Instead of receiving therapy and possibly treatment for his illness, James Holmes will now spend the rest of his life in a maximum-security prison without any form of rehabilitation. His case signposts for medical, judicial, and corrections communities in Colorado—as well as a general public transfixed by the details of this mass shooting and its sequel—that it is difficult to balance criminal justice and the human rights of the insane.
If a mentally ill individual convicted in a legal process is lucky enough to avoid prison and go straight to a mental institution, he may find that the conditions there are not much different from those in prisons for the ostensibly sane. Public mental institutions often mimic prisons. With the constant problems of overcrowding and underfunding, sometimes the best they can do is warehouse the mentally ill and keep them at a safe distance from those who are mentally healthy.
The number of patients in the Colorado State Hospital in the s and 40s was about to Today, the asylum—now called the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo CMHIP —holds more persons with criminal convictions than those without and has been criticized for treating patients unjustly. Therefore, some patients were being kept unfairly at the hospital longer than they would have served in prison for their crimes. The state checked in on the hospital for eighteen months after the suit, but only returned sporadically after that, so it is hard to determine if the new standards have been properly applied.
A potential turning point in the treatment of mental illness among incarcerated offenders arose in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections v. Yeskey case in Pennsylvania DOC v. Yeskey thus appears to be a promising precedent for better management of mental illness among a prison population. Some of its stipulations are as follows:.
Courts and mental health | Mind, the mental health charity - help for mental health problems
Evidently, however, discrimination in the discretion of the correctional officers is problematic. Numerous cases show correctional officers abusing their power over prisoners. Hager was put on death row for the murder of Elizabeth James. Instead he was admitted to a cell on death row. In , Cruz Romero occupied a cell on death row. Each time the doctors reached a diagnosis of sanity.
Mental illness and the criminal justice system: Reducing the risks
Frank Bailey, a prisoner on death row in , was found insane following his trial and was known for being violent. Bailey actually spent time in the hospital for his illness, but was then transferred to the prison for being too violent for the mental hospital to manage. Had Hager, Bailey, or many individuals like them been alive today, perhaps they would have been admitted and treated properly in a hospital; then again, maybe they would have the same fate as Mr.
In a criminal named Darrell Howell was twice determined to be mentally ill by two separate doctors, but at his trial a Dr. How is it possible for anyone except the perpetrator to truly know what was going through his head at the time of the crime? The definition of mental instability is constantly being revised. The overcrowding of asylums and the overbearing, watchful eye of current institutions has historically made mental hospitals less effective than they might be.
With the removal of occupational rehabilitation, state resources for mentally ill criminals are focused on medication rather than rehabilitative programs. The Supreme Court case preventing the discrimination of the disabled in prisons was a step in the right direction in terms of the management of mental illness; but more can still be done.
Some breaches of human rights of the criminally insane are rooted in the assessments performed and reported by psychiatrists and doctors.
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The case studies outlined above suggest that the problems in diagnosis have not diminished over time. The treatment and management of mentally ill prisoners needs to be revisited to remediate human rights violations. Other counties should follow his lead. Department of Justice. I was lucky to get out. Below are the reasons why I say this:.
Mental disorders and incarceration history
They are not reliable or valid at all and any type of labeling people based on a checklist is degrading. Stigma and discrimination exists when people distinguish and give labels to human differences that are associated with negative stereotypes.
Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research and Practice]. By the way, this issue is not just relevant for antidepressants, but applies for all types of psychiatric medicines — there are many studies.
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While I absolutely agree that there are unacceptable percentages of mentally ill in prisons and jails, and whatever "treatment" is available in the corrections system is a joke, there are simply not sufficient programs or facilities out there in which to provide meaningful and adequate levels of treatment. Mentally ill people are in jails and prisons because they cannot conform their behavior to standards acceptable in free society.
That means, with the exception of non-violent drug possession or status types of offenses, they have victimized at least one innocent person to even be there at all. Many of the mentally ill are in jail due to violent offenses. They have the potential to hurt and kill innocent people if just "turned out" into the community with pie-in-the-sky hopes for some kind of "treatment" out there somewhere. There is nothing available in the community that is secure enough, long term enough, or provides enough meaningful therapy to deal with them.
Then they spiral downwards again, perpetrated another incident, and get thrown back into the 72 hour cycle, over and over again. When they get out, they go back to what they know, mostly their elderly parents, who are in various states of disability, because no one else will put up with their shenanigans, and whom they terrorize. There just is no one else they can call except the cops, and there is nowhere else the cops can put them except jail after the evaluation period.
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The 72 hour thing is just like getting arrested - cops come, throw you around, cuff you and stuff you in the back of a squad car, take you downtown and lock you up, where you sit until they can get you into an evaluation facility, where you are taken in handcuffs, then dragged into court in handcuffs. And most times you are also a perp, having hurt or seriously threatened somebody. We need to get serious and fund enough secured mental facilities with enough treatment available not only to help the mentally ill person but to protect society from those unable to contain themselves.
Are you kidding me? This program is for defendants charged with nonviolent misdemeanors. Rape defendants would not qualify. Back Psychology Today. Back Find a Therapist. Back Get Help. Back Magazine. The Power of Boundaries Sharing personal information brings people closer together. Subscribe Issue Archive. Back Today. Telling the Story Numbers Can't. Marjorie L. Baldwin Ph. References [1] Bronson J and Berzofsky M.
The real crime Submitted by kdn on October 13, - pm. Below are the reasons why I say this: - We need to remember that the DSM categories labels given to people are mere categories that are arrived through by clicking check-lists these are not based on objective tests. Read the post more carefully Submitted by virago on February 1, - am. Post Comment Your name. E-mail The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
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