CRMJ320 Prison The Modern Insane Asylum

Todays’ Prisons The medieval times brought us men in shining armor and women captured by dragons for those knights to rescue. It also brought upon the dark ages which unfortunately risen the popularity of the lunatic (insane) asylums. In those days, people who were determined to be mentally ill were given a place to stay where they were treated for their illness. In todays’ society we have gone away from institutionalizing individuals because of mental illness and looked toward alternative ways of treatment most notably by prescribing psychiatric medication. This tactic was implemented to put the mentally ill back out onto the street and minimize the overcrowding that was happening in the institutions. Today most of the “asylums” have been shut down and for some reason most of the mentally ill are being housed in our state and federal prisons.
Classification
In general, classification can happen one of two ways. When an arresting officer makes contact with a suspect he could recommend that individual be evaluated before they are sent to prison. However the most common way is still classification after being sentenced to spending time in prison. The lifecycle of a mentally ill offender is sentencing, intake, diagnostics, classification, treatment, and release. The evaluation is usually done by observation in prison by either a psychiatrist or a trained corrections officer. In California, due to the sheer number of referred mentally ill inmates, the state has spent more time and money on properly identifying, classifying, and placing inmates according to their mental health status (Monahan, 1999). California has different facilities for different level of classified mentally ill inmates. For example, the most dangerous of mentally ill inmates are sent to the California Medical Facility located in Vacaville, Ca. The least dangerous mentally ill inmates are sent to a separate facility located at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis

References: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/ Mental Illness « A Painful Truth. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2014, from http://apainfultruth.com/mental-illness/ Suicides kill more inmates than homicide, overdoses, accidents combined - NBC News. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suicides-kill-more-inmates-homicide-overdoses-accidents-combined-v20321084 WHO | Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (MSD). (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.who.int/nmh/about/msd/en/