mptoms, making all people who suffer with them equally suspect and dangerous." (p.1) Our justice system follows this misconception in punishment, not treatment. Our system is using jails as mental hospitals, which is where you can find many people with different types of mental illness that is not being treated properly. Most of these people had not committed major crimes, but either had been charged with misdemeanors or minor felonies directly related to the symptoms of their untreated mental illness or had been charged with no crimes at all. Now, should these people be punished or treated?According to NAMI,(1999), "today at least seven percent of all jail inmates and 14 percent of all prison inmates suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. On any given day, there are roughly 210,000 persons with severe mental illness incarcerated in Federal and State jails and prisons." (p.3) These outrageous trends are directly related to inferior mental health services and systems in our community. These community facilities need to step-up its pace to help keep mentally ill persons and severely depressed persons from being punished and not being treated. The federal and state prisons generally do not have the resources or rehabilitative services available for this type of inmate. It seems, that the justice system is unaware of the possible problems associated with the mentally ill. If they were, more affective disorder people would be recommended to an adequate facility for their problem, not incarceration. Is it right for our society to neglect these people and give no concern about getting the proper help for them? It appears that the crimes these people commit could be stopped if their problem is acknowledged, treated and not punished. But, if these people are incarcerated, our justice system need to be obligated to provide the care and treatment of these types of inmates. ConclusionIn conclusion, severely d...
