Social policies are regulations, procedures and principles that affect the living conditions in favor of human welfare. They are in place to improve and change problems seen in society. One such problem is the mentally ill population being placed in prisons for criminal activities. Mentally ill can be defined as any medical condition that interrupts a person’s intelligence, disposition, capability to communicate with others, feelings and basic daily activities. The prisons in United States are overly represented with people suffering from mental illness. Dorothea Dix, in 1841, began to lobby to move inmates with mental illness out of the jail system, which was not suited for them, and into an asylum. Within a short amount of time, she was successful in her mission. Many mentally ill were moved into hospitals which were able to treat their specific needs better than the jail system was able to. But the problem resurfaced again, this time in a different form. The mental health facilities were being to become overcrowded and abusive their patients. This is when the thinking changed to move the mentally ill out of asylums and into more of a community setting facility. This movement was called deinstitutionalization and was popular in the 1950’ and 1960’s. Its goal was to replace the psychiatric hospitals which required long stays and were often overpopulated, with community mental health services which were less isolated. It accomplished this by releasing many patients and thus reducing the population size and helping the patients become less dependent by shorting stays and enforcing positive behaviors. This idea sounded ideal, especially with the discovery of psychotropic medication, but it eventually led to an increase in repres... ... middle of paper ... ... (Fields & Phillips, 2013). The social work code of ethics states that it is our job to protect the vulnerable, In tackling a broad issue like this it is important to examine the entire system inspired by a systems perspective of, in an attempt to fix the larger system as a sum of its parts, and as not to overlook a potentially important detail. Additionally, the jail and mental health systems are both funded by a govrnment which finds itself in economic crisis, we therefore do not have the luxury to fall back on government funding as a means to implement innovative and costly projects. We are forced to make the most of the present resources and at times to even figure out a more cost efficent method as government spendings continue to decrease. Here are some of the ways in which we can better utilize the system in place and change the parts that require such.
Mental illness has been around as long as people have been. However, the movement really started in the 19th century during industrialization. The Western countries saw an immense increase in the number and size of insane asylums, during what was known as “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” (Torrey, Stieber, Ezekiel, Wolfe, Sharfstein, Noble, Flynn Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill). Laws were starting to be made to pressure authorities to face the people who were deemed insane by family members and hospital administrators. Because of the overpopulation in the institutions, treatment became more impersonal and had a complex mix of mental and social-economic problems. During this time the term “psychiatry” was identified as the medical specialty for the people who had the job as asylum superintendents. These superintendents assumed managerial roles in asylums for people who were considered “alienated” from society; people with less serious conditions wer...
population of mentally ill in the jail system. Further, improvement in this situation can be
...ns, asylums were treating the mentally ill as beasts, chained to walls in jails with sane people. The insane were thrown into these institutions because people didn’t know what to do with them. Dorothea Dix petitioned for humane hospitals for the insane. For eight years she traveled to many prisons, almshouses, and asylums and observed the appalling conditions which she used to plead her case to the Massachusetts legislature in 1843. Her efforts led to better conditions for the insane and the establishment of five mental hospitals in America. While prisons worked towards the reform of social America, asylums had proved that there were still cynical viewpoints on penal institutions.
The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Code of Ethics (2010) proposes three core values of Social Work, respect for persons, social justice and professional integrity (pp.12). These core values establish “ethical responsibilities” for the social worker (AASW, 2010, pp.12), specifically, the value of respect for persons, which sustains the intrinsic worth of all human beings as well as the right to wellbeing and self determination consistent with others in society (AASW, 2010,p.12). This Code of Ethics stipulates the duty of care a social worker must provide, a...
The National Association of Social Work's Code of Ethics is not only something that is crucial to someone in the field of Social Work but can also be applied to everyday life. These values in which the Code of Ethics mandates professionals to use are very important in knowing how to help clients in bettering their lives, and in help society as a whole become a better place. Service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence are all the core values of Ethics and should be learned and practiced by all, not only Social Workers (NASW, 2008).
Known as an American philanthropist and reformer, Dorothea Dix transformed living conditions in prisons and established institutions for the mentally insane in 20 states, as well as Canada (“DIX”). Through her crusade for fair treatment of the mentally insane, Dorothea Dix exemplifies the ideals of her time – to protect the rights of all human beings, no matter their age, race, or mental capacity.
Deinstitutionalization- a term popularized in the mid fifties to early seventies, was an experiment involving the release of some 830,000 mental patients. By reducing state mental hospitals by 60%, this ideology was found very appealing by Liberals due to mental patients receiving their freedom (Website 1). It was also liked by conservatives because of the large amount of money that would be saved by cutting the mental health budget.
Prior to taking this course, I generally believed that people were rightly in prison due to their actions. Now, I have become aware of the discrepancies and flaws within the Criminal Justice system. One of the biggest discrepancies aside from the imprisonment rate between black and white men, is mental illness. Something I wished we covered more in class. The conversation about mental illness is one that we are just recently beginning to have. For quite a while, mental illness was not something people talked about publicly. This conversation has a shorter history in American prisons. Throughout the semester I have read articles regarding the Criminal Justice system and mental illness in the United States. Below I will attempt to describe how the Criminal Justice system fails when they are encountered by people with mental illnesses.
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.
Ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice, and virtue. The NASW Code of Ethics is intended to serve as a guide to the everyday professional conduct of social workers. This Code includes four sections. The first Section, "Preamble," summarizes the social work profession 's mission and core values. The second section, "Purpose of the NASW Code of Ethics," provides an overview of the Code’s main functions and a brief guide for dealing with ethical issues or dilemmas in social work practice. The third section, "Ethical Principles," presents broad ethical principles, based on social work 's core values, which inform social work practice.
National Association of Social Workers [NASW]. (1998). The New NASW Code of Ethics Can Be Your Ally: Part I. Retrieved from: http://www.naswma.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=96
Those with mental illness would live in the community with an array of services and be able to be free from the constraints of confinement. In the early 1960’s the United States began an initiative to reduce and close publicly-operated mental hospitals. This became known as deinstitutionalization. The goal of deinstitutionalization was to allow people suffering from mental illness to live more independently in the community with treatments provided through community health programs. Unfortunately, the federal government did not provide sufficient ongoing funding for the programs to meet the growing demand. States reduced their budgets for mental hospitals but failed to increase funding for on-going community-based mental health programs. As a result of deinstitutionalization hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people were released into the community without the proper resources they needed for their treatment. (Harcourt,
Like the majority of the world, people in the United States did not support the mental institutions necessary for the insane to be properly cared for. For example, the federal government of the United States wanted no part in funding and supporting these institutions, and left that power to the states. The state governments often times neglected the asylums and would not fund them, leaving the unfunded asylums without resources or money. Dorothea Dix, a reformer of the 1800s, saw what the state and federal governments were doing to these poor mentally ill people and made several movements to improve living conditions and better the funding towards maintenance and treatment in these mental institutions. After she showed the citizens of the United States the torture they were putting the mentally ill through, large protests against the government spread nationwide. The government hea...
Mental Illness in the Prison System There are around 2.3 million inmates in the U.S. Prisons, whether the crimes committed were petty or serious. Approximately 20 percent of inmates in jail and 15 percent of inmates in state prisons have some form of serious illness. When talking about how mental illness is a problem when it comes to the prison system, it is important to start from the beginning. Before the 1960’s mental institutions where called insane asylums where many problems for those who were patients there. Problems such as abuse by those who were supposed to be taking care of them, or the cleanliness of the establishment.
All social workers are beholden to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. Professional ethics are the main core of social work. The profession has an obligation to articulate its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. The code is composed of thematic sections that outline a social worker’s responsibility to clients, colleagues, employers, and the profession. Some responsibilities that a social worker has to a client are that the clients are their primary responsibility, fostering maximum self-determination in clients, respecting the privacy of clients, keeping information that has been shared during the course of their duties confidential and charging fees for services that are fair and considerate