I was recently involuntarily held in a mental hospital where I went through prison like conditions (strip search, had to wear scrubs, was locked in a room outside certain times a day, stuff like that) and thankfully came out in one piece after 8 days of this crap. I was just wondering why we subject people to these conditions when they haven’t even committed a crime?

  • amio@kbin.social
    583·
    8 months ago

    Because if you don’t keep a close eye on mental patients, some of them might hurt or kill themselves or other people - sometimes in extraordinarily resourceful and unexpected ways. It’s rare and overhyped, but the fact that it does happen means the system needs to account for it. Then add the usual amount of greed, incompetence, stigma etc., and suddenly the only way of accounting for that is, well, prison style.

    • Risk@feddit.uk
      322·
      8 months ago

      Your explanation is surface level correct, in that it is in essence society’s justification, but ultimately they’re run like prisons because it’s initially cheaper to treat all mental health patients the same and because there might be one individual that is a danger to themselves (and even less likely, others) then we get the ‘prison-style’.

      The trouble of course comes in that in the long term this model likely costs far far more, because it’s incredibly damaging as human brains don’t fit in boxes.

      • Venator@lemmy.nz
        7·
        8 months ago

        Ita probably also a revenue gathering tactic for private psych hospitals: just like private prisons have no incentive to reduce reoffence, private psych hospitals have no incentive to help patients reenter society.

        • SoleInvictus@lemmy.world
          101·
          8 months ago

          You and many others probably know this already but for those that don’t: in countries like the United States, private prisons actually lobby to make it more likely that previous offenders will return to jail. They seek stricter sentencing so offenders are incarcerated longer and to remove funding for nonprofits and programs that provide rehabilitation.

          Relevant article: https://www.aclu.org/news/smart-justice/private-prison-giant-corecivics-wants-corner-mass

          Just let that sink in. There are human beings that are doing their best to make sure people fail and are punished without rehabilitation, hoping they become trapped in the prison system, all so shareholders can make a buck. How fucked up is that?