Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Watch a Program about the Jailed Mentally Ill
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/
Watch the video here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/view/
Read about the problem here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/etc/faqs.html
Discuss the program here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/talk/
Why are so many mentally ill behind bars? Who's to blame? What can I do as a citizen? Why is Ohio at the forefront of dealing with this issue?...
An interactive map displaying statistics on the mentally ill in state prisons and contact information in each state.
A look at the legacy of closing America's mental hospitals ... the push for mental health diversion courts ... why so many mentally ill cycle back into jails and prisons after being released.
Comments about the Show
Dear FRONTLINE,
As a California Department of Corrections professional who has worked 3 1/2 years as a State Correctional Officer inside a level 3 prison and who is now currently working as a seasoned California Parole Agent of eight years after watching your New Asylums broadcast one agonizing recurring thought kept jumping through my mind.
How manymore years and how many more millions and millions of dollars will be lost to fund an illegal war overseas and how many more millions and millions of dollars will be spent on elite overseas corporate expansionism until americans come to realize how critical components of our internal government systems such as department of corrections systems are falling apart at the seems.
It is a tragedy in the worst sense that mentally ill inmates and parolees do not have the care facilities to help them. I cannot even begin to relate to you my horror stories having worked with inner city LA San Diego and now even northern CA offenders in my never ending day to day struggles working as a CA Parole Agent.
Thank-you for your broadcast. It is the people of Frontline and the people involved with the making of this broadcast that will eventually move citizens to take political action to change a once great government system that has become corrupted beyond belief thanks to corporate greed such as the Enron scandal that competely ripped the guts out of California.
Sorry about the run on sentences and typos but I was too angered and teary eyed. I had to type what immediately came to my head.
Ken Palmer
Yuba City, California
Dear FRONTLINE,
After watching your program I was terrified at the current system for psychiatric care in this country. With an ever growing number of mentally ill people in this country how can our administration justify closing so many psychiatric hospitals? The client to therapist ratio is astonishing with many states equaling 50 clients to one therapist. Thank you for enlighting me and encouraging me to fight for change in our current system. Prisons for the mentall ill is something that would have occurred in the dark ages and should not be accepted now.
Brian C
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you so much for an amazingly powerful presentation of the problem facing every state. I can only add that you missed the women with mental illness who are in prison in proportionately higher numbers than males with even more complex persistent pathology.
Robert Powitzky Ph.D.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Dear FRONTLINE,
I was fascinated at your documentary on "The New Asylums".
I spent 2 years in a county prison and am a mental health patient. ...
Eventually I started receiving my medication but in the two plus years I was in there not once was I seen by a psychiatric doctor.
Our prison systems definitely need some help on the lower levels not only the state prisons.
Carol Bolen
Dear FRONTLINE,
Your documentary was compelling to say the least. It is heartbreaking to see someone suffer and though these men have committed crimes I can still empathize wtih their demons and their feelings of "craziness." I was in a female institution thankfully only for several days and the whole time I was there I was closely monitored and treated for "mental illness". The level of care equalled or exceeded any I have experienced in a psychiatric hospital or drug rehabilitation center I have been unfortunate to be in. The other point I would like to make is that the lack of the mention of drug and alcohol addiction was startling in its absense. In my experience in the rehab aftercare and legal system in my state; I have heard professionals cite percentages of from 50-70% of crimes are committed either directly being in the drug trade or committing crimes under the influence. I know this first hand; as I would never once been in the legal system had I not abused alcohol. I have also suffered from intense anxiety and depression but I did not break the law without the alchol addiction added to the mix. That is my story but it is the story of many in the prison system as well.
Donna C
Vernon, CT
Dear FRONTLINE,
I am a psychologist who works with delinquent youth in California. We have developed a program that assesses young offenders in order to identify their mental health issues make recomendations to the courts for treatment and begin the process of getting them the most effective interventions possible. After four years in business our in-house research shows the recidivism rate of our clients is about half that of a control group in Juvenile Hall who did not recieve such services. I have worked for two other programs that provided people who are incarcarated services to help them succeed in the "real world" with similar results. My conclussion is that as long as we as a society focus on punishment over rehabilitation in our justice system we will continue down the same road of skyrocketing costs and unnecessarily destroyed lives. Thank you Frontline for taking on this serious issue.
paul jenkins
sacramento, CA
Dear FRONTLINE,
I have worked in the mental health field for over twenty five years. Half of this time was with the courts and jail system trying to divert the mentally ill from corrections whenever possible.
As a percentage we now have more mentally ill in jail and prisons than we did 100 years ago.
I now work in in a long term facility for the mentally ill. I daresay that the majority of the staff there feels the same as the general public.....that most mentally ill deserved to be punished or in prison.
We are trying to make a change in Indiana. Read about The PAIR Mental Health Diversion Program [http://pairprogram.blogspot.com/].
Thanks for the program.
This is a dark time in the treatment of mental illness. Will it change in my lifetime?
Robert Cardwell
Indianapolis, IN
Dear FRONTLINE,
Treating the mentally ill in prison is neither humane nor effective. The lack of secure psychiatric hospitals contributes to the high recidivism of offenders who are mentally ill. Patient rights groups and the courts have compounded the problem by giving the profoundly mentally ill the right to refuse medications. These meds are
often the only intervention which subdue symptoms that may lead them to offend or become violent. The prisons in our country have become dual use facilities - penal colonies and colonies for the chronically mentally ill.
don Headland
Morro, CA
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you for being the conscience of our nation once again. I wonder how many of the tens of thousands of mentally ill inmates would ever have committed a crime had they had access to quality affordable appropriate care when they first became symptomatic? Not only is this program an indictment of the manner in which we treat our poor and indigent mentally ill who come to the attention of the criminal justice system it is also an indictment of the social and healthcare policies that make first rate psychiatric care a luxury rather than a necessity.
Susan Braider
Red Hook, NY
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you for being the conscience of our nation once again. I wonder how many of the tens of thousands of mentally ill inmates would ever have committed a crime had they had access to quality affordable appropriate care when they first became symptomatic? Not only is this program an indictment of the manner in which we treat our poor and indigent mentally ill who come to the attention of the criminal justice system it is also an indictment of the social and healthcare policies that make first rate psychiatric care a luxury rather than a necessity.
Susan Braider
Red Hook, NY
Dear FRONTLINE,
The "documentary" fails to document the decisions made by experts who advocated closing mental hospitals. People ill prepared to cope with society were released. Many landed on the streets Others inhabited facilities for the homeless. It would be interesting to know the percentage who survived and thrived.
It was unrealistic to think that most of the former patients would continue with their medications on their own.
While I feel sorry that some of these patients are confined in prisons I do not blame our society. The blame rests with those so-called experts whose advocacy unfortunately was followed.
Elinor Stickney
Dear FRONTLINE,
As a Mental Health Counselor for the Georgia Department of Corrections I must commend you for your portrayal of this situation in our prisons today. My hope is that programing such as this will not leave viewers simply angry and disgusted. Hopefully some will be motivated to lobby for change in their various communities. This is an underserved population who consequently have been politically silenced. Let our awareness lead to action.
Billy Yarbrough
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear FRONTLINE,
Several websites on the internet are dedicated to the exploration and photographic preservation of modern ruins and abandoned structures.
Without exception each site features an abandoned mental health facility.
There are dozens of them scattered throughout the country vast structures situated on beautiful tracts of land many still containing beds and medical equipment as if hurriedly vacated fenced off and patrolled by private security agencies while they collapse into decay with no apparent efforts being made to utilize or preserve them. What a shame to confine our mentaly ill to prisions while these hospitals lapse into ruin.
What possible justification could there be for this?
thomas cowart
lawrenceville , Georgia
Dear FRONTLINE,
There are no easy answers. That would be an understatement.
From personal experience I can tell you that state mental hospitals are prisons unto themselves. I have never been convicted of a crime and have always volunteered for mental health treatment and yet I have found myself imprisoned and in isolation for many days on end.
I fear the mental health system. Frontline should investigate further. Where can the impoverished mentally go and receive quality treatment???
Seth Brigham
Boulder, Colorado
Dear FRONTLINE,
I am glad that treatment for mental illness inside correctional institutions was finally brought to he forefront in this Frontline documentary. I think the next natural step is to address and investigate the community mental health system that these men are forced into once they are released and parolled into the community. As a social worker who has worked with persons with persistent mental illness I have seen what happens to these men when they are released from prison into the community to "halfway houses" and the community mental health system. As the documentary mentioned they often "fall through the cracks" of the community mental health system and end up decompensating and often end up back in prison. The community mental health system at least in Ohio is overloaded and grossly underfunded which directly impacts the recidivism of parolees with mental illness. If the community mental health system could be overhauled as well as the psychiatric treatment in the prisons has been then these men would actually have a better chance of recovery and I would hope be able to live a life free of criminal activity. Thank you for your continued effort at addressing mental illness with your program.
L. Mattes
Watch the video here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/view/
Read about the problem here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/etc/faqs.html
Discuss the program here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/talk/
Why are so many mentally ill behind bars? Who's to blame? What can I do as a citizen? Why is Ohio at the forefront of dealing with this issue?...
An interactive map displaying statistics on the mentally ill in state prisons and contact information in each state.
A look at the legacy of closing America's mental hospitals ... the push for mental health diversion courts ... why so many mentally ill cycle back into jails and prisons after being released.
Comments about the Show
Dear FRONTLINE,
As a California Department of Corrections professional who has worked 3 1/2 years as a State Correctional Officer inside a level 3 prison and who is now currently working as a seasoned California Parole Agent of eight years after watching your New Asylums broadcast one agonizing recurring thought kept jumping through my mind.
How manymore years and how many more millions and millions of dollars will be lost to fund an illegal war overseas and how many more millions and millions of dollars will be spent on elite overseas corporate expansionism until americans come to realize how critical components of our internal government systems such as department of corrections systems are falling apart at the seems.
It is a tragedy in the worst sense that mentally ill inmates and parolees do not have the care facilities to help them. I cannot even begin to relate to you my horror stories having worked with inner city LA San Diego and now even northern CA offenders in my never ending day to day struggles working as a CA Parole Agent.
Thank-you for your broadcast. It is the people of Frontline and the people involved with the making of this broadcast that will eventually move citizens to take political action to change a once great government system that has become corrupted beyond belief thanks to corporate greed such as the Enron scandal that competely ripped the guts out of California.
Sorry about the run on sentences and typos but I was too angered and teary eyed. I had to type what immediately came to my head.
Ken Palmer
Yuba City, California
Dear FRONTLINE,
After watching your program I was terrified at the current system for psychiatric care in this country. With an ever growing number of mentally ill people in this country how can our administration justify closing so many psychiatric hospitals? The client to therapist ratio is astonishing with many states equaling 50 clients to one therapist. Thank you for enlighting me and encouraging me to fight for change in our current system. Prisons for the mentall ill is something that would have occurred in the dark ages and should not be accepted now.
Brian C
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you so much for an amazingly powerful presentation of the problem facing every state. I can only add that you missed the women with mental illness who are in prison in proportionately higher numbers than males with even more complex persistent pathology.
Robert Powitzky Ph.D.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Dear FRONTLINE,
I was fascinated at your documentary on "The New Asylums".
I spent 2 years in a county prison and am a mental health patient. ...
Eventually I started receiving my medication but in the two plus years I was in there not once was I seen by a psychiatric doctor.
Our prison systems definitely need some help on the lower levels not only the state prisons.
Carol Bolen
Dear FRONTLINE,
Your documentary was compelling to say the least. It is heartbreaking to see someone suffer and though these men have committed crimes I can still empathize wtih their demons and their feelings of "craziness." I was in a female institution thankfully only for several days and the whole time I was there I was closely monitored and treated for "mental illness". The level of care equalled or exceeded any I have experienced in a psychiatric hospital or drug rehabilitation center I have been unfortunate to be in. The other point I would like to make is that the lack of the mention of drug and alcohol addiction was startling in its absense. In my experience in the rehab aftercare and legal system in my state; I have heard professionals cite percentages of from 50-70% of crimes are committed either directly being in the drug trade or committing crimes under the influence. I know this first hand; as I would never once been in the legal system had I not abused alcohol. I have also suffered from intense anxiety and depression but I did not break the law without the alchol addiction added to the mix. That is my story but it is the story of many in the prison system as well.
Donna C
Vernon, CT
Dear FRONTLINE,
I am a psychologist who works with delinquent youth in California. We have developed a program that assesses young offenders in order to identify their mental health issues make recomendations to the courts for treatment and begin the process of getting them the most effective interventions possible. After four years in business our in-house research shows the recidivism rate of our clients is about half that of a control group in Juvenile Hall who did not recieve such services. I have worked for two other programs that provided people who are incarcarated services to help them succeed in the "real world" with similar results. My conclussion is that as long as we as a society focus on punishment over rehabilitation in our justice system we will continue down the same road of skyrocketing costs and unnecessarily destroyed lives. Thank you Frontline for taking on this serious issue.
paul jenkins
sacramento, CA
Dear FRONTLINE,
I have worked in the mental health field for over twenty five years. Half of this time was with the courts and jail system trying to divert the mentally ill from corrections whenever possible.
As a percentage we now have more mentally ill in jail and prisons than we did 100 years ago.
I now work in in a long term facility for the mentally ill. I daresay that the majority of the staff there feels the same as the general public.....that most mentally ill deserved to be punished or in prison.
We are trying to make a change in Indiana. Read about The PAIR Mental Health Diversion Program [http://pairprogram.blogspot.com/].
Thanks for the program.
This is a dark time in the treatment of mental illness. Will it change in my lifetime?
Robert Cardwell
Indianapolis, IN
Dear FRONTLINE,
Treating the mentally ill in prison is neither humane nor effective. The lack of secure psychiatric hospitals contributes to the high recidivism of offenders who are mentally ill. Patient rights groups and the courts have compounded the problem by giving the profoundly mentally ill the right to refuse medications. These meds are
often the only intervention which subdue symptoms that may lead them to offend or become violent. The prisons in our country have become dual use facilities - penal colonies and colonies for the chronically mentally ill.
don Headland
Morro, CA
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you for being the conscience of our nation once again. I wonder how many of the tens of thousands of mentally ill inmates would ever have committed a crime had they had access to quality affordable appropriate care when they first became symptomatic? Not only is this program an indictment of the manner in which we treat our poor and indigent mentally ill who come to the attention of the criminal justice system it is also an indictment of the social and healthcare policies that make first rate psychiatric care a luxury rather than a necessity.
Susan Braider
Red Hook, NY
Dear FRONTLINE,
Thank you for being the conscience of our nation once again. I wonder how many of the tens of thousands of mentally ill inmates would ever have committed a crime had they had access to quality affordable appropriate care when they first became symptomatic? Not only is this program an indictment of the manner in which we treat our poor and indigent mentally ill who come to the attention of the criminal justice system it is also an indictment of the social and healthcare policies that make first rate psychiatric care a luxury rather than a necessity.
Susan Braider
Red Hook, NY
Dear FRONTLINE,
The "documentary" fails to document the decisions made by experts who advocated closing mental hospitals. People ill prepared to cope with society were released. Many landed on the streets Others inhabited facilities for the homeless. It would be interesting to know the percentage who survived and thrived.
It was unrealistic to think that most of the former patients would continue with their medications on their own.
While I feel sorry that some of these patients are confined in prisons I do not blame our society. The blame rests with those so-called experts whose advocacy unfortunately was followed.
Elinor Stickney
Dear FRONTLINE,
As a Mental Health Counselor for the Georgia Department of Corrections I must commend you for your portrayal of this situation in our prisons today. My hope is that programing such as this will not leave viewers simply angry and disgusted. Hopefully some will be motivated to lobby for change in their various communities. This is an underserved population who consequently have been politically silenced. Let our awareness lead to action.
Billy Yarbrough
Atlanta, Georgia
Dear FRONTLINE,
Several websites on the internet are dedicated to the exploration and photographic preservation of modern ruins and abandoned structures.
Without exception each site features an abandoned mental health facility.
There are dozens of them scattered throughout the country vast structures situated on beautiful tracts of land many still containing beds and medical equipment as if hurriedly vacated fenced off and patrolled by private security agencies while they collapse into decay with no apparent efforts being made to utilize or preserve them. What a shame to confine our mentaly ill to prisions while these hospitals lapse into ruin.
What possible justification could there be for this?
thomas cowart
lawrenceville , Georgia
Dear FRONTLINE,
There are no easy answers. That would be an understatement.
From personal experience I can tell you that state mental hospitals are prisons unto themselves. I have never been convicted of a crime and have always volunteered for mental health treatment and yet I have found myself imprisoned and in isolation for many days on end.
I fear the mental health system. Frontline should investigate further. Where can the impoverished mentally go and receive quality treatment???
Seth Brigham
Boulder, Colorado
Dear FRONTLINE,
I am glad that treatment for mental illness inside correctional institutions was finally brought to he forefront in this Frontline documentary. I think the next natural step is to address and investigate the community mental health system that these men are forced into once they are released and parolled into the community. As a social worker who has worked with persons with persistent mental illness I have seen what happens to these men when they are released from prison into the community to "halfway houses" and the community mental health system. As the documentary mentioned they often "fall through the cracks" of the community mental health system and end up decompensating and often end up back in prison. The community mental health system at least in Ohio is overloaded and grossly underfunded which directly impacts the recidivism of parolees with mental illness. If the community mental health system could be overhauled as well as the psychiatric treatment in the prisons has been then these men would actually have a better chance of recovery and I would hope be able to live a life free of criminal activity. Thank you for your continued effort at addressing mental illness with your program.
L. Mattes
