Custom «Mental Health and the Penal System» Essay Paper Sample

Flow of the outline:

The outline follows the chronological order through which activity was conducted. It starts from introduction then choosing and analyzing the topic, conducting the research, findings through to conclusion. Within the outline a brief focus on the visual aids is discussed since some facts could be only comprehended through visual aids. (Singh, 2004)

Mental health is a branch of both medical field i.e. nursing, and psychological field which mainly deal with psychological, emotional, and cognitive wellbeing of an individual. Its role is to ensure one's satisfactory behavior through adjustment and absence mental disorder. On the other hand, penal system includes the practices done by government institutions aiming at mitigating criminal offences by applying effective deterring measures such as upholding social control. (Bennette, 2004)

Choice of the topic

I chose this topic in order to express and stress the need of the government to encompass on the relevant measures to mitigate the crime unlike the traditional method described with force. The topic is very relevant as there many controversies of justice and rehabilitation within the prisons. After going through several topics, I narrowed down to penal systems. I arrived at it after carrying out survey, research and interviews. Due to my knowledge in the field, I met the inmates, prison personnel, and the institutions responsible for rehabilitation of mentally challenged individuals. I inquired for records which I critically analyzed in relation to complaints I had gathered before.

My preliminary findings revealed the relationship between the mental illness and the likelihood to engage in a criminal offence. As a result, I saw an indispensable reason to link mental illness to rehabilitation in the government's penal systems and the rehabilitation centers. Consequently, I went a step further to modify my initial topic to "Mental health and Penal system". I meant this to gather for the substantial obtained facts.

The purpose of the presentation is to show the difficulties faced by the mentally ill individuals in our prisons, and also establish the recommendations to act as remedial strategies to the crime prevention. Like any other research presentation, my presentation aims at discussing finding and facts which are discussed below. They were based on the hypothesized stipulations and allegation directed to the staff which later propagated to full truth.

To begin with, there is a complete waste of taxpayers money used to incarcerate mentally ill people. Instead, there is a need to treat such people as a complementary measure to incarceration. Reliable data revealed that a large sum of money could be saved by admitting the mentally ill individuals to rehabilitation centers. Secondly, support from the government is required to counteract the spontaneously upcoming criminalization of mental challenges and substance abuse. The third finding is that delay in criminal justice system to take over from health systems as substance and mental illness rehabilitation centers caused a lot of harm to such people. In terms of their population, the number is not small as alleged by the court and prison systems. Statistics shows that more than 10% of inmates in the world charged with criminal offences are charged with criminal offenses.

 The presence of the large number of mentally ill inmates in the traversed prisons was attributed to shortage of psychiatric services. This ends in taking these people to the hands of prisons which have limited capabilities to offer rehabilitation services. Although this not a better solution, the research found out that this is the best opportunity for nursing health services to take advantage of the incarceration to have the close contact and reform these people. (Barrette & Grill, 2007)

According to the further findings, inmates incarcerated with mental illness tend to deteriorate in their state. This is attributed to the poor treatment they receive and the worsening relationships amongst themselves. This is attributed to the lack of full consent in those people. The mentally upright inmates are also blamed for this as they are reported to bully their disadvantaged counterparts. Prisons have not been able to assure them of proper care due to the fact that; the quality of care does not depend on the severity of the problem. (Law, 2010)

My research had multiple audiences which ranged from primary to the secondary audience. This distinction of audience rose as a result of issues which emerged during the research and the ones I had hypothesized. Primary audience is those which I conducted research on their premises while the secondary are those which benefited or were involved too much. Therefore the primary audience are the court and justice systems (government systems and private practitioners) and health systems (rehabilitation centers, psychiatrics, and the generally the hospitals). On the other hand, the secondary audiences are the society, the mentally ill (both the home-based and the incarcerated individuals).

The message from the research traversed through to these audiences with or without their expectations. The government's penal system was the audience shocked from the findings. The research proved that for a very long time, law had been applied in an awkward manner making the prisons dumping places for such people. The message was to make them stop demonizing the challenged. These bodies were stigmatizing them and the research criticized how power was used by these institutions to abuse the mentally ill through oppression. They had to learn that mental illness and any disability is environmentally defined. The environment gives rise to disabilities, and the society, health, and penal systems should continuously change the trend only if they are more conscious to the disabled.

Likewise, the health systems especially psychiatrics and nursing received the right message from the research. They learned about loopholes in their management and priorities they had in the perception and treatment of the mentally ill. The need to establish enough facilities in hospitals to admit such people was the most compelling message. In line to these, the established rehabilitation centers received credit from the research for taking the concern on the mentally ill. They also learned about few weaknesses on their administration. The society also learnt the need to accommodate these people and that disability is not inability. To the mentally ill, the message was to show their recognition so that they feel as members of society.

My research obtained data from various sources, both the hypothesized and emerging source. I conducted the study within the government prisons where I interviewed both the staff and the inmates. Court staff and attendants also played a major role in facilitating my research. They allowed me to analyze the information found on the files regarding the past court procedures. The literature in the publications found in learning institutions and public libraries was another reliable source as I could study the established regulations guiding the sentencing of the physically challenged. I also obtained health facts from both rehabilitation centers and hospital which were administering services to the challenged. On personal level, I obtained data through interviewing different people from; society, courts, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Visual aids and their effectiveness:

Visual aids made my presentation more interesting and effective. The audience was likely to retain the information upon seeing the physical presentation than the verbal presentation. Also, the research finding were store in visual graphics like graphs, photos and analysis were analyzed with visual methods. By using the visual aids the audience could easily comprehend the finding. Generally, the visual aids enhanced the presentation.

Difficulties throughout the outline:

Establishing the right topic was the most hectic decision I had to make. This is because of several emerging issues in the society with each requiring contention. After selecting the topic, the outline was another problem as the chronology of events could logically suit each other. This extended over the purpose, audience, throughout to conclusion. While I concluded, presentation brought lots of challenges to me as I had to explain each graphic. However, the visual aids ironically drew away audience concentration to physical impression.

Recommendation and checklist of improvements:

Planning is very important in any presentation i.e. chronological sequence should be logically compatible. Another improvement is assigning the audience duties to maintain their concentration. Lastly, presentation should be done shortly after research to about losing of some unrecorded data.

Presentation was very successful and the message reached the intended audience. I hope this will help to rescue the mentally ill brothers and sisters to at least feel as part of the society.