A 2006 report from the Human Rights Watch concluded that the numbers of mentally ill prisoners in the U.S. has quadrupled since 2000, demonstrating a failure on the part of the prison system, which failed to properly treat mentally ill prisoners.
More than half the prisoners in the U.S. experienced some mental health problem, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. According to reports issues that qualify are: symptoms of major depression, mania and psychotic disorders. In 2006, approximately 705,600 incarcerated adults are in state prisons, federal prisons and local jails also suffer from the growing mental health population. Statistics concluded that 78,000 federal inmates and 479,000 prisoners are in local jails. An estimated 56.2 percent of the prison population suffers from mental health issues. In the adult general population it is 11 percent, according to BJS.
Reports find that doctors have diagnosed a quarter of incarcerated women with a psychiatric disorder. An estimated 73 percent of women in state prisons and 75 percent in local jails have mental health problems.
The growing numbers of mentally ill prisoners should be in hospital treatment programs rather than prisons, According to William Fisher’s article “Mentally Ill in Prison.”
Prison staffs are untrained to handle sick people whose illness can only get worse in prison, said Fisher.
As a result of having untrained prison officials, many staff have “turned to solitary confinement as a way to manage difficult or dangerous [mentally ill] prisoners,” said Fisher. Mentally ill prisoners can remain in solitary confinement for years, further damaging their conditions, Fisher adds.
When the mentally ill prisoners are released back to society, prisoners often leave the mental health system under-treated or not treated at all. Prisoners with mental health problems face a limited qualified staff, lack of facilities and prison policies that interferes with their treatment, according to Humans Right Watch.
While the numbers of mentally ill prisoners increases, prisons remain a dangerous and damaging place for them, said Director of Human Rights Watch Jamie Fellner.
Reports by HRW said that when mentally ill prisoners show signs of their illness such as being noisy, refusing orders, self-mutilating or attempted suicide, prison medical staffs attempt to resolve these disruptive prisoners by isolating them in solitary confinement that can push them into acute psychosis.
Fellner compares solitary confinement for the mentally ill prisoners to torturing an asthmatic by leaving them in a room with no air.
Human Rights Watch reported that people with mental illness, particularly those who are poor, homeless or struggling with substance abuse couldn’t get the treatment they need. When crimes are committed by the mentally ill, punitive sentencing laws mandate imprisonment.
Reports revealed that prisoners with mental illness were likely to have been physically or sexually abused in the past, living with family members with drug abuse problems, and have family members who had been incarcerated. Approximately 42 percent of mentally ill inmates suffered from drug dependence or abuse.
Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman, recognizes the ongoing issues concerning what mentally ill prisoners face in the justice system and is working to do more than incarcerate them. Leifman’s ideas involved focusing on the mentally ill prisoners who commit non-violent crimes to seek out treatment rather than sending them through the prison system.
According to reports, many politicians who considered improving care for the mentally ill prisoners admit that the issue was not their highest priority. Some political leaders fear it would cost taxpayers more money on improving medications to care for the mentally ill that are housed in state hospitals. Former president of the American Psychiatric Association Dr. Francis J. Braceland maintains that “prescription of drugs for the mentally ill was and is a wise policy.”
