One of the main tenants of neo-conservatism is Law and Order. (Mullaly, 2007) You commit the crime, you do the time. At first glance there is nothing wrong with this. Until you look closer that is. When you consider the movement of the last few decades to lessen the amount of beds for the mentally ill in hospitals, and the lack of aid for the mentally ill in the community, it isn’t startling when you hear that 10 to 12% of those admitted to federal custody have mental health problems. (Unkown, 2009)
Since the death of Ashley Smith in October of 2007 (Zlomislic, 2010), the mental health resources available in Canada’s prisons has been under much scrutiny. It seems to me that the mental health of the inmates in our jails is going downhill fast. With the prison services only having 50% of the acute psychiatric beds needed, and the rising prison population, due to the Conservative governments legislative changes, things can only get worse. (Unknown, 2009)
interesting post. I didnt know this. Its sad to think that alot of the prisioners do suffer from a mental disability, which with the proper medication could possibily have prevented their sentence.
ReplyDelete=Allery
I found this post interesting because a couple of weeks ago I was reading on canoe.ca that prisons are not a place for the mentally ill. We have stories like this posted in our workplace where we work with people who have a mental illness. I was reading a story on Ronnie Roberts who had a severe brain injury from his childhood and was constantly in and out of prison. It was reported on www.oxfordreview.com that "a recent snapshot of federally incarcerated offenders in Ontario, indicated a staggering 39% of Ontario's inmate population was diagnosed with a mental health problem." This problem needs to be stopped immediately and the proper facilities need to be provided for people who do not belong in prisons who suffer from a mental illness.
ReplyDeleteTiffany
Stacey,
ReplyDeleteAs we were discussing, this is a serious problem. The story of Ashley Smith is very unfortunate and this case could have been prevented, especially in Canada. She should have been placed in a mental health facility equipped to handle her Bipolar disorder instead of held in prison, ultimately leading to her death. Not only were the “charges” ridiculous, the time she spent in the federal prison system because of her behaviour problems, related to her disorder, was completely absurd. I have heard stories about murders and other serious offenders serving less time than this juvenile who clearly needed other supports. The statistics around mentally ill people incarcerated in prison is startling and resources need to be available in the prison system to accommodate these numbers.
-Darcie B.
I heard about Ashley story, it is a very sad story and my heart goes out to the family. If the prision system wasn't able to give Ashley the attention she needed she should have been transferred to a facility that could give her the medical attention she deserved. I has appeared to my that a part of the population basically believes that if a person has a mental illness they have no feelings, and this is very sad.
ReplyDeleteJordan
Without support for people with mental illness to get better it's very tempting or easy from them to lose control of themself or feel a sense of hopelessness and turn to crime. I also do not think jail is the right place for people with mental disabilites. They need help and they are not getting it! I wonder how many more people have to die or suffer before something is done?
ReplyDeleteJennilee M.