Mental Health IN JAILS AND PRISONS
By Katia Faroun, Abraham Kabazie, and Brian Rooney
In Pennsylvania, one-fourth of the prison and jail populations suffer from some sort of mental illness, according to Secretary of Corrections John E. Wetzel. Pennsylvania has closed the majority of its state mental hospitals, turning prisons and jails into some of the largest psychiatric institutes in the country. Instead of receiving adequate care in institutions designed to rehabilitate them, mentally ill individuals find themselves struggling to receive the necessary, quality care required to properly treat them — and eventually reintroduce them back into the community.
Out of the 2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S., 96,000 are locked up in Pennsylvania prisons and jails, according to Prison Policy Initiative. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) reported in 2016 that about 50,000 are being incarcerated long-term in one of Pennsylvania’s 24 state correctional institutions. That means approximately 12,500 of these prisoners suffer from some sort of serious mental illness.
Without proper attention and care, the psychological states of inmates who suffer from mental illnesses are likely to worsen. Inmates who struggle with substance abuse and addictions experience withdrawal and receive little-to-no treatment. Most prisons in the country have instituted programs that aid individuals with mental health issues, but more often than not, these programs fall short of the treatment what is needed.
Incarcerated individuals who suffer from mental illnesses are more likely than the general prison(?) population to have had that mental illness before incarceration. Additionally, mental health issues are associated with high recidivism rates, meaning mentally ill individuals are much more likely to be reincarcerated after initial release. Lack of proper care and treatment causes mentally ill individuals to be unprepared for re-entry, leaving them unprepared to manage the illness alone.
Unaddressed mental health issues also lead to higher infractions among inmates, according to Ed Mulvey, professor of psychiatry and director of the Law and Psychiatry program at the University of Pittsburgh.
“A lot of that has to do with a controlled environment and the ability for people to comply all the time with things that don’t make sense to them,” Mulvey said.
The reactions of mentally ill inmates to certain situations may be misinterpreted by guards and other inmates, resulting in infractions and undeserved punishments. These misunderstandings and the consequential treatment frequently lead to further deterioration of individuals’ mental health.
Every Pennsylvania state prison has implemented services and programs designed to aid individuals with mental illnesses. These programs include training, treatment facilities, classifications, out-of-cell options and specialized treatment units, including the elimination of solitary confinement for mentally ill offenders. The purpose of these programs is to aid inmates with mental health issues from the beginning of their incarceration process and during their time in prison.
The DOC offers mentally ill inmates continuity of care upon release to help aid their re-entry process, according to Lynn Patrone, mental health advocate for the Pennsylvania DOC.
“Without treatment, there could be triggers that impact a person and possibly their symptoms may escalate because of the anxiety of re-entering the community,” Patrone said. “We try to bridge that gap for them.”
State and private facilities arrange treatment services and schedule appointments for mentally ill inmates upon release. They also provide these individuals with their psychotropic medications, such as antidepressants and mood stabilizers, for up to two months post-release, according to Patrone.
The Pennsylvania DOC also has certified peer specialists, recovering mentally ill inmates who help prison mental health staff support other prisoners with mental health issues. This program may also act as a potential career opportunity for returning citizens who are released from prison.
Because of the generally longer sentences inmates are serving, correctional facilities are able to develop programs for mentally ill individuals.
“In prisons you have more time,” Mulvey said. “Stays tend to be longer, and people can go through preparatory work in prisons much more.”
By implementing programs such as those of the Pennsylvania DOC, facilities can lower the chances of mentally-ill released prisoners to reoffend. Re-entry programs and quality treatment procedures offer returning citizens with mental illnesses the ability to receive sufficient care both while inside and upon re-entry into society.
