Increase of Mental illness in incarcerated Persons in Australia

Question: Discuss about theIncrease of Mental illness in incarcerated Persons in Australia. Answer: Introduction Prisons in Australia are becoming a fostering centre for the mentally impaired people, who are the victims of an inadequate national support system. This, inadvertently, creates more criminalization (Segrave, 2015), causing increased rate in the prison population. Most of them are marginalized, without enough access to social amenities. Their poor mental health statuses, after the release from prisons prove that the incarceration brings only health depletion, and not any health promotion (Kinner et al., 2015). The mental health crisis and overrepresentation of prisoners pose challenges to the governmental institutions, as well as the community (Fleming et al., 2011). This essay attempts to probe into the causes of higher rate of incarcerated mental disorders. Incarcerated Mental illnesses The seriousness of this issue, and how this affects the society can be understood from the recent reports that the mental health problems in prisoners are greater than the mental health of the general population in Australia (Forsythe Gaffney, 2012). The current available data reveals that around 38% of the prisoners display mental health problems (Segrave, 2015), and that the women prisoners alone show a higher rate of 50%. Most of their illnesses show a link with substance use, teen runaway, and drug addiction, warranting gender responsive interventions (DeHart et al., 2014). The extant of worsening of the mental health problem is evident from the fact that 28% of the incarcerated people are aboriginals, while they share only 3% of the Australian population. Their deep sufferings, pain, and marginalization are crucial in the development of mental disorders. A recent study about the aboriginal prisoners has revealed that 86% of the women and 73% of men are prone to mental illnesses. The elements that aggravate women mental illnesses are childrens intellectual disability, mothers obstetric problems, low birth weight of babies, childrens malnutrition and lack of education (Korff, 2016). Causes of Incarcerated Mental illnesses The rate of mental health incidents in the criminal justice system is thrice that of the general populations rate. The attributes to the mental health impairment and crime are caused by disrupted family environment, abuse, drugs and alcohol, and housing problems (NSW Law Reform Commission, 2012). The troubles accompanying the incarcerated mental health issues raise questions regarding the purpose of imprisonment, its use, and the outcomes. These overwhelming factors have long term implications in political, social, and law and order systems (Segrave, 2015). The main causes of mental health issues in incarceration are social isolation, non-contact with kith and kin, unemployment, reduced confidence in family support, lack of social skills and education, substance use, and homelessness (Thomas et al., 2015)a. The criminal history, drug connected convictions, adolescence, gender, ethnic, and mental health support shortages are contributory to the re-incarceration (Thomas et al., 2015)b. Conclusion Australian prisons are overrepresented, and the rate of development of mental illnesses in the prisons has reached alarming proportions. Several factors, including socioeconomic problems contribute to this situation. The marginalization of the ethnic aboriginals and their resultant sufferings are pathways to incarcerated mental illnesses. Recent studies have proved that the mental health improvement facility shortages escalate mental health problems towards re-incarceration. 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