The New Asylums Essay

After viewing “The New Asylums”, there are many systematic problems, societal shifts, and/or changes in policies that have contributed to “The New Asylums”. One of the main societal shifts that have contributed to the “The New Asylums” is the nation’s shut down of psychiatric centers. This led to the police department to handle the mentally ill that were left on the streets leading to many arrests. However, a prison’s function is not to treat mentally ill patients; their role in society is to provide safety and security to the community. Nonetheless, the prisons do provide many services and treatments to accommodate the mentally ill. Since these prisons have rules and regulations that the inmates must abide by and follow, it is very difficult for the inmates to get parole or eventually leave these prisons because of their frequent outbursts of violence or misbehaviors. They essentially cycle within the prison system and are not able to break free from it, causing “The New Asylums”. After viewing “The …show more content…
After watching both videos, once the mentally ill inmates are released from prison, the majority of them are sent back to prison; leaving them in a chronic cycle of being arrested, then released, and finally being rearrested. If there were more programs or institution for the mentally ill to live or learn to function in society, it would benefit them more into being successful in learning to live and function in the community. Most of these crimes done by the mentally ill are done because of their state-in-mind and should be dealt with in a more suitable environment like hospitals or psychiatric centers. Since the mentally ill are in correctional institutions, the protocols, rules and regulations are dealt differently compared to how they would be dealt in a hospital or mental