Managing mental disabilities in prison is extremely difficult with strained resources and the current set-up of the criminal justice system.
Who Needs Mental Health Help?
Prisoners with mental health problems typically come out worse than when they went in. According to a 2006 study by the federal Justice Department, approximately half of all federal, state, and local jail inmates were classified as having mental health problems. Inmates were asked questions regarding their behavior and experiences within the preceding year and about half from all populations were found to show signs of mania, depression, or other psychotic disabilities.
Taking it a step further, the study revealed that those with strong signs of mental health problems were more likely to have a long history of repeat criminal activity. This supports what many people who work inside our prisons already know: mental health problems play a serious role in the rate of crime in our country!
Even further, many people argue that with better strategies for managing mental disabilities in prison, we could actually reduce the number of inmates in prisons altogether. Fix the disabilities, fix the crime. Could that really work?
Setbacks in Managing Mental Disabilities in Prisons
With millions of people entering our prisons every year, money is ultimately what stands in the way of developing a system that is effective at managing mental disabilities in prison. Every prison has a system for evaluating patients for mental and physical health when they first enter, but providing the treatment they need to be stabilized is difficult to do when prisons are overcrowded, resources are strained, and guards view prisoners with mental health problems as an inconvenience due to the problems they often create.
The Problems Faced Today
Most state prisons simply do not have the mental health resources to effectively counsel and rehabilitate all of the mentally ill prisoners that pass through their cells each year. Also, many prisoners with mental health problems do not want treatment and do not willingly participate in counseling or other programs.
Many prisoners with mental health problems simply fall through the cracks without receiving the treatment needed before being released. They are likely to come right back in the future with additional criminal charges.
Others are disruptive or dangerous in open prison populations and are placed in isolation cells that deprive them of contact with others or fresh air outdoors. In this setting a prisoner with mental health issues becomes worse, even if they are given medication used for managing mental disabilities in prison.
In fact, even prisoners with no signs of mental health problems start to feel and act mentally ill after spending time in segregation. The system simply is not equipped to effectively manage mental disabilities in prisons.
When you view the prison system from the eye of the 2006 Justice Department study, you realize that we are simply housing millions of people with mental health problems who have little hope of ever recovering and who are likely to repeat criminal offenses after being released into the community.
There is a desperate need for increased measures for managing mental disabilities in prison. Perhaps removing those with mental health problems who have non-violent charges from the prison population and creating special mental health prisons for them would be more effective?