An ongoing and growing controversy is that of the increasing number of mentally ill offenders incarcerated and released into the community. For the most part, these individuals tend to be among the main contributors of the most violent offenses. While some believe it is best to lock such individuals so that they do not commit any more crimes. Others believe that they too have rights and should also be eligible for early release prison. A common belief is that with mentally ill offenders put away, crime will reduce immensely. Although that may be the case, it is best to treat a mentally ill offender the same as that of an average offender, meaning that the prosecution and judicial process of such individuals must not differ from that of any …show more content…
other offender. To begin, a “mental illness is an expansive term and can include milder forms of illness, such as anxiety or depression, as well as more severe forms of illness, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and full-blown decompensation,” (SpearIt. (2009)). Typically when one thinks of a violent mentally ill offender one thinks of individuals suffering from schizophrenia or is bipolar. There is a small probability that an individual suffering from depression is likely to murder someone. A person with schizophrenia on the other hand, may express that God asked him or her to kill someone so that things would be better.
As previously stated, the execution of violent criminal acts by mentally ill individuals has become a growing issue. A recent study found that “75% of jailed female offenders have a mental illness compared to 63% of their male counterparts,” (Dalley, L. P. (2014)). An individual may be mentally unstable and for one reason or another forget to take the medication, such individual may begin to behave criminal behavior resulting in incarceration. Every human being at one point or another has hated the idea of the unknown, thus not knowing what to expect from a mentally ill individual causes fear, therefore the best person to handle such cases would be a police officer. “The power and responsibility of the police to protect the safety and welfare of the public, and (2) parens patriae, which dictates protection for disabled citizens such as mentally ill persons,” (SpearIt. (2009)). The idea of incarceration surfaced with the development of new surfacing ways of disobeying orders and laws. Mere suspicion of an individual's wrongdoing often resulted in their incarceration without any regard to their age, gender, or even their mental health state. Today an officer’s discretion permits him or her to make the decision of whether to make an arrest and
even whether forcibly arresting a mentally ill individual is permissible. In addition, “officers who encounter an irrational person creating a disturbance have three choices: transport that person to a mental hospital, arrest the person, or resolve the matter informally,” (Teplin, L. A. (2000)). While the most reasonable thing would be to arrest the individual, a wiser decision, although more time-consuming, would be taking the individual to a mental hospital. Putting an individual behind bars would only result in the individual causing problems within prison walls. On the contrary, if taken to a mental hospital an individual has a greater possibility of recuperating. After all, a mental hospital's main goal is treating individuals and attempting to help every occupant regain mental stability. A judge may be more willing to send an individual to prison for the greater good of the community, the community fears that the one time mentally ill offender will have another terrifying outburst. For example, if one’s neighbor becomes mentally unstable one will not feel safe around that person. One feels as though that person may have another outburst and partake in any criminal activity once again. With mentally ill offenders one is not always sure of what the person is capable of, one tends to get a police officer or someone with some sort of power to better handle the situation. In order to keep allow individuals to feel safe and free from any harm, judges and police officers may place mentally ill offenders and incapacitate in order to terminate or reduce some criminal activity. Incarceration has not always been a successful crime deterrent for many individuals often require rehabilitative programs like that of rehab for drugs and alcohol. For mentally ill offenders a mental health institution tends to be the most effective form of punishment. Many believe that mentally ill offenders are erroneously placed in a prison where he or she may or may not receive any rehabilitative program. Contrary to many’s belief, many correctional institutions or prisons have adopted the idea of rehabilitating. The prison’s task is to determine whether or not the inmate is fully rehabilitated and fit for release. “Determining exactly what "fit" means is no easy task. One quantitative gauge [of] the success of rehabilitation is the rate of inmate recidivism,” (Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. (2009)). In order to declare an individual fit numerous tests are to be administered, however, there is room for error. An individual may play the role of a sane person and give the illusion that there is nothing wrong with him/her. Still is the fact that once released a mentally ill individual who hasn’t had adequate treatment is more likely to recidivate, reverting to engagement of criminal activity. Placing a mentally ill individual therefore seems like a better option to many since while in a mental institution individuals obtain close checkups and treatment to allow him or her to get better. The idea of releasing mentally ill individuals back into the community, deinstitutionalization, developed during the 1950’s when institutions were not meeting the mentally ill’s needs. “Deinstitutionalization was one of the most striking social welfare failures in the history of the United States,” which led to ‘‘hospital admission rates [falling], and readmission rates [rising] indicating the difficulty of surviving on the outside,’’(Dalley, L. P. (2014)). Today there is more leniency when it comes to putting someone in jail as well as when it comes to releasing them. A mentally ill individual may be released from jail and be prescribed certain medication so that he or she regains some of his or her mental stability. To conclude, for many years now crimes committed by mentally ill individuals has become a growing issue. A common belief is that such individuals are to be placed in mental health institutions so that they receive appropriate treatment, other individuals believe that these individuals too have a right to be allowed back into the community. The question that tends to arise is whether releasing a mentally ill offender from prison is a better option, or whether keeping such individuals behind bars is the best solution. Ultimately, when deciding which solution is best it is important to respect the individual’s rights and at the same time taking into account the amount of danger releasing such individual may cause on the community.
In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
Micah Jester repeatedly told police officers to kill her in Austin. She was shot by police because she was holding a BB gun that looked like a handgun. Later, authorities determined she was mentally ill. Police officers aren’t trained on how to handle calls that involve mentally ill people. In order to fix it, police officers should undergo a 40 hour training to be able to understand when a person is in a crisis and when they should not be held accountable for their actions.
The criminal justice system takes on a pivotal role in pursuing and preventing crimes in society. When a suspect is caught and then faced with charges for a violent crime, they legally have the right to a fair trial. In order for a criminal proceeding to successfully take place, the defendant must be fully aware of their surroundings, have a basic understanding of court procedures, as well as being capable of defending their one case. Competency to stand trial (CST) is essential for maintaining fairness in the courtroom and producing a just verdict. However, if a defendant is unable to understand legal proceedings due to mental illness or impairment, they must be thoroughly assessed and evaluated before declared incompetent to stand trial. Carrying out a case with a defendant who lacks mental capacity causes numerous issues because the individual is incapable of supplying their lawyers with information regarding their crime or any of the witness testimonies at trial. Lack of comprehensible communication between a defendant and attorney forces an ineffective defense in the case. Mental disturbances in the defendant that may cause disorderly conduct in the court room are considered disruptive and weaken the authority of the legal system. Supreme Court cases that have dealt with competency to stand trial issues over the years have made significant rulings, which have stressed the importance of identifying whether or not a defendant is in fact incompetent.
Mentally ill offenders face many challenges while being incarcerated and after being released. Rehabilitation is effective on mentally ill offenders by reducing their symptoms of distress and improving their behavior.
Rock, M. (2001). Emerging issues with mentally ill offenders: Casues and social consequences. Administration and Policy in Mental Health., 165-180.
sues. Mental Health Probation Mental health probation is for offenders who have severe and persistent mentally illness (Delisi, & Conis, 2013). This probation tries to decrease recidivism, but the probation officer does hold the malefactor accountable for their crime(s). The probation also tries to lower the cost of protecting the community while utilizing a cost effectiveness and getting the offender treatment.
One of the most persistent stereotypes of (dis)Abled individuals is that they are evil or villainous and as such are predisposed to criminality due to some type impairment. Nothing is farthest from the truth.. Although, people with intellectual disorders and mental health issues are a growing population within the criminal justice system, they are still more often than not victims of crime as a result of their circumstances. People with developmental and cognitive impairments or significant mental health issues in many cases lack impulse control or display inappropriate emotions that the criminal justice system may misinterpret, thus bringing criminal charges for such offenses as causing a disturbance or mischief. When the police are confronted with a situation that involves a cognitively impaired or mentally ill person the police do not know how to respond in an appropriate manner. This image is seen throughout the media over the past few years. One has to look at the tragic death of Sammy Yatim or Michael Eligon to see these image.
Lamb, H. Richard., Weinberger, Linda E., & Gross, Bruce H. (2004). Mentally ill persons in the criminal justice system: Some Perspectives. Psychiatric Quarterly 75(2): 107-126.
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.
The issue of executing mentally ill criminals has been widely debated among the public. They debate on whether it is right or wrong to execute a person who does not possess the capacity to think correctly. The mental illness is a disease that destroys a person’s memory, emotion, and prevent one or more function of the mind running properly. The disease affects the way a person thinks, feels, behaves and relates to others.When a person is severely mentally ill, his/ her ability to appreciate reality lack so they aspire to do stuff that is meaningless. The sickness is triggered by an amalgamation of genetic, and environmental factors not a personal imperfection. On the death penalty website, Scott Panetti who killed his mother in-law and father-in-law reports that since 1983, over 60 people with mental illness or retardation have been executed in the United States (Panetti). The American Civil Liberties Union says that it is unconstitutional to execute someone who suffered from an earnest mental illness (ACLU).Some people apply the term crazy or mad to describe a person who suffers from astringent psychological disorders because a mad person look different than a mundane human being. The time has come for us to accept the fact that executing mentally ill offenders is not beneficial to society for many reasons. Although some mentally ill criminals have violated the law, we need to sustain a federal law that mentally ill criminals should not be put to death.
The term criminal desistance refers to when offenders desist, or stop, committing crime. Desistance from crime exists when an individual has an absence of criminal behavior in their lives for a sustained period of time. By studying desistance, a better understanding of what causes individuals to commit crime is created; as well as, a better understanding as to why certain individuals discontinue their lives of crime. The criminal justice field often encompasses, serving justice by locking people up and keeping the “bad guys” away from the general public. Little thought was given as to what can be done in order to help prevent people from committing crime, until more recent years. Most criminological theories attempt to explain why people commit
Several states authorize police officers to arrest mentally ill people who have not broken any law. It is argued that this process is a way to promote public order. Hospitals also transfer mentally ill patients to jail in order to deal with the overflow. It is not uncommon for children to be confined to criminal detention centers because there is a lack of facilities for severely mentally ill children. Relying on the criminal justice systems to be surrogate mental health systems conflicts with the basic notions of justice. (Aufderheide,
Most in favor would argue that long term imprisonment could greatly alter ones mental wellness, resulting in an almost brainwashed affect, someone who can no longer function as a productive member of society… which defies the point of imprisoning and changing a person to be more active in initiating a more productive lifestyle to begin with. As it stands, there are numerous reasons for and against this type or style of punishment w...
Theory makes felons see that they should be obedient and do what is expected of them so that they may return back home.
The issue of executing mentally ill criminals has been widely debated among the public. They debate on whether it is right or wrong to execute a person who does not possess the capacity to think correctly. The mental illness is an ailment that affects the way a person thinks, feels, behaves and relates to others. The disease is caused by a combination of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors not a personal weakness or a character flaw. A study by the Death Penalty Information Center found that “executing the insane is unconstitutional; however, if an inmate's mental competency has been restored, he or she can then be executed (deathpenalty).” The time has come for us to accept the fact that executing mentally ill offenders is not beneficial to society for many reasons. Although some mentally ill criminals have broken the law, we need to have a federal law that mentally ill criminals shouldn’t be executed because it’s amoral to take away a life.