Deviant Behaviors: The Modern Prison Is the New Lunatic Asylum - Essay Example

? Deviant behaviors affiliation Deviant behaviors The modern prison is the new lunatic asylum Introduction There is no argument in suggesting that insanity has become rampant in modern day society. This brings up the issue of deviance. Deviance is the carrying out of anti-social behavior like sexual abuse. However, sociologists argue that deviance is sometimes brought about the environmental background of an individual. An argument by Janet (2011) as much as an individual’s will power is considered ones mental stability should also be considered. Madness as people may call it is responsible for many deviant behaviors in society. For this reason, mental unstable individuals are separated from society. With proper medication this individuals are able to come back to the society as sane members of the community. Many people in mental institutions have a criminal history. The criminal incidences sometimes are not out of will but with negative influence from their brain. Such crimes include sexual violence and murder. Over the years prisons have been used as the best contrivance for punishment of wrong doers. This is the best way of punishing criminals without breaching their rights. Since the establishment of confinements, they have evolved to suit human beings. As the numbers in societies increased there were increased forms of crimes and hence lead to the establishment of more confinement institutions. Many things happen behind prison walls, which are hidden from the public. The real picture of the prison, the public has on the state of prisoners is only their state during visiting hours (Janet, 2011). However, prison life is difficult behind the facilities far from the public to see. Prisoners are known for their high levels of frustrations and taking out their anger on fellow prisoners. In the modern society, we have strong members of the human rights activists who advocate for equality to all human beings. The activists are responsible for many prison reforms in the modern world. However, the human rights do not have the power to control the anger of prisoner and the violence among one another. With significant reduced numbers of prison violence from warders, the prisons have had at least a lifeline of sanity. In the modern world, however, sanity in prisons is far from being achieved. Ex- convicts say much of their prisons life. They give their ordeals next to beasts that do not see anything of worth in life. Prisoner who come from prison confinements have tragic memories of what happens behind the walls of these government institutions. Some ex-convicts also compare the prisons to mental institutions (Janet, 2011). In the case of mental institutions, the institutions are not of age in society. Mental institutions and asylums are confinements of the mentally unstable persons in society. Mental institutions scenes are as condemning as the prison scenes. However, there are different types of asylums. There some used on people with mild mental instability and the ones used to confine people with severe mental conditions. Mild mental institutions are not usually tragic and violence related. This cannot be said about the severe cases confinements. These confinements hold men and women of no logic consideration of any kind. Researchers have reported deaths in the mental asylums inflicted by other lunatics. In some instances, the lunatics are held strongly by chains which hinder locomotion (Janet, 2011). Additionally, a few deaths have been reported on doctors and nurses in the medical institutions. In contemplation, should governments take the position of hiring real police men to handle the mental asylums? If this was to be the case the difference between prisons and the mental asylums would be very minute. Mental asylums are said to have severe violent scenes than the prisons. The only difference is that the lunatics’ violence attitude can be controlled medically. The violence by lunatics is inevitable since they do not have the control of their brain. Due to this claim, human rights argue that handling these mentally ill patients should be more intimate and without being confined with chains and other objects. However, the administrations in these institutions say if this is done their lives and the life of other patients would be at risk. Arguments A comparison of modern prison to mental asylums has no much difference. There is no much difference between a crazy person and a normal man carrying out fanatical actions. Modern prisons undergo all kinds of violence one can think of. The violence in prisons can only be carried out by crazy persons. Firstly, there is the handling of prisoners prior to arrest. Mostly, in the third world countries, prisoners are handled like vegetables, like lifeless creatures that have no meaning in society (Janet, 2011). Many prisoners already have wounds inflicted to them by police before their trials. These wounds are said to be inflicted during arrest and interrogations. Before mentally ill patients are put in mental asylums, the capturing scenes are very disturbing. Patients with severe conditions are subjected to violent handling in the hands of police officers. They are then tied or chained up. These are scenes which the human rights fight to see them off the eye of the public. Just as much patients in mental asylums need compassion and affection, prisoners are also in need of both compassion and affection. Members of the public and relatives protested outside a prison in South America. The Latin society in South America is known for their violent prison environments. This part of the world has reported the most number of deaths from prison violence. Prior to arrest and trial, many people may opt for death than to be confined in the walls of the prisons. Relatives and friends of the prisoners are the most affected having to consider the state of these prisons. During the demonstrations, relative and the public chanted slogans of hatred and discontent with the prisons. The demonstrating crowd started with a few people which it then grew significantly in minutes. According to Janet (2011) as much it was anti-prison protest, it was a sign of affection and compassion to the inmates. From their minute windows, prisoners were seen responding by flashing lights and some waving to the crowd, while others had the chance to throw packs of cards to the chanting crowd. Such scenes enable us to see the human part of the confined beasts as perceived by the society. From the crowd, several families had lost at least one relative confined in the prison. The cause of death was prison violence. Prisons in Latin America have seen many deaths in prison and nothing significant is being done about it. In as much as the government and other stakeholders are concerned, these are criminals and their death makes no difference in society. However, this is not the case; as these criminals have relatives including children. This leads to the assumption that prisoners are equally compared to lunatics. The level of neglect in mental asylums can only be compared to prisons. Prisoners are far different from lunatics. Some mental patients have irreversible mental conditions which makes them unfit for society. On the hand, prisoners are sane people who have wronged the society and can change if placed in good confinement institutions (Janet, 2011). Just as the mental ill patients, prisoners are cursed people in society. People tend not to care about them. Their love and affection fades after detention, and later, they are easily turned away from the lives of their friend’s in the outside world. These conditions slowly turn them away from the norms of the society. This lack of affection turns them to new creatures. This transformation carries no consideration whatsoever of human life and affection. In some instances, confinement institutions report cases of mental instability among prisoners. Before detection, the prisoner would have raises havoc in the confinements. This is the reason we have cases of cold blood deaths in prisons. These cases are not common cold blood cases but more disturbing. For instance, a confinement institution in Latin America reported death by after a prisoner had been stabbed by a spoon. In considering of all sane aspects, this is not murder by a right minded person. This is a proof of the man created by the walls of the correction institutions. According to Janet (2011), about 20 percent of prisoners in major prisons have mild mental instabilities. The prison environment and conditions does not make it easier for them to control their temper. The conditions are rampant to prisoners with life imprisonment sentences. The thought of losing everything in life makes them lose their sanity. This type of people should be confined separately from other prisoners. They require more attention and medication to solve calm their mental instability. With poor detection techniques, correction facilities are slowly turned into mental asylums. Another case of evidence in the mental stability of prisoners is the case of sexual violence. In general, sex offenders are regarded as mental unstable persons. Before prosecution, they are tested for any form of mental illness. In most instances, their mental stability is not 100 percent normal. If the sex offenders are found to have mental instabilities, take into consideration the state of mind of prisoners who sexually violate their same sex inmates. If someone’s has a specific sexual orientation that can be an exempted case but if conducted with no violence. Prisoner with no homosexual orientation violating their inmates is a sign of mental instability. However, some critics say argue that sexual violence are usually caused by sexual need and frustrations. A person in a right state of mind cannot violently seek sexual favours from his fellow inmate from the same sex orientation. According to Janet (2011), sexual violence in prisons is a sign of growing mental instability among the inmates. Sexual violence is usually done to smaller inmates with less strength to defend themselves. Apart from the rapists, the victims also stand a high chance of having lapses in their mental stability. If this happens, the first thing they tend to do is to revenge on the person who violated him. This will definitely lead to another death case. Looking at these insane activities, it begs the question of the mental state of inmates. In words of Janet (2011) if such prisoners are taken to mental asylums, they will fair no better than the patients with mental illnesses. Apart from the ugly perceptions of correction facilities, there are some benefits of prisons that can be compared to mental homes and hospitals. Firstly, they are correctional facilities, one for behavior and the other one for mental soundness. Correction facilities have been termed the most effective way of rebranding criminals. Apart from the few cases of mental instability of inmates, the prison after life brings out the better person in majority of inmates. The change in behavior can however be attributed to the conditions of the facilities. Many ex-convicts become better people since they cannot handle the prison life again in their lives (Janet, 2011). Once a person is jailed, they lose almost very thing they had in life including family and friends. Given the chance to start a new life, they tend to prove the society of the worth in the community by becoming better persons. According to psychologists, it is a tendency in human beings to gain superiority after downfall especially if people do not believe in their worth. After the prison life, many inmates turn to more philanthropic courses. For instance, they become volunteers in homes or hospitals. Some inmates also turn into preachers or turn to religious services. Another similarity between the two is that inmates are subjected to cheap labour. In modern prisons, inmates are regularly subjected to labour as a corrective measure. In correction facilities it is right for the inmates to be subjected to labour. However, the working conditions should be humane. Additionally, there should be reasonable working hours and reasonable time to rest. There should not be biasness of any kind. In mental institutions, cheap labour is sort from the mentally unstable. In words of Janet (2011), the rich members of society seek human resource from these institutions at a very cheap price. The price of their labour is neither given to them nor their families but to the administrators of the mental homes. This is abuse of their rights in all aspects. Firstly, mental unstable patients should not be subjected to labour. Subjecting them to labour is the abuse for their will to be confined in the institution. Visiting hours in both institutions are limited. The two institutions are aimed at segregating the society from the inmates and patients. In lunatic asylums, there is basically no contact allowed with the patients. This is due to assumptions that their deviant behaviors can come up at any instance. This makes no bigger difference between patient and prisoners. On the other hand, contact with prisoners is strictly forbidden in almost all detention centers. This brings forth the comparison of modern day prison to the mental asylum. In this case, there is no difference whatsoever in the running of these two institutions. Additionally, mental homes and institution rehabilitate metal challenged people. Since many mental illnesses do not have the ability to completely cure, the homes minimize the effects of the conditions. Apart from the medical treatments, the homes provide physical care. Physical care in patients with mental illnesses is better than medical treatment. With complete mild mental conditions one is released from the institution. With proper physical care, some mental patients have been able to completely recover and be normal members of the society (Janet, 2011). The costs of running both institutions are almost equal. Prisons and mental homes require no fee in order to be enrolled in one. However, there are some private mental homes where one needs to pay for the services. Government run mental institutions depend on donors and sponsors for survival so as the prisons. The numbers of these institutions are increasing in years. This makes it difficult for governments to provide proper care in prisons and mental homes. Prisons are the worst affected. For instance, in Latin America the number of jails and correction facilities are increasing significantly. This makes prison management in the part difficult. With the increase of prisons, mental; hospitals are also on the rise since many prisoners tend to suffer mental conditions during their prison life. The problem lies in the cost of running both institutions. Many government officials perceive the two institutions as centers of worthless members of society. They therefore give little or less attention to them when it comes to monetary allocation. Due to this, prisons and mental homes remain in deplorable conditions while lives continue to be lost behind the concrete walls of these institutions. In the seventeenth century, crazy people in society were free to roam around in the streets. Their responsibilities were in the hands of family members and relatives. With their few numbers they were able to be controlled and were not troublesome. As the population increased, the number of lunatics in the streets increased significantly. Along the streets, they committed countless crimes like robbing and beating up people. Their families disowned them as they regarded them as cursed individuals of the society. In France, their presence in the streets became even more bothersome. King Louis XIII then ordered all street beggars to be captured and separated from the society- the first creation of the mental homes. Since then, mental homes have been embraced in society to keep at bay anti-social behaviors of individuals with mental conditions. In many cases of crimes the proprietors usually have mental conditions. Crimes like homicide and sexual violence are usually carried out by mad people. Over the years, we have seen the emergence of serial killers and rapists. These are termed as deviant behaviors in society. Psychologists argue that there is more to mental instability than personal will for one to become a serial killer or rapist. Upon arrest many test positive to madness. According to Janet (2011), deviant activities are rampant in most mentally ill individuals. He argues that, individuals suffering from insanity cannot differentiate between what is right or wrong. They assume what their brain directs them to do is the correct thing. This brings out the difference between normal criminals and individuals with madness. With proper detention and treatment the individuals may turn to be great member of the society. Conclusion Correction facilities and mental homes houses members of society whose lives are at stake. With proper attention to these two institutions, the lives of inmates and patients would be of value. Prison warders and lunatic asylums warders cannot continue breaching human rights at the watch of the society. Around the globe there have been protests in many countries to shown their discontent in how prisons are run and managed. Many people have lost relatives due to deplorable conditions behind walls of prison and the government correctional institutions. The society cannot do away with these two institutions. The control of mental unstable individuals in society should exist. On the other hand, detention centers must also exist to be able to separate criminals and the society. However, the individuals in these institutions also have rights and that is what the society should fight for. Before the walls of detention centers and the environment in mental hospitals take somebody important from our lives, the change of the institutions lays in our hands. The extinction of lunatics in society is not achievable. What the society needs is a proper confinement of the mental unstable people. With more deviant behavior in society, what caused an individual to commit a crime should be determined before prosecution. Sending a mad man to jail will lead to more deviant behavior behind bars. As a society we should report deviant behavior to authorities. As much as the society thinks it is not their fault, they need to be reported so that they get help (Janet, 2011). Our relatives may also be mentally unstable and we confide them in our homes. One may never tell when they will harm someone. The society has a great role in shaping the deviant behaviors of crazy people in the community. References Janet, M. (2011). Prisons, Asylums and the public: institutional visiting in the nineteenth century. Toronto: University of Toronto press. Read More