And prisons don't have the right resources for treatment of all these diseases. They are designed to rehabilitate and release prisoners back to society. Prisoners are required to follow-up with parole officers and receive other types of non-medical support to rejoin society. However, when a mentally ill patient gets released from prison, they are not provided any support groups or counselors to follow-up on their care. This can cause a relapse of the behavior and ultimately, a return to prison.
A2) Describe research into planned behaviours once freed from jail [10] On average, 60% of prisoners reoffend once released from prison. It may be necessary to identify the features of those who do not reoffend to be able to instil these features in all prisoners. Many prisoners lack academic and practical skills needed to gain employment and survive in everyday life. A theory formed by Azjen on planned behaviour suggests there are three factors which contribute towards behaviour. One of which is attitude toward behaviour (does the released offender care if they are reconvicted with another crime), another is subjective norms (if the released offender is around other offenders, he may be more likely to be reoffending), and the last is perceived behavioural control (this is whether the ex-convict believes they can ‘go straight’ and not reoffend).
The cost is the easy part; however, there is more than money involved. Recently, the manufactures of the drugs for lethal injection stopped making the drugs. The consequences of not having the drugs, using the drugs that are left and trying make drugs locally has increased the cost of lethal injection. The mental cost begs to ask why pursue capital punishment, how to perform this task efficiently and should we even be enforcing this type of punishment on humans. By knowing the fate or consequences of capital punishments, does this stop an individual from committing the crime?
There are also problems with the cost of incarcerating offenders with mental illness. It has been estimated that to cost millions of dollars per year to incarcerate offenders with mental illness. In many cases, prisons have become the treatment center for mentally ill offenders. This could also contribute to the rising cost
DNA evidence, available in less than ten percent of all homicides, cannot guarantee that we won’t execute innocent people (ACLUNC, 2013). If someone is convicted and later found to be innocent, you can release him from prison, but not bring them back from death. Others further argue that the death penalty isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It simply doesn't apply to people with money. Life without parole costs less than the death penalty (Marceau & Whitson, 2013).
Imagine living day by day unsure of where the next meal is to come from, or not being able to provide for oneself or one's family. Living in extreme poverty can drive one mad, and once one is mad they can be more easily driven to making rash choices. Socioeconomic forces like poverty and its subsequent contribution to mental illness engenders crime; this is supported by studies on mental illness rates in the homeless, statistics on crime levels and their corresponding statistics on wealth, as well as character motivation in the novel Crime and Punishment. Those who are more impoverished tend to have higher levels of mental illness than those in an average or affluent living situation. Studies have been conducted to find that the homeless population has a much higher rate of mental illness than the average population.
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.
Juveniles who have been sexually abused may face problems with anger, impulse control, flashbacks, dissociative episodes, hopelessness, despair, and persistent distrust and withdrawal. Sexual abuse can increase tendencies toward criminal behavior and substance abuse in juveniles. Upon release from prison, victims of prison rape are more likely to become homeless or require government assistance due to the physical and psychological impacts of rape than are those who were not raped in
Historical Maltreatment of Psychiatric Inpatients in Western Culture Marilyn Alm Abnormal Psychology 3110 History of Maltreatment of Psychiatric Inpatients Capella University January, 2014 History of Maltreatment All throughout history, people have not known how to deal with the mentally ill. They have labeled them as outcasts, “less than human”, and left them with nowhere to go. Many of these sufferers are mentally ill and homeless, destitute and in strict survival mode. Their families have neglected them or given up hope. Conditions are less than optimal for the homeless.
Another big cause of homelessness is people not having health care. They could have a job, but not given the benefit of free health care, so therefore if a poor family or individual were to be seriously ill they would not have enough money to pay for their health as well as to have a home. A high percentage of homeless people also are known to have a mental illness which could make it difficult to even impossible for them to get a job. As many as 3.5 million people in the United States has been reported of experiencing homelessness in a given year, even though most were temporarily. Some statistics of reported homeless Americans show 40% are families with children—the fastest growing segment, 41% are single males, 14% are single females, 5% are minors unaccompanied by adults, 49%