According to the Washington Post in December of 2001, “The number of people with serious mental illness in America’s jails and prisons today is five times greater than the number in state mental hospitals. Prisons, as an observer, of similar trends in Australia have noted, “the new asylums of the 21st century.” The criminalization of the mentally ill is inhumane. It is also emotionally and financially costly, and a testament to government failures at all …showed first 75 words of 1176 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1176 total…facilities, funding, and training. Many correctional officers are not trained properly to handle, care for, or treat mentally ill inmates in prisons across America. The number of mental health treatment centers have been reducing over the years with no growth in treatment in America's prisons into which the mentally ill go. Due to these problems in the system in which the United States runs its correctional facilities my partner and I propose the following plan.