Mentally Ill Prisoners in UK Prisons - Report Example

Mentally ill prisoners in UK prisons Introduction The Prison reform trust reveals that 90% of inmates in the United Kingdom havea minimum of one type of diagnosed mental disorder with one in every ten of such inmates having a serious mental health issue. Such reports portray an increasing number of mentally ill people in prisons in the country a feature that corroborates a shift in the country’s prison policies from humanitarian concerns to risk based assessment (Bromley, 2013). Mentally ill people just as the name suggests are sick people who require specialized treatment in order to reverse their conditions. Unlike other prisoners, mentally ill prisoners cannot reform their behavior since they require treatment, this implies that sending them to jail is not the appropriate way of handling them as the discussion below portrays. The prison reform trust report that ninety percent of prisoners in the United Kingdom have at least a single diagnosis of a type of mental disorder. The report further reveals that the poor state of the prisons in the country does not help the situation of the mentally ill. The poor state of the prisons and lack of specialized care for the group exposes them to myriad challenges that worsen their situation. While prisons are fundamental institutions in any society mandated with reforming and punishing offenders, the institutions are not appropriate for the mentally ill offenders. Just as stated earlier, the mentally ill cause myriad disruptions to the social setups. However, they do such oblivious of the normal set-ups in the society. Furthermore, they do not seek any form of gratification for acting the way they do. After their apprehension, the mentally ill should receive appropriate medical attention instead of dumping them in prisons as has been the case in the United Kingdom. Just as expected with most prisons globally, the situations in the prisons in the country are inhumane. Most prisons are overcrowded with the prisoners sharing such vital resources as bedding. Overcrowding denies prisoners privacy besides making the prisons difficult to manage by the few authorities. Owing to their lack of effective interpersonal and communication skills, the mentally ill prisoners are always susceptible to myriad ills in the prisons. They form the primary target to sexual offenses in the prisons (Newburn, 2007). Sexual exploitation is a heinous offence. The laws of the country strive to protect the populace from such offenses. The laws in the country are stringent and punitive with the hope of curbing the prevalence of sexual offenses in the country. The situation rather differs in the prisons where the few personnel cannot maintain law and order especially given the high number of prisoners that have succeeded in overcrowding the prisons (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2009). The appalling situation in most prisons in the United Kingdom leaves the prisoners exposed to myriad assaults key among which is sexual assault by fellow inmates. The abject lawlessness in the prisons coupled with the overcrowding of most prisons in the country makes the mentally ill prisoners vulnerable to assaulters. Sexual aggression in prisons is on the rise. Such crimes worsen the state of the mentally ill patients who are both mentally unstable and often violent. The mentally ill prisoners constitute easy preys to their aggressors who take advantage of their unstable minds to assault them. Additionally, such assault contributes to the rise in violence in prisons since the mentally unstable react differently to such crimes. Their various reactions often include violence a feature that exposes both themselves and their cellmates to substantial harm as either party strives to protect themselves from each other. As acts of aggression and assault make prisons inappropriate for the mentally ill since the prisoners suffer from numerous assault including sexual assault (Cavadino & Dignan, 2007). As expected, sexual assault leaves the mentally ill prisoners susceptible to different venereal diseases including HIV among many others. Furthermore, the situation in most of the prisons in the country have the potential of causing madness in both the mentally ill prisoners and the normal prisoners.as discussed earlier, the situation in the country’s prisons is appalling with most prisons experiencing overcrowding. Additionally, most prisoners suffer depression owing to the inhumane treatments of the prisoners coupled with the lawlessness in the prisons (The Howard League for Penal Reform, 2012). The understaffing in most prisons denies the prisoners the dedicated attention of the reformers. In fact, in most prisons, the prisoners manage themselves in organized groupings. Through such illicit systems of management, the prison officers have minimal jobs. However, the system leaves more prisoners exposed to the authorities in the prisons. Such intensify the maltreatment of prisoners a fact that compel most prisoners to commit suicide thereby contributing to the rising number of deaths in prisons. Additionally, the lack of companionship in prisons as the prisoners does not have their friends and families drive most of the prisoners to depression. The fact that normal individuals share rooms among other essential resources with mentally impaired patients denies the healthy prisoners a chance to socialize effectively. This way, they fail to reform their behavior while others readily slip into depression owing to the abject state of the prisons. The state of thoughtfulness rapidly degenerates into depression as the prisoners develop varied mental complications while in the prisons. The rising rate of depression in prisons portrays the grieving state of prisons in the country for both the mentally ill and the normal. The need for specialization is more urgent currently since the rising number of mentally ill patients coupled with the fact that they must share rooms with other normal prisoners expose the society to myriad vices including the risk of contracting madness among other types of mental illnesses. This way, the prisons do not achieve their major objective of reforming behaviors but instead exposes the prisoners to more severe health complications. Women and children are always the most vulnerable population in any society. However, the category of the population also suffers from such diseases as mental illness among others besides being offenders in varied crime. This implies that women and children some of whom are always mentally ill find their ways to prisons just like any other criminals. The increase in the number of women and juveniles in in prisons in the country has worsened the situation of the mentally ill prisoners. Women require increased care and privacy two fundamental requirements that the situation in the country’s prisons do not accord. Overcrowding in prisons has created a mess in the country’s prisons compelling women to share toiletry among other fundamental resources. The lack of personalized care for the pertinent needs that women require has deteriorated the state of sanitation in the prisons thereby exposing the prisoners to varied illnesses. Among the fundamental factors that make prisons inappropriate for the mentally ill people is the lack of appropriate health care. The quality of medical services in prisons is poorer than the quality of health services in the society. Most doctors in the prisons lack adequate psychiatric skills and do not therefore possess the professional expertise to handle the patients. This implies that the prisoners do not access effective medical services that they deserve. The fact that the prisoners do not access appropriate health services in prisons makes them susceptible to the effects of their conditions (Cavadino & Dignan, 2007). This way, he prisoners continue to suffer in silence with the health practitioners in the prisons lacking effective ways of diagnosing and handling the prisoners. This way, they fail to handle the prisoners appropriately thereby worsening the condition of the already sick prisoners. Because of such factors as the absence of adequately trained psychiatric doctors in the prisons coupled with the lack of effective coordination between the prisons and the local psychiatric services in the country worsens the state of the mentally ill people in the prisons. This deters the success of the entire process. As explained earlier, prisons are fundamental institutions in any societies that do not only help reform behavior but also punishes wrongdoing thereby serving as a warning to rest of the people in the society. through such concerted effort and the efficient coordination between the law enforcers and the prison services in a country the government hopes to create an ideal society in which people rarely harm one another. While such is a noble gesture with the authorities striving to create a safe and tranquil society for the different people to coexist peacefully, the prisons do not help the mentally ill people. The prisons only succeed in secluding the mentally ill but unlike the prisons reform the normal offenders, they do not treat the mentally ill thereby exposing them to the negative effects of their conditions. The Bradley report indicates that more than six hundred prisoners have committed suicide in the country since the year 1996. The year 2002, ninety-four patients died of self-inflicted causes including strangling or hanging themselves among others. The rate of suicides in the country’s prisons is appalling and the growing statistics on the number of deaths portray the gravity of the matter typifying the danger that mentally ill prisoners face while in prisons. As explained earlier, the mentally ill have unstable minds and therefore cause injuries to both themselves and those around them. Incarcerating them alongside other normal members of the society therefore exposes those around them to the danger. Besides, the lack of specialized attention drives most of such patients to depression. The mentally ill patients thus resort to committing suicide with some of the deaths being deliberate while others are accidental. The fact that they lack effective interpersonal skills and cannot therefore interact with the rest of the prisoners cordially leaves them exposed. Suicide thus is the most appropriate solution to most of their problems since they feel unappreciated by the rest of the society. Most of the mentally ill prisoners spend most of their time alone in the prison cells owing to their lack of effective interpersonal skills, this hastens their slip into depression thus suicide besides engaging in other life threatening activities most of which case their deaths. The fact that their behavior is spontaneous and often harmful to others, the other normal prisoners may react adversely to their advances either oblivious of their condition or in their rejection of the outcasts. This way, the mentally ill prisoners are at the risk of murders and exploitation by their colleagues in the dingy prison cells. Conclusion Children as the youngest members of the society require personalized care in order to reform them and turn them into productive members of the society. Imprisoning mentally ill children does not help them but has adverse long-term effect on their growth and future reintegration into the society. In fact, juvenile prisoners are more likely to plunge into depression thereby becoming mad owing to the exposure to the harsh conditions prevalent in prisons. The abject lack of appropriate psychiatric services implies that the facilities do not help reverse the condition of the children. Reforming a young mind has long-term effects on the society since it helps turn such young people into productive members of the society. Taking a young mentally ill child into a correctional facility does not help such individuals since the approach is elusive and fails to address the source of the problem, as is the case with other normal children incarcerated at such facilities (Crewe, 2011). In a summary, prisons are essential institutions in the country. The facilities seek to reform and punish individuals thereby striving to curb the manifestation of social vices in the country. The rising number of mentally ill prisoners in the country however does not solve the social vice instead contributing to the problem. Sending mentally ill people to prisons denies them the vital health services they need. Therefore, unlike other normal people who reform their behavior through jail terms, the mentally ill face several challenges that compel others to commit suicide. Additionally, the unregulated integration with others causes the increasing rate of depression in the prisons. References Bromley, B., 2013, Prison: The Facts, The Prison Reform Trust. Newburn, T., 2007, Prisons and Imprisonment. In: Criminology Cullompton: Willan Publishing. Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health., 2009, Briefing 38: The Bradley Report and the Governments Response: The Implications for mental health services for offenders. Crewe, B., 2011, Depth, weight, tightness: revisiting the pains of imprisonment, Punishmnent & Society, Vol. 13(5),pp. 509-529. The Howard League for Penal Reform, 2012, Prison Owercrowding. Cavadino, M. & Dignan, J., 2007, The Penal System 4th ed. London: Sage. Read More