Correctional institutions are a rapidly expanding throughout the United States unfortunately, and with them comes the individuals on both sides of the bars. The individuals behind the bars are just as important as the ones standing in front of them. Correctional officers are a huge part of the criminal justice system and their mental health and burnout is a serious factor to consider when looking at how important they are to our criminal justice system. Keeping enough officers to deal with the rising amount of offenders is a huge issue within our correctional institutions. Due to the responsibilities correctional officers have may seem to be linked or contribute to the burnout rates seen. Special offenders such as females and veterans play …show more content…
This type of education is beneficial not only to the correctional officers that work with these inmates; but also any mental health professionals they may come in contact with, as well as for their own well-being. According to Psychological Services, female inmates with mental health issues have risen almost sixteen percent over the last ten years (Derkzen, D., Booth, L., Taylor, K., & McConnell, A. 2013). The research within this particular study wanted to see how females are affected differently than male inmates with similar mental health issues. When incarceration begins, female inmates are two times more likely to suffer from a mental illness than their male counterpart at just over 22 percent. Male inmates are just over 10 percent. The most common mental health disorders that affect these female inmates are substance abuse, depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, as well as personality and anti-social disorders (Derkzen …show more content…
This action can hurt them and potentially make their stay longer since medical adherence can increase violent tendencies towards people around them. Those individuals usually happen to be other inmates, correctional officers, and mental health professionals. If one of these end up hurt due to the actions of an inmate off medications, that can increase time incarcerated, hospitalization, and even additional charges (Ehret 2013). This could potentially continue the cycle and even though release may occur, there would be high recidivism rates. Near the end of the study as more inmates were released the number participating in the trial diminished. More research is definitely need to show more of a correlation with concrete proof but there was a very visible trend between medical adherence and how it can affect the female inmates. The burnout rates among professions within correctional settings are much higher than similar professions in different settings. Burnout is a very real thing that happens to be common among correctional officers and correctional mental health professionals. When burnout is experienced, it consists of three main areas. The three areas are depersonalization, decrease in the perception of personal accomplishment, and the biggest of the three-emotional
One fourth of the prisoners suffer from major depression and one fifth suffer psychosis
She acknowledges that living in prison is not an easy life and it can sometimes be brutal. She experiences women inmates be sexually abuse, be humiliated, and treated poorly by guards. The author
Much insight was learned about the corrections system after viewing Toe Tag Parole: To Live and Die on Yard A and Behind Bars: Rookie Year. Two very different point of views about prison life. Toe Tag Parole: To Live and Die on Yard A was predominantly from the viewpoint of the inmates while the Behind Bars: Rookie Year was predominantly from the correctional officers. Toe Tag Parole: To live and Die on Yard A is a documentary based at a Los Angeles, California prison.
For many of years, many researchers and the justice system have seen a big increase in women being incarcerated. As stated in the article "Should the Criminal Justice System Treat female Offender Differently," by Jill L. Rosenbaum many of the offenses by women are less violent and most likely be “status offense. ”As we notice the increase in women and a decrease in men, we wonder if there a psychological reason for this discovery. Should women be treated differently?
Introduction and Summary: Chapter 11 focuses on the individuals with mental illness and the criminal justice system. Every year there are hundreds of thousands of individuals with mental illness who are arrested. The past decade a lot of the state hospital and mental health facilities have been shut down for lack of funding. Many of the seriously mentally ill are roaming the streets. The serious mental illness regarding this chapter would include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe depression.
In this documentary, we see the lives of multiple men who are spending time of their prison sentence in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement means being locked up for 22-24 hours a day, with limited interaction with other people. In fact, about 80,000 men, women, and children spend time in solitary confinement while serving out their sentence. (Solitary confinement facts. (2016).
My Year in A Women's Prison, a true story written by Piper Kerman, further verifies the true nature of incarceration and the nervousness that surrounds re-entry. As of 1980, the United States' state and federal prison population has propelled itself from 300,000 to 1.6 million (CITE 7). How could
Through the years and through inmate experiences few things are changing for female and identified mentally ill offenders. From years past, Caucasian women offenders were seen as “pious and naïve of the evils” (Hanser, 2013), and African-American women offenders were more likely to face incarceration for wrongful actions. However, women, in general, did not hold the largest offender numbers like their male counter-offenders. From the RH REALITY CHECK Internet article, written by Sharona Coutts and Zoe Greenberg, in March of 2015, “In 2010, Black women were incarcerated at nearly three times the rate of white women . . .” While women incarceration rates increase, the conditions of the institutions still lack the necessities for women and
The study also says that among female inmates one third of them have some type of mental disorder. In prisons and jails, prisoners sit in their cells majority
Women get treated differently in a prison system, but they also experience their sentences differently too. For woman the facilities are smaller and further away from their love ones. This is in hope that the women will rehabilitated so they are not away anymore. In most cases woman are serving shorter sentences than men are for the same type of crime. This again is in hopes that the woman will change her ways so that she can go home to her children.
Provide training to all prison staff on mental health issues. Training should reinforce staff understanding of mental disorders, raise awareness on human rights, challenge stigmatizing attitudes and encourage mental health promotion for guards and inmates. In addition, prison health workers need more specialized skills to identify and manage the prisoners’ mental health. According to HM Prison Probation & Service (2018), prison staff ‘keep those sentenced to prison in custody, helping them lead law-abiding and useful lives, both while they are in prison and after they are released.’ It believes that prison staff will play a huge part in the life of an offender, helping them to learn and develop new skills (HM Prison Probation & Service,
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
Ways Female Prisoners are Similar Many of the female prisoners who were interviewed conveyed similar situations in which they felt dehumanized throughout their time in the correctional facility. Some described horrendous living conditions, in which one individual was forced to reside in a room that had broken plumbing. Another situation involved an inmate being forced to give birth while shackled, and only being allowed to spend two days with her child before returning to prison. I think this proves that our correctional system places more of a value on punishing individuals who break the law, rather than rehabilitating those individuals and creating productive members of society.
In the last twenty years, there has been consistent research to support the idea that, helping professionals are impacted by the traumatic experiences of those they serve (Figley, 2002; Lipsky & Burk, 2009; Pearlman & Mac Ian, 1995). However, there has been little research conducted regarding the individual and professional impact of trauma exposure on probation officers,
Furthermore, the parole system is known to have a multitude of problems laced within it, these problems can be solved by focusing on parolee and parole officer relationships, and partaking in systems that improve the underlying issues. Following through to fix these affairs may seem unrealistic, but a solution could be in sight. Issues within the parole system in the United States include the ineffectivity of parolees meeting with their supervising