Inmates Mental Health
Several definitions have been brought on the ground to define what mental health entails. The most shared mental health description includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being, which significantly impacts how we think, feel, or act (Procter et al., 2013). Mental health is essential in daily lives because it helps determine how we handle stress, socialize with others, and make decisions, including making a meaningful contribution to the communities. These statements have constructed a historical and substantive platform to help understand inmates’ mental health in the United States. According to the statistics, the U.S. prisons and jails, the mental health of inmates is overrepresented it is supposed to be having, in mind that the country is considered the top providers of mental health-related services (Yi et al., 2016). The country prisons and jails incarcerate a disproportionate number of people who have either current or past mental health issues with facilities being designed not to meet such individuals’ demands.
As per the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 37% of the state and federal prisons are diagnosed with mental illness, which means that their emotional, psychological and social well-being is compromised (Shalev, 2017). One out of four individuals are experiencing psychological distress, with 66% of those incarcerated in federal prisons reported not to receive mental health care. The law in the United States demands the prisoners in need of mental health treatment be provided with some specific rights entitlement (Shalev, 2017). Multiple studies have been conducted concerning inmates’ mental health, including recognizing barriers to mental health treatment and medication permanency, challenges that mentally ill inmates encounter, and the primary mental health illness shared among the identified inmates. The court mandate for adequate access to healthcare services; ultimately, inmate mental and mental health care in American prisons has been sporadic for a long time. Reingle Gonzalez & Connell (2014), in their studies, recognized that addressing issues of mental illness depends on the limited available resources and correctional management decision-making, among others. Studies show that failure to provide mental health to inmates exposes them to high risks of punitive rehabilitation failure and future recidivism upon prison release.
As such, it shows that mentally ill prisoners require exceptional mental health, including suitable treatment facilities, as they are in the process of being rehabilitated and future recidivism after the release. As a result, our research question finds its way of understanding whether the inmates with mental health problems are more likely to be isolated from others with functional, emotional, psychological, and social wellness. Understanding whether they are likely to be separated will explain its importance and what type of care they can receive in the rehabilitation process. Studies performed by Yale Law researchers in collaboration with the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA), in 2016, show more than 4000 inmates with mental problems are held in isolation (Shalev, 2017). The report showed different results, which revealed that most of the American States typically have mentally ill inmates in isolation. The isolation is primarily done at least for 22 hours a day for fifteen consecutive days or more. The common mentally diagnosed issues include depressive orders, bipolar disorders, personality disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders (Reingle Gonzalez & Connell, 2014). Such figures show that because there is a likelihood of isolation of many mentally ill inmates in prisons and jails, more psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers are required to offer mental health services in these correctional settings. For policy implication, the research question results in a driving force of new programs to be introduced in state and federal facilities to look at prisoners’ mental health.
Most of the evidence-based methods propose keeping mentally ill people out of the correctional facilities with an argument that treating mental health problems seeks to address antisocial thinking and behavior patterns. Other studies have shown that isolation of mentally ill patients is associated with increased psychological harm than good (Browne et al., 2011). However, these negative consequences can be viewed as a stepping stone to construct the best remedies to integrate after isolating inmates with mental health problems. Isolation of inmates with a mental health problem should at all be meant to produce the best results and not to cause rehabilitation failure or make those offenders re-offend after release. Another policy implication is the state and the federal government to establish well-equipped facilities by allocating adequate resources to address mentally ill inmates’ issues in isolation.
References
Browne, A., Cambier, A., & Agha, S. (2011). Prisons within prisons: The use of segregation in the United States. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 24(1), 46-49. doi:10.1525/fsr.2011.24.1.46
Procter, N., Froggatt, T., McGarry, D., Hamer, H. P., & Wilson, R. L. (Eds.). (, 2013). Mental Health. Cambridge University Press.
Reingle Gonzalez, J. M., & Connell, N. M. (2014). The mental health of prisoners: Identifying barriers to mental health treatment and medication continuity. American Journal of Public Health, 104(12), 2328-2333. doi:10.2105/ajph.2014.302043
Shalev, S. (2017). Solitary confinement and Supermax prisons: Human rights and ethical analysis. Prisoners’ Rights, 215-247. doi:10.4324/9781315089461-9
Yi, Y., Turney, K., & Wildeman, C. (2016). Mental health among jail and prison inmates. American Journal of Men’s Health, 11(4), 900-909. doi:10.1177/1557988316681339