The problems of mental illness and prison violence have increasingly become common contemporary issues within the criminal justice system in most jurisdictions, in particular those countries like the US with high incarceration rates and overcrowded prisons (James & Glaze, 2006). At the outset, the main critical issues emanate from these issues include the effectiveness of prison mental illness treatment services, constitutional rights of mentally ill inmates to medical treatment, processing, managing and treatment of mentally ill prisoners and psychiatric rehabilitation of the mentally ill prisoners. It is important therefore to these issues and sub-issues be addressed by first establishing their major causes and social impacts on the criminal justice system. This paper discusses and analyzes the main issues regarding prison violence and mental illness within the criminal justice system. It is argued herein that the problems of prison violence and mental illness have dented the image of the criminal justice system and frustrated or negated the efforts and main objectives of the system which is to rehabilitate and reform inmates socially, mentally and psychiatrically. It then suggests plausible solutions and change to the contemporary challenges within the justice system.
Prison Violence in the Criminal Justice System
According to Walker, Pan, Shapiro and Hasselt (2015), the main causes of violence in prisons include infiltration and trafficking of drugs and weapons into prison walls, poor prison management, overcrowding in prisons, gang-related activities, snitching and access by inmates to illegal substances such as shanks and contrabands. Other factors responsible for violence within the prison justice system include the personal attributes or characteristics of prisoners themselves, situational and structural factors such as prison design and security levels, poor prison management practices such as lack of training and inadequate staffing and racial tensions among inmates. However, poor prison management that results in dysfunctional prison control and manning systems has been cited as being the main contributing factor to interpersonal violence in prisons (Walker, et al., 2015). Moreover, the increasing number of offenders entering the criminal justice system and end up as prisoners has put a strain on the existing prison facilities and given the sheer small size of prisons, crowding condition in prisons has led to inevitable result of violence among prisoners as a means of venting their frustrations. A research study by Wolff, Blitz, Shi, Siegel and Bachman (2007) found out that the high rates of physical violence within the criminal justice system is are not only perpetrated by the fellow inmates but also by the prison staff. According to these authors, the prison violence normally takes the form of victimization, physical assault and sexual harassment and violence. They argue that physical is so serious in American prison system that it has become an “integral part of prison life” (p. 589).More often than not, the authors note, the violence in prison culminates into deaths of many inmates on an annual basis. There has also developed a stereotype among the American public that the prison as part of the criminal justice system has been rendered a violent place where reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners are no longer given priority by the prison authorities.
A number of theories have been suggested to explain the prison violence scenario within the criminal justice system. The most important ones, according to Phillips (2003) are the importation and deprivation theories. The deprivation theory of prison violence postulates that the self-preservation by prisoners help create a culture of deviance within the prison system that in turn promotes a culture of violence among inmates themselves or against the prison officials. This is a psychological model on prison violence that uses the social deviant behavior and attitude among inmates to facilitate physical violence within prison walls. On the other hand, the importation theory on prison violence holds that the social histories, social networks and attributes including prisoners’ connection with criminal groups that they bring with them into the prison institution facilitate and perpetrate violence within the criminal justice prison system. Other related theories that have been used by scholars to explain incidences of physical violence in prisons are the situational theory developed by Wortley in 2002 and the transactional theory postulated in 1999 by Bottoms. The transactional model on prison violence emphasizes on the social interactions that exist between inmates with divergent social and racial backgrounds within a new prison environment or setting. The situational theory is based on environmental cues that facilitate and provoke antisocial behavior among inmates. The lack of proper training and hence ineptitude that characterizes the prison staff system in most jurisdictions have all been blamed for being behind high incidents of various forms of violence in prison systems.
Edgar and O’Donnell (1998) have also argued that victims have also contributed to rise in cases of physical and other forms of violence within the prison system. According to these authors, victims have played a role in their victimization by precipitating and facilitating, earning reputation for being vulnerable and thus increasing the sense of impunity of their aggressors. The actions and characteristics of victims, the authors argue, are some of the causal factors for increased violence in prisons. Some of the explanatory factors that the authors use for victimization and violence in prisons are precipitated, facilitation and vulnerability. Through facilitation, the victims of violence in prison place themselves at foreseeable risk by exposing themselves to it and hence raise the likelihood of being victimized by the offender. On the other hand, through precipitation, the victim of prison violence initiates the vents that lead to violence being meted out upon them by the offenders who is a fellow inmate. Finally, a vulnerability related to age and other factors such as alcohol and drug abuse among inmates that make them easy targets of violence.
However, despite the measures put in place to curb prison violence, such as enactment in 2003 of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, it remains to be seen whether this legislative framework has had any meaningful impact on incidents of sexual violence on some inmates. As a recommendation, the 2006 Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons suggested that there was a need to improve the safety conditions in American prisons and putting in place control and monitoring measures to ensure continued safety of inmates during their prison terms. This paper recommends that in order to substantially reduce incidences of prison violence within the criminal justice system, there is need to come up with prison safety regulations, laws, policies and programs that will ensure that the control and monitoring of prisons is enhanced. Further, prisons should be well equipped with well trained staff and also to reduce overcrowding, more resources expended in prison facility expansion.
Mental Illness within the Criminal Justice System
The issue of treatment and handling of the prisoners with mental instability or disability within the criminal justice system is one of the contemporary issues that need urgent redress. Even with the enactment and signing into law of the Mentally Disordered Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, the challenges that the mentally disordered inmates experience within the prison walls and the criminal justice system in general seem not to be just over yet. One of the main issues related to mental illness in the criminal justice system is the lack of access to adequate medical and mental health treatment for criminal offenders with mental disability. Also important and related to the whole issue is the legal aspect of the rights and fundamental freedoms of this group of offenders. According to the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution, there is a legal prohibition clause against cruel and unusual or inhumane treatment of and punishment of prisoners and offenders in general. Thus, the damning conditions that exist in most American prison systems with no or inadequate mental health facilities may be argued to be a gross violation of the principles of the Constitution and denial of rights to this category of prisoners. According to recent survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) on mentally ill prisoners, 1.2 million inmates had mental health challenges (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006). According to this survey, most female and young male offenders with mental disability within the prison system are undergoing sexual and physical abuse by their colleagues, with the confinement and detention conditions being pathetic in certain instances. Moreover, one third of inmates in the survey are reported by Sarteschi (2013) to have cried foul of lack of access to mental health treatment on incarceration. The issues of disciplinary problems facing the mentally ill offenders, the length of their sentences and suicidal rates also came up during the survey by the BJS in 2006 and 2008. Further, as Allen (2008) observes, the likelihood of an inmate suffering from a mental health problem now stands as 50-60 percent in the US alone. According to this author, the lack of access to specialized mental health treatment of prisoners is responsible for the increased rates of misbehavior in prisons such as violation of prison rules, violence through fights and disturbances and sometimes suicide among inmates. It is also responsible for high recidivism rates that hinder offender re-entry efforts and programs. Allen (2008) cites the findings of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health established some time back during the Bush administration, that the prison mental health systems in the US is shambolic. To indicate the intensity, prevalence and seriousness of this issue, the author mentions a study by the Department of Justice in 2005 which found out that more than half of inmate population in the US prisons is suffering from mental health problems.
According to Fisher, Silver and Wolff (2006), criminal offending by those with mental disorders may be explained using the criminology theories of the local life circumstances and the routine activities or lifestyles theory. These authors argue that the main issue that confronts the criminal justice system in relation to prisoners with mental health problems is the issue of criminalization of mental illnesses and how to best treat inmates with such disorders as schizophrenia. Further, as Homel and Thomson (2005) notes, the increasing number of people with mental instabilities within the criminal justice system is posing serious challenges on how the system can put in place policy measures and strategies of dealing with the social dimensional challenges posed by the situation. The care and treatment of the mentally ill inmates within prisons and how sentences are passed against them need to be considered and balanced against the interest of protecting the society. According to the author, states and federal courts need to come up with effective alternative options and ways of dealing with offenders with mental illnesses in order to uphold their eighth amendment rights. The author also argues that there are issue to do with competency to stand trial, the danger posed by the mentally ill offender to himself, other inmates and the society and the level of criminal responsibility of the offender. These, together with other issues to do with sentencing, treatment and release on parole or probation are some of the novel issues that the criminal justice system has had to deal with due to the prevalence of mentally ill prisoners within the system. Further, access to habitation and clinical services within the justice system by these groups of offenders remains another issue that presents logistical challenges for the criminal justice system.
Furthermore, dealing with the root causes or contributing factors of mental illness and its relation to crime rates also remains an issue for the criminal justice system. Some of the factors that have been cited as being responsible for mental illness offending include poverty, unemployment, homelessness, substance abuse, deinstitutionalization, defective early medical intervention and lack of adequate mental health facilities and services in most criminal justice systems. The criminal justice system therefore has challenges of processing and managing cases involving offenders with mental illnesses. This issue is further complicated by the poor mental medical or healthcare facilities that exist in prisons and court systems due to lack of adequate funding and hence leading to the debt burden issue within the criminal justice system. With such challenges, it has become difficult to properly manage those offenders suffering from mental illnesses. Additionally, the other issue concerning the mentally ill in the criminal justice system is the length of sentences that prisoners with mental disability are supposed to be in prison, given their health and mental conditions. More often than not, the conditions of confinement or detention in the prison cells are too harsh and unhealthy for people with mental health problems to cope with. Also, the continued access to mental health care by the mentally ill offenders after completion of their prison terms remains a challenge to the criminal justice system since it should ensure their reentry into the community.
What is more, the involvement of the correctional offers in reducing cases of violence against the mentally ill prisoners by their fellow inmates and sometimes the prison staff is another issue that bedevils the criminal justice system. Also closely related to this issue is the problem of how to reduce the number of mentally ill inmates that continues to increase on daily basis and thus putting a strain on the criminal justice resources. According to Adams and Ferrandino (2008), one of the major issues that arise in relation to the treatment and management of mentally ill inmates are the contemporary methods and measures of dealing with mentally ill prisoners. These include the application of the actuarial devices for predicting and classifying mental illness among inmates and the conflict that exists between control and treatment of mental illness among inmates.
The therapeutic options and alternative means of treatment offered by the criminal justice system should be expanded with the roles and responsibilities of the prison staff being broadened in relation to the treatment and handling of mentally ill inmates. Further, as these authors suggest, there is a need for the criminal justice system to develop an evidence-based approach that involves an individualized treatment for each inmate in accordance with their unique medical conditions and requirements that warrant specialized treatment. Striking an appropriate balance between the objectives of treatment and control of mental illness among inmates according to these authors is “a critical management issue” (p. 916). This is because many at times, there exists a discrepancy between the resources at the disposal of the criminal justice system and the offenders’ treatment needs. This complex issue thus poses serious administrative challenges to the prison management in the provision of adequate and relevant treatment to inmates.
In addition, Hartwell (2004) argues that the problems and issues raised by mental illness in the criminal justice system are also compounded by stigmatization and substance abuse. According to the author, most inmates with mental illness also have related problems of drug and substance abuse that makes them vulnerable to social stigma and isolation. These in turn hinder the possibility of them gaining reentry into the community where they are seen as being dangerous characters that should be locked up and hence frustrates the objectives of the criminal justice system of offender rehabilitation.
Moreover, the issue of mental health policy within the criminal justice system remains an urgent one in the face of some of the challenges posed by the increasing number of mentally ill inmates going through the criminal justice system. Such policies such as community based mental illness treatment as spelt out in the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1967 are, however frustrated by the lack of public tolerance for mentally ill ex-offenders to serve in the community as parolees since the society considers them as a danger still.
As a recommendation, the issue of mental illness in the criminal justice system may be addressed by introducing a form of psychiatric rehabilitation and treatment programs for inmates with various illnesses and also shortening their prison terms and instead resorting tom community service. In addition, players within the criminal justice system and the government should improve the quality of mental care facilities in prison systems through more direct funding.
Conclusion
As a general summary, it has been observed that prison violence has become a norm within the criminal justice system that their terms. Increasing prison monitoring and control systems will go a long way in reducing incidents of violence within the prison walls as it will make it easy for surveillance to be used to monitor inmates’ behaviors and movements. On the other hand, the increasing number of mentally ill offenders within the criminal justice system continues to pose medical, legal and social challenges to the system itself and the state authorities.
Caring for the mentally ill inmates requires the criminal justice system to improve its rehabilitation services and make the administration of justice to these offenders more efficient and also adopt treatment or psychotherapy measures in response to the complex medical conditions that many inmates suffer from. There's also a need for legislation that will mandate the federal government to channel more funds towards the provision of quality mental healthcare and treatment plans for the mentally ill prisoners. Finally, it may be argued that since mental illness could be a causal factor in prison violence, putting in place appropriate mental illness treatment and management measures will help reduce violence in prisons.
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