Deinstitutionalization People with mental illnesses often get themselves in troubling situations that leave them puzzled to why they are there and what they can do different next time. Such places can be a prison, a place not suitable for someone with a mental illness. Prisons are made for people that have not followed the rules of society on their own free will and decided to act in a way that can potentially hurt other people. People with mental illnesses although might do something that is against the law they do not know what they actually did wrong, and have no control on their actions. Some might just have an “episode” that can lead them into years of jail time and a waste of taxpayers’ money. So then why do these type of people end up in prisons and stuck in this revolving door system, and is this the right place for them?
People with mental illnesses many times do not have control over their actions. Does this mean we should throw them in a tin can and forget about them? This definitely is not the way to help them nor help ourselves. A prison is an inappropriate place for anyone suffering with a mental illness. The prison system sets people like this up for failure. By being in prison they are not getting any medical help and drives them angry and full of negative emotions towards themselves and towards society. When someone spends years of their life in rigid conditions based on something they are unclear about, this can be very frustrating. Prisons are meant to teach people a lesson for a wrongdoing. But are mentally ill people learning anything from prison? They are not; in contrast it is putting them in a situation where they might end up there again. Being confined to a set of rules for a long period of time can be hard to get used to, but once released in the real world people have a hard time familiarizing themselves with how to be normal. This is something that happens to people without mental illness, so one can imagine how hard this is for someone with a mental illness. With no aid on their medication and a place to reside, mentally ill people end up having some kind of episode or relapse to a certain drug that places them back into the federal system. This is an endless circle for them if not cared for and showed the right way. One needs to understand that many of these people simply can’t think for themselves in terms of making appointments and seeking help, many of which do not even think that anything is wrong with them. Therefore, people with mental illnesses should be cared for in different ways and not just thrown in prison, because they simply learn nothing from this.
With all the people committing crimes whether willingly or unintentionally, prisons are over flowing with inmates. This means harsh conditions for everyone inside; more people to a room, dirty cells, less rights for them if any at all. Some inmates get about 30 minutes a week to come out of their cell, out of which many mentally ill people are among them. Inmates are left with no clothes, in freezing temperatures, with no food or water and ignored for days. Is this something mentally ill people should go through? Definitely not, this is punishing them for something that is not in their control. Such negative enforcement does not help them at all. What would help them is being cared for and led upon a path that can help them stay clean of drugs and take their medications in order not to act out of place or be dangerous to society. What they need most is a clean place to stay and a professional to talk to.
Another major problem with having the mentally ill in prisons is that they never really get any help. Most inmates wont get diagnosed with anything since nobody is paying any attention to them, nor will they receive any kinds of medication to help with their illness. This leads people to act violently with others and get themselves in trouble. There are many criminals in prisons that are not mentally ill. Those kinds of people
