Originally Posted by
Citizen's Nephew
It is, and this thread is pretty great too. There've been some other really great posts too from JR, Demb, TOBW & Tuerto that show compassion, empathy, and understanding. I'm genuinely moved.
Up-to-date figures are going to be worse but in 2019, there were a total of 72,000 people in jail custody and 22,000 people with an open mental health case. This means that between 2009 and 2019, the number of incarcerated individuals decreased while the number of incarcerated individuals with an open mental health case increased.
It's scandalous. When it comes to personality disorders (and I'm convinced there are quite a few footballers - both men and women who fall into this category) 60-70% of prisoners and about 50% of offenders managed by providers of probation services have a personality disorder. Trying to help or treat someone with a PD is as challenging as trying to help someone with drug addiction. Quite often it's both. Prison makes this much worse.
I love the film Trainspotting (TS1 & TS2) and I'm always reminded of the scene where Renton says “The streets are awash with drugs you can have for unhappiness and pain, and we took them all. F*ck it, we would have injected vitamin C if only they'd made it illegal.” When you're in pain, either mental or physical (or both) then it really isn't a question of seeing the good stuff - you just feel pain.
Of course, prison's a fab place to help you deal with that sh*t and you're bound to come out an upstanding member of a smug society you can raise a legal glass of drug to in the nearest pub. Yay!