“Prisons have become warehouses for the mentally ill” (Stevenson 186).
It’s true, as mentioned by the Treatment Advocacy Center, “Approximately 20 percent of inmates in prisons have a serious mental illness” (Torrey). Brian Stevenson takes issue with the growing incarceration rate of the mentally ill, as he focuses his frustrations in chapter ten of his novel Just Mercy. This book takes readers along Stevenson’s works and efforts throughout his career as a lawyer serving EJI, the Equal Justice Initiative. Stevenson’s novel takes us through numerous cases that he has fought for, but the backbone of the book is the case of Walter McMillian, a man wrongfully accused of murder who would have faced death if it weren’t for Stevenson’s intervention. Stevenson highlights many themes throughout his novel, but this essay will focus on is the theme that “mass incarceration… and excessive sentencing… of poor and mentally ill people has been a driving force in achieving our record levels of imprisonment” (186). Stevenson blames the justice system for the incarceration of Jenkins, however, I believe that poverty and Big Pharma played larger roles in Jenkins’ incarceration than the justice system did.
In an article entitled “Can Poverty Lead to Mental Illness,” Emily Sohn asserts that “of 115 studies that spanned 33 countries across the developed and developing worlds, nearly 80 percent of the studies showed that poverty comes with higher rates of mental illness” (Sohn). This finding suggests that Jenkins’ predisposed history of poverty could be another cause of his mental illness, which was what ultimately got him incarcerated. Sohn suggests a correlation between mental illness and poverty and she is not the only person who believes so.
Dean Barnett writes in his “Mental illness and poverty: you can’t tackle one without the other,” that “poverty is a major cause of stress. You can’t pay your bills, buy food, cover the rent” (Barnett), or for instance, purchase necessary medications. Barnett argues that poverty and mental illness go hand and hand, imploring that “you can’t ignore the links between poverty and mental illness” (Barnett). Barnett confirms the idea introduced by Sohn that “poverty can cause mental illness” (Sohn), and now that this idea is established, we can introduce a new player to the game: Big Pharma
Big Pharma is an FDA approved monopoly on pharmaceutical medications (Kesselheim). These monopolies are not only going unchecked but “the U.S. government reinforce[s] the monopolies of the big pharmaceuticals in the country,” which enables Big Pharma to “suppress the competition and allows for drug prices to reach unaffordable levels” (Kesselheim). The monopolies are detrimental. The prices of necessary drugs are increasing, leaving them out of reach for the individuals who need them. This effect is compounded when considering the ideas, proposed by Sohn and Barnett, that mental illness can have a strong correlation with poverty. If impoverished individuals cannot afford their medication, and they are already more susceptible to mental illness, then this is a surefire way to ensure these individuals make it to prison, as was the case for Avery Jenkins.
Big Pharma’s monopoly is quickly increasing its prices for pharmaceutical drugs, the same pharmaceutical drugs that the mentally ill need—and oftentimes, as argued by Sohn and Barnett, the mentally ill will be impoverished and will not have access to their medication. Big Pharma effectively prevents individuals who need medication the most from getting it. As a result, these individuals lash out, do things they otherwise wouldn’t, see innocent men as demons. Although Stevenson accurately directs blame at the justice system for the mass incarceration of the mentally ill, he neglects the effects that Big Pharma has on these individuals.
Works Cited:
Burnett, Dean. “Mental Illness and Poverty: You Can’t Tackle One without the Other | Dean Burnett.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Dec. 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2016/dec/13/mental-illness-and-poverty-you-cant-tackle-one-without-the-other.
Kamal Kaiser, Rabah. “What Are the Current Costs and Outcomes Related to Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders?” Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker, 31 July 2017, https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/current-costs-outcomes-related-mental-health-substance-abuse-disorders/#item-start.
Kesselheim, A S, et al. “The High Cost of Prescription Drugs in the United States: Origins and Prospects for Reform.” JAMA., U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27552619.
Sohn, Emily. “Can Poverty Lead To Mental Illness?” NPR, NPR, 30 Oct. 2016, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/10/30/499777541/can-poverty-lead-to-mental-illness.
