A Canadian Neo-conservative Prison System

            When looking at the video attached to my blog post, you can imagine what it was like for Erika Roach to be put in solitary confinement with her mental illness. Roach suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and had been neglected and mistreated by the Canadian prison system. From having her water shutoff for four days and being forced to drink from the toilet to failing to receive psychiatric therapy and medication. Roach later on developed another mental illness called dissociative disorder, which is similar to schizophrenia. It is difficult to comprehend that these types of abuse can happen to people with a mental illness and are going on within the Canadian prison system. The treatment of individuals with a mental illness within the Canadian prison mirrors the neo-conservative ideologies beliefs towards associating people with a  mental illness with the undeserving poor.     

The neo-conservative ideology evidently shows prejudices against people with a mental illness, they are looked at as undeserving of help from the government. Mullaly, B. (2007) writes “even if people become ill and cannot look after themselves, the judgment is often that they should have made arrangements to cover such contingencies and it is up to the family to look after them in the first instance” (p. 83). This statement is displaying how the neo-conservative ideology does not care for the people that struggle in society due to a mental illness. The neo-conservative ideology has two groups for people in need of help from the government, the undeserving and deserving poor.

In order to be apart of the deserving poor group, individuals would need to show that through no fault of their own they attained their condition that is impairing them to succeed in society. When looking at the neo-conservative perceptions of people who have a mental illness, we see they are shockingly biased because of how they blame the victim for their condition. This would therefor make them apart of the undeserving poor group, and they would not receive any help from the government. Through a neo-conservative lens the undeserving poor do not work, are irresponsible, and not honest taxpayers (Mullaly, B., 2007). The neo-conservative ideological beliefs are that by helping the undeserving poor they are reinforcing idleness and dependence on the government, and does not promote these individuals to support themselves. With this view, the deserving poor would only get a limited amount of help through residual welfare system, and this group has always been under represented. Roach was with out a doubt treated as if she was the underserving poor as an inmate inside the Canadian prison system, and this lack of adequate care results in the worsening of her mental health.

In the video attached to my blog post, Kim Plate discusses the problems between the Canadian mental health care system and the prison system. Plate describes a vicious cycle of neglect and mistreatment because of how people with a mental illness struggle to receive help for their condition. Being shutout by facilities because there is no room, there is a waiting list or they failed to meet requirements, leaves people with a mental illness neglected. With limited options for people with mental illness out of desperation many of them end up out going to a place where they can not be rejected, the Canadian prison system. Although they have a place to stay, they will be put in solitary conditions and be further neglected because of their condition. This ironically, only exacerbates the mental health issue and can lead to the developing of multiple mental illnesses. Plate even goes on to say that “If they start with mental health issues, there is virtually no chance that they won’t get worse in prison.” This shows the reality of the abuse the Canadian prison system puts inmates through.

There was a slide in the video attached to my blog post from 3:15 to 3:24 that reads “The mentally ill are further abused by a vengeful government…a government determined on building more jails while cutting funding for mental health.” This statement exemplifies just how our conservative government is continuing to keep this vicious cycle of mental illness in the prison system functioning in our society.  

All in all this video with Roach’s story of her time as an inmate in the Canadian prison system and the explanation made by Plate shows how it is possible for this abuse to happen. This video opened my eyes to the role that the Canadian government played in the neglect of their inmates mental heath and that without a doubt mirrors their neo-conservative incentive. The last slide in the video attached in to my blog post from 3:57 to 4:06 reads “Correctional Officers across Canada have repeatedly asked governments for special help to care for the mentally ill, governments continue to refuse them.” This statement challenges my thoughts on how Canada can be the human rights protector of the world but can continue to treat their citizens with mental illnesses as undeserving of their help. Obviously what the Canadian government is doing now is not working, so there needs to be rapid change, not slow or evolutionary change like the neo-conservative ideology believes.         

    

-Chandra B

References

Mullaly, B. (2007). The New Structural Social Work (3rd ed.). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada.

Video retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MS1sUMrEV0