Abstract
Inmates with mental illnesses, including opioid addiction, face many challenges while incarcerated. Prisons and jails in their current state prove illequipped to address these problems. Because symptoms of these illnesses often involve suffering similar to an untreated physical injury, the inability of jails and prisons to address these inmates’ needs for treatment may violate the Eighth Amendment. Requiring correctional facilities to provide proper treatment may establish a balance between punishment and healing by exposing inmates to mental health treatments for a limited time, allowing for inmate protection, reducing recidivism, and fueling some inmates’ desires to seek additional help upon release. Due to the government’s historical involvement in depriving individuals with mental needs of necessary in-patient care, this may be the appropriate time for the United States Supreme Court to strike a balance between the punitive requirements of criminal justice and the need to treat mental illness in correctional facilities.
Recommended Citation
Samantha M. Caspar & Artem M. Joukov,
Mental Health and the Constitution: How Incarcerating the Mentally Ill Might Pave the Way to Treatment,
20
Nev. L.J.
547
(2020).
Available at:
https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/nlj/vol20/iss2/6