According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there are currently over 2.2 million individuals serving time in federal and state prison, with 95 percent of those individuals being released and returning to their perspective communities across the nation. Majority of those individuals returning have needs that was either unaddressed while incarcerated or during the reentry process, which will negatively impact their ability to live a crime free productive life while in the community. Once released from prison, inmates are faced with a myriad of challenges such as finding stable housing, maintaining employment, combating substance abuse, and addressing physical and mental health problems. However, with the help of community support, offenders would less likely return back to prison and are
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?
Is our justice system corrupted, racist or is it perfect? Did you know African Americans now constitute for nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population? This is probably the case because Blacks are incarcerated six times the rate of whites. African Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people. I believe race, ethnicity and gender disparities play a large role in how our system is executed.
Studies have shown that women have reported histories of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, more than men which contribute to their mental instability. In 2005, 73.1 percent of women in state prisons had a mental health problem (Daniel, 2007). 80 percent of incarcerated women meet the criteria for at least one lifetime psychiatric disorder (Daniel, 2007). Substance abuse, dependence, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression appear to be the most common mental health problems for female inmates (Daniel, 2007). Incarcerated women have also shown a strong link between childhood abuse and adult mental health problems.
Today there are more mentally ill people in prisons and jails in the United States than any hospital or psych facility in this country. Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois is the largest mental health institution in the country. When a mentally ill person gets arrested for a violent crime they stay three to four times longer than a regular violent offender. “One third of those incarnated in cook county jail suffers from psychological disorders.” According to a 2006 Justice Department study, more than half of prisoners in the United States Suffer from some sort of mental health problem.
Their are around 500,000 mentally ill people that are put away in prisons and jails. In the documentary “The New Asylums”,Ohio's state prison system reveals the issues that are ongoing with mentally ill inmates. The major problem we have today is that no one is taking care of the people of these people. Most mentally ill people live by themselves with no family or friends to take care of them and they are off their medications. The mentally ill come in to prison on non violent offenses such as disturbing the peace, trespassing, etc. After leaving mental hospitals they usually end up on the streets and become homeless.
Typically female prisons are less violent compared to male prisons. A majority of women that are incarcerated are there because of drug or property offenses. Women usually commit less violent crimes compared to men who are more likely to commit violent crimes. “Because most women serve time for drug offenses rather than violent crimes, they tend to serve shorter prison sentences, (Study.com).” The female prison population in France and the U.S. is lower then that of the male population.
There are so many mentally ill people in correctional facilities because most families do not know how to help their loves ones who suffer from a mental illness, so the call the police for help. Majority of the police officers do not know what to do or how to handle people with a mental illness disease. Police officers who are not trained to deal with the mentally ill often do not recognize that person is ill. Some police officers do not recognize if the individual should or not go to jail or a treatment center or medical facility. The impact of law enforcement and the judicial system dealing with people with a mental illness is to assist the inmates with the help they need.
The law specifies that an employer who fills out an application for employment as a criminal justice professional, they will not face discrimination in any shape or form, even if a man is applying to work at a women 's prison. That being said, there are a couple of problems that males could face while working at a women 's prison, one of which is the corruption where inmates may offer a sexual favors of a inmate, especially if the mate is single and currently looking for a partner. The inmate and officer, at that point, should be held responsible in the court of law and receive proper disciplinary actions. Unfortunately, women start feeling sad after a while and seek officers in a sexual manner to fulfill their desires without knowing
What can be done The monitoring, prevention and treatment of mental disorders, as well as the promotion of good mental health, are part of the public health goals in prisons. According to World Health Organization (2017), even in resource-limited countries, measures can be taken to improve the mental health of prisoners and prison staffs, which can be adapted to the country’s cultural, social, political and economic environment (WHO, 2017). In the British prisons, some practices and policies have also been implemented, which reflect the positive impacts of prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing. Provide prisoners with appropriate mental health treatment and care.
According to the article released by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), males accounted for 74.59 percent of the over 12 million arrests in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigation,2014). This disparities in crimes committed by the two genders is a trend that is seen worldwide. Although it was that female crime rates would come close to male crime rate as the two genders took similar responsibilities in society. Research shows that the social status of male and female criminal is basically the same, which means that there must be something that results in the disparity. Studies have linked masculinity to criminal behavior in males.
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
Demographics is a huge difference from men. Women's prisons are generally located farther from friends and family . This making visits from children, other family members and friends very difficult. The particularly for the poor . This is mainly because few states operate more than one institution for women.
Statistics put together by the American Psychology Association state that, “73 percent of women in state prisons and 75 percent in jails have mental health problems, compared with 55 percent and 63 percent of men, respectively,” (Clark). This means that three quarters of women have mental health problems. This is a problem since most of these problems go either undertreated or untreated. When these women get out of prison, they cannot successfully integrate back into society due to mental illness and then end up back in the prison system as they are likely to
There are many indicators of the huge impact in disparities in sentencing women as compared to men and more so when it revolves around minorities ( race and class). Though there are lower crime rates among women as compared to men, there are significant disparities which tend to show favouritism to women. Research has shown that men get 63 per cent longer custodial sentences than women. In addition, it is twice more likely to have women get non custodial sentences even after conviction. However, as mentioned the disparities are more profound when issues of race and class are intertwined in the sentencing.
