Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Prison and How it Affects Us All By Intern Hannah Davis

While carpooling to work, one of my coworkers mentioned a concern she has with how there is little mental health care in prisons when so many prisoners are mentally ill. My curiosity was peaked so naturally I went to the internet to see what the current situation was for prisoners. Examinor.com claims that overcrowding is due to relapse, which accounts for approximately seventy percent of California inmates, many of which may have undiagnosed mental health disorders.


Since overcrowding is a problem, why hasn’t anyone taken the time to try and help these people get control of their mental issues? Doesn’t it make sense to spend extra time and money while they are there, in the system, instead of letting them go only to return weeks, months, or years later? Wouldn’t this, in the long run, save the taxpayers money?


Therapy and proper medication may be all it takes to help them get on the path to recovery. And yet I wonder if the small amount of time with a psychologist would be enough to really help them get better. There are so many prisoners currently in the system that people must consider how many professionals would need to be hired full time and how many hours each prisoner would get with them. Would inmates get weekly sessions, or would that be too much strain on the therapists? If the answer is yes that would be too much, then would it still be effective if these prisoners only meet once a month, or for half hour sessions every other week?


You’re probably wondering how does this topic apply to me? I’m not in jail. I’m not mentally ill.


Perhaps you are not. But what if one of your family members who has a mental illness commits a crime and while in jail doesn’t get proper attention. They may never get better and therefore continue his/her destructive pattern of violent or dangerous behavior that leads to another jail sentence. If a person is forced to participate in therapy if mentally ill, then they can start to get treated, whereas the same person in society may not seek help and quite possibly never get any better.


As I stated in an earlier blog, almost 25% of the population has a mental disorder. What if one day you develop one? Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable knowing that if your illness causes you to wind up in jail that you will be provided help? Or maybe you already have one that you think you can control, but over time your habits become harder to resist. You might feel that need to start a fire, or steal something from a store, or the voice in your head tells you to hurt someone.


Another reason is because we pay to keep our jails running. For anyone interested in fixing this part of the legal system they have quit a challenge ahead of them. People will need to convince their community that paying a little more to help those who are mentally ill within prisons is better then letting the current system continue. As taxpayers we should ask ourselves if we would rather pay a little more now and hopefully see a decrease in inmates and prices, or continue to pay a little less but never see a change. With the second option we may end up paying more in our lifetime then if we take the first option.


Plus, as a community isn’t it our responsibility and desire to help those who are in need? Shouldn’t we take care of those who may be unable to help themselves? One way I look at this is what would I want others to do if I was a mentally ill inmate who continuously goes to prison because of my disease. By putting ourselves in their place we can better comprehend the horror and need for change.


So, what can we do as a society to fix this current problem? The first step is to talk about it and start asking questions. These dialogues may lead to action, either by local government officials or someone in the community who becomes impassioned by the work. This action can eventually lead to debates about changing the legal system and providing therapy and treatment for mentally ill prisoners. If it comes to the ballots we then can vote and hopefully make our voices heard through change.


Sure, this may take a while to achieve, but isn’t it worth it if we can help even one person who is suffering from a mental disorder get better? Wouldn’t you want people fighting for your health and safety?

Monday, February 7, 2011

Love Can Hurt By Hannah Davis


Why do we always end up hurting those who mean the most to us? I’m sure I don’t stand alone when I think back on the heartache I have endured and caused those I love. It seems backwards to think that we hurt those who are most important to us the when we want nothing but happiness for them. Recently I read a blog by Aaron Ben-Zeévith and agreed with his ideas of why people tend to accidentally hurt those they care for. With some careful thought and consideration I have modified several of his possible reasons for this behavior and even come up with my own, all of which I wish to share with you in the hopes that, armed with this knowledge, we can reduce, if not eliminate, the pain we sometimes cause to those we love with all our heart.

Close personal relationships require people to break down their walls and reveal themselves including the good, the bad, and the ugly. This makes us extremely vulnerable and when we are in such an open state, we are more sensitive to what is said and done around us. Normally we are unintentionally hurt by those who love us. For instance, they might spend a lot of time working in order to create stability and a steady income in our lives, but we just notice their absence and how we feel neglected in their pursuit for money or success. These innocent but harmful issues need to be addressed so both people can resolve the issue and repair any damage done to the relationship.

A second reason is that we get a large amount of our happiness from those we love. This means that when we are disappointed or frustrated with them we tend to hurt because they, at that time, they no longer are a source of happiness. If this is the case, then it is impossible to have a completely blissful love where no pain is involved. With this in mind, we must remember that we can expect to be hurt once or twice in a relationship. If, someone is continuously hurting us or is doing so intentionally, then we can no longer assume they love us and the relationship may need to come to an end. Just because we are in love with someone doesn’t mean they will repay the feelings.

Perhaps a third component that leads to hurting those who matter most is that we look to them and believe they will never hurt us. Because of this it stings more when we are hurt by a statement or action that appears to be malevolent. Most people can think about their past and find a remark that really hurt them. I ask you to think about what upset and hurt you. Next imagine if another person had said that and how you would have reacted. Personally, I have come to the conclusion that when I am criticized by those I love, it seems to cut deeper then if told by a stranger or someone I don’t tend to care for. Does this make us more sensitive to the way those we love make us feel? Again, I believe this is because we have allowed ourselves to become vulnerable, and in this state we can be more easily hurt.

How does this apply to teens and young adults? During this challenging part of our lives we are exploring relationships and starting to date. Not everyone we fall for will be able to protect us from all pain; they cannot even protect us completely from themselves. For example, when I split from my first serious boyfriend it really hurt. The night we broke up he told me things that normally wouldn’t have hurt me, but coming from him it did. My feelings for him affected how I reacted to his words. I had never felt so torn down and broken, and in my humble opinion, this was because I was hurt by someone who I had allowed past the walls I had labored to create throughout my life. During our relationship we came across times when we accidentally hurt each other. When we got back together we had to focus on learning how to overcome our issues and understand what caused our pain.

I am not the only one to deal with these issues; everyone must undergo this stage of life. The pain and occasional heartache from love is experienced by teens and adults as we move through life in search of a mate that makes us truly happy. We may give our hearts away to people and in return get hurt. We may give love and not have it returned. Or we may be lucky and find that one we are meant to be with and come to learn that no matter how much we care for one another we will accidentally hurt our loved one and in return be hurt by them.

As Robert Burns, a Scottish poet from the sixteenth century, said, “Had we never lov'd sae kindly, Had we never lov'd sae blindly, Never met -- or never parted -- we had never been broken-hearted.