Prison and the Mentally Ill
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The top two mental care facilities in the U.S. are Cook County and Los Angeles County jails. The problem with the mater of the mentally ill offenders is that there is not adequate care for them. In 1999, the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics (FBJS) 16% of adults in prison and jail were mentally ill. In addition, the FBJS has reported that 1 out of every 10 prisoners is on psychotropic medicines and that number is increasing to 1 of every 5 in some states. In addition, it is thought that between 25 and 40 percent of mentally ill people will be involved with the criminal justice at some time in their lives. The odd side to the story is that almost all the time, it takes a lawsuit, or the threat of a lawsuit to create change in the system. While earlier lawsuits tended to focus on more systematic improvements on the mental health services, recent lawsuits focus on improving the current systems.
For my thought paper, I decided to read an article on what needs to be tone to improve today's mental health care facilities in jails and prisons...