Mass incarceration has changed the face of our criminal justice system. It’s a massive problem, and it affects many different people in many different ways—including its effects on mental health. Incarceration can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Inmates are also at risk of developing substance abuse disorders. Families of inmates also suffer from mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Here are some books that give readers a better understanding of how mass incarceration affects mental health:
1. “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. In her book, she discusses how mass incarceration affects mental health—and vice versa. The book looks at why we have so many people in jail and prison, who’s there and why they’re there, and then goes on to look at all the legal issues that are related to this phenomenon such as racial profiling, mandatory sentencing laws and more.
Alexander also covers another topic that’s not often talked about when it comes to prisoners: their mental health. She explains how incarceration itself can cause mental illness or exacerbate existing conditions like depression or anxiety or even PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
2. “The Collapse of American Criminal Justice” by William J Stuntz
In The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, Stuntz examines the history and evolution of criminal justice in America. He starts with a discussion about how our current system differs from what was originally intended by the Constitution’s writers, and then goes on to explain how it has changed over time. He touches on some problematic aspects of our current system, including mass incarceration (which he refers to as “overcriminalization”), racial disparities in incarceration rates, and the rise in prosecutions for nonviolent offenses such as drug possession instead of violent crimes like murder or rape.
Stuntz argues that while there are many factors contributing to these issues—including a lack of political will among politicians who have little incentive to reform the system because they benefit from its failures—the root cause is structural: we need a better way for judges to determine whether someone should go free based on their likelihood of reoffending rather than simply whether they can afford bail money; we need more community-based rehabilitation programs that provide alternatives for those who would otherwise be imprisoned; we need a fundamental change in values so that Americans no longer believe that some lives matter more than others based solely on race or class backgrounds; etc.
3. “Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration” by Rachel Elise Barkow
Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration is a book that focuses on how mass incarceration affects mental health. Written by a law professor, Rachel Elise Barkow, it explores the causes and consequences of mass incarceration. The author also looks at the political and legal history of mass incarceration in America.
The book examines why people are incarcerated, who gets locked up and why they stay there for so long (or don’t). It looks at what happens when an individual is released from prison; does he or she return to crime? It also addresses whether or not rehabilitation is possible for someone with mental illness who has committed a violent crime.
4. “The prison and the gallows” by Norval Morris
In “The prison and the gallows: The politics of mass incarceration in America” (1983), Norval Morris, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, examines why incarceration rates have increased so significantly over time. He argues that this growth has been driven by bipartisan support for “tough on crime” policies aimed at keeping people out of prison and away from death row — even though these efforts may not be effective at preventing crime.
Morris also suggests that legislators from both major political parties are motivated to support harsh punishment because it helps them win votes from white middle-class voters who live in suburban communities with low rates of crime; meanwhile many poor people living in urban areas are incarcerated for longer periods due to stricter sentencing practices mandated by Congress.
5. “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is a compelling and harrowing testimony to one man’s struggle against injustice in the American justice system. The author, Bryan Stevenson, is a civil rights lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that provides legal representation to prisoners facing death row sentences. He has successfully fought for the rights of poor people, children, and mentally ill inmates—and his work has resulted in landmark Supreme Court cases that have helped change the conversation about mass incarceration.
Just Mercy tells two stories: one of how our nation arrived at its current state of mass incarceration; another of how one-man fights against injustice by practicing law inside prisons. The book will make you question whether our founding principles are still relevant today—or if they ever were—as well as what it means to be truly humane.
6. “Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration” by Rachel Elise Barkow
Incarceration in the United States is a process that usually happens to people who break the law. Once a person is arrested, they are typically taken to a local jail. If they are unable to post bail, they will remain in jail until their trial. If they are convicted, they will be sentenced to a term of incarceration, which could be a few months, a few years, or even a life sentence Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration is a book by Rachel Elise Barkow.
It discusses how mass incarceration affects mental health, and how it affects Black Americans in particular. The book also discusses how we can end mass incarceration.
7. “When They Call You a Terrorist” by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
In this memoir, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele describe the devastating effects of police violence on their lives. They explore the impact of mass incarceration on the mental health of black communities, which have disproportionately suffered from mental illnesses due to racial discrimination and mistreatment by law enforcement authorities. Khan-Cullors was only seventeen years old when police officers chased her down with guns in hand after she refused to tell them where her brother was hiding. She had been watching television at her mother’s house when suddenly there were sirens outside and pounding at their door—and then gunshots rang out through their neighborhood.
Asha Bandele’s mother was arrested for trying to protect her own son from being taken away by police officers who came into their apartment unannounced looking for drugs; when they found none, they took him anyway—and he never returned home again because he committed suicide shortly after being released from jail for lack of evidence against him.
8. “Locked Down, Locked Out” by Maya Schenwar
Schenwar is a journalist who has written for The Guardian, Truthout and Al-Jazeera. She grew up in Texas, where her father worked as a prison guard and her mother was an attorney for prisoners. Schenwar wrote Locked Down, Locked Out after spending time as an inmate at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois. She also spent several years working as a prison counselor in Washington State before becoming a full-time staff member of Truthout and later The Guardian US.
In addition to writing about mass incarceration through the lens of journalism, Schenwar is also an advocate for prison abolitionism—the idea that prisons should be eliminated entirely because they are ineffective at solving issues like crime while simultaneously causing harm to those incarcerated within them or otherwise impacted by them such as their families.
9. “Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America” by Jonathan Simon
Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America by Jonathan Simon. The book then goes on to discuss the problems with mass incarceration, including the fact that it disproportionately affects minorities, and the mentally ill. The book also discusses the possible solutions to mass incarceration, including alternative sentencing, and rehabilitation programs.
Overall, this book is a very informative and thought-provoking read, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about this important issue.
Mass Incarceration Affects Mental Health
Mass incarceration is not just about the people who have been incarcerated. The impact of mass incarceration on mental health and associated factors is also important to understand.
- Mass incarceration affects the families of incarcerated individuals, including children, parents and other family members.
- It has a negative effect on communities, making them more susceptible to crime and violence when they are under-resourced or unsafe due to lack of facilities such as schools and hospitals.
- Mass incarceration contributes significantly to the economy by requiring massive expenditures on prisons that could be used for other purposes (e.g., education).
Conclusion
In conclusion, mass incarceration affects mental health. The relationship between mass incarceration and mental health is a complex one. There is evidence to suggest that mass incarceration can have a negative impact on mental health, both in the short and long term. There are a number of books that explore the topic of how mass incarceration affects mental health. Some of these books focus specifically on the impact of incarceration on mental health, while others explore the topic more broadly, looking at the relationship between incarceration and society as a whole.
