Katherine Zamora

SP16 Eng123
Research proposal
Intro

The number of people who are incarcerated are at an all-time high. Twenty percent of the
incarcerated population suffer from some sort of mental disorder. There are more people in

the United States in jails who are mentally ill then there are mentally ill patients in
state psychiatric institutions. The purpose of this proposal is to find a solution to the
large number of incarcerated American population by focusing on assisting those who
suffer from mental illnesses. This proposal will discuss the popular research, history,
and solutions to assisting the mental health community and reducing inmate
population.
Review of literature
During the research process, I began looking up studies and journals relating to the
amount of mentally ill patients who are incarcerated. I also began to collect data on the type of
illnesses that they suffer from. When doing this, I began to see what large of a population of
mentally ill patients there were in prisons and I began to wonder how this came to be and looked
for a cause of this spike. From The Treatment Advisory Center (TAC), a national non-profit
organization who focus on eliminating the barriers of mental illness, wrote a study that spoke
about the deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals as a cause behind the large number of
mentally ill homeless and inmates. This led me to looking into the deinstitutionalization of

mental hospitals in America and its part on why so many mentally ill people are landing in the
criminal justice system.

History

My history will begin in the 1960s with the deinstitutionalization of mental health
facilities in the United States. The importance of this time is that when government stop funding
mental health facilities, the quality of care in those in need of mental health decreased and more
mentally ill people were sent to jails and prisons.
Before the problem began, there were a large number of people hospitalized and the
assistance of those in need of that hospitalization was being funded and supported by the
government. Psychological research was at an all-time high and knowledge and understanding of
the mental health illness was beginning to advance. After the funding had decreased and those
with Medicaid could no longer have their mental health care or families mental health hospital
care, the quality of mental health then decrease as well as the understanding of mental illnesses
and public acceptance towards it.
Key places and events are Community Mental Health Centers Act in 1916 called for
deinstitutionalizations of mental health hospitals and an increase of community center cares.
Letterman-Petris-Short Act made involuntary mental health hospitalizations more difficult and
the numbers of mentally ill in the criminal justice system increased vastly after a year. The
Mental Health Systems Act was passed in 1980 to improve mental health services for those who
suffered from chronic mental illnesses but the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act repelled it

and provided block grants to states which ended the federal governments role in servicing
mental health Americans and funding decreased by 30%.
The most helpful source in this section would be the Mother Jones article,
Deinstitutionalization and Its Consequences. That article provides a lot of information on how
the deinstitutionalization of mental health hospitals have become a problem for prison
populations. It also gives information on government Acts that have passed that make it more
difficult for mental health patients to get the proper care they require. Some research still needed
would be more information of why certain Acts did not pass or did pass in order to help
strengthen my solutions for the problem of mass incarceration.
Solutions

A main problem of trying to help those suffering from mental health disorders in jails is
the resistance to accept that it is a problem in the first place. Tax payers already put so much
money supporting the 5% of America doing time, it is reasonable to understand the resistance to
taking money out, of the already limited budget, and put it towards mental health. From the large
number of those in jails who suffer from mental health, we can see that the importance of mental
health is not being prioritized. The likelihood of the people with behavioral diseases to become
repeat offenders is more than 1.5% more likely than the average inmate. From what history
shows, one act called the mental health Systems Act was passed to reconstruct the community
mental health center pass it was quickly repelled a year later. The government has decided to end
their role in providing services to the mentally ill Americans in order to save money. If America
puts more funding into mental health awareness and hospitals the people who need help will get

it before or after they commit a crime. Keeping less and less people out of the jails and overtime
promoting healthy mind and actions to American society.
Those who suffer from chronic mental diseases like schizophrenia, bipolar and
personalities disorders most likely not have been diagnosed prior to being sent to jail. The truth is
the police force and crime agencies are not aware of educated enough on mental illness to
recognize it. Rather than seeking to put the inmates behind bars, they should be sending these
people to hospital facilities where they can learn to manage their disease and have it treated. The
government should enforce policy on educating their police officers, judges, and other law
enforcements on recognizing someone with a possible mental illness. So many suffering from
mental illnesses do not get diagnosed and the longer they go without treatment, over time it can
become dangerous and life threatening.
Some more research I need to do is to find research supporting that mental health
awareness and treatment will work for those suffering from chronic mental disorders and in turn
bring a healthier society.
Working thesis

Since a large percent of inmates in prison suffer from mental illnesses and the people
suffering from mental illnesses are more likely to be reoffenders then other criminals I feel thathe
key of decreasing the issue of mass incarceration should be focused on mental health. From
reading about the history and statistics I believe that the government began to reduce the
importance of mental health and resulted in many consequences. One of these consequences are
the increase in the numbers of mass incarceration. The solution of mass incarceration involves
more evasive mental health evaluations for criminals and increase in funding for state psychiatric

institutions. With implementing these solutions, overtime the numbers of inmates would decrease
and the mental health of a large population in the U.S would improve. Something I would still
need to research to make this argument more persuasive would be research mental health
treatment can improve people and society.

Bibliography
1. Pattillo, Mary E., David F. Weiman, and Bruce Western. Imprisoning America: The
Social Effects of Mass Incarceration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004. Print.
2. Harcourt, Bernard E. "Reducing Mass Incarceration: Lessons from the
Deinstitutionalization of Mental Hospitals in the 1960s." SSRN Electronic Journal SSRN
Journal. Print.
3. "FOCUS ON MENTAL ILLNESS TO REDUCE MASS INCARCERATION - Treatment
Advocacy Center." FOCUS ON MENTAL ILLNESS TO REDUCE MASS
INCARCERATION - Treatment Advocacy Center. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
4. "TIMELINE: Deinstitutionalization And Its Consequences." Mother Jones. Web. 18 Jan.
2016.
5. Morgan, Robert D., William H. Fisher, Naihua Duan, Jon T. Mandracchia, and Danielle
Murray. "Prevalence of Criminal Thinking among State Prison Inmates with Serious
Mental Illness. Law and Human Behavior 34.4 (2010): 324-36. Print
6. Fuller Torrey, E. Studies of Individuals with Schizophrenia Never Treated with
Antipsychotic Medications: A Review. Rep. Bethesda: Stanley Medical Research Institute,
2002. Print.
7. Ollove, Michael. "New Efforts to Keep the Mentally Ill Out of Jail." New Efforts to Keep
the Mentally Ill Out of Jail. The Pew Charitable Trusts, 19 May 2015. Web.
8. Anasseril E. Daniel. Care of the Mentally Ill in Prisons: Challenges and Solutions.
American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 2016.
9. Gottschalk, Marie. The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in
America. New York: Cambridge UP, 2006. Print