Policy Implementation and Analysis - Discussion

Professor and Classmates, It seems like today; we often hear those who are calling for more funding for the current mental health services say, the prisons have now become the new mental health institutions. The largest psychiatric institutions are, in effect, the prisons because so many people with severe mental and emotional problems are now in prison. I believe some of the pros to the purposed policy changes in this week’s unit video could be: Integration of services encouraged through the efforts of a liaison person, providing programs with a strong leadership team, and Non-traditional case management approaches being used. This approach would rely on staff for their experience across criminal justice, mental health issues/problems and not over focused on their academic qualifications.

With that being said, I believe some of the cons to the purposed policy changes discussed in the video could be cost, successfulness of said changes and program implementation, outcomes and if there will be room for individuals to take advantage of the “ Mental Health” issues when in truth they are not suffering.

When people with mental illnesses are arrested I think a good alternative would be instead of incarceration with the possibility of no treatment, they can opt for a court specifically designed to give them the treatment and supervision they need. The judge, attorneys and community health organizations collaborate to coordinate treatment and ensure offenders stay on track and complete programs requirements successfully. I have a family member who was challenged with mental illness (undiagnosed) got into some trouble and was placed in jail. Upon entering jail she was offered to participate in a program called wellness court and has since graduated the program and re-entered society a whole new person. Pros’s to this are a full recovery without incident, a second chance, and the ability to work with, learn and understand your mental illness with the help and support of courts, case manager as well as correctional offers/employees. Cons; not everyone will complete successfully, cost, time, effort on behalf of staff/ detainee and the possibility that someone would just try to slide by to complete.

The bottom line was that program effectiveness depended on building new system linkages, viewing detainees as citizens, and holding the individual as well as correctional staff ,a and those individuals in change of changing, Implementing and following through on said policies responsible for the full array of services needed by the detainees.