the first four comments were about how mental illness in America is ‘fake’ or how people with mental illness are treated better than the poor black men who get shot and killed by police EVERYDAY.
Well I blogged some facts in response to those comments.
This is exactly what I posted on my blog and these facts are based a study done in Switzerland, on how the American justice system works
Blacks are 3.5 times more likely to be shot during the act of committing a crime of any kind (I acknowledge its not a good thing)
Mentally ill are 7.8 times more likely to be shot and killed by police during calls for mental crisis (mostly calls for the police to help calm a suicidal subject, but also including people with severe disabilities like autism having a break down in say a mall)
Prisons are 'over funded and filled with opportunities for those within to improve their daily lives. As in, free health care, free education and exercise times.
Mental health facilities are often underfunded, and have no or few opportunities for the residents to improve on their daily lives beyond medication (the study goes on to say that 61% of residents are often ‘over medicated’) These facilities more often than not do not have a place for exercise or education, and according to many reports by former patients the food is typically served cold, and does not meet health and safety requirements.
These are facts I obtained from a swiss study on the mental health care and prison facilities of the United States, all are based not on government released statistics but personal statements by former patients and prisoners.
I don’t quote my sources in the blog, since I kinda used the info without permission…and not all the stories I will relay are mine, but the stories of others in my group who want the story known but don’t have the way with words to put it down, or the courage to start their own blog…
I don’t know about the “over funded” part. I would want to see more objective studies. What you say is true, but if you think our prisons are a nice place to be I have some ocean front property in Arizona I would like to sell you.
They’re not. Even the best ones aren’t. Inmates have to stay in their cells most of the day. The environment is bleak. In most of them there is the constant threat of inmate on inmate violence. Granted, that is something created by the inmates themselves, but it still isn’t easy for anyone.
Although I haven’t seen patients confined to their rooms, patients can be put in solitary or restraints just like a prisoner. And I’ve seen patients get into fights with one another too. I’ve seen one guy get put in the other ward because he was trying to fight everybody. And I seen another guy almost get beat up because he peed all over the sitting area.
based on my personal experiences with mental hospitals? I’ve been attacked by staff and patients, fed food that looked and tasted like what might come out of a horses ass if it had dysentery, and was treated like I couldn’t care for myself,
During my short stay in Cumberland County Correctional Facility I was treated like a human being, fed food that was at least school food level, and given access to education, and job training. in fact I wouldn’t have the job I have now if not for the job training at CCCF.
Given a choice on where to go next time I have a break down? I would choose the second one.
I’ve been in a lot of mental hospitals. I’ve been in several county jails, but not prison. The county jails were a lot worse than the mental hospitals. The stories I’ve heard about prison scare the daylights out of me.
I think education is important in focusing struggles into positive patterns. I think it’s bad in both hospitals and prisons but I think the education and job training in prisons out weighs the positives in the hospitals.
Well I think that’s where we got off on the wrong foot. We are talking about prisons and not county jails. And plus @Dremulf got his sources from a larger survey than I believe a single person can get from the stories they heard about prison.
Your experience in the corrections facilities was a lot different than mine. In one the whole area was painted a very oppressive, drab blue. The food was horrible. Some days I think we didn’t get much more than 600 calories. There wasn’t the threat of violence because I was in the short timers’ section, and those guys weren’t going to buck the system, but I have been in county jails where the inmates were totally psycho. Your experience was the exception, not the rule. In some county jails the biggest two or three inmates all get together and take the food away from the smaller inmates.
I think we need to look at the evidence and not just personal experience, because my past does make the world go around. Thinking one knows the absolute fact despite given evidence against it is the very definition of delusion. So who is crazy?
Just about everything I’ve ever heard about prison, while I was in county jails, from many people with whom I talked who had been there, from many programs I have seen about it on tv, from things I’ve read about it, from many guys with whom I talked on the street, all said prison was a terrible place where you did not want to go. I believe that, not your “study”. My defenses always go up when someone begins a sentence “studies have shown”. Studies can be biased. But if you choose not to believe me I don’t care, but I’m warning you, if you’re ever given the choice between prison or the mental hospital, choose the hospital.
like I said the study was based on peoples personal experiences, there by based on the same facts you yourself gathered, it wasn’t based on what the government or advocacy groups said.
I admit the prison I went to wasn’t fun, there was a lot of fear, and a lot of tension, but even though we had almos double the amount of people intended for the facility we all were fed healthy food, and while sme of the staff were jerks, most were pretty decent.
But I still maintain that my time in the two mental hospitals against my will were far worse.
I’ve been hospitalized well over twenty times. None of those places were that bad. Granted, they could be drab and boring, but they were not nearly as bad as any of the county jails I have been in. I think county jails are getting worse. I’ve had a couple of guys tell me that sometimes in county jail two or three of the biggest guys will all get together and take all the food away from the smaller guys. This cop told me that one time that was happening in his jail, and one of the smaller guys got kind of close to a bigger guy, and then laid him open with a razor blade attached to a toothbrush. The big guy had to get over a hundred stitches. The quality of food varies from county jail to county jail. In a couple it was adequate, but in others it was horrible. In one jail I got twenty-six stitches from a fight. If you want to talk about hard time, and prison, that is a whole new experience.