Stevenson believed that “the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice” (Stevenson 18). Stevenson gave many examples in his book Just Mercy after working with low-income and incarcerated people. He gave examples on terrible background affecting people, mentally ill, on pregnant mothers that can’t afford to see doctors, and on poor defendants who can’t afford good lawyers. Having terrible background caused kids to grow up making horrific life choices. Stevenson talked about a fourteen-year-old boy named Evan Miller. Evan Miller was only fourteen when he was condemned to die in prison. “Evan is from a poor white family in North Alabama… His parents were abusive and had drug addiction problems” (265). On the day of
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This has created new problems that have never happened before. In the late nineteenth century, Dorothea Dix and Reverend Louis Dwight had a campaign that got a lot of the mentally ill out of prison. Because of this campaign, there were mentally ill hospitals everywhere, and the numbers of confined people with mental illness sharply declined. However, there was a lot of abuse within mental institutions and a lot of involuntary imprisonment of people. When antipsychotic medications were established, it showed great promise; however, the drug was overused and this resulted in horrific treatment protocols. According to Just Mercy “The inability of many disabled, low-income people to receive treatment or necessary medication dramatically increased their likelihood of a police encounter that would result in jail or prison time” (188), the jail and prison was the state’s strategy of handling health crisis. There was people going to prison for just minor offenses or for behaviors their communities were unwilling to tolerate. Because people don’t recognize the needs of the mentally disabled, it lead “to wrongful convictions, lengthier prison terms, and high rates of recidivism” (189). In prison guards are not trained to handle someone with mental illness or neurological
This has created new problems that have never happened before. In the late nineteenth century, Dorothea Dix and Reverend Louis Dwight had a campaign that got a lot of the mentally ill out of prison. Because of this campaign, there were mentally ill hospitals everywhere, and the numbers of confined people with mental illness sharply declined. However, there was a lot of abuse within mental institutions and a lot of involuntary imprisonment of people. When antipsychotic medications were established, it showed great promise; however, the drug was overused and this resulted in horrific treatment protocols. According to Just Mercy “The inability of many disabled, low-income people to receive treatment or necessary medication dramatically increased their likelihood of a police encounter that would result in jail or prison time” (188), the jail and prison was the state’s strategy of handling health crisis. There was people going to prison for just minor offenses or for behaviors their communities were unwilling to tolerate. Because people don’t recognize the needs of the mentally disabled, it lead “to wrongful convictions, lengthier prison terms, and high rates of recidivism” (189). In prison guards are not trained to handle someone with mental illness or neurological