When I first began to hear details about prisons and jails, everything I heard made it seem like it was not such a bad place considering what their purposes are. By word of mouth you hear things like, “Three meals a day, a place to live and shower, it cannot be that bad, right?” After reading this book, my thoughts about what it would be like and how life would be if I was living in jail or prison changed dramatically. Pete Early discusses in great detail how mentally ill inmates’ lives in prison are not all that it is cracked up to be.
We first learn about the name that was given to the 9th floor of this horrendous jail. “…the most dangerous and unpredictable of those are locked on the ninth floor. Officially, it is known as the jail’s ‘primary …show more content…
Everyone has the right to exercise their rights. For example, we have the freedom of speech, we have the rights to our voice and opinion. With the mentally ill, they cannot be forced to take medications if they do not want to. With Mike’s case, when Pete Early was talking to Officer Albert, the officer said, “Listen, even though your son has broken into a house, unless you tell the medical personnel inside that he’s threatened to kill you, they aren’t going to treat him. We’ll end up takin him to jail, and you don’t want that to happen. You don’t want him in jail in his mental condition” (Early, 2007, p. 22). Mike has the right to refuse to take his medications; however, if he chooses not to it could lead to his death. While making his rounds at the jail, Dr. Poitier stopped to talk to a prisoner. He asked, “Will you take medicine today if I prescribe it for you, Mr. Boreman? The prisoner glared at Dr. Poitier and napped, ‘I’ve already answered that damn question seventeen times: No, no, no, no, no,-‘” (Early, 2007, p. 49). The mentally ill have the same rights as the rest of us do. Because of these rights, it may be harmful to …show more content…
Looking again at the previous example, the truth was, he needed to be sent to a mental hospital to stay and get good treatment, but the result was just to resolve what had happened. He broke the law, therefore, the law says he has to go to the hospital but is not required to stay. The issue has been resolved. What the law says is what was done even though, it was not what was best for Mike. The conflict with the prosecution and the defense in the case Mike was involved in also came to mind in this issue. “They explained that they were disappointed he was not being put in prison, which is where, they added, he belonged. They flatly rejected all of Kersey’s proposals. When we next met in court, they would insist that Mike plead guilty to a felony” (Early, 2007, p. 212). The family wanted Mike to be thrown in prison, which is where he should have been if he was not mentally ill. The truth was, he needed help. Prison and pleading guilty to a felony were not what was best for him. If the case would have went this way, it would have resolved conflicts with the family, but it would not have been what was truthfully the right thing to
We first learn about the name that was given to the 9th floor of this horrendous jail. “…the most dangerous and unpredictable of those are locked on the ninth floor. Officially, it is known as the jail’s ‘primary …show more content…
Everyone has the right to exercise their rights. For example, we have the freedom of speech, we have the rights to our voice and opinion. With the mentally ill, they cannot be forced to take medications if they do not want to. With Mike’s case, when Pete Early was talking to Officer Albert, the officer said, “Listen, even though your son has broken into a house, unless you tell the medical personnel inside that he’s threatened to kill you, they aren’t going to treat him. We’ll end up takin him to jail, and you don’t want that to happen. You don’t want him in jail in his mental condition” (Early, 2007, p. 22). Mike has the right to refuse to take his medications; however, if he chooses not to it could lead to his death. While making his rounds at the jail, Dr. Poitier stopped to talk to a prisoner. He asked, “Will you take medicine today if I prescribe it for you, Mr. Boreman? The prisoner glared at Dr. Poitier and napped, ‘I’ve already answered that damn question seventeen times: No, no, no, no, no,-‘” (Early, 2007, p. 49). The mentally ill have the same rights as the rest of us do. Because of these rights, it may be harmful to …show more content…
Looking again at the previous example, the truth was, he needed to be sent to a mental hospital to stay and get good treatment, but the result was just to resolve what had happened. He broke the law, therefore, the law says he has to go to the hospital but is not required to stay. The issue has been resolved. What the law says is what was done even though, it was not what was best for Mike. The conflict with the prosecution and the defense in the case Mike was involved in also came to mind in this issue. “They explained that they were disappointed he was not being put in prison, which is where, they added, he belonged. They flatly rejected all of Kersey’s proposals. When we next met in court, they would insist that Mike plead guilty to a felony” (Early, 2007, p. 212). The family wanted Mike to be thrown in prison, which is where he should have been if he was not mentally ill. The truth was, he needed help. Prison and pleading guilty to a felony were not what was best for him. If the case would have went this way, it would have resolved conflicts with the family, but it would not have been what was truthfully the right thing to