The FRONTLINE film “The New Asylums” produced and directed by Miri Navasky & Karen O'Connor is a documentary on the state of mental illness into today’s prisons. The documentary shows life behind bars in a supermax prison in Ohio. The film explores the pros and cons of the mental institutions that have been created out of necessity in America’s prison systems. The goal of the documentary was to answer the question of why prisons are the new mental health providers because there are 500,000 people with mental illness in prisons, as compared to only one-fifth that number being helped in Psychiatric hospitals. According to the film, most of the prisoners end up in prison from being unable to cope with the outside world and get arrested for offenses such as violent behavior, rape and robbery to name a few. …show more content…
They still must live their life in a prison that has rules and discipline, which does not always apply well to the mentally ill. This also applies to the military which by its own right is a mental health haven for those un-knowing they have a mental issue and find that the military is the only place they can go and the knowing but are unable to get the help they need on their own. I have seen this in the military and it seems to come in spurts usually around the time the nation is in need of more soldiers. When the nation needs more soldiers the recruitment standard is lowered and waivers for small misbehaviors are passed out. People who would normally be