Breadwinners are lost, families destroyed, more kids grow up without fathers or mothers, welfare costs increase, the entire sex ratio is thrown out of balance and prisoners face grim prospects when released. The hyper-incarceration statistics for African-American males are much worse. We incarcerate one in nine African-Americans between the ages of 20 and 34. In 2003, it was calculated that "At current levels of incarceration newborn black males in this country have a greater than a 1 in 4 chance of going to prison during their lifetimes, while Hispanic males have a 1 in 6 chance, and white males have a 1 in 23 chance of serving time." By 2007, just four years later, the U.S. Department of Justice
4/1/2013 The New Asylums Prisons are now housing more than 500,000 mentally ill inmates across the nation. Many of these inmates are classified as severely mental ill and fit the psychiatric classification for major illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, anti social personality disorder and many more. The question is why are so many clinically ill individuals who should be receiving medical care from medical facility being placed behind bars. Many believe that increase in mentally ill inmates is due to major policy shifts over the past few decades. one of these major shifts spurs from the decision made in 1950 to close many of the mental hospitals throughout the nation.
The distribution and use of drugs has led to an increase in arrest and conviction of individuals under economic strain. For instance, individuals that live in deteriorated communities that can not excess adequate education and health care are at higher risk of substance abuse than any other community and will be the majority of the prison system. It is suggested that there is four models that help explain the path way to criminality of a person and they focus on the ending result after the use of illegal substances. The four models are called intoxication, addiction, systemic, and legal (WSSAC, 2009). The intoxication model suggests that individuals will not use rational thought while intoxicated which leads to the addiction model which states that crimes are committed so the addict can support the habit (WSSAC,2009) The systemic model states that crime occurs when the participant of the drug trade sales the drug.
Kimberly Banks Psyc 302 12/1/2011 Prof. Lytle Mentally Ill in Correctional Institutes The article I did for my review was called The Prevalence of Mental Disorders in Prisoners in the City of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. This article is about the different psychiatric diseases found in the inmates in the prison. A cross-sectional study was done in the prison to find out the most common diseases. They studied inmates in closed and semi-open prison systems. The results showed that there were higher rates of substance related disorders than those who had psychotic and mood disorders.
Since the mid-1970s, the prison population in the nation’s largest state has risen by more than 750%, from about 20,000 to more than 160,000 (Equal Justice Initiative, 2010). California’s prison system is among one of the worst in the system and part of it is due to their adaptation of their “Three Strikes” laws. The laws are harsh and the criminals, especially the ones already having two strikes don’t seem to care about the seriousness of committing crimes. California’s prisons, 33 total, are operating at almost twice their design capacity. Overcrowding is a very serious issue that worries the state officials such as Governor Schwarzenegger.
The Mentally ill in Prison Reports of large numbers of mentally ill people in American jails and prisons began appearing in the 1970’s. By midyear 1998 there were a quarter of a million mentally ill people incarcerated in prison or jail. I feel that putting mentally ill people in prison or jail is wrong. Why would you arrest someone who doesn’t know what they are doing is wrong? Instead of arresting them for months or years at a time I think we should just put them in a care home or put them on probation so that their officer can keep checking on them to make sure they take their medications.
According to a project run by The Huffington Post, 40% of juvenile offenders sent to private prisons on account of drug related crimes are arrested and convicted of harsher crimes in less than a year from their release (Kirkham). Moreover, the concept of combating drugs with the threat of imprisonment is counterproductive. Imprisoning low level drug-dealers for long periods of time creates a gaping void in the market, quickly replaced by desperate individuals wanting to generate an income, and the number of potential “criminals” skyrockets. Thus, by locking away non-violent offenders with such long sentences, the incarceration boom is being promoted, and wrecking societal
One in every 100 adults in the United States is incarcerated according to the PCS. The Pew Center on the States (PCS) conducts credible research and analyzes states’ experiences to determine what works and what does not work. Overcrowding has been a problem in the United States for many years. The government has tried different ways to fix it, but it has steadily gotten worse. Overcrowding has become a major issue in the United States mainly because nonviolent drug addicted offenders are repeating behaviors and ending up in jail.
Hepatitis in the Prison Systems The Silent Killer By Heather Davenport December 6, 2012 The most dangerous thing coming out of the prison these days may be something most convicts don’t even know they have Hepatitis. Adults in correctional facilities are at risk for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection through sex with HBV-infected persons, injection drug use, and sharing of close living quarters with other inmates infected with HBV. A high percentage of prison inmates have Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends Hepatitis B vaccinations for adults in the prison setting because of the increased risk for infection, both inside and outside of prison. The majority of HBV infections among
Recent reports have concluded that the United States has the highest incarceration rate throughout the world at 2.2 million inmates. This increase is causing major concerns for corrections statewide, as prisons are seriously overcrowded ("University Of Phoenix," 2003). Prison populations are steadily growing year by year since the 1980s. However, the reason for this increase is a result of the Sentencing Reforming Act of 1984 (“Seller, R. P.” 2011). Once this act was put into use there was a significant increase in the incarceration rate, which resulted in correctional staff becoming burdened and overworked as a result of the extreme overcrowding.