Mentally Ill In Prison Analysis

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There is a vast 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 as Veterans Affairs Mental Hospital, are cut in half. When Kennedy was in office he implemented the Mental Health Centers Act of 1963, this act was meant to provide public health services, but by the 1990’s many community health …show more content…
Correctional officers have to be trained to deal with people of various mental disorders. “Today more than 700 000 people diagnosed with mental illness live in US jails and prisons; this comprises over 56% of the total US incarcerated population” ( Cloyes, 2007). Although, there is such a large population of mentally ill in prison correctional officers do not utilize set protocols to deal with mental breaks. Common treatment for inmates suffering from a psychotic break is isolation along with over medicating. To maintain the safety of the prison population correctional officers keep defiant inmates in control units. Control units meant to deter disobedience and isolate the convict from the general population (Cloyes, 2007). In terms of the mentally ill they can often obstruct prison environment, making them more likely to be placed in a control unit. Many find the placement of mentally ill inmates in control units to be inhumane and unconstitutional. To further analyze, Cloyes conducts a social experiment in the mental health wing of the prison. The location of the control units are in the same building and directly adjacent to the clinical offices. Implicating many of the regulations and procedures of the control units spill over into the psychiatrist’ office. The study included interviews of prisoners who had been in the control units within the past year. Surprisingly, inmates who struggled with their mental health preferred the control units rather than population. Control units in prison give a certain social status and gave you a break from prison population for a while. Although inmates did not object control units, in terms of the mentally ill control units do not adhere to their specific health