to effectively resolve substance abuse in incarcerated populations, we must staunch the trafficking of drugs into prisons and provide the necessary support system for clinically addicted…
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…
The documentary, The Released, described the challenges those with mental illness face when they are released from prison. In most cases, the inmates were unable to break the cycle of recidivism. The high rate of recidivism within the mentally ill prison population is caused by different factors. One factor that contributes to the high rate is a lack of support, which as a result, may lead to an increased chance of a relapse. Also, the challenge of reintegrating back into the world can be even more difficult due to the person’s mental illness. Once the offenders are released, they face extra obstacles of trying to find a place to leave and a job. All of these factors, together, cause the high recidivism rate for mentally ill offenders.…
Inmates being released from prison are vulnerable to serious relapse by the effects of drugs and alcohol. Even if we try to help them to the best of our ability then they need to depend on themselves to make sure they don’t fall again. Depending on the person they will learn from their experience in prison or just fall into a cycle so it happens over and over again. This paper has given insight and knowledge about incarcerations around our nation and how we handle inmates by either drugs or holding them within solitary…
Mental illness poses many obstacles in rehabilitation. For instance, mental illness is not something that can be completely cured. The symptoms can be lessened, and a mentally ill person may be able to live a productive life if they receive treatment and /or medication. However, they will still have diagnoses of mental illness. Rehabilitation of mental ill inmates should consist of helping the individual to recover from lost skill, coping with everyday demands, and restoring broken relationships. The rehabilitation may also have to focus on specific issues such as substance abuse. A constraint of rehabilitation in the correctional system is the emphasis that are placed on punishment. The focus on punishment makes it difficult to develop effective rehabilitation programs. (Benson, 2003.).…
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,…
Another possible solution is to have an increase in medical and psychological treatment. Prisons around the country are always having a shortage of these needs and as a result, inmates cannot be diagnosed properly, meaning we cannot help them at all. According to Leon Neyfakh “Psychosocial stress and poor addiction treatment, both of which are known to make people more prone to impulsive behavior, aggression, and drug use”(Neyfakh). This is one of the main reasons why inmates who leave prison are more mentally unstable than when they were incarcerated. By giving them proper treatment prisoners will get a befitting diagnosis, and doctors will know how to approach this. As a result, having in increase in medical and psychological treatment we…