MENTALLY ILL PRISONERS
Silence, dead silence, was broken when the prison guard screeched opens the cell door. Guards slowly moved their eyes around the cell. The cold cement walls were covered with scribble and the letter w was written on the wall at least one hundred times. One of the guards noticed a pair of sneakers on the floor. However, they were missing their shoelaces. The mystery was solved seconds later when the guards looked up and saw the limp posture of his body, the ghostlike complexion of his skin, and the shoelaces wrapped so tight around his neck that they were starting to rip. The mentally ill inmate in cell block 23A had hung himself. Stories like this occur within prisons everyday, yet no one seems to notice, or even bother to care. Mentally ill inmates are a growing problem in prisons nationwide because they are a threat to themselves and others, but prisons and administrators continue to ignore it.
The reason why mentally ill inmates are a problem in prisons is because there are too many of them. The numbers of mentally ill prisoners are growing rapidly. Statistics from numerous sources, not only point out the outrageous numbers, they allow society to ob

to observe why this problem needs to be addressed. According to Earl Stahl’s article “Growing Population of Mentally Ill Offenders Redefines Correctional Facility Design,” the amount of attention that needs to go into the care and help of mentally ill inmates have risen dramatically in recent years. Local jail, state, and correctional facilities have seen a huge number of mentally ill offenders being put behind bars for the second and

Not only does putting mentally ill inmates in prison effect the health of the mentally ill, it effects society as well. Dene Moore, author of “Mentally Ill Inmates Fall Through the Cracks,” states how an ex-prisoner that was mentally ill was charged with the murder of a nine-year old girl. David Trott who was just 20 years of age was waiting to be evaluated for his mental illness while serving time, for a robbery he committed, in prison. The Forensic Psychiatric Institute was the only hospital around that dealt with the mentally ill. However, Trotts sentence for robbery had run out before an evaluation was ever made. As a result he was put back onto the streets with the rest of society. Only two days after he was released from prison, he disappeared with Jessica Russell who was just nine years old. Police and family searched for days. Their search came to a tragic end on May 5th when Jessica Russell was found murdered in a burned-out mobile home. This left Trott charged with abduction and first-degree murder (1). If Trott would have been put into an institution, he would have been helped and supervised. Specialists working there would be able to determine whether or not it is safe to put a man like that back into society. They would have been able to give him the medication he needed to help his illness, instead of overlooking and ignoring it. Jessica Russell was only nine years old. She had the rest of her life ahead of her. Because mentally ill inmates reside in prisons all over the world and are ignored, she is dead. This problem has to be resolved immediately.

There are various dangers that develop from having mentally ill prisoners in jail. One of the effects that arise from housing mentally ill patients in prisons is the heightened risks of suicides. According to Michigan Daily angry administrators blame the heightened risk of suicide of mentally disturbed inmates on the lack of funds they receive. These funds should be directed towards coupling and helping such inmates (Michigan Daily, 1). Money needs to come from somewhere to be given to these prisons to make it possible to treat inmates that are in desperate need of it. If money is not directed or can not be given to prisons for those reasons, then mentally ill inmates must be placed elsewhere.

According to Adam Smith, writer for St. Petersburg Times, The mix between regular inmates, and the mentally ill is “a recipe for violent confrontations (1).” However prisons seem to disagree. Smith reports that the Justice Department points out that mentally ill inmates tend to serve more time behind bars aside from the average sentence because they are penalized for getting into more fights and causing other types of problems (1). Sheilagh Hodgins, a Forensic Psychiatrist, asserts that the increased rate of violence, especially with schizophrenic men, is brought on when they are released within the normal prison population (117-118). By having mentally ill patients get into fights with the regular inmates is extremely dangerous. Nathaniel Pallone, Mental Disorder Specialist, says that once an act of aggression has started, the mentally disturbed inmate goes into a