Deinstitutionalized Offenders In The Prison System

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Our prison systems today are in the mists of overcrowding offenders as the years go on. Offenders of different kind are incarcerated in the prison system, (elderly, disabled, young, etc.) and went through the arresting process; however with the mentally ill offenders, they go through the same process but are forgotten in the system not getting the treatment they actually need rather than being confined. Since the deinstitutionalization of 1950, asylums had closed down and leaving their patients rather on the streets or being put into jails. As they go through the arresting/booking process, this group can react or act in vary ways due to some psychological reason and cause disturbances to themselves or to the staff around them. A mentally …show more content…
The individual’s behavior varies on how they react to their new environment and how other offenders behave with them around. For instance, if individual A has schizophrenia and “sees” a creature from their mind and start panicking, individual B (a normal offender) could get annoyed and start hitting A to keep quiet even though how much they panic of seeing something that will hurt them. Violence against this group is one of the situations they go through every day or even worse, such as being taken advantage of, abused and in some occasions even raped. This group has a difficult time to adjust to the system and to abide their rules and could get in trouble for destroying state property and start fights with others or accidental if it’s due to their illness. These special offenders do get their treatment such as medicine, only medicine; the prisons do not provide counseling nor treat them as a people. Some of the prescriptions would be antidepressants, antipsychotics, and many more. (http://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Treatment/Medications). Due to the expenses of having proper treatment for these individuals, the system stays with medicating them since their medication are a good quantity and affordable to the system at the price of increasing taxpayers
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