Debate on Insane in Prison
According to the Washington Post in December of 2001, "The number of people with serious mental illness in America's jails and prisons today is five times greater than the number in state mental hospitals. Prisons, as an observer, of similar trends in Australia have noted, "the new asylums of the 21st century." The criminalization of the mentally ill is inhumane. It is also emotionally and financially costly, and a testament to government failures at all levels." Less and less treatment is given to inmates of whom are in need while each year, the cost to house, feed, and clothe these inmates goes up in the mal-funded institutions due to the lack of funding and care at federal, state, and local levels. With the lack of funding, treatment, staffing, and care at all governmental levels my partner and I stand resolved that the United States federal government should substantially increase public health services for mental health in the United States. United States: The 48 contiguous states, Hawaii, and Alaska. Federal Government: The United States ruling body based in Washington D.C Substantially increase: To enlarge to a great extent or expand the amount of
Due to these problems in the system in which the United States runs its correctional facilities my partner and I propose the following plan. One in five prisons have no access to treatment centers or medicine for the mentally ill while 84% of officers in prisons have little to no training in the field. The ill are not getting the treatment they need to get better. Prisons were designed to rehabilitate and make the inmates productive members of society, but this is impossible if those in need of treatment cannot get it. According to Sibulkin Kiesler of the center for Mental Health Services, since 1950, the number of psychiatric hospital patients has declined from 592,853 to 71,619 in 1994. In the 1990's 40 state mental hospitals closed their doors and left 60,000 to squeeze into the ones that remained or were incarcerated. America's treatment centers for the mentally ill are closing and leaving those in need of help stranded in overcrowded hospitals or in prison where they receive little to no treatment. According to Ron Honberg of the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill, the prison environment is not conducive to providing quality treatment and many mentally ill inmates can become more symptomatic while in jail. Many times, those dispensing medications to inmates are orderlies and aren't extensively trained. One in five prisons do not have access to any mental health center or medicine and 84% of correctional officers receive little no training, which allows for the incarcerated mentally ill to just get worse in jail instead of receiving rehabilitation. With the decreasing numbers of mental health centers and the growing increase in mentally ill prisoners in America's jails, it is obvious something n
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Approximate Word count = 1169
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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