Note
Widescreen presentation.
Two soundtracks are available on the menu, an original soundtrack or an audio commentary with Miri Navasky and Karen O'Connor.
Companion web site at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/asylums/
Résumé
Nearly 500,000 mentally ill men and women are serving time in U.S. jails and prisons. As sheriffs and prison wardens become the unexpected and often ill-equipped caretakers of this burgeoning population, they raise a troubling new concern: Have America's jails and prisons become its new asylums? This documentary goes deep inside Ohio's state prison system to explore the complex and growing issue of mentally ill prisoners. With unprecedented access to prison therapy sessions, mental health treatment meetings, crisis wards, and prison disciplinary tribunals, the film provides a vivid and disturbing portrait of the new reality for the mentally ill. This is a companion film to ‘The released’, which explores what happens to the mentally ill when they leave prison.