Mentally Ill Inmates In Prison Essay

The mentally ill inmates make up another group with special needs in a prison population. There are several challenges that the state and federal prisons face when dealing with large mentally ill inmates population. These challenges that the correction officers face with mentally ill inmates, are personality disorder problem schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. Incarcerated mentally inmates are at a higher risk to be mistreated by the staff and other inmates. A prison can be an extremely dangerous for anyone especially for someone suffering from mental disorder. Numerous mental health institutions were closed across the country due to budget cuts. Consequently, the states and federal prions are expected to provide services …show more content…
For example, in 2002 a New York advocacy group brought a lawsuit on behalf of mentally ill prisoners in New York’s penal institutions suffering from psychiatric illnesses. Allegedly, the suit claimed that some of the problems the inmates faced were isolation and cycle of torment for inmates that were unable to conform to prison regiments. A Bureau Justice System survey conducted in 2000 of public and private state level adult correctional facilities, found that 51% of such institutions provide 24-hour mental health care. Unfortunately, few state run-correctional institutions have any substantial capacity for the in-depth psychiatric treatment of inmates who have serious mental illnesses. Numerous States, however, do operate facilities that specialize in the psychiatric confinement of convicted criminals. The Bureau Justice System reports that state governments throughout the nation operate 12 facilities devoted exclusively to the care of mentally ill inmates. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that mentally ill inmates can be required to take antipsychotic drugs, even against their wishes. Our nation’s prisons and jails hold an estimated 283,000 mentally ill inmates and 547,800 are on