Mental Health In Prisons

Words: 1543
Pages: 7
Open Document
Bresdon Lacure Mrs. Hardiman English 10 25 April 2024 Mental Health in Prisons According to NCBI “48% of inmates are diagnosed with a mental illness”! Prisons in the U.S. are a breeding ground for poor mental health. This is due to the lack of support to help the inmates reform, assimilate back into society, the violence, isolation, and the unpredictability of prison. In prisons, poor mental health is amplified exponentially due to the isolation; this poor mental health also creates high suicide rates. The isolation created in prisons can create poor mental health for inmates. In prisons, the use of solitary confinement is used very regularly. From the ACLU papers on the Dangers of Solitary Confinement, 80,000 people are put unto solitary confinement. …show more content…
Isolation is not the only problem in prisons that affect mental health; there’s other problems such as wrongful convictions. Wrongful conviction is a very important and big problem in prisons and has major effects on prisons. The Georgia Innocence Project is an organization to help those wrongfully put into prison. They detail that 1/20 criminal cases end in wrongful conviction. “People often suffer from mental disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression when they return to society” (“Beneath the Statistics”). Inmates get released then are thrust back into a society that is completely different from when they were last there, the effect this experience has on the brain is detrimental. It is very hard for people to adjust to life, get jobs and buy homes. The World Population Review Committee says that about 32% of incarcerated inmates are re-incarcerated after they are released (“Recidivism Rates”). This poor support system is a deep problem in prisons and if changed can greatly increase the number of non-Rea curing convictions. Creating support inside prisons is what needs to happen for prisons to have better mental health for …show more content…
The Office of Justice Programs says “Prison gangs were formed to protect against predatory inmates” (Gangs Behind Bars). Prison gangs can cause inmates that are abused to develop severe mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. These problems in the U.S. can be fixed, in fact many European countries such as Norway have already done so. Prisons in other countries have much better systems than in America. “Norway's prison system has become a model for the rest of the world, and some states in the U.S. are following Norway’s lead. Norway’s recidivism rate is much lower, and prisons are now safer and more peaceful” (“Rehabilitation Lessons from Norway’s Prison System”). Even Norway started off as with a prison system similar to America, the prisons were built on punishment to deter bad behavior. However, they changed after realizing that the prisons were “plagued with assaults, riots, and escapes” (First Step alliance). Norway is very good at facilitating relationships even while being behind bars. “Many Norwegian prisons allow prisoners to have visitors up to three times per week. They even allow conjugal visits with
Show More

Related Documents: Mental Health In Prisons

Mental Health In Prison

In 2020, the National Alliance on Mental Illness revealed that 21% of U.S. adults experience mental illness. However, for those within the confines of our prison system, these rates have soar. According to the American Psychological Association, 64% of jail inmates have reported mental health concerns. These statistics underscore the urgent need to address mental health care within our prisons. I will discuss the need for improving mental health services in prisons, and why we must acknowledge the…

Words 772 - Pages 4

Mental Health Crisis in Prisons Essay

12 The Mental Health System in Crisis Mental illness has become an epidemic today. Penitentiaries and prisons have turned into the ultimate destination for those with painstaking mental or severe emotional impairment. There is widespread acknowledgement that people with severe mental illnesses should ideally be cared for by public health services or equivalent psychiatric facilities (and therefore diverted out of the criminal justice system as noted by the (Department of Health and Home…

Words 3778 - Pages 16

Private Prison Mental Health Research Paper

Private prisons hold almost 10% of the United States prison population. This 10% suffers extensively from mental health issues stemming from the terrible conditions in these facilities. The prison system in its entirety affects the mental health of inmates for a myriad of reasons, these reasons however are noticeably more present in private facilities. This leads to widespread mental illness in inmates in private facilities. According to research, private prisons have dangerous conditions caused…

Words 1664 - Pages 7

Mentally Ill In Prison Analysis

amount of people in prison with mental health problems. Many of those people get cast away and mistreated because of their abundance joint with unqualified staffing. Kupers begins by explaining the history behind the overwhelming amount of people with mental illness behind bars. She attributed it to three main factors, De-institutionalization, “The war on drugs” and changes to the psychiatric defense (Kupers, 2015). De-institutionalization happens when the budgets of community health centers, such…

Words 637 - Pages 3

Mentally Ill Should Not Go To Prison

Today our largest mental hospitals are our local prisons. A few decades ago we started a new type of segregation. This segregation is hidden from most of the population and lives behind the prison walls. This segregation is known as the segregation of the sick. Instead of putting a mentally ill person in a safe environment to get further treatment, we throw them in a prison and hope for the best. The mentally ill should be placed in a mental health facility instead of going to prison. Mentally ill shouldn’t…

Words 949 - Pages 4

Mental Illness In Prison

Is mental illness a felony and how should the issue addressed in prison? Various factors over recent decades have led to the decline in available psychiatric heath care in the United States. Subsequently, the mentally impaired are being treated in our nation’s prison system which has created strain on the prison mental health care systems as a whole. In 1985, the total number of inmates in custody was 744,208 according to a Gilliard and Beck 1997 state justice statistic. At the end of 2007, U.S…

Words 1594 - Pages 7

Adequate Training For The Caretakers Of The Mentally Ill In Prisons?

Is there Adequate Training for the Caretakers of the Mentally Ill in Prisons? Norris C. Land Professor Brinkley CRJ 499 November 25, 2013 There are numerous problems being faced by Correctional Institutions when it comes to the care of the mentally ill in prisons. I believe one of the primary problems is the inadequate training of the prison staff to understand the problem and how to care for these individuals. So instead of obtaining the much…

Words 2522 - Pages 11

Mental Illness In Prison

One would imagine that mental health care hospitals would accommodate for more people with a mental illness in comparison to jails and prisons, because mental hospitals whole purpose is to care for people with a mental illness; however, looking at today's society we find ourselves claiming that prisons are our nation's largest provider of mental health care. This displays that severe negligence is happening in our mental health clinics that are leading people with a mental illness to get trapped…

Words 795 - Pages 4

Mental Illness In Prisons

2. Many components go into mental health and everyone defines it differently, but this is how Britannica Library mental hygiene defines it. The term mental health represents a variety of human aspirations: rehabilitation of the mentally disturbed, prevention of mental disorder, reduction of tension in a stressful world, and attainment of a state of well-being in which the individual functions at a level consistent with his or her potential. The three main mental illnesses in inmates are major…

Words 2600 - Pages 11

Mental Disorders within Prisons and Jails Essay

Mental Disorders Within Prisons and Jails Timothy A. Johnston DeVry University Abstract In this paper I will discuss how the increase of mental disorders within prisons and jails has changed the way these institutions handle their day to day operations. From screening processes to treatments and how correctional officers play a major role within these procedures. Merriam-Webster defines mental disorder as “a mental or bodily condition marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of…

Words 1171 - Pages 5