The US “correction” system is a disgrace.
A new report from the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC) concludes that the United States’s prison system has fully returned to the 18th-century. In 2012, there were roughly 356,268 inmates with severe mental illnesses in prisons and jails, while only 35,000 people with the same diseases were in state psychiatric hospitals, reports Mother Jones. And the worst part is that many of the mentally ill inmates are, like others in the correction system, imprisoned due to minor violations.
Severe mental illnesses, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are brain diseases—biological conditions like heart disease or epilepsy. Yet in this country, the institutions most likely to be treating people with these illnesses are not hospitals, but rather jails and prisons.
Why does this happen in a nation that claims to be a role model for the world? Because in the US, prisons are a multi billion dollar business: $75 billions.
This animated video from the vlogbrothers provides some interesting facts about this shameful phenomenon.