
Mental Illness is an enormous problem in today’s society. Whether you are someone in a bad environment with multiple stressors, someone who holds the genetics for mental illness or was raised by parents with mental illness, or someone who had a bad childhood or upbringing, mental illness can affect anyone for a large array of reasons. When mental illness goes unrecognized or untreated, the condition worsens and can lead to extreme consequences such as jail time or even death. Due to the negative stigma mental illness holds today in our society, these bad consequences are seen more frequently. Certain factors play a role into who ends up in trouble with the judicial system, which range from race, socioeconomic status, financial stability, homelessness, whether or not they have insurance and the list goes on. Anyone is susceptible to developing a mental illness, but the question that arises is who, someone with a mental illness, is more susceptible to being put in jail? The majority of the population of mentally ill in jail is represented by the African American race who have a poor socioeconomic status and cannot afford the resources to treat their illness. 

Mental illness is a very broad term and many people are unaware of all that it entails. The National Alliance on Mental Illness defines mental illness as “a condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling or mood”. It encompasses a list of disorders that is extremely extensive. It can be broken down into substance abuse, eating disorders, sexual disorders, personality disorders, anxiety/depression, and many more. Mental illness is not just a sickness of the brain or mind, but many of these diseases can also take over your entire body and life. For example, depression is a mental illness, but it can cause weight loss or gain due to appetite changes, social isolation, and intense mood swings. Regardless of the illness, these are factors that significantly change the life of the victim, and when the disorder goes untreated, bad things are bound to happen. 

The lack of treatment for people with mental illness is due to the decline in resources such as mental hospitals. The Washington University Political Review argues why there was such decline:

“During the 1940s, exposés revealed the horrible conditions within mental health hospitals. As the innards of these institutions were publicized, society was so perturbed by their high costs and dehumanization of the mentally ill that in the early 1960s the United States began deinstitutionalizing patients from these hospitals.” (Weissman).

The mistreatment of these patients led to the defunding of the hospitals and in turn, the lack of treatment for the ill. The money used to fund the hospitals was supposed to go towards community-based facilities, but the funding was so low that this was unable to occur. The patients who were homeless were left with no way to take care of themselves and were forced to suffer with their illness (Weissman). This is where the mentally ill find themselves in trouble with the law. They cause disturbances in society and are typically called into the police department because the general population just classifies them as “crazy”. This is how some victims end up serving jail time for no justified reason. This issue of mental illness becoming a larger part of the criminal justice system rather than the mental health system creates a big problem for the victims. Instead of being treated for their illness, they are being thrown into jails where their conditions worsen due to neglect and awful living conditions. Hill quotes a Cook County Sherriff, Tom Dart, who says, “’We are criminalizing mental illness instead of treating it’" (Hill). He is working to increase the recognition of mental illness within jails and treat it, in order to fix the problem, instead of enabling it. 

The mentally ill prisoners are very sensitive and when incarcerated, or imprisoned, they are put in an unfamiliar place that does not favor them due to their disease. They are mistreated, and sometimes treated even worse than the prisoners that do not suffer from an illness. According to Dignity and Power, “Interviewees assert that Sheriff deputies respond more aggressively and more skeptically to requests and actions, including about health concerns, by Black and Latino prisoners as compared to White prisoners, even when it seemed mental health issues underline the conduct” (3). This shows that the race(s) typically susceptible to lower socioeconomic statuses, African Americans and Latinos, are treated worse than Caucasian prisoners who typically have a higher socioeconomic status. Essentially, the officers that neglect to help these prisoners are just as responsible for the events that happen to the prisoners (outlashes, isolations, etc) as the victim is. This is why mental illnesses need to be recognized and taken care of. This would lead to a decrease in crime, over-crowded prisons, and the deaths or suicides within jails. Additionally, the stereotype created for those who are imprisoned with mental illness could also disappear.

Most of the sick prisoners are put in solitary confinement and do not receive the medication they need to suppress and treat their illness (Guy). They are stuck in a small cell with no contact with the outside world or humans except for when their food is passed under their door. This enables their sickness to take over them, and some of these victims are taken over completely to the point of suicide. One prisoner, Armando Cruz, is a prime example. From a young age, he had been suffering from mental illness, going from one mental facility to the other, and eventually when he was seventeen he was put in jail. He had schizophrenia, an illness where you hear voices in your head, and he attacked a police officer. He was put in solitary confinement and due to his placement into isolation, the voices in his head worsened and caused him to take his own life (Weissman). An even worse reality is that solitary confinement affects ones without mental illness as well. Dignity and Power Now writes, “Alarming conditions in LA County Jail pose significant risks for triggering or worsening mental health conditions, causing post-traumatic stress, and leading to suicides, including for persons with no prior mental ill illness” (4). This shows that if isolation is detrimental for the mentally healthy, potentially causing mental illnesses in those prisoners who did not have one, it is dangerously worse for those who are mentally ill.

Many jails have different demographics of the areas around them. A prison in the city of Atlanta will have different demographics than the city of Boston. Therefore, when addressing the question of which race dominates the population of jails, the demographics of each city must be considered. In the Los Angeles County Jail, 64% of prisoners have a mental illness and 31% of the prisoners are African American, but the population of African Americans in LA is 9.6% (Dignity and Power Now, 2). These statistics demonstrate that African Americans represent about ½ of the mentally ill population in that jail, and that they are more likely to be incarcerated than Caucasians. Considering the fact that African Americans are only a mere 9.6% of the population of LA, they have a strong presence within the jail. This supports the argument that they are majority of the population of mentally ill. 

Along with providing the statistics of high rates of African American prisoners, Dignity and Power Now adds, “Studies expose a cycle of Black peoples’ limited access to mental health care leading to “more severe symptoms, greater criminal involvement, and more frequent arrest” (2). Many of the arrests of the mentally ill are for petty crimes, they happen very often and many of the victims are arrested more than once. This is because many of these ill people are homeless and would rather be in prison than on the streets. At least in prison they will be provided with shelter and food, which is more than what they have living on the streets. The lack of insurance plays a large role in the increase in mental illnesses going untreated and resulting in criminal justice issues because treatment is not received. Even Julianne Hill adds, “Many who have been arrested do not receive regular psychiatric care or counseling on the outside, often because of a lack of adequate insurance”. Additionally, most people who cannot afford insurance usually do not have a job or have a very low paying job which does not provide it. This supports the argument that people of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be incarcerated for mental illness, therefore having a higher percentage in the population. 

Some may argue that the high population of African Americans in jail is due to profiling and racism rather than mental illness. Profiling is a huge problem in the criminal justice system today (ACLU). African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Arabs, and other Middle Eastern races are being attacked simply because they look suspicious due to the stigma and ideas society creates of them. It is obvious that America and the criminal justice system favors Whites and that people are more likely to blame the African American over the White when it comes to figuring out who is guilty for a crime. America is supposed to be a place of equal opportunity and protection by law but unfortunately this is not the case. The Leadership Conference references a study which reports the following:

“’Black drivers (4.5%) were twice as likely as White drivers (2.1%) to be arrested during a traffic stop, while Hispanic drivers (65%) were more likely than White (56.2%) or Black (55.8%) drivers to receive a ticket. In addition, Whites (9.7%) were more likely than Hispanics (5.9%) to receive a written warning, while Whites (18.6%) were more likely than Blacks (13.7%) to be verbally warned by police.’"

Regardless of the crime, people of races other than Caucasian receive the short end of the stick by getting in more trouble with the law than Caucasians do. Someone could use this to argue that this is why the presence of African Americans is so much higher in jails. However, this does not pertain to mental illnesses where the statistics do in fact represent a higher presence of African Americans.

Another argument one could make would be based on another set of statistics written by The Leadership Conference. Someone could argue that Whites are more likely to be in high presence in jail with mental illness. The information supports that even though Whites were not as likely to be pulled over or searched without a warrant, they were more likely to be caught with drugs, guns, or illegal contraband. The results of the study are as follows: 

“In Minnesota, a statewide study of racial profiling during 2002 found that African-American, Hispanic, and Native American drivers were all stopped and searched more often than Whites, yet contraband was found more frequently in searches of White drivers’ cars. Had all drivers been stopped at the same rates in the 65 local jurisdictions reporting data, 22,500 more Whites would have been stopped, while 18,800 fewer African Americans and 5,800 fewer Hispanics would have been stopped” (TLC). 

Therefore, the profiling argument is invalid, because Whites are just as likely, if not more likely, to committing crimes and going to jail than any other race. This statistic is also only in reference to crimes and does not touch on mental illness. 

After analyzing all the statistics and relevant information, it can be concluded that African Americans do represent majority of the incarcerated mentally ill. Most of these victims also demonstrate low socioeconomic status and are associated with homelessness and/or lack of health care. The studies that were done and are relevant to this topic strongly coincide with the thesis created, and help to support it. The counter arguments on racism and racial profiling on this topic were easily rebutted and denied due to the amount of evidence that supports the original thesis. Mental illness is an issue that is on the rise and needs to be recognized so that the lives of these victims can be improved instead of letting them suffer in problems they cannot help on their own. 
