Mental Illness In The Tell-Tale Heart By Edgar Allan Poe

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 83% of jail inmates with a mental illness did not have access to needed treatment. 83% is much too high, and the number will most likely only grow if society does not do something about it. This problem is one that is a very valid issue in our current society, and it is one that people shove to the background of debates. People who suffer from mental illnesses cannot foresee the consequences of something this drastic and are not on a level playing field with people who don’t suffer from this. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, readers see how a man reacted to the eye of his elderly employer, which had a film over it and was compared to the eye of a vulture. This eye makes him
According to the article “The Prison System Is Designed to Ignore Mental Illness” by Maggie Puniewska on tonic.vice.com,“In some instances, guards, officers, physicians, and inmates themselves were unaware that they had a condition like PTSD or a personality disorder for more than two years” (Puniewska). How can one argue that prisons are properly equipped to deal with mental illness when people can go undiagnosed for such long stretches of time? Their condition can only get worse if left untreated, and they can unexpectedly lash out and be punished when, in reality, it isn’t necessarily their fault. Nobody would know that, however, since they are undiagnosed and prison employees may not have the proper credentials to give an official diagnosis. An example used was Denise Younger, who lashed out in sudden episodes while incarcerated. When nobody helped her cope with her first episode, she quickly lashed out again, and was in solitary confinement and placed on suicide watch for a week. “While this meant that she was checked in on more frequently, again, she didn't receive any sort of mental health counseling during or after the incident” (Puniewska). From this, one can conclude that the prison system really had no clue how to handle her illness, and just settled for the easy way out by putting her in solitary confinement and on suicide watch. This was the bare minimum that they could have done, and the
To speak in a purely financial light, the expense of treating mentally ill people in jail is much too high, and this is a cost that one can do without. According to criminaljusticeprograms.com, a website dealing with many aspects of mentally ill people who are put into prison, “In 2014, the Columbus Dispatch reported ‘The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spent $41.7 million on mental-health care and medications in the fiscal year 2014 and is projected to spend $49 million this year. That is on top of the $22,836 annual overall cost per inmate.’” From this, the obvious conclusion would be that all of these extra expenses could be avoided if people who have a mental illness are admitted into psychiatric facilities, where they can get proper care. The site also says that “Law enforcement workers with no training in psychology are at a disadvantage and unfairly forced to act in psychiatric and counselor roles they aren't equipped for – and do not know how to handle properly.” They can end up doing more harm than good, not knowing proper treatment and procedure for specific illnesses. Because of this, people can wind up dying, all because of society’s reluctance to properly address an issue that desperately needs