Overrepresentation, Diagnosis, and Treatment in the Prison System
- the-lighthouseblog
- Aug 4, 2020
- 2 min read
Overrepresentation
It is widely known that the Black community and other POC’s are widely overrepresented in the criminal justice system. It is also known that people suffering from mental illnesses are overrepresented, as over 25% of the prison population is identified as being under serious psychological distress.
Although these facts remain true, POC’s are less likely to be identified as having a disorder, therefore, they are less likely to receive treatment when incarcerated (Pope, 2019I). This overrepresentation is clear through data outlined by SAMHSA. For each of the following groups a certain percentage of the community constitutes the population of the adults in the United States, while another percentage constitutes the sentenced prison population.
Black→ 12% of adults in US, 33% of sentenced prison population
White → 64% of adults in US, 30% of sentenced prison population
Latinos/ Hispanics → 16% of adults in US, 23% of sentenced prison population
Diagnosis/ Misdiagnosis
In addition, racial disparities surrounding the diagnosis of behavioral health conditions have led to a higher number of ethnic minorities that reside behind bars. For example, Black people are over/misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and under-diagnosed with certain mood disorders (Johnson, 2020).
This is because in the 1960’s, schizophrenia was stated to be a social disease, one that primarily affected Black people. The society connected the two, leading to the assumption that black men were more likely to have schizophrenia, leading to the change in the diagnosis in the future (Perzichilli 2020).
Stigma surrounding schizophrenia itself portrayed the black community as violent, hostile and therefore criminal, which led to the overrepresentation of Black Americans in the prison system, as mentioned above.
Treatment Within Jail
Post incarceration, POC’s are less likely to receive access to mental health services within the prison system. The prison system itself is not equipped to handle psychological distress, and therefore treatment is often neglected. Alternatively, people suffering with mental health disorders often do not receive treatment in their community and often end up incarcerated because of their symptoms. Lastly, within the jail itself, the environment is not exactly conducive to improving mental health conditions and usually causes trauma.
In conclusion, there are several historical reasons that have led to the overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in the prison system. These BIPOC’s are often not diagnosed and are incarcerated for their symptoms. Finally, due to the environment and lack of treatment within jails, they are less likely to improve their conditions.
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