Mental Illness and Criminal Justice in the United States

Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System in the United States

Law Enforcement and Mentally Ill Criminals

Some law enforcement encounters end up going the opposite direction of how a psychiatrist would treat a person who is mentally ill.

Gary Cordner, former commander of St. Michaels, Maryland Police Department said: “A three-city study found that 92 percent of patrol officers had at least one encounter with a mentally ill person in crisis in the previous month.”

Corrections and Mentally Ill Offenders

Hypothesis

Since mentally ill offenders are being put in jails or prisons they make up a high number of the jails or prisons population. Correctional facilities in the United States contain a population much as 50% of mentally ill offenders, (Sarteschi, 2014)

Violence and Mental Illness

In most cases dealing with a mentally ill offender may lead to police brutality. Police officers are trained to react to a situation before they apprehend the offender. When arriving at the scene the officer’s duty is to protect and serve, not to evaluate the criminal for mental competence.

“an estimated 7% of people with serious or persistent mental illnesses are put in jail or prison each year”. Judge Steven Leifman (2009)

Some mental disorders that are known to have violent aspects are: anxiety disorders, delusional disorders, schizophrenia, mood disorders, and even substance dependence and abuse.

Courts and Mentally Ill Offenders

Problem Statement

The court system in the United States is set up to find justice with evidence. In most cases involving mentally ill offenders all the evidence may be presentable but not admissible due to the fact that the offender was or is mentally incompetent at the time of the crime.

According to Psychiatrist Seena Fazel, “A study of psychotic individuals found that those with a mental illness were responsible for only 5% of all violent crimes.”

An offender must be carefully screened and assessed in order to adhere to the insanity rule.

To most people in the United States mental illnesses are known to be abnormalities. Mental illnesses are any type of disorders to the brain. A mental illness affects a person’s ability to engage in regular daily functions, such as feelings, moods, or simply just thinking.

In the criminal justice system many times law enforcement officers are not aware that the offenders are diagnosed with a mental disorder in some cases offenders are not aware of the diagnoses themselves. Most offenders who commit crimes are not mentally stable, and sometimes treated unfairly.

Conclusion

In conclusion based on these findings it is easy to see that most mentally ill are treated unfairly by the criminal justice system. Due to the statistical information I came across, Instead of sending them to hospitals or treatment they are being held in prisons in solitary confinement cells.

Treatment

References

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (1996-2014). NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?section=about_mental_illness..

Fazel, S., & Grann, M. (2006). The Population Impact Of Severe Mental Illness On Violent Crime. American Journal of Psychiatry, 163(8), 1397-1403.

Cordner, G. (2006). Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from http://www.popcenter.org/problems/mental

Sarteschi, Christine M. "Mentally Ill Offenders Involved with the U.S. Criminal Justice System," Sage Open, July 2013, 1-11. doi: 10.1177/2158244013497029. - See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/mentally-ill-offenders-u-s-criminal-justice-system#sthash.J1VjbCEm.dpuf

Treatments for mental disorders include admitting into hospitals, treatment centers, and sometimes even drug treatments are necessary.

Most of these people who care very little or not at all, might end up in our jail or prison systems thus giving the mentally ill community a violent reputation.

Mental Illness in the United States

According to (National Alliance on Mental illness) NAMI.org “One in four adults−approximately 61.5million Americans−experiences mental illness in a given year.” And “Approximately 20 percent of youth ages 13 to 18 experience severe mental disorders in a given year.”