The incarceration of criminals with mental health problems has been the most disturbing aspect of penal practice. Since the inception of prisons, they have been the perfect environment for the mentally ill. Today the number of criminals with mental disorders increases enormously and prisons and correctional centers are overflowing. A wide range of these offenders carry disorders such as schizophrenia, which is the inability to think and/or process emotions. Depending on the crime and the offender's mental state, mentally ill criminals should not be locked up in prison but rather treated in mental health institutions. This essay will discuss making evident the deinstitutionalization, the treatment of offenders in prison and the suicide rate. For starters, mental health offenders deserve to be treated, not punished. The primary reason many mentally ill prisoners end up in prison is the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric institutions over the past 30 years (The Globe and Mail). Deinstitutionalization is the act of replacing mental health hospitals with less isolated community mental health services for those suffering from such conditions. This process works in two ways: first by reforming mental hospitals to eliminate or reduce the reinforcement of addiction, hopelessness, and other dysfunctional behaviors; the second focuses on reducing the population size of psychiatric institutions by shortening hospitalizations, releasing patients, and reducing both hospitalization and readmission rates (Wikipedia, 2013). Starting with the positive goal of helping these sick people, it ended up causing more harm to them than good. Public and private psychiatric hospitals contain approximately 100,000 beds, which means that... middle of paper... they are not in prisons but rather are treated in mental health institutions. Therefore, it has been made evident by examining deinstitutionalisation, the treatment of offenders in prison and the suicide rate of a wide range of these offenders involves serious mental disorders and requires professional attention. Depending on the crime and the offender's mental state, mentally ill criminals should not be locked up in prison but rather treated in mental health institutions. It has been proven that the correctional system is not suitable for them and there is a lack of adequate measures that a psychiatric hospital should take care of these inmates. Therefore the State must invest in placing criminals suffering from mental illnesses in specialized programs or facilities where they can serve their sentences – depending on their crimes – and still be able to receive adequate care..