According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in 17 Americans suffer from a serious mental illness. That is roughly one person in an average high school classroom. These mentally ill people live a different life, and in some situations, they cannot fully comprehend what is happening around them. These people need a little more time and patience than the average person would need in any given situation. Because of this, they need to be handled differently by police officers when they come into contract. This is not happening and it is causing chaos. In “Police Confront Rising Number of Mentally Ill Suspects,” an article featured in The New York Times on April 1, 2014, writers Fernanda Santos and Erica Goode bring attention to the treatment of mentally ill suspects when being confronted by police officers. The article starts with the emotional story of James Boyd to capture the audience’s attention and to create distaste for the police, which is reinforced throughout the article. The authors then go on to have various professionals testify that in recent years the number of incidents between mentally ill people and police officers has risen dramatically. Santos and Goode describe the process of many police departments and compare them with Albuquerque’s, showing that their procedures when handling mentally ill suspects either is not used or there are no guidelines to follow. This article portrays the ignorance some people have when handling situations with mentally ill people and how that affects the lives of the mentally ill and could potentially affect the reader’s own life. Structural, material, and characterological coherence are evident in the article to effectively shed light on how police officers need to revise...
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...ch I am willing to accept the story as true. I find this article to be truthful because it includes the opposing side and even tries to take all the blame off of them. The aim of this article is not to bash the police officers; it is to bring awareness for mentally ill people in America. There either needs to be more acceptable means of attaining mental health services, especially for people who cannot afford to receive treatment, or restructured procedures for police officers to follow so they understand how to handle these situations. Understanding that this is the aim of the article, I believe that Santos and Goode wrote a credible, coherent news article that created awareness for the audience.
Works Cited
Goode, E., & Santos, F. (2014, April 1). Police Confront Rising Number of Mentally Ill Suspects. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/
During the 1960’s, America’s solution to the growing population of mentally ill citizens was to relocate these individuals into mental state institutions. While the thought of isolating mentally ill patients from the rest of society in order to focus on their treatment and rehabilitation sounded like a smart idea, the outcome only left patients more traumatized. These mental hospitals and state institutions were largely filled with corrupt, unknowledgeable, and abusive staff members in an unregulated environment. The story of Lucy Winer, a woman who personally endured these horrors during her time at Long Island’s Kings Park State Hospital, explores the terrific legacy of the mental state hospital system. Ultimately, Lucy’s documentary, Kings
Everyone should be treated equally, should get support and care equally. “Schizophrenic. Killer. My Cousin.” is a true story published on Mother Jones on May-June 2013 issue (non profit organization article) by Mac McClelland. McClelland was formerly Mother Jones’ human rights reporter and writer of “The Rights Stuff”. In it she, talks about her cousin Houston, who had mental illness and at his age of 22 he stabbed his father 60 times with four different knives. Mac McClelland’s aunt Terri also suffered from mental illness at the age of 16. Aunt Terri and Houston were diagnosed with schizophrenia, a brain disorder in which people see reality abnormally. McClelland’s thesis states that well staffed hospital and properly administered antipsychotic medications would have helped Houston like how it did for Terri. The
The article “Family Says Man Shot by Officers was Mentally Ill” discusses an incident where Kody Conley, an African-American male experiencing schizophrenia, was shot by two police officers in Omaha, Nebraska. The incident took place after Conly fired a stolen gun near Creighton University campus. After the incident took place near the campus, Conley was taken to CHI-Creighton (Creighton University Medical Center), and is said to be alive. Although he is alive, his family expresses that he is in serious condition and is in a medically induced coma. The author, Miranda Christian, reports the two police officers who shot Conley are on administrative leave, and the Omaha Police Department are currently investigating the incident.
This stereotype contributes to the stigma individuals’ face and encourages social exclusion and intolerance, especially in schizophrenia (Ray & Brooks Dollar, 2014). Ken sought out help and went to the emergency room because he recognized he was severely depressed. There, the doctor promised he would not be put in restraints, yet when he was taken to the hospital, he was placed in restraints because it was company policy (Steele & Berman, 2001). Due the stigma that individuals with mental illness are violent, Ken was not treated fairly (Stuart & Arboleda-Florez, 2012). Stuart and Arboleda-Florez (2012) are very credible authors to be writing on the effects of stigma in mental health. Both authors have experience in psychiatry, combatting stigma and mental health issues.
Lamb, H. R. (2004). Mentally ill persons in the criminal justice system: Some perspectives. Psychiatric Quarterly, 108-126.
Weber, Paul. “Fort Hood Gunman Sought Mental Health Treatment.” The Associated Press News Service [Texas] 3 Apr. 2014: n. pag. NewsBank Special Reports. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
Christensen, Jen, Caleb Hellerman, and Trisha Henry. "Feds Boosting Mental Health Access, Treatment." CNN. Cable News Network, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
Prior to taking this course, I generally believed that people were rightly in prison due to their actions. Now, I have become aware of the discrepancies and flaws within the Criminal Justice system. One of the biggest discrepancies aside from the imprisonment rate between black and white men, is mental illness. Something I wished we covered more in class. The conversation about mental illness is one that we are just recently beginning to have. For quite a while, mental illness was not something people talked about publicly. This conversation has a shorter history in American prisons. Throughout the semester I have read articles regarding the Criminal Justice system and mental illness in the United States. Below I will attempt to describe how the Criminal Justice system fails when they are encountered by people with mental illnesses.
...t: (http://www.psych.org/public_info/VIOLEN~1.HTM) Government Survey (1990) Violence and Psychiatric Disorders in the Community: Evidence from the Epidemiological Catchment Area Surveys. Hospital and Community Psychiatry (41:761770) Holy Bible (1998) Leviticus Chapter 19 verse 18, King James version (204:2049) Hudson, Thomas (1978) The Laws of Psychic Phenomena. Internet: (http://www.appi.org/pnews/sep20/jail.htm1) (pg.1 & 2) Illinois State Police (1999) Violence in the Workplace Characteristics. Internet: (http://www.state.il.us/ISPviowkplc/vwpp4.htm) Modestin, Jiri (1997) Is Depression A Risk Factor for Crime? Crime Times, Internet: (http://www.crime~times.org/97d/w97dp6.htm) (p.1) National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (1999) The Criminalization of People with Mental Illness. Summary of the NAMI Policy Platform (1:8) National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (1999) The Criminalization of People with Mental Illness. Summary of the NAMI Policy Platform (3:8) Taridiff, K. (1980) Assault, Suicide and Mental Illness. Archives of General Psychiatry (37:164169) Webster Dictionary (1988) Unabridged Yapko, Micheal D. (1997) The Art of Avoiding Depression. Psychology Today
Literature Analysis and Research Proposal of the Correlation between Mental Illness and Violence and Crime
The less-than-lethal weapons have become a lifesaver for both the suspected criminals and the police. They allow the police to reach out to the criminals without applying deadly force on them. Some criminals may be prepared to perpetrate a heinous crime, and they may be uncontrollable in the sense that they are not in control of their behavior. The mentally ill and suspects who are under the influence of drugs fall into this category. For instance, a mentally ill person may be in possession of a pistol and he or she may be ready to fire, aiming it at another person. The police in this scenario are expected to use the less than lethal force to ensure that they do not kill the suspect as he or she requires mental help
Because the police are expected to be able to deal directly with mentally ill persons on the street, the development of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training has been crucial in giving police officers the education they need to respond to situations involving persons with a mental illness, persons in a mental health crisis, persons who have attempted suicide, persons who are threatening suicide, or persons who are emotionally disturbed. In order to best understand CIT, it is imperative to note the statutory definition of mental illness. According to Ohio Revised Code 5122. 01 (2016), mental illness is defined as, “a substantial disorder of thought, mood, perception, orientation, or memory that grossly impairs judgment, behavior, capacity
It is unfortunate and a disservice to incarcerate mentally ill persons within a criminal justice institution and not provide them with the health care needed to assist them with living a better life within society. The problem all too often begins on the street with the patrolman who comes in contact with an individual who has an altered mental state. Without the proper training the officer cannot effectively ascertain whether or not the subject is intoxicated, on an illegal substance, non-prescribed medication, or has a mental illness. Therefore, the normal response is to take the subject into custody and transport them to a detention facility. Unfortunately, the intake officer is typically less trained than the patrolman, so nothing
Not only has this stigma infiltrated a reintroduced prisoner’s professional work life, but also their personal life. “Formerly incarcerated students tell me that they agonize about when to tell a romantic partner about their criminal history, only to find that said partners had already Googled them on the first night that they met.” (Uggen, 144). This contributes to the overwhelming stigma of the public and affects the prisoners who are still currently incarcerated. More and more have citizens of the United States been exposed to publicity and exaggeration of the danger of prisoners. As of late, many rumors and cases of people dressed as clowns that kidnap children and murder them have been surfacing across the nation. It has caused immense
Without the appropriate amount of mental health training for police, experts say, rash stigmatization and misinterpretation of the intentions of the mentally ill can cause vital errors and ultimately make the difference between life and death.