4/11/10

CRIMINALIZATION OF THE MENTALLY ILL IN THE U.S.

This video is in Spanish, but subtitiled.



At Hiland Mountain a woman who would behave like the naked and manic man would be chained to the floor.








In the Alaska prison system they do not consider the mentally ill to be patients, they believe they are just inmates. They tried to correct me several times at Hiland Mountain, "You have to remember these are not patients, they are inmates". Being placed in a isolation cell makes normal people mentally ill. They don't treat the mentally ill in prison, they are mainly just warehousing them, so they put those with behavior issues in isolation. This deteriorates the mentally ill. In Alaska they just put inmates out on the streets when they are released. If they are lucky they will get to Brother Francis where they can get a case manager, but some are so ill they can't make it to the appointments. Imagine being severely mentally ill and being put under such horrible conditions which make you even sicker and then you are just dumped on the street. Most of the people in prisons are mentally ill, have chemical dependency issues, or both.

No comments: