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How mentally ill inmates are treated essay
Hypothesis on prison mental health services
Hypothesis on prison mental health services
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I chose to analyze a report made against a county jail being that many correctional facilities lack the adequate resources to care for detainees needing mental health treatment. The allegations made against Henry County Jail was that a detainee's mental health needs were not met and they were required to pay a copay to see a physician, nurse, or access their prescribed medications. Another allegation was that the detainee and fellow inmates on suicide watch were placed in unstable conditions. The complaint stated that the detainee was placed in a cell with two other individuals who were also on suicide watch and were denied medications. It also explained that these detainees were required to sleep on a concrete floor for three months being
that they were not provided with enough mattresses. My first reaction was that theses allegations sounded as if the county had violated the rights of these detainees and should be reprimanded. Surprisingly, there were many unanswered questions throughout the report regarding unsigned documents such as medication consents or why missed medication doses were not documented. In my opinion, things of that nature should be documented for many safety reasons. It was great to know the staff was trained on the rights of an inmate which also included mental health services. In addition, the training also included suicide risks, screening and approaches to handle inmate that are under suicide watch or may have a mental health need. After reading the HRA report thoroughly, I was amazed that the only right that was violated was related to unsafe and uncomfortable conditions while a detainee is on suicide watch. Although the HRA did not find truth to the other allegations, the Authority did offer suggestions that Henry County Jail should adopt such as making sure documents are signed and implementing a policy to address inmate mental health and medical needs.
On 4/3/2016, I was assigned as the Dock officer at the Lower Buckeye Jail, located at the above address.
Today, prisons are the nation’s primary providers of mental health care, and some do a better job than others. Pete Earley focuses his research on the justice system in Miami, Florida. He documents how the city’s largest prison has only one goal for their mentally ill prisoners: that they do not kill themselves. The prison has no specialized
Reverse Outline of “A Letter from Birmingham Jail ” I. Purpose: To argue the claim that his non-violent campaign is “unjust or untimely” II. Body: Contradiction I. Rejecting the claim that he is an outsider that doesn’t belong in Birmingham a) He was asked to participate in Birmingham. b) He has organizational affiliation in Birmingham II.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in 1963, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Before the civil rights movement, the nation had the civil war, from 1861 to 1865. Then, following the war the country added the 13th amendment to the constitution, which made slavery illegal on December 6, 1865. Consequently, after the civil war the south went under “reconstruction”, a period in time where the federal government aided in rebuilding the southern states. Once President Hayes became president, federal troops left the south. Nevertheless, supremacists began to enforce segregation and limited African Americans from voting. However, Dr. King, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement advocated against segregation across
Over the course of Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963), the author, Martin Luther King Jr., makes extended allusions to multiple philosophers, among them Aquinas and Socrates. His comparison would seem to indicate that he shares an affinity with them. However, the clarity with which he makes his arguments and the dedication to a single premise strikes most strongly of Kant. Just as Kant’s magnum opus, Critique of Pure Reason, attempted to completely upend a previously accepted mode of thought, so also was King’s work devoted to a single objective: the protection of civil disobedience as a form of protest such that the Civil Rights Movement could continue in uncompromised form. Despite this singularity of purpose, the complexity of the situation meant that a more nuanced response to the statement A Call for Unity as published by eight Alabama Clergymen was necessary. In this way, King’s letter in fact served a fourfold purpose: to establish himself as a legitimate authority in the eyes of his audience, to show the trials of the black in America, to justify his cause, and to argue the necessity of immediate action.
There was a warm breeze, the sun was shinning, and it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. As I briskly walked to the auditorium my heart was racing with nerves. Today was the first day I would have the opportunity to go and mentoring some of the young women at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Detention Center in Knoxville, TN. Ever since I found out this program was available I was more than eager to go and make a difference.
Racial inequality is once again on the forefront of Americans ' minds, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has become a topic of contentious debate. However, this tension is by no means a new phenomenon, this is the same anger that inspired civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr to rally against the status quo and fight for racial equality. The essay "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by King addresses the same issues of racial inequality, prejudice, and police violence that has given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. In the 1960 's, the Jim Crow laws that mandated segregation and prevented black Americans from voting were brutally, and blatantly racist policies. Additionally, the penalties for breaking these laws
Aristotle is a very citable man when it comes to the way we think today. His rhetoric techniques are still being used in today's society. The Neo-Aristotelian Criticism is three different appeals of persuasion. This is ethos, pathos and logos, which makes one heck of a convincing argument. Ethos gives credibility, pathos shows emotion and logos uses words. In the text, Letter from Birmingham Jail, we find many examples of the criticism. Martin Luther King Jr. is writing a letter from inside the jail of Birmingham in April of 1963. This letter King wrote was in response to a letter he received from the religious leaders after King is making a stand against the racial issues in Alabama. These leaders stand firm in their letter when they say that when rights are being denied, they should be handled in the courts with negotiations and not in the streets. The authorities have placed Martin Luther King Jr. against his own will after his demonstration of desegregation. While incarcerated, King managed to find anything and everything to write this letter that is now famous for being a link to the end of public racism all over the nation. The content of the letter is filled with appeals of ethos, pathos and logos, which is necessary to make a strong argument.
Metzner, J. L., & Fellner, J. (2010). Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness in U.S. Prisons: A Challenge for Medical Ethics. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 38(1), 104-108.
Since 2000, a total of 15 have died in custody, according to the advocacy group’s records. Of those 15 of whom have passed while in custody many of those deaths were results of suicides of detainees who suffered serious mental health issues that were not properly addressed in custody. In Cleveland and Rousseau’s article Mental Health Impact of Detention they argue that the implications such as mandatory detention is associated with high levels of psychiatric symptoms, which increase with time in detention and tend to be aggravated frequently. In a study conducted in the United States, after a median detention of 5 months, 86% of detainees showed clinical levels of depression, 77% had clinical anxiety and 50% had clinical post-traumatic stress disorder. A few months later, the mental health of those who were still detained had continued to deteriorate. The curtailment of physical mobility through indefinite detentions alone is sufficient to cause depression but mental states are also aggravated by the fact that detainees have little ability to make international phone calls, access to their funds, and access to legal
Roger is at the Sage County Jail after being arrested the previous night for a minor offense. This has become a problem throughout the past Roger has been several times before. Roger has a past history of involving involuntary commitment on mental health issues. He told the jail staff that he commits crime to get sent to jail for a warm place to sleep, for a meal, and to get his meds. He is homeless and has no medical insurance or regular health care provider. Roger occasionally gets into fights with other jail inmates, has threatened suicide, and yells at the custody staff. Because of the minor nature of the crime, Roger will likely be released in 24 hours. Rogers meds are very expensive for the jail officials it costs the jail $200 per day to house Roger. So
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and of that over sixty percent of jail inmates reported having a mental health issue and 316,000 of them are severely mentally ill (Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Correctional facilities in the United States have become the primary mental health institutions today (Adams & Ferrandino, 2008). This imprisonment of the mentally ill in the United States has increased the incarceration rate and has left those individuals medically untreated and emotionally unstable while in jail and after being released. Better housing facilities, medical treatment and psychiatric counseling can be helpful in alleviating their illness as well as upon their release. This paper will explore the increasing incarceration rate of the mentally ill in the jails and prisons of the United States, the lack of medical services available to the mentally ill, the roles of the police, the correctional officers and the community and the revolving door phenomenon (Soderstrom, 2007). It will also review some of the existing and present policies that have been ineffective and present new policies that can be effective with the proper resources and training. The main objective of this paper is to illustrate that the criminalization of the mentally ill has become a public health problem and that our policy should focus more on rehabilitation rather than punishment.
Thousands of people statewide are in prisons, all for different reasons. However, the amount of mental illness within prisons seems to go unaddressed and ignored throughout the country. This is a serious problem, and the therapy/rehabilitation that prison systems have do not always help those who are mentally ill. Prison involvement itself can contribute to increased suicide (Hills, Holly). One ‘therapy’ that has increased throughout the years has been the use of solitary confinement, which has many negative effects on the inmates. When an inmate has a current mental illness, prior to entering into the prison, and it goes undiagnosed and untreated, the illness can just be worsened and aggravated.
The individuals who are a part of these institutions and participate in case management are a vulnerable population. As described in the previous paragraphs there are any number of conditions that an inmate may have. The most important function of a case manager is to help the client get the services they need so that they can lead a productive life and protect the public from client’s that will commit crime and endanger society (Hansen, 2011). The case manager who works with an inmate needs to establish and maintain boundaries so that there is no way that an inmate can manipulate the case manager in order to get special privilege, or to hide behavior that is against the rules of their release. In addition, some inmates will try to develop a relationship with persons of the opposite sex in order to use them to their advantage. Case managers are also charged with protecting the confidentiality of their client’s just as any person who is participating in treatment has the right to confidentiality. In cases of client’s who are involved in the criminal justice system confidentiality is imperative due to the client’s criminal history that their personal information is not passed on without their permission. The client’s treatment providers for substance abuse and mental health services should be contacted only after a formal release of information has been signed by the client to protect their federal rights of
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.