100 Eyes Magazine America Behind Bars

The continuous withdrawal of mental health funding has turned jails and prisons across the U.S. into the default mental health facilities. The system designed for security is now trapped with treating mental illness and the mentally ill are often trapped inside the system with nowhere else to go. This project goes inside the Correctional Psychiatric Treatment Unit at the Kentucky State Reformatory to see how a state is meeting the needs of this growing population.

“They are rejects of society and warehousing them in prison isnt the way to go. Most of them dont have life sentences – they will get out some day.” says psychologist Dr. Tanya Young. “What do they do when they get out? There needs to be something else to absorb them or take them in,” she adds.