Persuasive Essay On Recidivism

Another issue that the American prison systems were facing was their constant practice of locking away mentally ill individuals to very long prison sentences that only seriously worsened their conditions, and even made their chances of overcoming mental illness, nearly impossible. Even medications that were prescribed to these individuals made them suffer serious and sometimes even worse, side effects. Although some states banned the high rates of mentally ill individuals to prisons, this only meant they were more targeted and thrown in jail for petty offenses by police. Many prisons do not have the resources, nor the skills needed to adequately and appropriately care for the mentally ill, therefore many of them suffer and even die from this

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. As of December of 2013 about 1.57 million people were behind bars in county, state, and federal jails and prisons (Flatow N., 2014). This statistic results in prisons overflowing with people, most of them serving time for a misdemeanor offense. Unfortunately, inmates are serving extended time for minor drug charges, actions from their anger, or lack of judgement. More often than not, people that have been imprisoned are released to go back time and time again. This is called recidivism. Between the rising prison populations, high recidivism rates, and the lengthy prison sentences, the cost to taxpayers is astronomical. The

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

There are more people incarcerated who have a mental illness that there are in psychiatric hospitals. (Psychology Today). Mental Health America reports that “there are more than 1.2 million people currently residing in prisons and/or jails with a mental health condition and lack of access to mental health care”. (MHA). 40% of adults with a serious mental illness will be arrested at some point in their lifetime, usually for disturbing the peace or for a petty crime which are caused by their mental illness. (NAMI). If people with a mental illness receive counseling and/or treatment for their illness many arrests and crimes could be

Mentally ill offenders comprise a huge segment of the country 's prison populace, bringing about various difficulties to correctional administrators who lack formal preparation or instruction on the best way to communicate, look after, and secure this specific populace (Pittaro, 2017). Correctional administrators confront a large group of difficulties with regards to mentally ill inmates. These particular inmates require more supervision and more care with respect to their prosperity in the correctional facility that they reside in. In most facility, the mentally ill prisoners are restricted to the minimum about of counseling services which may prompt troublesome practices. As indicated by an article written by Lloyd I. Sederer, M.D., "All patients have both a right to treatment and a right to refuse treatment (Sederer, n.d).” Despite the fact that being imprisoned can be difficult for the most advantageous individual, it 's harder for an individual diagnosed with an acute psychiatric illness. Correctional administrators have to battle with the idea of giving more supervision, specific mental care, and prescriptions that are not generally available to help with their conduct and other

Incarceration rates have skyrocketed over the last forty years-- which could be interpreted as good or bad. There have been many questions surrounding incarceration directly being linked to a drop in crime rate: both positive and negative. One pair of economical authors, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, approached this concept from a mostly-positive outlook: the high incarceration rate was responsible for one-third of the crime drop in the 1990’s (123-124). The authors use high incarceration rate along with innovative police strategies, plummet of the crack market, and aging in the population to make a base argument of reasons for crime drop; however, the main argument they utilize is the legalization of abortions (Levitt and Dubner 120-121,

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. Schizophrenia is where the individual has hallucinations, delusion, and severe disorganization. Bipolar disorder is where the individual has the ability to change their current mood to extremely high to extremely low. The bipolar illness causes

Common mental health diagnoses that are commonly seen among American prison inmates are bipolar disorder(depression and mood disorders) and schizophrenia which is a group of disorders characterized by recurrent episodes of psychotic behaviors, which may include abnormalities of thought process, delusions, auditory hallucinations and judgement. With lifelong medication therapy, many mentally ill patients are able to function well in society and carry out Activities of Daily Living(ADLs), though a small number of these patients do not, especially during psychotic episodes, which typically occur during periods of noncompliance with medications(Mosby). Recently, advocates have also classified substance abuse as a mental illness. Six states have repealed public drunkenness from statue and now consider alcoholism a disease rather than a crime(Person, p

Imagine if a person was a major drug dealer and drug money was their only stream of income. Once that person is caught by law enforcement and sentenced by the court, they spend some time in the correctional system. When they get out, the reality of the label “felon” sticks with them when they’re trying to apply for jobs. If they are unable to make a living for themselves the right way, they will be tempted to go back to their criminal lifestyle. Society makes it extremely hard for felons to reenter society and the felons shouldn’t be at fault because they have limited options. They are going to fall back into their criminal lifestyle because many employers are not susceptible to hiring felons.

In accordance to the National Comorbidity Study negative risk factors that aide towards mental illness are low income, little education, and no occupation. Given these risks an individual is almost three times more likely to have a psychiatric disorder. Socioeconomic status regarding race, gender all play a prominent role. There are disparities that exist for released mental health inmates especially for minorities, they experience a great disadvantage of finding employment due to a criminal record and mental health status. To add mental health former inmates strive to survive however, given two weeks of medication, faced with poverty, and no other available resources as a consequence re-enter the prison system.

Thousands of people would not benefit from outpatient treatment and often found themselves under-employed, homeless, victims of crime, in nursing homes, in residential treatment homes, in a correctional facility, and more likely to suffer from substance abuse disorders. These compounding factors are the foundation of the phenomenon called “Criminalization of the Mental Ill.” People with a serious mental illness are more likely to be arrested, incarcerated, and sentenced to more time than those not suffering from a mental illness. Contrary to stereotypes, people with a serious mental illness are more likely to be a victim of a crime.

According to Phelps (2013), as from 1998 to 2007 states that had the greatest increases in incarceration rates failed to observe a corresponding drop in crime rates. On the other hands, states such as New York, Texas, New Jersey and North and South Carolina that lowered their incarceration rates in favor of community corrections programs experienced a drop in crime rates (p.53). Incarceration has also failed in correcting prisoners. Most of the prisoners always go back to committing crimes once released from prison. It has led to a rise in the recidivism rates of prisoners. Recidivism refers to the repetition of criminal behavior (James, 2011). According to the United States Bureau of Justice 2010 statistics report, three-quarters of released prisoners are constantly rearrested for new crimes and more than half of these go back to prison in a period of two to three years after their release. Ex- inmates account for an approximated 19 percent of all arrests (Phelps, 2013, p.55). Criminals who return to the community are also most of the times worse off after a period of confinement than when they entered. It is attributable to the fact that these inmates learn antisocial and criminal attitudes from other

Skeem, J.L., Manchak, S. & Peterson, J.K. (2010). Correctional Policy for Offenders with Mental Illness: Creating a New Paradigm for Recidivism Reduction. Law and Human Behavior,

As America got tough on crime and launched its war on drugs in the 1980s incarceration rates soared. People believed just locking criminals up for all crimes, even non-violent drug offenses was the best option for fighting crime. However, the rate of recidivism would say this ‘lock them up and they will learn their lesson’ philosophy is not working. A 2014 BJS report showed that 76.6% of offenders released from prison in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within five years. In that same time frame 76.9% of drug offenders released in 2005 were re-arrested. (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014, p.

According to the National Institute of Justice, “Recidivism refers to a person 's relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime,” (Recidivism). A study conducted in 2005 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics about recidivism revealed “about two-thirds (67.8%) of released prisoners were arrested for a new crime within 3 years” upon release (Cooper). These high rates are influenced by a number of factors both while in prison, and following release. For instance, drug offenders “underestimate their vulnerability post-incarceration,” especially because many often return to neighborhoods that are associated with pre-incarceration drug use. Not to mention, they need proper housing and employment to readjust into society, but they lack access because they are labeled in society (Chandler). Additionally, those who experience overcrowding and do not receive treatment are more likely to reoffend. Research has uncovered that carefully targeted programs significantly reduces recidivism