Into the Thick of it (9/19)

Having written my second research assessment of the year this past week (yay!), I feel like I can finally say I'm into the thick of it. I wrote about the prevalence of severe mental illness (SMI) in correctional facilities. I was very surprised not only at the extent of SMIs in both federal and state prisons but also at the rate of increase of SMIs in prisons as a whole. The resource that I looked at was from an organization called the Treatment Advocacy Center, and I found that they have lots of other resources that I should be able to use for my research this year. In fact, I already found an article/paper I plan to look at (maybe even this week).

The paper I found discusses the increase of SMIs in the population of those experiencing homelessness. Lately, there has been an increased criminalization of homelessness, and I am interested in seeing if there is a correlation between these areas.

The main things I need to accomplish this week are contacting my mentor, and trying to contact other professionals for other research interviews. I also want to find some more sources specifically about what mental illnesses are the most prevalent, and if there are specific mental illnesses that are correlated with the most violent crime. Every week I am more and more excited about my project as it takes shape.