Mental Illness In Jail

When one thinks of jail, they would think it’s filled with inmates who commit crimes without anything influencing them to do it. Down the road one will discover that many inmates commit crimes because they have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Many researchers suggest that there is a connection between mental illness patients and jails. Some of the things they suggests that influence this are social factors, major life crisis, and mental illness hospitals being shut down.
What is a Mental Illness?
A mental illness is something many people suffer from on a daily basis. A mental illness has many components to its definition but its broad definition of a mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to

others and daily functioning (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness. According to The New Asylums, Jails Swell with Mentally Ill, “Jails have a different definition according to a Mental Illness.

In order to be diagnosed as a mental illness inmate, one has to require medication for serious issues ranging from major depressive disorders to schizophrenia and bipolar disorders” (Edwards & Mason, 2013). Sarah Varney (2014), argues that psychological disorders, including those like depression, bipolar disorder and trauma-related disorders are the most frequently diagnosed among jail inmates (Varney, 2014).
How is Mental Illness and Jail Connected?
Mental Illness percentage increases every day. According to Conely (2012) 1 in 5 Americans suffer from a mental illness (Conely, 2012). Mental illness converge with jail when one who has been diagnosed becomes incarcerated. Varney (2014) argues that there percentage of women to men with a mental illness in jails is 75% to 63%. Varney also suggests that the reason jails percentage of mental illness inmates are increasing because of psychiatric hospitals being shut down in the 1960s ( 2014, pp. 1). Varney also claims that psychiatric patients who are dynamically being treated for a mental illness is more than likely to get entwined in the criminal justice system ( Varney 2014, pp. 1). It was even reported that 12 percent of

psychiatric patients receiving treatment from the San Diego county health system have been incarcerated before (Varney, 2014, pp. 1). With Mental institutions being shutdown, many mental illness patients seek an alternative way of getting treated. This is where jail comes into place. Fields and Phillips (2013) argues that in Chicago, six of the twelve mental hospitals has been shut down to save money. Therefore leaving the Southside of Chicago with no way to help treat those who are severe mentally ill. Some jails have even went out of their way to help house mentally ill patients since they are dramatically increasing in their jail. The Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe, Washington has created a special designated area for those who are mentally ill. Fields and Phillips once again elaborates on how jails are reacting to this problem and trying to house inmates and make it as safe as possible for not only them but for the other inmates they are housing, “Monroe has a designated area to handle mentally ill inmates: the special offenders unit, which resembles a hospital. Gone is the smell of sweat and the palpable tension more typically found in the general prison population. All public places are encased in glass, allowing staff to watch inmates closely” (Edwards & Mason, 2013). In jail, inmates tend to get treatment that was neglected outside of jail being that there wasn’t any type of local facility they could go to, to get any type of help.