Mental Health Needs in the Criminal Justice System

Mental Health Support for Inmates in For Profit Prisons
The thesis of this project is: The prison industry needs to do a better job of addressing the mental health needs of prisoners.
What makes this an issue is that, as Morgan et al. (2013) and Semenza and Grosholz (2019) show, the criminal justice system is not doing enough to treat the mental health issues of inmates. Instead of focusing on the mental health aspects of crime, the system instead focuses on punitive justice. This is partly because of a conflict of interest at the heart of the criminal justice system, which is the fact that a private prison industry profits off the imprisonment of convicts. The labor of these convicts is outsourced to competing companies, which pay pennies on the dollar to inmates who have no choice but to work for them while incarcerated (Pelaez, 2014). There is no incentive on the part of the state to address the mental health needs of inmates, even though there is a high correlation between crime and poor mental health (Evans Cueller, McReynolds and Wasserman, 2006). As Stringer (2019) notes, the US Department of Justice has admitted that nearly 40% of individuals in prison have a history of mental illness. Clearly this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Criminal justice cannot be effective unless it aligns with social justice and social justice demands that the mental health issues at the root of crime be solved.
The social justice principles at stake here are respect for all human persons and the need to address inequality in the criminal justice system. Persons with mental health issues are treated with tactics of marginalization and oppression as they are kept locked down in a system that is punitive rather than rehabilitative. From a social justice perspective, prisons are considered a critical instrument of justice. It is, however, important to note that in as far as the health and wellbeing of prisoners is concerned, prisons fail to promote certain societal aspirations on this front. According to Yi, Turney and Wildeman (2016), “jail and prison inmates have different, perhaps unequal, access to on-site physical and mental health services that may mitigate poor mental health outcomes” (p. 905). This is a situation that breeds inequality.
There are many ways in which the problem could be addressed. One is that it be addressed through alternative sentencing, which would give convicts the opportunity to obtain treatment for their issues instead of being obliged to sit for years behind bars where they would basically be exploited by corporations. Another would be to require that the private prison institution be abolished so that there is no more conflict of interest between for-profit private institutions and the execution of justice within a social justice framework. Another would be to regulate that prisons provide mental health counseling and therapy to inmates in an environment that is conducive with mental health therapy. This would ensure that prisons be reconstructed with green spaces and be more focused on providing humane conditions for prisoners—no isolation, garden access, access to animals for the purposes of animal-assisted therapy, and so on.
The cultural and diversity issues present in the criminal justice problem are related to the fact that blacks are disproportionately represented in prison and that adequate self-defense in pre-trial services can often be costly, which is one reason many people charged with an offense agree to forego a trial and simply accept a plea bargain. How many people of color or of a lower class are in prison because they could not afford an attorney and were pressured into accepting a plea bargain? How many of these might have been able to receive an alternative sentence with the right kind of representation, considering their mental health status? How many of them will never receive mental health care because of the fact that they are in prison? These are cultural issues that should be addressed as well because culturally speaking, the criminal justice system does not promote a justice-for-all quality: those who can afford high-power attorneys end up getting the verdicts they want. There is a stark difference between outcomes for people like Lori Loughlin and a low-class drug addict from Queens. By addressing the mental health needs of people in prison, society can work towards creating a more just and equitable community.
The empirical research on this topic is robust. Morgan et al. (2013) used meta-analysis to review 26 empirical studies and found that there is a clear overrepresentation of persons having mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. The finding corroborates the conclusion of Vogel, Stephens, and Siebels (2014) as well, thus showing that there is an urgent need to address the mental health needs of inmates. Vogel et al. (2014) state that “mentally ill persons are disproportionately represented at all stages of the criminal justice system, from arrest to conviction to incarceration” (p. 627). Vogel et al. (2014) rely upon data sourced from a comprehensive review of literature on prison population. The credibility of the findings is not in question owing to the fact that the authors elect to rely upon numerous peer-reviewed sources.
Furthermore, Yi et al. (2016) show using data sourced from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) that inequality in prisons is a serious issue, as those with mental health issues are not given their full rights. According to Yi et al. (2016), the said data is of great relevance owing to the fact that “the longitudinal nature of the FFCWS provides critical information for estimating models that account for factors that precede incarceration” (p. 903). Having been published in a reputable journal, the article could be deemed credible and will be of considered utility, as the valid and reliable findings from the article demonstrate that in prison settings, persons with mental health issues do not have access to their full share of rights.
The police, the courts and corrections are all really impacted by this issue. Police have to deal with individuals on the streets who are in need of mental health help, but because their job is to enforce the law all they can do is take people to jail. From there, the people are prosecuted under the law instead of diverted into mental health facilities. The corrections industry then takes over and profits from their detention. Criminal justice theories, such as life course theory and social bond theory could help to explain how it happens that individuals end up caught within the criminal justice system with no way out. However, critical theory could also be used to show how advocates for reform like Angela Davis are correct in putting the blame for this inequity on an elitist system of government that seeks repression rather than justice. Law enforcement can use an approach like community policing to more effectively address social equality; the judiciary can use alternative sentencing to cut down on the number of persons incarcerated who are in need of mental health support; and the corrections industry needs to be state-run not privatized and profiting from prison labor should be banned. Poverty, racism, religion and other sociocultural variables are exploited because they are seen as ways to oppress minorities, which falls in line with conflict theory. Conflict theory poses that there is a group that has power in society and to maintain possession of limited resources it denies power to other groups.
References
Evans Cuellar, A., McReynolds, L. S., & Wasserman, G. A. (2006). A cure for crime: Can mental health treatment diversion reduce crime among youth?. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management: The Journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, 25(1), 197-214.
Morgan, R.D., Flora, D.B., Kroner, D.G., Mills, J.F., Varghese, F. & Steffan, J.S. (2013). Treating Offenders with Mental Illness: A Research Synthesis, 36(1), 37-50.
Pelaez, V. (2014). The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?. Global Research, 31, 1-2.
Semenza, D.C. & Grosholz, J.M. (2019). Mental and physical health in prison: how co-occurring conditions influence inmate misconduct. Health and Justice, 7(1), 101-107.
Stringer, H. (2019). Improving mental health for inmates. American Psychological Association, 50(3), 46.
Vogel, M., Stephens, K.D. &Siebels, D. (2014). Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System. Sociology Compass, 8(6), 627-638. DOI: 10.1111/soc4.12174
Yi, Y., Turney, K. &Wildeman, C. (2016). Mental Health Among Jail and Prison Inmates. American Journal of Men’s Health, 11(4), 900-909.