Tuesday, January 16, 2007

CrimProf Bernard E. Harcourt Writes on the Mentally Ill in Prison

Harcourt_6From NYTimes.com: University of Chicago Law School CrimProf Bernard E. Harcourt recently wrote an opinion piece discussing the mentally ill in prison.  Here is an excerpt:

Last August, a prison inmate in Jackson, Mich. — someone the authorities described as “floridly psychotic” — died in his segregation cell, naked, shackled to a concrete slab, lying in his own urine, scheduled for a mental health transfer that never happened. Last month in Florida, the head of the state’s social services department resigned abruptly after having been fined $80,000 and is facing criminal contempt charges for failing to transfer severely mentally ill jail inmates to state hospitals.

Ten days ago, the Supreme Court agreed to determine when mentally ill death row inmates should be considered so deranged that their execution would be constitutionally impermissible. The case involves a 48-year-old Navy veteran who is a diagnosed schizophrenic. In the decade leading up to the crime he was hospitalized 14 times for severe mental illness.

According to a study released by the Justice Department in September, 56 percent of jail inmates in state prisons and 64 percent of inmates across the country reported mental health problems within the past year.

Though troubling, none of this should come as a surprise. Over the past 40 years, the United States dismantled a colossal mental health complex and rebuilt — bed by bed — an enormous prison. During the 20th century we exhibited a schizophrenic relationship to deviance.

After more than 50 years of stability, federal and state prison populations skyrocketed from under 200,000 persons in 1970 to more than 1.3 million in 2002. That year, our imprisonment rate rose above 600 inmates per 100,000 adults. With the inclusion of an additional 700,000 inmates in jail, we now incarcerate more than two million people — resulting in the highest incarceration number and rate in the world, five times that of Britain and 12 times that of Japan.

Rest of Article. . . [Mark Godsey]

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/crimprof_blog/2007/01/crimprof_bernar.html

Miscellaneous | Permalink

TrackBack URL for this entry:

https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bfae553ef00d834d9893253ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference CrimProf Bernard E. Harcourt Writes on the Mentally Ill in Prison:

Comments

The numbers of incarcerated compared to other countries are staggering. It displays the greed
nd stupidity of our indevidual states
greed. Each incarcerated person imbolizes funding from the government therefor granting excess monies for the selfish hire-up. (p>S. This comment box is being blocked ty TWEN advertising and makes it impossible to check my work or spelling.

Posted by: andrewdennnislopez | Jan 18, 2007 8:50:02 AM

Post a comment