Mental health care inadequacy in United States prisons

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Mental Health in the American Prison System

There has always been much controversy regarding prisoners and their mental health, but as civilization has experienced much progress throughout this century people have become more and more concerned about making sure that prisons are able to differentiate between individuals who are mentally ill and persons who are not. Even with the fact that prisons were never design to accommodate the mentally ill, conditions are critical today as a great deal of men and women who are unable to get mental health treatment in the communities they live in are incarcerated consequent to committing an illegality. There are a great deal of people suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression in U.S., thus meaning that society needs to open its eyes and focus on devising solutions for this issue (Mental Illness, Human Rights, and U.S. Prisons).

II. The Problem

One of the most disturbing aspects about mentally ill individuals in prisons is the fact that these people have access to limited health care. "Criminalization of mental illness refers to the practice of arresting and prosecuting mentally ill offenders, even for misdemeanors, at a rate four times that of the general population in an effort to contain them in some type of institution where they might receive needed treatment" (Videbeck 379). There are numerous inmates who have special needs, but they are not receiving adequate health care. Many prisons are not sufficiently equipped and staffed and this means that required clinical and similar tasks are not likely to be available in critical situations.

Many institutions prefer to accept the mentally ill and treat them similar to normal individuals because they want to avoid the problems coming along with having to provide them with adequate treatment. The problem here is much greater than someone might be inclined to suspect: "According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 56% of state prisoners and 45% of federal prisoners have symptoms or a recent history of mental health problems" (Mental Illness, Human Rights, and U.S. Prisons). Many prisoners require psychiatric interventions at certain moments during their incarceration and although some of them actually go through this process, others are provided with even harsher penalties as the authorities intentionally (in some cases this is involuntarily) believe that there is nothing wrong with these individuals.

Mentally ill prisoners are probable to experience more and more problems as a result of their incarceration and their condition is likely to deteriorate. Such cases typically involve prisoners disobeying orders and being provided with more severe penalties. These strategies are not only ineffective, as they can actually worsen the prisoner's state. In some cases prisoners end up committing suicide because they are not differentiated from the rest and because they are not provided with adequate care. "Mental health treatment can help some prisoners recover from their illness and for many others it can alleviate its painful symptoms, prevent deterioration, and protect them from suicide" (Mental Illness, Human Rights, and U.S. Prisons).

In order to gain a more complex understanding of the experiences that a mentally ill person goes through while in prison, one would first have to accept that prison time is traumatizing for basically anyone. Normal prisoners struggle to maintain their self-esteem and to avoid being abused. In contrast, mentally ill prisoners are vulnerable to be abused and are usually targeted by other prisoners and exploited as a result of their failure to distinguish between right and wrong.

III. Solutions to a hidden problem

Society has to open its eyes and understand that it is in its best interest to provide mentally ill individuals with a positive environment, both when they are free and when they are incarcerated. It is actually important for people to comprehend that many mentally ill individuals would not become criminals if they were to receive adequate treatment while being free.

Nurses need to be well-acquainted with legal and ethical responsibilities concerning mentally ill individuals who committed crimes. Mental health is an important issue when considering the U.S. prison system and nurses are often among the individuals who directly interact with mentally ill prisoners and who need to provide them with proper treatment. The fact that one third of all prison suicides occur within the prisoner's first week in jail actually demonstrates that treatment needs to begin from the very first moments that a deranged individuals spends incarcerated. "Fully trained mental health and correctional staff in prisons are rare because of the lack of qualified professionals working in the system as well as because of budgetary constraints" (Finkel 227).

Nursing can play an important role in assisting mentally ill individuals who are incarcerated by providing them with the treatment they need. Even with this, it all comes down to the funds that the government is willing to allocate to prisons across the country in an attempt to make sure that mental health becomes one of the most important concepts in the American prison system.

Nurses are not only important because they can treat mentally ill individuals in prison, as they can also get actively involved in changing the public's opinion concerning these people. The masses' opinion is fueled by stereotypes relating to how individuals who are mentally ill need to be feared, kept away from, and put in institutions. "If such people cannot be confined to mental hospitals for any period, there seems to be public support for arresting and incarcerating them instead (Videbeck 379). The reality is that mentally ill individuals are more likely to become victims of violence, both while free and in prison.

Working as a nurse in prison can be very demanding, as nurses typically encounter much resistance. Mentally ill prisoners can either put across hostile behavior or can try to mask their feelings in an attempt to seem normal. Nurses can actually help these people that it is in their best interest to express their feelings directly. By trying to treat mentally ill prisoners, a nurse can experience particularly good results. He or she basically needs to teach individuals that feelings are one of the most important concepts and that by learning how to put across their sentiments they are more probable to experience a lesser number of episodes during which their illness comes into play. "The nurse can help them examine the relationship between feelings and subsequent actions" (Videbeck 342). Anger is not necessarily a negative feeling and it can actually be more harmful to the individual if it is not expressed.

IV. Conclusion

Matters are critical when considering mentally ill individuals in prisons and this is reflected by the fact that most prison doctors and nurses do not have professional training in dealing with such persons. Nurses need to be subjected to intensive training that can provide them with the expertise required to assess prisoners for mental health problems. Mentally ill individuals are being provided with the same penalties that normal prisoners are provided with. Many individuals in supermaximum security units are mentally ill and the time they spend there only harms them even more. When considering things from a general point-of-view it seems that the contemporary U.S. prison system is unwilling to acknowledge that it plays an active role in abusing individuals who have mental issues. Mental health in prisons is certainly not a problem that the government wants to consider when allocating funds and matters are probable to stay the same in the coming years. Nurses and physicians in general have to form a united front meant to emphasize the gravity of penalizing mentally ill criminals instead of treating them. It is virtually as if society would prefer to ignore the problem instead of trying to focus on removing it.

Works cited:

Austin, W. And Boyd, M.A. (2010). Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing for Canadian Practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Cornwell, D.J. (2009). The Penal Crisis and the Clapham Omnibus: Questions and Answers in Restorative Justice. Waterside Press.

Finkel, M.L. (2010). Public Health in the 21st Century: [Three Volumes]. ABC-CLIO.

Videbeck, S.L. (2010). Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

"Health and nursing care in the criminal justice service," Retrieved January 30, 2013, from the Royal College of Nursing Website: http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/248725/003307.pdf

"Mental Illness, Human Rights, and U.S. Prisons," Retrieved January 30, 2013, from the Human Rights Watch Website: http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/09/22/mental-illness-human-rights-and-us-prisons

"NURSE PRACTICE ACT STATUTES & ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS," Retrieved January 30, 2013, from the Kansas Board of Nursing Website: http://www.ksbn.org/npa/npa.pdf

"U.S.: Number of Mentally Ill in Prisons Quadrupled," Retrieved January 30, 2013, from the Human Rights Watch Website: http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/09/05/us-number-mentally-ill-prisons-quadrupled