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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An 8 page research paper that looks at the incidence of mentally ill prisoners in the American system. The U.S. prison population currently houses more than 2.1 million people. Many of these inmates suffer from substance abuse and mental illness. But research shows that only a small percentage of these prisoners receive treatment and rehabilitation while incarcerated and, therefore, recidivism rates for these individuals remains high. The following examination of relevant literature on this topic shows that many mentally ill inmates receive no treatment, do not receive psychotropic medications that they need or the follow care that would reintegrate them into society. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khmipri.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
a small percentage of these prisoners receive treatment and rehabilitation while incarcerated and, therefore, recidivism rates for these individuals remains high. The following examination of relevant literature on this topic
shows that many mentally ill inmates receive no treatment, do not receive psychotropic medications that they need or the follow care that would reintegrate them into society. More than 80
percent of state prisoners and in excess of 70 percent of federal prisoners self-report to prior drug use and issues of dependency (Tyruse and Linhorst, 2005). Also, a 1997 study
indicated that 16 percent of "jail and state prison inmates and 7 percent of federal inmates--a total of 283,000 inmates" had some form of mental illness (Tyruse and Linhorst, 2005,
p. 233). Due to this fact, it has become commonplace for jails and prisons to be referred to as "Americas new mental hospitals," as on any given day, there are
roughly twice as many mentally ill individuals in incarcerated as there are in the public psychiatric hospitals (Tyruse and Linhorst, 2005, p. 233). Other sources, such as Davies (2003),
place this figure at three times the number of patients residing in mental health hospitals. It is also widely acknowledged that the high prevalence of mental illness among the countrys
inmates is due to the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric services, which began in the 1960s, as this trend resulted in the release of huge numbers of mentally ill patients from state
institutions without having in place the support services necessary to integrate them successfully into communities (Tyruse and Linhorst, 2005). Another background factor in the number of mentally ill
in American prisons is the "get tough on crime" attitude that has been prevalent in the U.S. over the past several decades, which has resulted in tougher sentencing and a
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