Group Blog

Introduction by Megan: When communities think about why someone goes to jail, most of the time the language used to respond is negative. The truth is, more than 1/3 of the amount of people in county jails are not in there because they are evil, but because they simply have no where else to go. Reality shows that the mentally ill are taking over jail cells. This stigma relating the mentally ill to those in jail corrupts them. Funding decreases, society grows angry, people lose everything. This stigma has placed the mentally ill in what seems to be a never ending cycle from homelessness to jail and back. The government will only go as far as the people want. To erase this cycle the true issues need to be put on the table of abandonment of a society who isn't capable to live a sustainable life on their own.
      - - - disabilities, stigma, jail, ethics, morals, media, government


Lauren Gantz: The media represents the mentally disabled in a severely negative fashion, forcing American's to give the mentally ill an unfair, negative stigma. News reporters constantly state that mental illness is the reason for tragic murders and crimes. And while this may be true in some cases, this representation creates a negative attitude towards all mentally disabled people, even those that may not be harmful. This vicious representation cycle started with the lack of treatment for the mentally ill. Because of this, crimes are committed and they are represented poorly within society.

Gabi Cohen: Homeless people are forced to go to jail for shelter and refuse but also because it is the only place where someone with mental disorders can get some treatment. Due to the stigma of mental illness there are very little organizations that give free mental health drugs and consultations. Jail is really the only place to go after many mental illness hospitals were shut down in the 70's. This caused a rise in homeless people because after the facilities were shutdown, the people had nowhere to go but also could not find jobs and couldn't afford a place to live.


I like what Gabi wrote about in the 70's when institutions were shut down and all of the people were released onto the streets. They were often homeless because they couldn't find jobs. I like both of these paragraphs. I think I would combined them though, and make it into one big first paragraph to describe the stigma that is brought upon mental illness in order to prove my further points.

Some potential sources and ideas for the final

Possible thesis statement: American social structure limits disabled and homeless bodies by the living conditions forced upon these people

More specifically I would write about how the homeless shelters are sketchy and often unorganized with specific examples of this. How healthcare is lacking - where they can find it, how they often do better until their medications run out and then they no longer know how to obtain it, etc.



SOURCES:

http://civilrights.findlaw.com/other-constitutional-rights/rights-of-inmates.html - talk about the legality of providing health care and appropriate living conditions in jail for the disabled. (Under the American Disabilities Act)

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/saving-normal/201303/prison-or-treatment-the-mentally-ill - proof of all of the amount of mentally disabled in jail - good quote "Today, our largest mental hospitals are our jails."
     - A side note in the article that maybe I should talk about is the criminal representation of these people and how it alters the perception of Americans on what it really means to be mentally disabled.

 - http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-26/when-jails-become-mental-asylums - very good statistics to help talk above issue stated above! Definitely going to go more in-depth.

http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2012-08-the-prison-health-care-dilemma - debate on whether or not states want to provide the free health care that happens in jail - very interesting !

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16193-more-mentally-ill-becoming-homeless-because-states-wont-help - one side on why mentally disabled people are homless

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/Mental_Illness.html - more information on why mentally disabled are homeless made by a national census

http://www.wdrb.com/story/22195619/mentally-ill - perfect article discussing how mentally ill go from the streets to jail and back

http://psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/PSS/3578/1380.pdf - even better article for above, definitely need to deeply read into this one!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-de-santis/homes-not-jails-or-prison_b_598237.html - a debate on why we should just put mentally disabled in a home rather than in and out of jail and how it is twisted



THINGS I NEED TO READ MORE:
http://stonesoupstation.blogspot.com/2008/09/program-that-keeps-homeless-people-out.html - program to keep people out of jails when they are mentally disabled
http://homeless.samhsa.gov/resource/the-stigma-of-homelessness-the-impact-of-the-label-homeless-on-attitudes-toward-poor-persons-21569.aspx - stigma of homelessness