Ask students to watch “The New Asylum” Frontine video on the PBS website (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/view/). Note. This link takes you directly to the PBS website, which  and you will leave the university site. Facilitate a class discussion by asking students some or all of the following questions about the movie.

·       1.   What percentage of the U.S. jail and prison population is diagnosed with mental illness?

·       2.   Why do you think many individuals with mental illness end up behind bars? What are the major causes? What is some possible prevention?

·       3.   What percentage of the female prison population is diagnosed with mental illness?

·      4.    What is the racial breakdown of mental illness in prison?

·      5.  Do the inmates with mental illness serve longer or shorter sentences than the general inmate population?

·       6.   Do individuals with mental illness have higher recidivism rates than the general inmate population?

·       7.   What’s being done to address recidivism?

·       8.  How difficult is it to provide mental health care inside a prison?

·       9.   What is segregation and how does it affect those with mental illness?

·       10.   What are communities doing to tackle this problem?

·       11.   At the national level, are there any efforts underway to help people with mental illness who are in prisons and jails?

·        12.  What can citizens do to improve the treatment of those with mental illness, especially those in prisons and jails?