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Abstract: 

That prisons and jails have in fact become the modern version of “insane asylums” now seems widely accepted. Jails, housing mostly persons awaiting trial, have become psychiatric emergency rooms dealing with acute cases of mental breakdowns and substance abuse withdrawals. After conviction, prisons inherit the acute cases that are often essentially stabilized in jails, and must then provide longer-term, chronic care treatment during inmates’ often extended prison stay. This article examines how correctional institutions have become “The Contemporary Asylum” and, specifically, explores the case of the notorious Nikko Jenkins—a case that in its extremes illustrates many of the problems related to prison inmates with serious mental illness, and the deficiencies and difficulties in providing effective mental health care.

Keywords: schizophrenic; anti-social personality disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder; deinstitutionalization movement; Robert A. Ferguson; Inferno; increased risks of multiple incarcerations; Eighth Amendment; Estelle v. Gamble; Plata

Affiliations:  1: Executive Editor.