Mental Illness Essay

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Untreated symptoms of mental illness often pose health and social consequences for individuals. One such consequence is involvement with crime and the criminal justice system. Currently the majority of the prison population in the United States suffers from a diagnosable mental illness. Suffering from psychotic disorders, including Bi-Polar Disorder and Schizophrenia. Is prison where they belong? This paper will discuss the link between mental illness and criminal behavior, sentencing, rehabilitation and ethics involved with treating the mentally ill. Mental health programs can help to identify the mentally ill and help reduce recidivism rates and help individuals suffering from mental illness. With prisons being overcrowded, people with mental illness can just fall through the cracks and not receive the help they so badly need.
Mental illness and criminal behavior have been linked for centuries. Lack of understanding and acceptance of mental illness has led to torture and imprisonment of the individuals suffering from psychiatric disorders. While there has been a consensus among mental health, criminal justice professionals and the general public that the current system is a failure, there have been few attempts to correct the situation. These attempts are often short lived due to the lack of government funding for mental health services as well as society as a whole misunderstanding mental illness.
Mental illnesses are a major disorder; affecting our mood and behavior. A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. The condition often results in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of everyday life (NAMI, 2014). Se...

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...tal illness most of his life ended up killing eight people before he was sent to death row for his crimes. Two of his victims were killed after he was released from a mental hospital. The court’s question was did he have a rational comprehension of the crimes and the reasons for the execution, the court’s decision was based on the fact that at the time of his execution the courts believed that he knew what he had done and that it was wrong John Errol Ferguson was put to death in August of 2013. This is a man who it seems struggled with mental illness his entire life. Why was he not getting help? Perhaps eight lives could have been saved had he gotten the proper help before entering a life of crime. This man claimed he was doing god’s work, clearly this is a sign of someone who needed help and should have been under a doctor’s supervision and possible on medication.

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