Essay On Mental Health In Prison

Those in prison have a constitutional right to health care and adequate mental health treatment. The growth of the correctional populace has put a strain on the inadequate size of jails and prisons to respond to the health needs of inmates. This situation is only made even more challenging because of the fact that prisoners with these serious mental diseases involve specific services and treatment. “Prevalence estimates of mental illnesses in U.S. jails have varied widely depending on methodology and setting. Using survey methodology, a 1999 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) estimated that 16.3% of jail inmates reported either a “mental condition” or an overnight stay in a mental hospital during their lifetime (7). In 2006 …show more content…
Finding funding and drafting an action plan is one step, turning these good intentions and money into enhanced services is another much more difficult task. To figure out whether services are becoming more successful we will require public reporting of particular performance indicators that are still being developed. As time goes by the data should be an indicator of whether these historical shortages in care for people crippled by involvement in the criminal justice system and mental illness are finally being …show more content…
If treatment for these health problems was maintained we may help improve these post-release outcomes. A large amount of inmates presently receive health care while they are incarcerated, however, lack of reliable health insurance and other barriers to treatment only contributes to the failures in health treatment and functioning once the inmate has been released. Availability of care through insurance coverage not only helps the individual, but it can help to lower criminal justice system expenditures and societal health care costs by decreasing costly emergency room visits, allowing these individuals to work and lowering repetitive criminal