...Mentally ill Offenders Mentally ill Inmates that are held in prison or jails are getting more suicidal thoughts than ever. Just by being there by themselves they drive themselves crazy. Being trapped in those cells make them hallucinate things. A lot of these inmates are being held in solitary confinements, being mistreated, and the population in the jails and prisons are made up of mentally ill offenders. Many of the mentally ill offenders in prisons and jails are being mistreated. A lot of them have experienced shocking, physical and sexual abuse from other prisoners. Many of them across the United States are subjected to routine physical abuse from guards. A lot of these offenders leave sicker than when they entered. From all of these daily abuses a lot of them have died in prison for this cause. What some of these jails do wrong is that they are not required to report the use of force by guards. Inmates are being put in the state psychiatric hospitals due to the mental illness they have. One of the cases that happened in Michigan (2005) was this man...
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...people are focused on the overcrowding of prisons; however, the increasing rates of the mentally ill in the prison system is also a very prominent issue that contributes to a lack of resources for the convicted. According to the US Bureau of Justice, over half of all prison and jail inmates nationwide have mental health problems. Although there is an abundant amount of research on the mentally ill in prison, many people are not aware of the social implications the mentally ill face when they are released back into society. Based on research conducted in North America, there is a repeating issue of recidivism which is the fact that these individuals are more likely to return to prison. The lack of concern for the recidivism in mentally...
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... Special Offenders Definition According to “(Prison Glossary)” Offenders whose mental and/or physical condition requires special accommodation by DOC employees, contract workers, or volunteers. Special needs offenders may include, but are not limited to, drug or alcohol addicts or abusers, the emotionally disturbed, mentally retarded, suspected mentally ill, physically handicapped, chronically ill, the disabled or infirm, those with documented custody issues and those with limited academic ability or learning disability “(Prison Glossary)”. With that being said there are many special needs prisoners, one that many people are familiar with are the mentally ill, and substance abusing. There are many other illnesses then obvious ones, some prisoners have physical problems, others have infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, while some have serious substance abuse issues. One special offender no one thinks about is the elderly offenders in 2007 over ten percent of inmates in prisons were 50 years or older and many with serious health problems. Mentally ill and substance abusing prisoners In this paper I will be discussing the two common types of special needs offenders, the mentally ill and the substance abusing offenders. Among the prison population there are mentally ill prisoners, special needs offenders, and substance-abusing offenders. These special offenders affect the jail and prison systems at state and federal levels because they require...
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...Mentally Ill Offenders Introduction Mental illness in prisons has been sort of a pandemic for correctional systems in the United States for over the last 10 years. The number of men and women who come to prison with some form of mental illness continues to grow by the day. Offenders who do not come to prison mentally ill, will most likely release from prison with some type of mental illness at the end of their prison sentence. This paper will discuss how this population of offenders adapts when they come to prison, and how there viewed by the community. This will be examined here along with some insights on what should be done along with why this topic was chosen. Schizophrenia Many mentally ill offenders come to prison with a variety of disorders schizophrenia, manic depression (bi-polar) or major depression (Schizophrenia.com - Crime, Poverty Violence., n.d.). Schizophrenic inmates probably account for the largest segment of offenders who enter the correctional system every day and have a difficult time adapting to the confines of a correctional environment. By definition schizophrenia is an inability to think, process emotions where people tend to behave in an unacceptable manner because their mind is not able to react to the stimuli from every day life; the name schizophrenia comes from the Greek root "split mind" (Skitzophrenia., n.d.). Hallucinations, hearing voices, paranoia are just some of the...
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...crime. In the United States, people with mental illnesses have been confined in jails and prisons between 1770 and 1820. Incarcerating such people was considered inhumane, so mentally ill people were placed into hospitals instead of jails up until 1970. Ever since the 1970s, people with mental disorders are being imprisoned for their crimes(Torrey). America once considered incarcerating the mentally ill to be inhumane, but then they suddenly changed their mind and have considered it to be legal. Ever since the 1970s, numbers of imprisoned people with mental illnesses has exponentially increased, “In 2012, there were estimated to be 356,268 inmates with severe mental illness in prisons and jails. There were also approximately 35,000 patients with severe mental illness in state psychiatric hospitals”(Torrey). There is approximately ten...
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...walks of life being held in one prison or another across our great country for crimes they’ve committed or allegedly committed against mankind. Be it at the state, federal or county level, the U.S. prison system does not discriminate with regards to those who are physically challenged. Be it a prisoner who is mentally challenged or one whom is confined to a wheelchair, if they have committed a crime and are found guilty of such, they will be sentenced to facility that under most circumstances are equipped to handle prisoners with special needs. Take for example the criminally insane or those suffering with various kinds of mental illness: Round about 1955 the number of mental institution experienced a drawdown of types, in that they were not building any new facilities, despite the fact that approximately forty of the existing one’s had been shut down or were scheduled to be shut down. This change prompted the prison system to take over the role of caring for mentally ill inmates. As more and more prisons grew so did the role of the prison system to care for the influx of the special needs prisoners. Prisons were able to house and care for some 45,000 prisoners including those who were mentally ill, compared to that of a mental institutions ability to house some 3000 in a mental hospital. Perhaps one of the biggest drawback or downfalls related to this concept is that of the ability to rehabilitate the mentally ill. Because the prison system was/is not geared for actions...
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...Overcrowding in Prisons By Wendy Michaud PRES111 ~ Unit 2 IP American InterContinental University April 1, 2012 Abstract I think we are somewhat aware of the overcrowding in jails and prisons. There are more people incarcerated than we have room for in the United States. Although some states are far worse off than others this is a serious problem none the less. There are plans to fix this problem but not at the speed people would like. Topic: Overcrowded prisons are a problem for many different reasons. Most people are already aware of this problem, either they read it in a newspaper or saw it somewhere on the television. This is not just a local problem, it is almost everywhere. Are there reasons why this continues to happen, and has this situation improved through out the years? Are there things us as a society can do to change overcrowding in prisons? These are questions we should ask ourselves considering tax payers are the people that pay the most for food, shelter, and medical care for all the prisoners that are incarcerated. In the United States prisons the recidivism rate is amazingly high. In 1994, the biggest study of prisoner recidivism that has been ever been completed in the United States proved that, of nearly 300,000 adult prisoners who were released in 15 different states, 67.5 percent were arrested again within...
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...Introduction “More than eighteen states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons operated their prison facilities at more than 100 percent capacity at the end of 2014.” This proves the increasing number of inmates enrolled in prisons is a growing issue. Overcrowding in prisons is caused by extended jail sentences, severe sentencing for drug related offenses, and imprisonment of the mentally ill, which generates inhumane living conditions for inmates. Solutions are relocating drug related offenses and allowing shorter sentences for nonviolent prisoners. Description of Problem Overcrowding in prisons has become a major growing issue in the United States recently. “From 2006 to 2011, prison population grew at 9.5 percent, outpacing the 7 percent growth...
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...Assignment 2: Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners 1.0 The Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners The treatment of mentally ill inmates has been not only a public concern, but has also been identified by Canada’s Correctional Investigator, Howard Sapers as an issue of concern in his 2014 report to parliament. Between 1997 and 2007, offenders entering the prison system with a mental disorder grew 71% in men and 61% in women (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2012). The problem at hand is that correctional institutes and their staff are not widely trained to deal with inmates who suffer from mental disorders. The result then, is that use-of-force interventions, and placement in solitary confinement, often for extended periods of time, are used as methods of dealing with unruly behaviours exhibited by these mentally ill offenders. While there are various issues surrounding mental health in the Canadian judicial system, for the purpose of this report, the discussion will be focused around inadequate methods for dealing with behaviours presented by these inmates, namely by use-of-force and solitary confinement 1.1 Use-Of-Force Techniques In Sapers 2014 report, it is reported that “28% of all use of force interventions involved an offender with a mental health concern as identified by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)” (Ministry of Public Safety, 2014). This is likely due to the fact that mentally ill inmates are more likely to self-harm, have unpredictable behaviour...
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...An effective system of inmate discipline is very important when running a prison or jail. Usually, mentally ill inmates have had few or no protections against discipline routinely applied to their non-mentally ill peers. Arising from recent class action lawsuits challenging the quality of mental health care delivery in the nation’s prisons, prison mental health professionals have been called on to play an increasing role in the inmate disciplinary process. Referral questions include whether an inmate is competent to proceed with disciplinary proceedings and whether mental illness may have contributed to the rule violation. Prison mental health professionals participating in inmate disciplinary proceedings must therefore be familiar with relevant clinical, legal, and ethics issues. Little has been written in the psychiatric literature, however, examining this important role for prison mental health professionals. After first reviewing core legal and constitutional concepts, the author presents the results of a nationwide survey examining the role for mental health professionals in the inmate disciplinary process. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to provide a comprehensive review of this subject. Most prison systems have procedures for punishing prisoners who violate prison rules and for removing inmates from the general population for disciplinary or safety reasons. (For the purpose of this article, the terms “prisoner” and “inmate” will be used interchangeably...
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...Who Distinguishes Evil from Illness? By age 30 Andrea Yates had been high school class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, an officer in the National Honor Society, graduated from the University of Houston as a registered nurse, wedded and had her first child. It seemed Yates’s ambition of fulfilling her life with all her hopes and dreams could not be diverted. The Yates family was very religious and Bible reading was an enjoyed pass time within the household. Around 1990, Andrea’s internal issues came to the surface with her self-mutilation accompanied by a suicide attempt, which was followed by a short admission into a psychiatric ward. When released her mood had stabilized from a newly prescribed anti-psychotic with her life looking up. This cycle, unfortunately, insisted on continuing on three separate occasions before Andrea was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-partum depression. Yates was warned that if she were to become pregnant again it was highly likely the episodes of psychotic behavior would resurface. She began to grasp the magnitude of her mental health and was readily taking her medications despite the begging and pleading from her husband for another child. Nonetheless, Andrea gave in and the pregnancy of her 5th child began in 2000. In the events of her newborn’s birth, discontinuation of her anti-psychotic, and the passing of her father, Andrea’s spiral into depression was more catastrophic than ever. June 20th, 2001, her husband went...
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...“The fact is that, in all prisons everywhere, cruelties on the one hand and injudicious laxity of discipline on the other have at times appeared and will, at intervals, be renewed except the most vigilant oversight is maintained.” (Brainyquote.com) Dorothea Lynde Dix was instrumental in improving the treatment of the mentally ill. Her determination to improve the conditions for the “blind, deaf, and the dumb” was sparked when she traveled to England with some of her friends. While in England, she took a job teaching inmates at East Cambridge Jail, a women's prison. While employed at the prison, she witnessed the cruel treatment of the mentally ill, which included being flagged, chained, starved, left naked with neither heat nor sanitation, and being sexually and physically abused. (Biography.com) She believed...
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...The purpose of this assignment is to create an APA formatted reference list for eight articles from reputable sources, and a one paragraph summary for each article selected, and a brief expression of intent on the selected articles. As clearly noted in Creswell (2009) literature review provides the ground work for a preparation of another scientific work. Creswell further notes… “ this literature review passage should summarize large groups of studies instead of individual ones”( Creswell, 2009, p.104). Rhodes, A.L. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison (2004) is a book written by Dr. Lorna Rhodes. Her study explores, examines, and recognizes what life is like inside confined walls of solitary units inside prisons. Her study provides not only the image of solitary confinement- but the sense of loss and liberty of humanity when an offender is faced with long periods of extensive isolation from all; but those who feed you (correctional officers). Dr. Rhodes- explores and discusses the challenges that are faced both by the front-line-staff and offenders. Such as, psychological, emotional, and physiological changes- and provides her academic perspective with a scientific response. Rationale for Selection There are a lot of research currently available in-regards to isolation of offenders, and the biological effects on human body, mind, and perceptions. This study is valuable to my research even though the findings are not as scientific as...
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... 2/19/12 SUFFERING 2 ABSTRACT The mentally ill unfortunately commit crimes that they may or may not be aware of. The problem is that there needs to be a system put in place that will work for the criminal justice system the potential criminal. We need to be able to identify what type of person we are dealing with and do what is best per that situation, not just assume everybody is guilty and possibly ruin their life. SUFFERING 3 The mentally ill often times make mistakes or are accused of crimes that usually send them to jail. The problem (for me) is knowing when it is okay to justify these criminal like acts or decided whether the person should be put into a situation where they can get help or go to jail. Is it really safe, necessary, or proper precaution to incarcerate a mentally ill person? Safety should be the main concern for a mentally ill person that is institutionalized. Putting them in big populations of people could be dangerous. Their reactions to situations are usually different than most normal thinking people. With that being said, they could actually end up spending way more time incarcerated...
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...External Stakeholders Art Clabon Professor Smarr Strayer University January 19, 2015 Loading...INTERNAL and EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS 2 Internal and External Stakeholders Identified- There are increasing counts of badly unstable ill people in the criminal justice system. This paper will shed light on the criminalization of people that has such illness thus issues that cause it. The law enforcement and mental health treatment what can be done to help the mentally ill offenders and the difficulties it causes. There are some recommendations to lesson or bring down criminalization of mentally ill people in the justice system this can occur by increasing and coordination of the police and mental health professionals in the field, which includes mental health training classes for law enforcement personnel. This can better help law enforcement and mental health personnel after the arrest are made. Thus making and developing a more suitable community treatment center for mentally ill offenders to be treated. This could work if the necessary people and components are in place for this type of center. But in order for this too occur both theory and practice must be there such as short-term and long-term goals for the offenders and a good liaison for the treatment of mentally ill offender in the justice system. This should also include the understanding and the desire for it structure. Things that shouldn’t be over looked are controlling the violence within the treatment center, and the crucial but...
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