news outlet that offers on line news and opinion covering a variety of topics to include politics, business, technology, and culture. The Psychiatric Times is a medical trade monthly publication. It offers news, special reports, and resources for psychiatrists and other mental health workers. The two articles reviewed are relative to the topics discussed in Slate et al. (2013) and Hopkins Burke (2012). The article from the Huffington Post, titled “Let’s Stop Treating Mental Illness Like It’s a Crime”, discusses concerns with mentally ill persons not receiving proper treatment while incarcerated. Another problem noted is the inability of communities to meet the needs mentally ill individuals within them. The author contends that these factors initiate a cycle that turns jails and prisons into “de facto asylums” with the likely hood that those in need of care will return to jail. This is supported by statistics provided by an article from the Texas Tribune which stated that from a sample of 900 subjects who had been in and out of …show more content…
It elaborates further on the concept of “jail diversion” explaining a program in Bexar County Texas that is having success in doing just that as well as helping mentally ill lead better more successful lives. The author states that there is a high percentage of homeless mentally ill in jails and too much is expected of law enforcement and the criminal justice system in regards to mental health care. This is corroborated in the readings of Slate et al. (2013) as police officers are described as “street corner psychiatrists” and “providers of “psychiatric first aid”. The author also describes the growing pressures on emergency rooms to treat mentally ill who are over twice as likely to be admitted to the hospital than those with other
Summary: The prison reform movement was a generally successful movement led by Dorothea Dix in the mid-1800’s. This movement sought to reform the poor conditions of prisons and establish separate hospitals for the mentally insane. In this article written by Dorothea Dix, directly addresses the general assembly of North Carolina, she explains the lack of care for the mentally insane and the necessary care for them. In the section regarding the jails, she talks about how the insane are locked up because they pose of a threat to the public’s safety not confined somewhere. Also, they are stationed in small cells chained up which is torturing them, and only the rich can afford to be sent to hospitals where they take much better care of.
In the 1800s, the mentally ill and prisoners were forced to live in wretched conditions and often were not even treated as regular citizens. Patients of mental institutions were operated on so they were more controllable. The mentally insane that did not live at home were kept in prisons, few were in faulty poorhouses, and even fewer were in hospitals. Many hospitals had mental wards, but they were inadequate for patients. In the 1840s, Dorothea Dix visited many prisons where the deranged were kept and found that these conditions were unsuitable for living quarters (“Dorothea Dix Biography”).
More people get incarcerated for non-violent crimes and crimes caused by mental illnesses or drug abuse (Webb, 2009) and because these people get put in regular prisons, instead of in mental health facilities or facilities to help against drug addiction, where they could be treated to further prevent crimes driven by their illness (Webb, 2009), the prisons get overfilled and cannot hold the more ‘important’ prisoners that needed to be locked away from the public. A strong link of the criminal justice process is that the system tries to keep it fair for everyone. Every defendant has the right to an attorney so they can be defended properly and fairly and “Only judges who are adequately informed about a case can effectively control the proceedings and examine evidence” (Tochilovsky, 2002) It is also important for the criminal justice system that those involved show discretion and although this is not always the case, discretion by the judges, police, etc.
Diversion programs have become a prevalent form of justice in the Criminal Justice System. Diversion can be two things; diversion from jail or diversion from the legal system completely. Diversionary programs have been developed in the Criminal Justice System throughout its many levels for a multitude of reasons. Often, they are spurred on by practical concerns including, but not limited to, over-crowded prisons, the high cost of the criminal process, and as an alternative approach to dealing with those suffering from mental illnesses. Diversion may occur both before and after a trial and are aimed at avoiding the trial process (pre-trial) and incarceration (post-trial).
Billions of dollars are spent making sure, severely mentally ill offenders can be treated. Billions of dollars have been spent making sure prison psychologists and psychiatrists have private offices to treat their inmate patients. Billions have been spent on individual cells for inmates near nurse’s station. Billions of dollars have been spent attempting to reduce overcrowding, and to improve health care in its prisons. What’s interesting about this entire ordeal, is the fact that my daughter is in the 11th grade, and every year she has been in high school she has had printed copies of chapters from the school textbooks.
In 1999, a mental health court was established to therapeutically manage mentally ill people accused of a crime (King County TV, 2010). Unlike a conventional court system, a behavioral health court treats a mentally ill individual with more respect and understanding. According to King County TV (2010), mentally ill clients can propose to be placed in a mental health court system because it will allow them to have a chance to recover. However, when the client is not compliant with the plan of care given to them, he or she could be placed in jail if there is a possibility the
Nowadays, while most scholars agree that treatment has drastically improved, there is heated debate over what rights mentally ill persons can and should hold. Such rights include the enforcement of unwanted treatment,
Untreated mental illness is dangerous and over time we have learned that locking people with a mental illness is not the solution but makes it worse. People with untreated mental illness face many consequences. “People with untreated psychiatric illnesses comprise 250,000 people, of the total homeless population” (mentalillnesspolicy.org). The quality of life for these individuals is extremely heart breaking, and many are victimized regularly.
In the book Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, one of the biggest focal points is mental illness. Mental illness can be tough to talk about, simply because the phrase “mental illness” encompasses such a wide range of conditions and conjures up images of deranged people, but it is very important, especially in this book. There is a certain stigma that people who are put into mental hospitals because they have medical problems or are insane and a possible danger to society. While this is sometimes true, it is far more common for patients to need help for a disorder, but just don’t know where to go or what to do, and can end up putting themselves or someone else in danger.
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.
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.
Since, such correctional residential facilities are run by programs that can support their system this is a key element that Lobuglio and Piehl has stated in this article. As well as, any other key point, in this article, the finally statement that is held very accountable towards is that in order for this process to thrive it “will require a large expensive, and politically challenging investment…throughout the country.” Besides, it isn’t easy to unwind such development of mass
Nearly one in five Americans can suffer from any type of mental illnesses.
When inmates with mental disorders are sent to solitary confinement, the results can include long term damage. When placed in solitary, many of the mentally ill deteriorate dramatically and engage
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