Mental Illness In Prison Research Paper

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Have you ever been put in a situation where you don't know what to do, now imagine being mentally ill and going through the same thing how do you expect them to react. The number of men and women that are mentally ill in prisons has grown over the past few years. The U.S prison system is not designed to handle mentally ill prisoners, but yet nothing is being done. At times a police officer can't tell the difference between a mentally ill person or a mentally unstable person and charge them with misdemeanors. Society has failed to provide enough social resources needed to help inmates get the proper help they need. Prison conditions are hard on mental health in general, because of overcrowding, violence, lack of privacy, isolation from your family and loved ones. All these have an huge impact on the way inmates behave. Without the necessary care the symptoms will only get worse. Mentally ill inmates stay in prison longer than regular inmates. Its very hard for them to receive bail and there are known to break more rules causing their sentence to double. Mentally ill prisoners are abused, beaten, and even raped. Inmates with mental illness are picked on more than inmates without. Inmates are allowed to refuse medication and choose not to take it, this only causes them to get worse. Being mentally ill you never accept you are sick or you need help. Some…show more content…
In the past 3 years 4.35 billion dollars has been cut in mental health services. Which has the most effect on the inmates. Guards aren't trained to handle the situations that go on and because of that people are dying. Just because you been sent to prison, you aren't given another chance. You dont want to commit a crime but sometimes you're put into a situation where you have no choice. I believe everyone should be given a second

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