Why do you believe the United States has an inflated number of mentally ill offenders in the prison system? What reforms are needed to in order to provide mentally ill offenders with adequate mental health treatment? What types of aftercare programs are needed for mentally ill offenders who are released from prison? Are there changes that need to be made to the parole system in order to prevent these individuals from re-offending? How could the showing of this video be used to train future counselors and psychologists? How might the video be useful for policy writers?

Write a reaction paper, six pages in length, which address the following questions generated from the Frontline video “The New Asylums:”

Why do you believe the United States has an inflated number of mentally ill offenders in the prison system?
What reforms are needed to in order to provide mentally ill offenders with adequate mental health treatment?
There are differing theories (rehabilitative vs. punitive) of how offenders should be treated in prison and what services they should be provided. What types of services/interventions do you believe are needed in our current penal system?
What types of aftercare programs are needed for mentally ill offenders who are released from prison? Are there changes that need to be made to the parole system in order to prevent these individuals from re-offending?
How could the showing of this video be used to train future counselors and psychologists? How might the video be useful for policy writers?