Special Needs Offenders However, When Discussing Prisoners

Special Needs Offenders

However, when discussing prisoners with mental health needs, it is important to point out that this population is so significant it is virtually synonymous with the larger population. "In the United States, 56 per cent of state prisoners, 64 per cent of jail inmates and 45 per cent of federal prisoners reported treatment for or symptoms of major depression, mania or psychotic disorders in 2006" (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009, Handbook on Prisoners with Special Needs:10). Even when a prisoner is not legally classified as 'insane' he or she can still have severe mental disabilities which stretch the limits of his or her limited coping mechanisms. Prisoners often have poor access to mental health care to manage their conditions, given that the types of therapies and psychotropic medications that are effective for treating mental illnesses can be extremely difficult to balance without constant oversight.

The question of what constitutes a mental illness and a crime can be somewhat fluid: although using drugs is considered criminal, the biological and psychological compulsion of addiction can make it difficult even for a law-abiding person to resist the urge. The types of punitive and retributive strategies that might be appropriate for some prisoners might not necessarily be uniformly appropriate for prisoners with mental illness. For other illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, there may be serious concerns about determining when the prisoner can and should be released into larger society, since it is virtually impossible to draw a hard and fast line where the offender's criminal intent ends and the mental illness begins. Finally, prisoners with mental illnesses may be more likely to be attacked by their fellow prisoners and their reactions may be poorly understood by guards. For all prisoners, even those without severe mental illnesses, a psychological component to treatment is advised and "where possible, individuals with mental disabilities should be diverted from the criminal justice system at the first point of contact with law enforcement officers and those with severe mental disabilities should never be held in prisons" (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009, Handbook on Prisoners with Special Needs: 23).