The Treatment of the Mentally Ill in American Prisons

America has struggled with its record in the treatment of mentally ill individuals throughout history. The asylums of the past were abysmal to say the least, but in a lot of cases we haven’t improved.
Mentally ill Florida prison inmates have been suffering intensely as of late, initiating a suit threatened by Disability Rights Florida against the Corrections Department. There have been some cases were mentally ill inmates are injured or even killed in prisons, and regularly inmates with mental issues often fail to receive the treatment or medication they need. These prisons are heavily outdated and are in no way suited to handle health care. For individuals with different illnesses, the treatment they’re given is often the same regardless. The suit is meant to address the misuse of restraints or solitary confinement when it can severely worsen and cause deterioration of conditions in inmates. !!Vincent Gaines, a man who suffered auditory and visual hallucinations, was transferred to a correctional institute when state officials recommended a mental institution. In the correctional facility, he died in under two years as a result of malnourishment; he lost 75 pounds. His family sued Florida Department of Corrections and former prison health provider Corizon Health, after he was clearly starved to death inside the prison and buried without first obtaining consent or even informing his family.
Every year 125,000 people with mental illness are incarcerated in Florida prisons, often for misdemeanor and low-level felonies. A third of Orange County Jail’s 3,000 inmates have some form of mental illness, and 700 are on psychotropic medications. The treatment here has improved as the prison employs many health professionals and psychiatrists, and has a budget of $2.7 million with 7,000 prescriptions dispensed a month. Despite these benefits, prisons and jails were never designed to treat the mentally ill and are limited in what they can do. They can’t release the inmates earlier or later based on their mental stability, and can’t force and inmate to take medication. Many inmates return regularly for minor misdemeanors because of the quality of their mental illness. For inmates such as Coleman, the medication that they need is above what they can afford. Coleman has been regularly returning to Orange County Jail a dozen times over 10 years. When he’s in jail, he receives the psychotropic drugs that silence the voices and calm the anger. More than 44 percent of mentally ill inmates are back in jail within three months. A better health care system and better resources for the mentally ill could greatly benefit our country and reduce the number of people currently incarcerated.

https://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/20180210/saturdays-editorial-too-many-mentally-ill-inmates-in-florida-prisons-are-being-mistreated

http://interactive.orlandosentinel.com/mental-illness/mental-illness-jail.html

https://www.baezlawfirm.com/one-florida-legislators-criminal-justice-bill-points-to-overarching-crisis-in-floridas-prisons/