Community | July 14, 2008 | 3 comments

Trapped: Mentally Ill Persons in Our Nation’s Prisons

source: http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/trapped-mentally-ill-persons-in-our-nations-pris...

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disembedded
In the 1960s, there was a dramatic push to reduce the number of mental health patients in large public psychiatric hospitals, shifting their care to local communities. However, those communities were ill-prepared to provide treatment for them, and they ended up being left or abandoned on the streets to fend for themselves.

Presently, increasingly large numbers of mentally ill persons have ended up trapped as inmates in our country’s prisons and jails, rather than receiving treatment in mental health facilities.

This article includes a number of dramatic photographs of mentally ill persons who are presently trapped in prison, as well as an absolutely chilling documentary that provides a look at the unbearable experiences that the mentally ill endure inside the prison walls.

You will remember this.
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3 comments // Trapped: Mentally Ill Persons in Our Nation’s Prisons

  • inapickle
    • 0
      inapickle  

    • Very interesting topic and one many people ignore unless it affects thier own family. I am impressed that you are doing all this by yourself and without outside funding. It must of been difficult to talk to the people in prison.I am concerned by the number of people with mental illness that end up homeless. There are many sterotypes and misunderstandings towards mental illness.

    • 3 years ago
  • disembedded
    • 0
      disembedded  

    • Hi LiveonaClock,

      Actually, the longer story in my actual blog posting, with a link to an even longer story about this, talks about the very issue that you've pointed out.

      However, many might disagree with a more general underlying thought that could possibly be embedded in your statement that, aside from the whole prison issue, it's alright for mentally ill persons to continue in their state of pain and suffering, because they don't really "know the difference."

      Thanks very much for your comments!

    • 3 years ago
  • ILiveonaClock
    • 0
      ILiveonaClock  

    • And psychiatric wings and facilities are being shut down all over. We don't want to see anyone acting outside social norms on OUR streets, in OUR little towns. Just lock 'em up. Thy won't know the difference.

    • 3 years ago
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