Mental health is something that should be taken seriously. What benefits could there possibly be from pouring millions of dollars into criminals? Criminals? I know the prison system is not ideal for a mentally healthy offender, so I can only imagine what it would be like for a mentally ill offender to endure. By initiating a national effort to improve the mental health care system in prisons, the prison system will see a future monetary profit by providing quality care from the beginning of treatment, a reduction in the reentry rates of mentally ill convicts, and increase national awareness on the severity of mental illness. 

Health care is not cheap. Mental health care is no different. According to many prisons, the subpar mental health treatment that is given (or not given for that matter) is actually beneficial because of the large sums of money being saved. This makes sense until you think about the effects of not supplying adequate treatment has. According to Senator Darrell Steinberg and Professor David Mills, not only does this idea to "save money" come with a fiscal cost, there is a moral cost as well. Sure, money is being lost, but what about the criminal offender? Is the money worth seeing a person lose their life? Not only is the deinstitutionalization of state mental health systems resulting in more mentally ill being put in prison instead of receiving proper treatment, the lack of treatment once incarcerated results in deteriorated conditions (Daniel). Some people believe that once the offender has completed their sentence and are released back into society, there is no longer a need to worry about finances of the issue because there will not be any more money being put towards the offender. This is not the case. In the short run, yes, they are free and it is no longer the responsibility of the prison to care for them, but they will soon reenter the system. For those who serve their sentence, because the medication was not as effective as what could have been being provided, the state of the mentally ill did not improve, leading to more money being spent as they reenter the system down the road. According to Anasseril E. Daniel, MD, "about 50 percent reenter prisons within three years of release (a phenomenon known as recycling), because of inadequate treatment and rehabilitation in the community." Even though it would cost more money in the short-term to provide higher quality professionals, medication, and programs for the incarcerated, it is more financially wise in the long-run; not only for the mentally ill themselves, but once released, the threat to the public is minimized.

 The Department of Justice addressed mental illness in the criminal justice system. The Department of Justice recognizes the fact that many offenders who have a mental illness do not receive proper care and treatment while incarcerated. One solution brought up was to "improve access to effective treatment for people with mental illnesses." (Department of Justice) People who believe that it is only the mentally ill being affected without formal treatment are strongly misinformed. The fact that those who go untreated can cause a problem in the future was also identified by the Department of Justice- "offenders becoming a greater threat to themselves and others when they leave jail or prison." Not only does a lack of treatment result in higher suicide rates, suicide being the third leading cause of death in US state and federal prisons, if the offender is released, there is a public safety dilemma (Daniel). This also goes back to the financial facet because if the mentally ill person reoffends (which they are more likely to than not) they are put back into this cycle of mistreatment in the criminal justice system, leading to even more money being spent. 

If a person loses an arm, nobody argues that the person should be treated, but mental illness is something that cannot be physically seen. This causes a lack of awareness of the gravity of the situation. While more than half of all prisoners have a mental disorder of some sort, only a very small portion of these inmates receive any form of mental health treatment. The fact is, is that mentally ill people outside of the prison system receive a higher standard of mental health care, while those incarcerated are treated "less than human" (Daniel) Why do we wait until the mental illness affects physical health, such as suicide or the offender injuring someone else, to take action? It is not just a problem of the mentally ill subjecting themselves to physical injury, but while incarcerated, they withstand mistreatment that often results in death (Williams). Some prisoners with illnesses such as schizophrenia often behave in ways labeled as "acting out" by guards. Their illness may cause them to curse, for example, and then they are subject to physical punishment. Not only do they endure possible beatings, they are also doused with chemical sprays, or strapped to beds for hours as punishment (Williams). These inhumane actions need to change. A blind person is not sprayed in the face with chemicals because they cannot see, so why is a schizophrenic prisoner subject to that kind of punishment for not being able to control their language outbursts? There is a double standard that needs to end.

Many people do not see a benefit to going out of the way to implement new institutions and spending millions on advanced medication for a person in prison. When it comes down to it, 1 in 5 Americans experience a mental illness in a given year (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Outside the criminal justice system, there is a significant decrease in the debate of helping the mentally ill. The circumstance has changed, but the condition hasn't- there is still a person who is struggling with a mental disorder and needs medical attention. Not only is it economically beneficial, it is also morally sound to give the needed attention to mentally ill convicts. 

