Do the mentally ill belong in prison?

I came across this story on CNN about a woman that stabbed her mother. From the video you can clearly tell she is mentally ill. I have paranoid schizophrenia myself and can tell she clearly has the illness. Matter of fact I've been in her shoes. When I was coming down with the illness I almost stabbed my step father. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was loosing my mind and I build this delusional conspiracy up in my head that my step father was the cause of it. I stood outside of his bedroom one night with a butcher knife. I thought it was him or me. I thought he was putting subliminal messages in my head while I slept. For what ever reason I decided not to do him in.

Here I am 18 years later and I take my medication every day. I wake up everyday thankful that I didn't end up in prison. I am fully dedicated to my medication. I have never thought about harming anyone since then. Looking back on my condition I had no clue that I was coming down with schizophrenia at the time. What I was thinking at the time was a fight or flight response. I didn't want to harm anyone to be vindictive or out of anger it was more out of self preservation.

That brings me to my question. Should the mentally ill be locked up in prison? Is prison the right place for them?

Personally I think they deserve better treatment. They are ill through no fault of their own. It's bad enough having to be mentally ill to begin with then having you life ripped apart because of it. The prison system has become the new mental hospitals. The mentally ill are just tossed aside and forgotten about. Society doesn't want to deal with them neither does the government. The mental health system in this country is a joke. There needs to a some kind of humane treatment for those that can't get the help they need. Prisons are not the answer.

Here's a link to the video that made me start this topic.

www.cnn.com...

reply to post by wantsome


Prison most certainly is not the answer or best course of action for ill people.

Society sees a crime, and demands punishment, this is the thinking..it's wrong, but that's why ill people end up in prison..'there has to be reckoning'.

The brain, when we come right down to it, can be thought of as our body's operating system, ram and storage device.

We don't tend to throw away our computers when our operating system gets corrupted, or our hard drives develop too much fragmentation...we fix them and repair the damaged or corrupted files and allocation tables.

Throwing the computer out into the bin won't fix them..neither will throwing ill people into prison fix anything wrong with their operating systems.

It's a crude analogy, but is basically what is happening.

reply to post by wantsome


I completely agree.

My cousin is currently doing time for attempted murder, since being in prison he has been diagnosed with the same thing.

Since being in prison his situation has deteriorated, his paranoid delusions have got worse and he has now completely become disconnected with reality.

I've sent him cards, photos of me and our family, begged him to let us come and visit (he has to initiate a visit) but he wont even respond. We don't know what's going on or what we can do about it, I feel like the justice system has failed us. Even his "victim" didn't want to press charges and cried her eyes out when he was sentenced.

I am glad you did not have to go through the hell my cousin is going through, your family was been spared a lot of heartache, especially at things like Christmas.

He was always a troubled guy, but he had a heart and he is not a bad person, prison is not the place for him. He needs to be somewhere that feels like a home, like he's somewhere safe and these guys in white coats that are electroshocking his brain aren't trying to kill him. He needs his family to be able to be there, but since he's in prison and prisoners must apply for visitors how is he even meant to be in a place to ask for us to be there? (in the UK anyway, not sure about US)

It's something that is close and personal to me and I fully support your idea, I wish that it was something on the table of conversation, but it's not.

The reality is that they don't have a clue with what to with people like that.

reply to post by wantsome


Absolutely not!

I think they need HELP not prison. Prison only makes it worse. Those who don't have a mental disorder just don't understand how it is. People think you are faking it our that you just have an attitude or are just crazy. It's not that! It's something more and for me it's a chemical imbalance. I'm bi polar.

Those with mental disorders are often tossed aside and just labeled "crazy" and given pills. They aren't treated like people and nobody really wants to deal with them. I am bi polar manic depressive and it sucks. Most people don't understand and those who do have some form of mental disorder themselves. It is really hard to get people to understand something like this because it's not an outward "disease" you can see physically. It's an internal battle.

I always knew something was wrong with me. It got worse as an adult around my early 20s. I openly admit it and that was hard at first but it took 10yrs to get any kind of help and i had to offer to be a guinea pig in an experimental drug, seroquel. I didn't care at that point. I wanted help and where I live mental health help is a joke. There really isn't any and the insurance I had didn't cover mental health so I was really left with no real options til I found the study. I remember the doctor who interviewed me didn't want to accept me for the study but the female doctor told him NO they were taking me. I heard the whole conversation. She said I had been turned away enough and was asking for help. If it wasn't for her I don't know what would have happened. The seroquel worked wonders but the side effects were horrible. I haven't been on anything in a few years and I know when an episode is about to happen and I have my own ways of dealing with it.


I'm glad you got some help and it works for you. There are so many out there who don't get it. The mental health care system in the states is a joke. I wish there were places people could go to get treatment and not be treated like some prisoner or potential criminal just because they have a mental disorder.

I know this may sound silly but when I feel like I'm going to have an episode this song is my happy song. This song came out about the time I started having issues and I had to pull over and cry. It spoke volumes to me and my situation. It's also my favorite band ever.

lyrics

"I'm not crazy I'm just a little unwell"

reply to post by wantsome


Lol casting spells, she was so powerful! What a kook. I think they should be locked up yes but not in a normal prison. A mental hospital like you see in the movies, with people drooling all over themselves. Not trying to be a jerk but wow I am sure this situation could have been prevented. As soon as friends or neighbors heard her talk about the "powerful" satan clan casting spells, someone should have been concerned and done something about it.
Firepiston

There needs to be full evaluation of their medical / mental health history .. all too often "mental illness" is an excuse by lawyers to keep their clients out of prison . if the individual is found to be actually mentally ill and not faking to escape prison then they need to be sent to a secured facility to recieve treatment after which depending upon the nature of their crime and whether or not they pose a threat to themselves or others .. either released and strictly monitored or sent to prison if it was a capitol crime they commited to begin with.

FirePiston
reply to post by wantsome

 

Lol casting spells, she was so powerful! What a kook. I think they should be locked up yes but not in a normal prison. A mental hospital like you see in the movies, with people drooling all over themselves. Not trying to be a jerk but wow I am sure this situation could have been prevented. As soon as friends or neighbors heard her talk about the "powerful" satan clan casting spells, someone should have been concerned and done something about it.
Firepiston

People tend to keep it to themselves with these kinds of ideas, your view of insanity is very much taken from too much TV.

Whilst I agree that they should not have free reign since they could be a danger, putting them in a room with a load of other paranoid schizophrenics or prisoners will not help.

You have to remember, it's an illness, and there is a person suffering behind the illness.

Also, saying "I'm not trying to be a jerk", doesn't make it OK to then be a jerk.

Something in that video do not add up with schizophrenic psychosis, she takes quite normal eye contact and doesn´t have schizophrenic eyes. There must be something else in here perhaps drugs use. She is delusional but not in schizophrenic psychosis.

iRoyalty

FirePiston
reply to post by wantsome

 

Lol casting spells, she was so powerful! What a kook. I think they should be locked up yes but not in a normal prison. A mental hospital like you see in the movies, with people drooling all over themselves. Not trying to be a jerk but wow I am sure this situation could have been prevented. As soon as friends or neighbors heard her talk about the "powerful" satan clan casting spells, someone should have been concerned and done something about it.
Firepiston

People tend to keep it to themselves with these kinds of ideas, your view of insanity is very much taken from too much TV.

Whilst I agree that they should not have free reign since they could be a danger, putting them in a room with a load of other paranoid schizophrenics or prisoners will not help.

You have to remember, it's an illness, and there is a person suffering behind the illness.

Also, saying "I'm not trying to be a jerk", doesn't make it OK to then be a jerk.

So would the video of this nut talking about spells be considered tv? Are you saying this video was staged or something? From the "tv" I just watched, she was a kook.
Firepiston

Maybe this lady was sane and her grandma was really a spell caster. I think our gov and the people who run it are evil and cast spells all the time. We can all pretty much agree on that. So does that make us mentally ill? I think researching and finding the truth will make anyone kookoo.
Firepiston

FirePiston
So would the video of this nut talking about spells be considered tv? Are you saying this video was staged or something? From the "tv" I just watched, she was a kook.
Firepiston

Well of course not, that was her confession, but I highly doubt she was running around everyday saying "I need to kill people because of voices in my head!".

My cousin was very quiet and secretive, he would confide in my his views on the world which were usually quite dark, but not to anyone else. When he tried killing himself and failed he covered it up at every step, it's only because he couldn't get the blood out of his bed sheets that we found out.

Maybe you shouldn't have so many offensive views about something you have never had to experience.

Since the dissolution of state asylums, the mentally ill live in state funded group homes where they are cared for like royalty. Truly. it doesn't get any better than this. The "client" retains all human rights and caregiver is stripped of all human rights. The mentally ill client generates immense profits for the state.

reply to post by hurdygurdy


Even if they committed a crime due to the mental illness?

That woman is mentally ill. Something similar happened in the Yates case. I wonder if she stopped taking her meds because she got pregnant and then didn't go back on them. These people belong in a mental hospital until they are stable and then they can stand trial and the jury can decide if what they did is considered insane under the law.

reply to post by iRoyalty


That does not factor into the the equation, at least in my state.

Also, the pharmaceutical companies stand to gain immense profit from the "mentally ill" who are unlikely to dispute their "prescriptions".

reply to post by hurdygurdy


It is very hard to know how best to treat these patients. Whilst I don't want to empower the pharmaceutical industry, it would probably be a chemical re-balancer that would help, along with mental exercises and probably a lot of care.

reply to post by iRoyalty


A LOT of care from under-paid, under-trained staff, and across the board prescribed prescriptions. Inquire what each of these mentally ill patients cost your state each month to live in a group homes. Follow the money.

reply to post by hurdygurdy


Well I'm not 100% about the states since I live across the pond.

My cousin was found mentally sound by two psychologists, I could have told them myself that he was not. Maybe it was just because he spoke like he was from Laaaandan! It's only been since he's in prison they've decided he was not mentally sound.

The money here is coming from tax payers, so I don't know of any agenda, but who knows man...

The way mental illnesses are dealt with need to change.

dollukka
Something in that video do not add up with schizophrenic psychosis, she takes quite normal eye contact and doesn´t have schizophrenic eyes. There must be something else in here perhaps drugs use. She is delusional but not in schizophrenic psychosis.

Schizophrenic eyes? WTF? never heard that one before. She was clearly delusional I've been there myself. I was so far gone the doctors told my mom I would never be the same again.

May I suggest the possibility the mentally ill are being cheated of professional care since moving from a hospital setting into a group home without consistent professional overview. To care for these individuals, whether or not they possess a criminal background is an entry level profession. You now have total noobs looking after those who require at least a doctor's care.