Many mental health professionals claim that inmates that are assigned to such Isolation Units for extended periods of time are developing mental disorders. Psychiatric professionals claim that long-term isolation is inherently damaging to the psychological well-being of any person. Sensory Deprivation experiments provide a situation that is analogous in at least some aspects (Coid, 1998) Prisoners held in solitary confinement report symptoms of memory loss, impaired concentration, suicidal, and depression (A.C.L.U., 2005). On the other hand, proponents of “supermax style” prisons claim that each inmate assigned to an Isolation Unit has sufficient access to psychiatric counseling and treatment. There is little direct evidence for the precise psychological mechanisms operating in detention in isolated conditions (Brownfield, 1965).
"Outline and evaluate one explanation for institutional aggression" Aggression refers to angry or threatening behaviour that is intended to cause harm or pain psychologically or physically. Institutional aggression occurs within institutions such as in prisons or within social groups. The deprivation model argues that prisoner or patient aggression is due to individuals being exposed to stressful and oppressive conditions within the institution; that aggression is due to the exposure of a stressful environment. Stressful conditions can include overcrowding, which is seen to increase fear and frustration levels, leading to aggressive behaviour. Sykes argues that institutional aggression is a result of the environment, and that it is occurs within prison institutions because they experience deprivation on a daily basis.
People should not be treated like animals for past transgressions. No one person is perfect and everyone is subject to mistakes, and, at times, even breaking the law. Prison overcrowding has been a problem that has burdened the U.S. prison system since its beginning. From my experience of going through basic training for the military, keeping too many individuals confined in small quarters for long periods of time starts to breed aggression, fear, and, ultimately, violence. Also, individual medical and psychological needs tend to be overlooked when an already overwhelmed system is flooded with an influx of people.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has satellite camps where the minimum and low security inmates. The bureau also administrative facilities that can hold the most dangerous and violent criminals. Some of these inmates have life threating medical problems so they have their own medical facilities on these locations. They have these locations, because some of these inmates could try and escape. Martha Stewart is a multimillionaire businesswomen sentenced to five months in prison and two years’ probation for lying to investigators about the sale of IMClone system stocks in 2001 (Masters, 2004).
Modern day mental health professionals have become concerned with the increasing number of people with mental illness in jails and prison. This phenomenon is not recent and it did not transpire overnight. Although health care professionals shedding light on this situation is relatively recent. Numerous reports display a large population of mentally ill people in the American jail and prison system. If anyone is going to attempt to solve this problem they must first understand the questions at hand which is why individuals with mental illness are committing illegal actions to land themselves in jail or prison and why are these individuals not receiving treatment in hospitals or other psychiatric settings.
The boot camp is just like in the Military, it consist of 6 weeks of hard physical exercise and keeping up with the duties in their dorm and anything that the military does, after that the State will knock the sentence down, if the inmate messed up such as fighting, cussing, letting the bed and dorm go dirty they will be sent back to the Prison and have to serve their full sentence. I think that if you have hurt someone like sex crime on a woman, man, they should not be allowed to go though the boot
“Hellhole” and “We Need To Talk About An Injustice” In Atul Gawande’s article in the New Yorker “Hell Hole” in this article he wrote an eye-opening piece about the conditions of solitary confinement as well as the negative effects that long term solitary confinement has on a good amount of the prisoners. Atul Gawande, a surgeon and journalist, asks the question “is this torture?” Gawande makes the point that long term solitary confinement serves no purpose, that the justice system is actually hurting the prisoner rather than rehabilitating the prisoner and also that there are a lot of prisoners who have medical issues such as ADHD, these should be examined and treated before being sentenced to long term confinement. Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer, a professor and also the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative spoke at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) convention, We Need To Talk About An Injustice. In this speech Bryan Stevenson made a lot of good points. One of those good points was how the American justice system treats certain juvenile delinquents.
Given the number of incarcerated inmates who suffer from some form of mental illness, there are growing concerns and questions in the medical field about treatment of the mentally ill in the prison system. When a person with a mental illness commits a crime or break the law, they are immediately taken to jail or sent off to prison instead of being evaluated and placed in a hospital or other mental health facility. Within the prisons system mentally ill inmates do not receive the proper treatment for their conditions. Incarceration is not the proper housing or treatment method for mentally ill individuals and within the prison systems primary purpose is to house and confine criminal their mental health treatment is secondary. By no means should a mentally ill individual’s criminal offence be over looked however their mental state differs from most, thus requiring special treatment.
Some prison overcrowding may exaggerate harsh and unpleasant conditions to the extent that they have become unconstitutional. One inmate claimed he was being subject to “cruel and unusual punishment due to overcrowding, excessive noise, inadequate heating and cooling, improper ventilation, unclean and insufficient restrooms, unsanitary dining facilities, etc” (Gaes). There have been numerous cases that have gone to the supreme court about prison facilities and their over crowdedness. Court orders have already forced the cutting loose of violent detainees awaiting trials or serving sentences in jails (Lauder). |Table 1 | |Cross-jurisdictional Comparison of Rates of Double-Bunking in Cells | | |
The utilitarianism is asked to consider its effects on the entire population over an infinite period of time. Personally, I feel the Leaders such as the Wardens and Superintendents of these facilities need to comply and follow the rules and regulations that is prescribed by law and educate your staff and employees is the only way that you can cut down on all of these lawsuits that are pending against prison officials. On the other hand, On December 9, 2010, thousands of prisoners in Georgia made history when they refused to work and remained locked in their cells. Inmates from various parts of Georgia including Augusta, Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair