The Role Of Mental Illness In Prisons

Jailhouse Blues
Arman Tatevosian
Glendale Community College

Arman Tatevosian
December 10th, 2013
English 101

Jailhouse blues

Mental illness has become a topic that most people nowadays choose not to discuss for one reason or another. We as a society tend to forget about the mentally ill and cast them off to the side forgetting about them giving us a false sense that they are being taken care of, or in other words out of sight out of mind. Mental illness is a medical condition that obstructs a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to function daily. Almost like any other disease mental illness can be mild in some cases but severe in others. Some serious mental illnesses include;
It seems as if Californian prisons are involuntarily taking the role of mental institutes into their own hands. This unwilling transfer in roles causes the Californian prisons to overcrowd and be unable to provide the needed care for the mentally ill inmates. “This week, the department of corrections planned to begin housing up to fifty two mentally ill inmates in a new isolation unit at the substance abuse treatment facility in Corcoran” (Warren, 2002). Building such new facilities to house the mentally ill inmates is not the solution to the problem nor does it come cheap. Warren declared that the new units were built at a cost of eighty six million dollars. The money used to build these new facilities comes straight out tax dollars that can be used to pay for something more beneficial for Californians. Warren also states that “Mentally ill prisoners are frequently housed in such facilities because they assault or are preyed upon by other inmates”. It’s almost like building a prison inside a prison; the mentally ill inmates cannot cooperate or are sometimes endangered by the non-mentally ill inmates so they are put into these special segregation units which only shroud the problem for a while until it resurfaces. Justice Kennedy wrote, “in particular mentally
(2010), Jails, prisons increasingly taking care of mentally ill
Lopez , S. (2012) , It’s a crime to house the mentally ill this way
Maisel, Q. A. (1946), Bedlam 1946 Most U.S. Mental hospitals are a shame
Parry, J. W. (2011). Supreme Court Embraces Minimal relief for Californian prisoners with Mental Disabilities and other Serious Health Care Needs. Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter, 35(4), 545-6
Quanbeck, C. Frye, M. & Altshuler, L. (2003), Mania and the law in california: understanding the criminalization of the mentally ill. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(7), 1245-50
Schodolski J.V. (2002) Jail suicide rate vexes California: Placemnt of mentally ill is critical problem in many states
Warren, J. (2002), The State Court Approval Needed to use ‘supermax’ Cells; prison: judge rules officials must also notify inmates’ lawyers and facility watchdog before moving mentally ill convicts to the new high security