Treatment of Adult Mentally Ill Offenders - Research Paper Example

Treatment of Adult Mentally Ill Offenders Abstract This paper critically analyzes the treatment of adult mentally ill offenders in the U.S. “The New Asylums”, is a movie that shows the lives of inmates who are mentally ill in the prisons, and have been locked up for one reason or another. It further assesses the pain and trauma that these inmates go through everyday in their prison life. Introduction The United States is considered to be one of the countries in the world that has been rated with the highest number of prisoners suffering from mental illnesses such as depression and bipolar disorders, which are both chronic and non chronic (Mays & Winfree, 2009). These inmates are confined within the walls of prisons due to offences that they have committed waiting psychological check up, which is followed by conviction and segregation. Besides, the number of inmates has tripled in the last threes decades with the notion that jails and prisons in the U.S have been converted to new mental hospitals. In recent research, an infamous prison in the state, registered 33.8 % inmates who are mentally ill as per psychiatric diagnosis with chronic mental illness registering a higher rate as compared to non-chronic mental illnesses. Among all offenders in prison, depression, substance use disorders and anxiety or panic disorders are the three most common categories of diagnoses (Langan & David, 2002). “In the movie, The New Asylums by Miri Navasky & Karen O’Connor (2005), today there are over 500,000 mentally ill people who are held in jails and prison through out America, 10 times the 50,000 that remain in the mental hospitals, although, most part of this movie shows higher percent of male inmates as compared to female inmates, numerous scenes of mentally ill people are common in the streets through out America. According to Fred Cohen, Prison Mental Health Consultant, those who are mentally ill in the streets end up going to mental hospitals. Mark Bannet, the Chief Deputy Officer in the city jail says that most of the mental cases are non violent crimes which include common trespass, or getting shelter on private proprieties where owner calls in the police and the people are taken into custody.” Punitive Vs Rehabilitative Treatment in Prison All over the world and more so in United States of America, there has been differing theories that concern the treatment that is given to prisoners as well as the services that should be provided to them in the current penal system (Langan & David,2002). In any criminal system, there are simple choices of verdict that are given to the convicts; they are either reformative or punitive. The main aim of any reform system is to take criminals and ensuring that they are helped to move past the issues they have at hand. Punitive treatment entails the use of physical pain and torture as punishment for committing crimes. In fact, United States has been described as a punitive nation. Langan & David, 2002 argues that, the main goal of the punitive system is to ensure that criminals see and understand that participating in crimes is not worth at all. A good example of a punitive method to offenders is by taking them to boot camps. Booty camps are governmental correctional and penal systems that are predominant in United States. Having modeled to resemble the armed forces recruit training camps, these programs are based on distress incarcerations that have military techniques. Offenders get punishment such as stocking although it has been scalped off in the recent past. In essence, critics say that these kinds of programs serve only to frustrate the offenders and do not make much distinction in their lives as is intended apart from having them pay for their crimes in harsh ways. In addition, most of the sentences that are given to these offenders cannot be easily reduced even if the offenders show sign of improvement or change. Rehabilitative penalty simply means re-enabling or making fit again prisoners to enable them rejoin society. Too, it enables prisoners to become more useful law binding members of the society. In reality, Langan & David, 2002 affirms that, it means to restructure the behavior of prisoners without necessarily having to use painful or punitive ways of dealing with them in regard to what they have been charged with. These programs have been conducted with the help of some prison officers who are supposed to ensure that the prisoners undergo rehabilitation period that trains and treats them so as to persuade and support them to look at life positively and reap from it what is good. This penalty system offers programs that address cases of drug addition, sex offending, violent offending and those that improve prisoners’ cognitive skills. Some of the principles that are used in this mode of treatment include the goal of resocialization, which states that, during the imprisonment period, the prisoners should be enabled to lead in social responsibility and a life without criminal offences. The second principle argues that the life which entails the corrections shall as much as possible resemble that which is led in the society or the general life. The third principle argues that, all correctional authorities should be able to address and counteract with the damaging consequences of imprisonment. In this type of penalty measure, the offender can be able to serve their sentences in positive ways with hope of rejoining the society as useful people. In some cases, some are of them are privileged to have their sentences reduced in case they show sign of improvement, unlike the punitive penalty (Mays & Winfree, 2009). “In the movie, The New Asylums by Miri Navasky & Karen O’Connor (2005), it is evident that most of the prisoners have mental illness and do not get the full attention of the psychiatrist since they are confined within the prison walls. Some prisoners are seen to defy the directions of the psychiatrist especially in taking their medicine. According to Bridget Benefits, Mental Health Administrator, there is a need to give these inmate a lot of medical attention to enable them face the society when the leave the prison walls. Those who are chronically ill, she says, should be given more personal attention and inner relations while ensuring that they follow their medication to the later. She says that keeping them worked up especially within their confinement to the extent of having them scream and hit the bars and walls of prison, does not do any good to them. Although, these people are offenders and have broken the law, it is important to note that the society still needs them at various levels. It can, therefore, be recommended that, they go through rehabilitative programs, which involves having them going through psychiatric course in hospitals as opposed to the prisons because they will get more attention from the psychiatrics. Once they are confirmed physically upright, they should be taken to the rehabilitation as per their offence. “In the movie, The New Asylums by Miri Navasky & Karen O’Connor (2005), an inmate appears to have been accused of splitting on a judicial practitioner. It is devastating to see offenders going to the court when there is clear evidence of them not been fully aware of the crimes committed as they are still not recovered from their mental illnesses. Aftercare Programs There are various aftercare programs that are needed for mentally ill offenders who have been released from prison so as to discourage them from going back to offences that they had previously been engaged to. Recidivism is the relapse into criminal activities and is generally measured by former prisoners returning to crime (Langan & David, 2002). In essence, the rate of recidivism based on the United States statistics points to about two third in a span of three years. It results to tremendous costs in terms of public safety and in tax dollars that are spent in arresting and prosecuting re-offenders. Three components for programs that are necessary in the community include; substance abuse treatment, education and employment services. Substance abuse is a wide spread problem that is associated with inmates who have left prison, due to this it is important to continue with the treatment and intensive case management to these people to block them from any attempt of going back into using the drugs (Mays & Winfree, 2009). Educational programs are also essential to the released prisoners to enable the attain skills to give them opportunities in job market. These kind of education programs include; higher education, secondary education and vocational training as per the individual needs of released prisoners (Langan & David, 2002). Additionally, employment services programs addresses the needs of the released inmates in finding work as well as equipping them with career development skills, job preparedness and placement. Successful programs should be multifaceted in that they should be able to address the physical and health problems that surround the released inmates putting into consideration that their main problem is mental health. The parole system, through their officers, should ensure that they give these released inmates close monitoring to chicken them out from going back into their offensive past. They may initiate programs such as continuous group counseling for these people where they meet frequently and share their experiences in their ‘new world’. They could also help these people through supporting them in education programs or funding them in expanding the skills they might have got from the rehabilitation programs in starting community based programs (Mays & Winfree, 2009) “In the movie, The New Asylums by Miri Navasky & Karen O’Connor (2005), future counselors and psychologist have a lot learn. It is evident that these inmates are going through group therapy, but it does not seem to be supportive to most of them due to the fact that they have individual problems, which are different from each other. It would be more workable if the counselors and psychologists came up with more special therapy attention. They should also rise against the idea of having the mental ill inmates been locked up in prison and receiving medical attention and instead advocate for them to be taken to mental hospitals first before been locked up in jail. This movie should help the policy writers in coming up with a better way of rehabilitating those inmates who are mentally ill. Some of the scenes at hand show inmates who have their legs chained could be termed as insensitive or inhuman. Others have also been locked up for more that a decade for re offending. Conclusion All correctional facilities have the mandate of respecting the rights of the inmates under every condition that pertains to negligence of the law. Hence, the handling of inmates with mental illnesses should be taken with much caution by the judicial system and the government as a whole. References: Langan, P & David, L. (2002). Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Mays, L & Winfree, L. (2009). Essentials of Corrections. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Miri, N & Karen, O. (2005). The New Asylums. Movie. Read More