Torrey, E.F., Zdanowicz, M.T., Kennard, A.D., Lamb, H.R., Eslinger, D.F., Biasotti, M.I., Fuller, D.A. (2014). The treatment of persons with mental illness in prisons and jails: A state survey. Arlington, VA: Treatment Advocacy Center.…
Correctional Health Care, Correctional Education, and Correctional Sex Offender Programs are just a few practices to name. Correctional Mental Health is one practice that will be discussed in depth in this case study. Mental Health alone includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It too helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Mental Health in corrections is a very affective issue that is steadily growing within the correctional system. In this essay, I will provide a description of the program, the elements that lead to the success of the program, and the program structure and design that provide for an effective and successful correctional…
The United States prison system is notorious for the way it treats its inmates. There are so many theories, and facts to back up the claim that the prison system is not working the way it was intended to be, and it continues to be a growing issue that the government is not addressing. Further, within the already complicated prison system, there is another issue. Solitary confinement, which was originally supposed to be used as a short term punishment within prisons, or jails, has now become an integrated part of prison life (Edge, 2014). Solitary Nation, is 2014 documentary highlights the damages that solitary confinement is doing to people (Edge, 2014). Individuals whom have not shown any signs of degrading mental health come out of segregation, or as the inmates call it, “seg,” disturbed (Edge, 2014).…
The book Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It divides into three parts: “Harsh Prison Conditions,” “The Human Damage,” and “The Alternative to Solitary.” In the first section, Terry Allen Kupers, the author, explores the rises of supermax prisons, the normalization of long-term solitary confinement and throughout, he explores how isolation damages people’s psyches and about what race violence and gender has to do with supermax confinement. In the final section, Kupers requests for a rehabilitative attitude among all prison staff (as well as legislators and the public), a plan to keep individuals with severe mental illnesses out of jails and prisons and enhance methods of dealing with disturbed or disruptive prisoners. A few of Kupers’ recommendations include a massive reduction of the prison population, concurrent upgrading of mental health and…
The Administrative Maximum (ADX) facility in Florence, Colorado utilizes the separate and silent strategy, so that offenders would reflect on their crimes all day, which started a debate on if it is healthy for inmates to undergo and whether is it a secure way to control inmates at the facility. Furthermore, to address the issue previously stated, I would recommend that the ADX change their strategy to the Auburn System, but change the prohibitions on the face-to-face contact. Lastly, the recommendations I stated previously would ultimately address the issue of it being less damaging to inmate’s mental health and controlling the inmates would be easier.…
The task force has been assigned the mission of creating a training program which will detail the ways that staff for the correction facility are better able to manage the mentally ill offender population safely and effectively. This will review the following information to better explain how this may be accomplished: information vital to improve staff effectiveness for secure and safe operations, sill sets required for staff working with the population, and any notable information from research in both historical and emerging trends.…
This third of the prison population that was placed in solitary confinement, one day may be released into society and asked to be socialized, when they were never rehabilitated, but rather segregated. The correctional facility is furthering the damage to inmate’s that are already psychologically unstable and furthering dissocializing these inmates, then releasing them. We would not even put animals in a situation where they would be isolated from others, because we understand the importance of socializing, but we do it to inmates and define it as humane and are confused why recidivism is so high. Solitary confinement without rehabilitation will lead to more issues, rather than solutions. Caging what society defines as animals, then isolating…
I found out that most mentally ill people are placed in solitary confinement and they can go as long as nine months without taking the medication they need to keep them calmed down from doing harm to themselves. The cells are smaller than an average cell and it the prisoners in the cells gets little to no contact with family members and visitors. The mentally ill that are locked up in solitary cost the states about more than a regular inmate because of the medication and attention that the inmates need. Learning the fact that there is more violence in the solitary confinement than in the regular cells with other inmates. While watching the video you can see how some inmates interact with each other in the solitary confinement cell by sliding…
This program offers residential for inmates and substance abuse treatment (Roberts, 2008). Moreover, in the program, individuals may receive six months with two group and individual sessions twice every week. Furthermore, outpatient is considered as an aftercare program for offenders. The external is to be decreased, which allow the increase of internal that allows control that allows self- directional and goal oriented behavior.…
The standard that courts must use to decide if segregation is unconstitutional is if it violates our eighth amendment. Courts have found that inmates placed in solitary have the right to adequate personal hygiene, exercise, mattresses, ventilation, and rules specifying how they can earn their release. I don’t think that segregating inmates within a prison based upon their ethnic background or race is a good idea because that’s just a form of discrimination. Just because someone may be a different color than the rest does not mean that they should instantly be separated. With that said, we should not use different prisons for different ethnic groups or races to avoid cultural or racial violence. We’ve come a long way from the 60’s and we should…
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.…
The prison system has to realize that even though prisoners have broken the law they do not deserve to be locked in a room against their own will. Prisoners should not lose the same human born rights every citizen has. Locking them in a room is not a positive way of punishment, it’s rather cruel and does more harm than good. The slow speed the state of New York is improving its solitary confinement is defective. The severely ill inmates who need specific attention should not be a part of the general jail population, instead those inmates need to learn how to behave in the outside world by not being surrounded by the polluted minds of a general jail…
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.).…
Solitary confinement is the practice of isolating someone into a closed cell for 22 to 24 hours in a day virtually free from human contact for periods of time ranging from days to decades. “Upon reviewing the policies in 48 jurisdictions regarding various forms of segregation, all but one expressly addresses some form of administrative segregation. Therefore, this overview focuses on the 47 jurisdictions’ policies governing long‐term administrative segregation, defined as the placement of inmates in a cell (either alone or with a cellmate) for approximately 23 hours a…
They are often racially profiled because of the common black drug dealer stereotype that has…