An ongoing and growing controversy is that of the increasing number of mentally ill offenders incarcerated and released into the community. For the most part, these individuals tend to be among the main contributors of the most violent offenses. While some believe it is best to lock such individuals so that they do not commit any more crimes. Others believe that they too have rights and should also be eligible for early release prison. A common belief is that with mentally ill offenders put away, crime will reduce immensely. Although that may be the case, it is best to treat a mentally ill offender the same as that of an average offender, meaning that the prosecution and judicial process of such individuals must not differ from that of any …show more content…
As previously stated, the execution of violent criminal acts by mentally ill individuals has become a growing issue. A recent study found that “75% of jailed female offenders have a mental illness compared to 63% of their male counterparts,” (Dalley, L. P. (2014)). An individual may be mentally unstable and for one reason or another forget to take the medication, such individual may begin to behave criminal behavior resulting in incarceration. Every human being at one point or another has hated the idea of the unknown, thus not knowing what to expect from a mentally ill individual causes fear, therefore the best person to handle such cases would be a police officer. “The power and responsibility of the police to protect the safety and welfare of the public, and (2) parens patriae, which dictates protection for disabled citizens such as mentally ill persons,” (SpearIt. (2009)). The idea of incarceration surfaced with the development of new surfacing ways of disobeying orders and laws. Mere suspicion of an individual's wrongdoing often resulted in their incarceration without any regard to their age, gender, or even their mental health state. Today an officer’s discretion permits him or her to make the decision of whether to make an arrest and
In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
The criminal justice system takes on a pivotal role in pursuing and preventing crimes in society. When a suspect is caught and then faced with charges for a violent crime, they legally have the right to a fair trial. In order for a criminal proceeding to successfully take place, the defendant must be fully aware of their surroundings, have a basic understanding of court procedures, as well as being capable of defending their one case. Competency to stand trial (CST) is essential for maintaining fairness in the courtroom and producing a just verdict. However, if a defendant is unable to understand legal proceedings due to mental illness or impairment, they must be thoroughly assessed and evaluated before declared incompetent to stand trial. Carrying out a case with a defendant who lacks mental capacity causes numerous issues because the individual is incapable of supplying their lawyers with information regarding their crime or any of the witness testimonies at trial. Lack of comprehensible communication between a defendant and attorney forces an ineffective defense in the case. Mental disturbances in the defendant that may cause disorderly conduct in the court room are considered disruptive and weaken the authority of the legal system. Supreme Court cases that have dealt with competency to stand trial issues over the years have made significant rulings, which have stressed the importance of identifying whether or not a defendant is in fact incompetent.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in 17 Americans suffer from a serious mental illness. That is roughly one person in an average high school classroom. These mentally ill people live a different life, and in some situations, they cannot fully comprehend what is happening around them. These people need a little more time and patience than the average person would need in any given situation. Because of this, they need to be handled differently by police officers when they come into contract. This is not happening and it is causing chaos. In “Police Confront Rising Number of Mentally Ill Suspects,” an article featured in The New York Times on April 1, 2014, writers Fernanda Santos and Erica Goode bring attention to the treatment of mentally ill suspects when being confronted by police officers. The article starts with the emotional story of James Boyd to capture the audience’s attention and to create distaste for the police, which is reinforced throughout the article. The authors then go on to have various professionals testify that in recent years the number of incidents between mentally ill people and police officers has risen dramatically. Santos and Goode describe the process of many police departments and compare them with Albuquerque’s, showing that their procedures when handling mentally ill suspects either is not used or there are no guidelines to follow. This article portrays the ignorance some people have when handling situations with mentally ill people and how that affects the lives of the mentally ill and could potentially affect the reader’s own life. Structural, material, and characterological coherence are evident in the article to effectively shed light on how police officers need to revise...
Mentally ill offenders face many challenges while being incarcerated and after being released. Rehabilitation is effective on mentally ill offenders by reducing their symptoms of distress and improving their behavior.
sues. Mental Health Probation Mental health probation is for offenders who have severe and persistent mentally illness (Delisi, & Conis, 2013). This probation tries to decrease recidivism, but the probation officer does hold the malefactor accountable for their crime(s). The probation also tries to lower the cost of protecting the community while utilizing a cost effectiveness and getting the offender treatment.
Wouldn’t it be completely irrational to sentence every mentally ill individual to jail purely because they suffered from a mental illness? Often, mentally ill people behave in an eccentric manner and allure the attention of police officers who do not differentiate the mentally ill from mentally stable people and immediately charge them with misdemeanors. There are approximately 300,000 inmates, with the number increasing every year, which suffer from a mental illness and do not receive proper treatment. Jails are not adequately equipped to care for mentally ill inmates, which can lead to an escalation of an inmate’s illness. Society has failed to provide enough social resources for citizens suffering from psychiatric illnesses in its community, transferring mentally unstable individuals between mental institutions and jails, when in fact adequate aid such as providing proper medication, rehabilitation opportunities, and more psychiatric hospitals in communities is a necessity to reconstitute these individuals.
One of the most persistent stereotypes of (dis)Abled individuals is that they are evil or villainous and as such are predisposed to criminality due to some type impairment. Nothing is farthest from the truth.. Although, people with intellectual disorders and mental health issues are a growing population within the criminal justice system, they are still more often than not victims of crime as a result of their circumstances. People with developmental and cognitive impairments or significant mental health issues in many cases lack impulse control or display inappropriate emotions that the criminal justice system may misinterpret, thus bringing criminal charges for such offenses as causing a disturbance or mischief. When the police are confronted with a situation that involves a cognitively impaired or mentally ill person the police do not know how to respond in an appropriate manner. This image is seen throughout the media over the past few years. One has to look at the tragic death of Sammy Yatim or Michael Eligon to see these image.
Lamb, H. Richard., Weinberger, Linda E., & Gross, Bruce H. (2004). Mentally ill persons in the criminal justice system: Some Perspectives. Psychiatric Quarterly 75(2): 107-126.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and of that over sixty percent of jail inmates reported having a mental health issue and 316,000 of them are severely mentally ill (Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Correctional facilities in the United States have become the primary mental health institutions today (Adams & Ferrandino, 2008). This imprisonment of the mentally ill in the United States has increased the incarceration rate and has left those individuals medically untreated and emotionally unstable while in jail and after being released. Better housing facilities, medical treatment and psychiatric counseling can be helpful in alleviating their illness as well as upon their release. This paper will explore the increasing incarceration rate of the mentally ill in the jails and prisons of the United States, the lack of medical services available to the mentally ill, the roles of the police, the correctional officers and the community and the revolving door phenomenon (Soderstrom, 2007). It will also review some of the existing and present policies that have been ineffective and present new policies that can be effective with the proper resources and training. The main objective of this paper is to illustrate that the criminalization of the mentally ill has become a public health problem and that our policy should focus more on rehabilitation rather than punishment.
Micah Jester repeatedly told police officers to kill her in Austin. She was shot by police because she was holding a BB gun that looked like a handgun. Later, authorities determined she was mentally ill. Police officers aren’t trained on how to handle calls that involve mentally ill people. In order to fix it, police officers should undergo a 40 hour training to be able to understand when a person is in a crisis and when they should not be held accountable for their actions.
Several states authorize police officers to arrest mentally ill people who have not broken any law. It is argued that this process is a way to promote public order. Hospitals also transfer mentally ill patients to jail in order to deal with the overflow. It is not uncommon for children to be confined to criminal detention centers because there is a lack of facilities for severely mentally ill children. Relying on the criminal justice systems to be surrogate mental health systems conflicts with the basic notions of justice. (Aufderheide,
Theory makes felons see that they should be obedient and do what is expected of them so that they may return back home.
The term criminal desistance refers to when offenders desist, or stop, committing crime. Desistance from crime exists when an individual has an absence of criminal behavior in their lives for a sustained period of time. By studying desistance, a better understanding of what causes individuals to commit crime is created; as well as, a better understanding as to why certain individuals discontinue their lives of crime. The criminal justice field often encompasses, serving justice by locking people up and keeping the “bad guys” away from the general public. Little thought was given as to what can be done in order to help prevent people from committing crime, until more recent years. Most criminological theories attempt to explain why people commit
The issue of executing mentally ill criminals has been widely debated among the public. They debate on whether it is right or wrong to execute a person who does not possess the capacity to think correctly. The mental illness is an ailment that affects the way a person thinks, feels, behaves and relates to others. The disease is caused by a combination of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors not a personal weakness or a character flaw. A study by the Death Penalty Information Center found that “executing the insane is unconstitutional; however, if an inmate's mental competency has been restored, he or she can then be executed (deathpenalty).” The time has come for us to accept the fact that executing mentally ill offenders is not beneficial to society for many reasons. Although some mentally ill criminals have broken the law, we need to have a federal law that mentally ill criminals shouldn’t be executed because it’s amoral to take away a life.
Most in favor would argue that long term imprisonment could greatly alter ones mental wellness, resulting in an almost brainwashed affect, someone who can no longer function as a productive member of society… which defies the point of imprisoning and changing a person to be more active in initiating a more productive lifestyle to begin with. As it stands, there are numerous reasons for and against this type or style of punishment w...