The Impact of Early Detection of Mental Illness in Jails and Prisons

Abstract

The research was concerned with discovering the impact of early detection of mental illness in prisons, using selected prisons across the five regions of the United States as case studies. Therefore, the research project set out with the following research questions: (a) What is psychological trauma, and how vulnerable are individuals who are experiencing an unwanted change of scene (from their homes to prisons) to becoming traumatic?, (b) Is the prison system equipped to detect mental illness among incoming inmates?, (c) What are the effects of the inability to detect mental illness among new prisoners on the prison?, (d) To what extent has the justice system contributed to mental illness of imprisoned individuals?, (e) To what extent can the actions of concerned reformed groups prevent the exacerbation of mental illness among incoming prison inmates?, and (f) What recommendations can be made to engender reformation of the prison system in order to bring about salutary benefits to the society, prison inmates, and prison administrators?. Consequently, relevant literatures were reviewed with respect to as the concept of mental illness, early signals of mental illness, symptoms and signs of mental illness and mental illness in prisons. A survey was carried out via the questionnaire method among ninety‐eight informed stakeholders in the prison system with the aim of providing solutions to the above broad research questions. Findings from the survey revealed that: (i) the American prison system is apparently not well equipped to detect mental illness among incoming inmates, (ii) the justice system contributed to mental illness among convicts, and (iii) advocacy and pressure groups have played a significant role in preventing the exacerbation of mental illness among incoming prison inmates. Thus, this study showed that the prison system must engender researches that will provide prison officers with needed technical, medical, and psychological tools for the early detecting of mental illness among incoming inmates at an early stage of their incarceration.Support or Funding InformationSupported by Institutional Resources of USAT and Einstein Medical Institute