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DOI

10.22191/BUUJ/11/1/4

Faculty Sponsor

Alexandra Moore

Abstract

The nation is failing to protect the rights of all citizens. Various studies and sources of academic research show that health services in U.S. prisons fall far below the standards for health services on the ‘outside world’. Legal scholar Joshua Price highlights how mentally ill inmates are victims of the U.S. criminal justice system. “A set of institutions disavowed responsibility, leading to conditions where their own demons got the better of them, with awful consequences. Did these institutions, or the people in them, love justice?” (Price, 501) How is justice really served when these inmates are destined to be trapped in the correctional system? A study by psychology scholar Jacques Baillargeon and colleagues proved that inmates with psychiatric disorders are far more likely to face recidivism. In my research I will highlight how correctional facilities are an integral part of society intended to prevent further violations of laws, ultimately protecting the safety of the nation. I will prove that when inmates are not provided with adequate services for their mental illness needs, it is virtually impossible for them to rehabilitate. This results in the failure of the U.S. correctional system to serve its purpose of creating a better, more reformed, society. Case studies of past violations regarding mental illness in prison along with interviews with inmates will provide important contextual understanding that these are real people that are not being treated as such. Universal legal frameworks and various legal journals will outline promises made to inmates upon incarceration to highlight specific violations that must be remedied. These remedies are feasible and implementation research and studies have proven that. Due to the failures of the correctional system, inmates are suffering, in extreme cases inmates are dying, and society is making no progress towards reformation. I will emphasize how regardless of how severe a crime, incarcerated people are entitled to their rights and deserve to have their rights respected. They deserve for the U.S. criminal justice system to do their job in protecting that.

Citation Style

Chicago

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