@B_A
I've done 60 days in jail, and I've done 18 months in a psych ward. I think I'm qualified to speak on this. Also, I have a degree in Criminal Justice.
People in psych wards are a danger to themselves or others. Once a doctor determines you're not a danger to yourself or anybody else they release you.
Prison is for people that commit crime. It's not so much about their mental health, rather, they broke the law. In many cases, if you have a good lawyer you can avoid jail ifs it's your first offense. Let's say you hold up a convenient store with a gun and make out with a few hundred dollars. If you don't shoot anybody you could get off with probation if there are any mitigating factors (first offense, you go to college, you support kids, etc.). But by the time it gets to your third, fourth, and fifth offense it becomes clear that you have no respect for the law and you belong in prison.
In jail you don't spend that much time in your cell. They let you out to work out, play chess, baseball, basketball. You can listen to the radio. Some jails have a TV. There's alot of things to do beside sitting in your cell. Aside from nighttime when you're asleep, you probably spend a total of 3 hours a day in your cell in the daytime. They have to do a head count before and after lunch, and another head count before and after dinner. Otherwise there's lots of things to do. If you have social skills and aren't scared to fight, jail isn't as bad as you might think.
However, there's people in jail/prison that don't have social skills. They get in fights and eventually meet their match. These people get put in a different unit because they are dangerous and attack people for no reason. These people deserve to be locked up because they have a long criminal record and can't even function in prison. They're violent.
Prisons are most definitely necessary for people that have no regard for the law. And within the prisons, there's people that have no regard for the rules in prison,.Those people go in solitary confinement for a week or so to teach them a lesson. If that doesn't work they put them in solitary for a month. If that doesn't work they put them in solitary for 6 months. Eventually they send you to Supermax Penitentiary in Colorado. Those are the cells where you never get out until you die because you REPEATEDLY attacked the guards when you were in a regular prison.
Think about it, a person that could have spent his sentence playing baseball and/or chess, or cards who attacks people, attacks the correction officers and doesn't understand that you can't do that. Eventually they end up in a cell that they can't get out of.
Do you have a better suggestion for a violent prisoner?
Also, a prisoner can refuse to take medication. It's his right to not take medication.
