It is an estimated 50 percent of convicts in United States prisons are suffering from one or more mental illnesses. Many…
Feminism is a large movement today in America. Activists for the movement work in many different ways, just like the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a powerful letter during his time in Birmingham Jail, and feminists can learn a lot from what he had to say. The most important thing Martin Luther King, Jr. would tell feminists is to not fear being called extreme, so long as they are positive and loving in their endeavors. In Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. discusses how he was surprised he was called an extremist, and that he did not characterize himself that way; however, upon further introspection, he writes about how many great leaders, philosophers, and activists have been extreme in their actions.…
This video shows shocking statistics regarding the skyrocketing increase in number of women being incarcerated especially for drug related crimes. More than 200,000 women are in prison that has been arrested for nonviolent crimes. According to a study a quarter of women in prison are there because of drug related crimes, compared with only 17 percent of male population (Shepeared, 2013). The main reason behind this increase is that most of the incarcerated girls were just partners or girlfriends of the drug dealers and not directly involved in drugs crime.…
`The Trauma, Mental Health and Offending Histories of Women in Jail: Results of a Multi-State U.S. Study was a study funded by the bureau of justice assistances conducted by Joanne Belknap and her research team which consisted of four Ph.D. psychologists from a wide range of institutions and a team of brilliant graduate and undergraduate students from various universities as well. In the study the main research questions were addressing the following concepts: current lifetime prevalence of serious mental illness(SMI), lifetime exposure to violence and adversity(trauma), to what extent does serious mental illness co-occur with PTSD and substance use disorder(SUD), the level of impairment associated with serious mental illness in women offenders,…
When faced with the difficult reality of mass incarceration, and the high rates of women of color incarcerated in our federal prison system, we are often left wondering what we as mere college students can do. While our position against this unjust reality seems very small, one of the things we can do is provide educational resources to women of color in prison by donating our old books – whether these be our old college textbooks or any. There is very strong evidence out there that suggests that prisoners that are allowed access to education resources while in prison are more likely to thrive once released, and their chance of being re-incarcerated is lowered. In an interview with NPR following the Obama administration’s step toward expanding access of the Pell grant to adult prisoners, Lois Davis of the RAND corporation (a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges) said that education is the centerpiece of an effective re-entry into society, and a better way to spend our tax dollars: “Education is a relatively low-cost program you can provide to inmates. But, when you look simply at direct…
For instance, in a study conducted by Dvoskin and Spiers (2004), they found that “In 1998, the United States Department of Justice estimated that over 283,000 mentally ill offenders were behind bars” (Dvoskin & Spiers, 2004). This seems like a very high number of the total prison population. In fact, this correlates to as many as nineteen percent of male and thirty percent of female inmates being able to be classified as having a mental disorder (Dvoskin & Spiers, 2004). Similar research has been conducted across the Atlantic Ocean in England. In a study conducted by Birmingham, Gray, Mason, and Grubin (2000), they found that the Institute of Psychiatry in London found that over a third of sentenced male prisoners suffer from mental illness, including substance abuse while nearly two thirds of those awaiting trial faced the same issues (Birmingham, Gray, Mason, & Grubin, 2000).…
Prison Within the Mind Just within the years 2003 and 2015, the incarceration rates for the mentally ill have tremendously increased, that within a survey done on inmates it was found that “more than three times more seriously mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in hospitals”,(Carroll). The percentage rate has enormously increased, yet the mental health treatments in prison have not changed in the last two decades, (Carroll). There is a need for change in such situations, as a result, that out of all the inmates with mental illnesses, 83% were denied access to proper treatment, (Jailing People With Mental Illnesses). With millions of people being incarcerated each year and as society becomes more exposed to mental illnesses, there…
Background: Women who are incarcerated while pregnant, receive no birthing education while in most prisons in the United States. In many states, incarcerated women in labor are transported to the nearest birthing center and are shackled to the labor bed with one armed guard inside the room and another outside the door. They often labor alone because they are not allowed to have a support person. The nurse on duty, is the only form of support they depend upon. Unfortunately, evidence indicates that many of the nurses have a punitive attitude toward the incarcerated patient, resulting in inadequate care.…
Prison and jail’s are ill equipped to deal with the ever growing number of mentally ill prisoners that society has shunned. Living in a 4X8 room day after day, week after week, and month after month takes a toll on even the healthiest of inmates. Stopping this form of torture is not up to the jails, police and courts, their hands are tied. These inmates need compassion and a way to deal with their demons that only first hand medical services can provide. Adam Gopnik a writer for the New Yorker and article author of “The Caging of America” argues and I agree “how is it that our civilization, which rejects hanging and flogging and disembowelling, came to believe that caging vast numbers of people for decades is acceptable humane sanctions?”…
Mental illness has been increasing in prions and jails in the past decade, as shown by, "more than half of all prison and jail inmates have a mental health problem compared with 11 percent of the general population".(Anasseril) The problem is they are not receiving the help necessary to achieve a normalized life. " Yet only one in three prison inmates and one in six jail inmates receive any form of mental health treatment." (Anasseril) . This illustrates that point that an abundance of the mentally ill are being accused and condemned as prisoners, without even being giving the chance with help.…
Exactly half of the prisoners in the U.S. have mental health issues, states a 2006 Justice Department Study. Through my research I have found that jails and prisons are without a doubt considered to be new mental health facilities for those with mental illnesses. There is a high percentage of people who suffer from mental illnesses in prisons and jails, which has caused a ripple effect in taxation. The problem that arises from incarcerating people with mental illness for petty crimes, is that the money could be used more effectively. Due to how mental health illnesses have been treated in the past, appropriate and effective use of screenings and facilities shows to have more success with helping those with mental illnesses.…
On average, twenty percent of inmates in jails and fifteen percent of inmates in prisons have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness (Z. K. Torrey). In comparison, there are ten times less mentally ill individuals residing in psychiatric institutions than there are in prisons. The fact that the correctional system has become the primary treatment for the mentally ill should be deeply concerning to not only those affected by mental illness, but all of…
Janeil’s Incarceration Fall of 96 I believe, I think it was sometime in September or October one of the two, Janeil was incarcerated. He had his mother call me on a three way call to tell me what had happened. Supposedly one of his baby mothers had called the police on him. Supposedly one day while he was laying on her living room floor, she walked past him and intentionally stomped his hair and when she tried to take off running, he grabbed her by her hair. She called the police, and filed charges against him.…
This is under the assumption that the lack of rehabilitation programs is due to the fact that female inmates tend to serve shorter prison sentences. ( Dugger, Ashley) Many government official believe that rehabilitations is not a suitable investment, due to the fact that women are serving short-term. There is also a lack of funding or inadequate training that cause fewer rehabilitative prison programs available to female inmates than those available to males. Even though statically women inmates show higher rates of substance abuse and depression. The fast majority of women inmates are more likely to harm themselves than men inmates.…
Disabled Inmates:The Struggle of Adapting According to a report by the U.S. Department of Justice about 40% of females and 31% of males in prison are reported to have some kind of disability. This is very significant as disabled inmates struggle the most in adapting to the prison environment, due to the lack of equipment and funding available in the correction system. Prison population has always been a topic in today's political topics. According to the journal for every specific number of prisoners a certain amount of those will have a disability; as stated by the following, “About 2 in 10 prisoners… are reported having a cognitive disability, the most common reported disability in each population”.…