Mental Health in Prisons

Hello everyone.

My name is Nicole Ball and my project is raising

awareness of mental illness in prison.

So let's start with the basics.

A prisoners were criminals who have been sentenced to a

year or more, are housed, arrestees who are mentally incompetent

to stand trial are supposed to be sent for treatment,

but thousands are being warehouse handrails for months without a

conviction. The USA has the highest rate of incarceration in

the world.

And 50 years ago, 75 of the population was in

mental hospitals and 25 incarcerated.

Now it is five in mental hospitals and 95 incarcerated.

This topic is critical to the treatment those with mental

illnesses receive in prisons today, including but not limited to

bullying, marginalisation, isolation, victimization and increased disciplinary measures.

These are just some of the abuses received by mentally

ill persons in prison.

Each of these mistreatment experience exacerbate the effects of mental

illness. Until recently, the National Health Service would not take

responsibility for health care in prisons, but it is now

being proposed that the levels of mental health care in

prison should be equal to that of the general population.

Yeah, a closer look, common illnesses in prison inmates in

michigan are depression, mania, pTSD bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychotic disorders

or substance use disorder.

Oftentimes inmates may experience more than one of these disorders.

It is called dual diagnosis.

Dual diagnosis is when someone suffers from more than one

mental illness and their symptoms are exacerbated tremendously.

Mentally ill persons are often found to be incarcerated because

their illness prevents them from knowing any better.

And they often live a life of homelessness and addiction,

in which both of the circumstances lead to deviant behaviors.

Although it is commonly known that those who suffer from

mental illness have a high likelihood of being incarcerated.

Our correction system does not have programs and treatment that

are readily available for these inmates, mentally ill inmates experience

worse than symptoms of illness.

Once incarcerated, we will look into this next.

Why is this happening first?

The highly authoritative environment in prison does not allow inmates

to feel safe in closing information about their mental illness.

Social structures in prison, such as inmate codes, prevent others

from reporting changing our we're sending mental health and a

fellow inmate.

It is unclear exactly where confidentiality stands in prisons, discipline

in the prison environment is highly volatile for inmates who

suffer from mental illness and corrections officers are not trained

to recognize mental illness.

What is the effect to effectively implement changes into the

prison system to accommodate mental health victims, we must understand

which factors of the prison contribute to poor mental health.

These include overcrowding violence and forced solitude, lack of privacy,

lack of meaningful activity, isolation, insecurity about the future and

inadequate health services.

Mentally ill individuals have a high likelihood of committing crimes

and therefore there is a large population of mentally ill

persons in the present environment, with environments as hostile as

american prisons, it is nearly impossible for a person struggling

with mental illness to control themselves or retrieve treatment, receive

treatment. These inmates are degraded and essentially left Iran prison.

Whether it is an sl or solitary confinement, they are

more likely to experience violence, suicide and physical harm by

other inmates and even prison staff because they are not

recognized or treated as human beings.

The treatment they received currently leads to worsening mentally worsening

mental health problems, which is the opposite of what our

prison system should strive for.

I chose this video to share to give an idea

of what life can be like in prison in ways

in which prisoners adapt.

So for some reason, I haven't been able to get

this video to play in presentation mode.

So if you'd like to watch it, it is called

the so it is episode two on adoption in prisons

and it was created by the Marshall Project.

So you can go to this link.

I have here and watch that video.

I am going to share some things about the video,

even though we weren't able to watch it, just to

give an idea of what the prison looks like for

regular prisoners and what it would look like for somebody

who is mentally ill.

So the first scenario that I chose to examine was

isolation of solitary confinement.

Oftentimes correction officers will put somebody in solitary confinement if

they are not obeying their rules or if they just

had a bad day, that is their way of punishment

and it can be severely detrimental to any person put

in solitary confinement.

Someone with an illness that causes voices in your head

would lead to drastically worsened health If put in solitary

confinement, the second scenario is being abruptly moved from prison

to prison when a corrections officer doesn't like the way

you're acting, they can send you off whenever they want.

Somebody with an illness already struggling with drastic changes of

being imprisoned, are not going to react well to constantly

changing environments and lastly being assigned to complex work tasks

such as filing paperwork or doing physical labor, someone with

mental illness, we'll have a hard time just reading their

name and some instances are communicating with others.

So having to do tasks such as filing paperwork or

physical labor is not going to be feasible for somebody

like them and they will therefore experience much worse discipline

from the correction staff.

What can we do?

These are just some of the many ways we can

help those suffering from mental illness in prison.

First divert the obviously mental health ill away from prison

and reduce stigma and violence in prison that is experienced

by those who seek treatment and most importantly provide training

for employees, specifically correctional officers to recognize the signs and

symptoms of mental illness.

This is particularly important because when a correctional officer who

spends more than half of their day in close contact

with inmates see signs of mental illness, the behavior is

often misinterpreted for resistance, leading to increase punishments, such as

solitary confinement, like we said in the earlier slide or

physical violence.

The segregation of offenders in solitary confinement even without mental

illness leads to depression, panic attacks, hallucinations, paranoia, rage, self

mutilation and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

A person struggling for mental illness, experiences these symptoms in

everyday life, but it is only worsened by solitary confinement

and will lead to high rates of suicide for these

inmates. For a correctional officer to effectively assessment and mate

with mental illness.

They must work collaboratively with psychologists In 2004, the inmates

to psychologist ratio was estimated to behalf of what it

was during the 1980s, And this was nearly 17 years

ago. This number has continued to drop for the level

of professionally trained individuals and mental health disorders in prison,

along with a multitude of other tasks essential to the

daily work of a correctional officer.

It is impossible to assess and evaluate those inmates suffering

from mental illness without proper training or collaboration with other

trained workers.

On the other hand, with a heavy workload forced upon

correctional officers, the experience Berna and mental health issues all

the same.

Therefore, there is little time for these officers to provide

mental health treatment and assessment for the inmates in their

supervision on daily basis.

Furthermore, I would like to talk about the importance of

integrating a more rehabilitative program into our prison systems.

In an article titled The Mental health of prisoners by

luke Birmingham, he states women prisoners in particular worry about

their family, especially their Children.

Up to two thirds of women in prison are mothers,

and nearly half of all women who were sent to

prison have a dependent child living with them when they

are imprisoned.

Women who are imprisoned are far more likely to have

suffered from traumatic experiences in her childhood than men.

It could include sexual, mental or physical abuse.

Half of these women will have experienced domestic violence, one

third sexual assault and one in 10 will have attempted

suicide before being imprisoned.

Eight out of 10 women in prison will suffer from

diagnosable mental health problems, and two thirds will be drug

dependent for years alcohol to a dangerous success.

Whatever the circumstance, maybe for a person in prison and

is critical to provide them with the freedom to interact

with friends and family for their own mental health and

also that of their families.

Next, we will look deeper into different prison systems around

the world and why their policies could be beneficial to

implement in american prisons.

But before that, I wanted to share this photo, it

looks like an almost normal life silent in a prison

that promotes rehabilitation rather than cruel punishment.

And the plants in this room also represent and promote

the ideas of growth and life, which can heavily influence

the mindset of an inmate in prison.

Now to move on to german prison systems, also known

as a prison without punishment, german prisons allow inmates to

wear their own clothes, cook their own meals and have

romantic visits with the outside world.

This picture shows inmates enjoying work outside in the garden

and wearing civilized clothing.

Some inmates are even provided with a small room with

a kitchenette crib and couch that folds out into bed

into a bed to have their parents or Children in

an unsupervised visit approved by a social worker, knives, darts

and fruit are commonly seen in german prisons and this

is because they do not treat the inmates like they

are dangerous and in that case they do not act

in violent or dangerous ways.

All of the different aspects of the german prison system

allow and made to keep a sense of self when

they are incarcerated and they are less likely to lose

their sanity or experience symptoms of mental illness.

Having a sense of self includes having the freedom to

express your individual wants needs and beliefs, allowing self analysis

would be a tremendous step forward for our prison system

and it would allow prisoners to continually assess what they

need us humans to be comfortable and survive.

I think these simple, basic human interactions that german prison

systems provide can help inmates keep their identity, sanity and

health intact, unlike the american system that completely confines the

cuts off and strip some of their privacy at the

same time, we do have to realize that these people

are in prison because they have committed a crime.

So keeping the minimum sentence on felonies such as murder

would remind inmates that they are still incapacitated and hopefully

that would deter them from future crimes.

Self assessment is a key component to keeping yourself conscious

and intact with the real world.

I strongly believe in increasing the number of social workers

and the american prison system.

This will go along with the idea of helping prisoners

come to the realization of self awareness and reintegration decide

into society after their sentence.

In conclusion, mental illness is a serious condition, one that

leads individuals down the road of substance abuse or incarceration.

Unfortunately, these three aspects go hand in hand when they

should not.

Instead of incarcerating those with mental illness, we should be

providing them with help and treatment to get their illness

under control and divert them from a life of crime.

Even though there are high rates of mentally ill people

in prison, other inmates and correctional staff do not provide

a safe environment to provide these people with the treatment

they need.

Rather they are bullied and ridiculed more than ever, which

drives their mental health to get worse.

If our prisons were to focus more on rehabilitating a

rehabilitative outlook, it would benefit not only the mentally ill,

but also others that deal with incarceration.

Prison systems such as those in Germany offer a program

that allow inmates to keep their sense of self and

pride, allowing these simple freedoms can benefit.

Mental health is not back into society and divert them

from a lifetime in Germany.

They are not completely stripping inmates of their life and

they have larger support groups to rely on and go

home to.

In order to do this, politicians and policymakers need to

commit to better health and better justice.

There is a need to send out a message that

good prisons can be good for public health and that

good prison practice that promotes mental health makes the country

safer because people in prison who have problems that are

addressed are less likely to commit more crime after they

leave. Lastly public.

And the justice system must understand that prison should not

be a dumping ground for people with mental illness.

Thank you.

Mental Health in Prisons

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