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.
Determinate sentences involve sentences that have a fixed or flat time (Jirard, 2009). Determinate sentences play a large part in the increasing number of individuals in prison, which, as you can imagine, puts more strain on prisons financially. In the past two decades, we have become increasingly “tough on crime” which has helped to decrease crime to a certain extent. According to an article in the New York Times (2008), the US has fewer than five percent of the entire world’s population, but almost twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners (Liptak & , 2008). The author of the article goes on to say that people in the US are sentenced to do time for crimes that would not produce such a sentence in other countries.
To go to a public school it’s required to have a physical every couple of years, and I wonder how many of the people detained in jail have not been to a doctor in years, and may be getting sicker and possibly spreading it to others. In another article I read called “Chronic Medical Conditions among Jail Detainees in Residential Psychiatric Treatment: A Latent Analysis” published in the Journal of Urban Health August, 2011 there are studies that show that detainees with mental illnesses have significantly higher rates of chronic medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and infectious diseases. There is also evidence to suggest that long-term detainees are at higher risk of having mental illness, and therefore, according to this study, are at higher risk of having infectious diseases. If this is certainly the case than the importance of screening long-term detainees is crucial. (Swartz,
According to official statistics, there are some significant ethnic differences in the likelihood of being involved in the criminal justice system. Black people, and to a lesser extent Asians are over represented in the sample. For example black people make up just 12.8% of the population, but 11% of the prison population and Asians make up 4.7% of the population, but 6% of the prison population. By contrast, white people are under-represented at all stages of the criminal justice process. The Ministry of Justice states that members of the black communities are seven times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched , three and a half times more likely to be arrested, and five times more like to be sent to prison.
To become a professional, the employees must have extensive training and certifications to work at different levels of the prison. This training and accreditation is how industry leaders can plan for a better correctional officer. Privatized Prisons Prisons that are privately owned improve the quality of service without increasing the cost to the government or the taxpayers. Six percent of the prisoners in prisons are
Even DOSA (Drug Offender Sentencing Act) which says they get half time upon completion of drug counseling, most inmates are unable to complete. However, due to budget cut this leaves inmates or the state to pay for the costs which cost even more than doing it inside the institution. Recidivism, which means to recommit crime, is over 90 percent for drugs offenders even with treatment. Without treatment or education offenders are committing more crime and most of the inmates are going back to prisons. If there are more good programs that would work for these inmate and guide them throughout, each individual should have the responsibility to complete the program and earn something from it.
A special needs inmate is an inmate who has a physical or mental disability which limits her/him capacity to function in a normal inmate population. Describe each type of special needs inmates. Inmates with Mental Disabilities- These inmates will behave differently will behave differently than other inmates, sometimes inmates, sometimes in in strange and unpredictable ways. Often Individuals with developmental disabilities are often referred to as mentally retard. This means their means measured intelligence quotient, or IQ is significantly below the norm of 100.
These eye-popping numbers came about for many reasons: mandatory minimum sentences, three-strikes legislation, illegal drugs, gangs, immorality in all its modern forms, the war on drugs, the decline of marriage and families, high rates of recidivism, incarceration of the mentally ill, the decline of capital punishment, problems with the criminal justice system and all the forces pushing tough crime policies. Difficult economic times focus attention on the increasing costs of keeping all these people - 93% of them men - behind bars. Each prisoner costs about $32,000 per year, and the average prisoner does little to offset the cost of confinement. The social costs may be even higher. 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.
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.
Around 10% of the inmates were given psychotropics, including antidepressants, stimulants, sedatives, tranquilizers, or other anti-psychotic drugs (Beck and Maruschak, 2001; Fabelo, 2000). These estimates are likely an underestimate of the need for mental health intervention since some individuals may refuse treatment (Rossman, Shelli, 2001). I believe that the research findings support an effort to establish more and better mental health service programs to imprisoned mentally ill populations. The only things that I feel can be done is more research and for the inmates to continue to ask for the help they