Creepy photos of the mentally ill in an American prison

Not everyone knows, but in fact there are a lot of mentally ill people in the United States. Basically, most of them are kept in prisons instead of psychiatric hospitals.

There are three largest prisons for the mentally ill in America - in New York, Los Angeles, and Cook County in Illinois. It holds 11,000 prisoners undergoing treatment for mental illness. For comparison, the three largest public psychiatric hospitals in the United States have only 4,000 beds for patients.

This is a huge problem for the United States because prisons are not the best environment and opportunities to help mentally ill people and are not getting bigger.

1. Photographer Jenn Ackerman was given permission to photograph the Correctional Psychiatric Ward in Kentucky.

2. The prison has a block where prisoners often have to be restricted in their movement for their own safety.

3. The facility employs licensed mental health professionals, but also regular corrections officers.

4. The unit for the mentally ill started with 13 beds in 1998 but grew to 150 beds in 2008. This prisoner curled up in a ball without a blanket.

5. This prisoner talks to himself 23 hours a day. Prolonged isolation can exacerbate mental illness.

6. Anthony Rosario stares wide-eyed from the block where he spends 23 hours a day.

7. This prisoner looks at the sun in a narrow window.

8. Prisoner Jonathon Ponder laughs through the cell window.

9. Correctional officers often help the mentally ill. "It's a fine line between mental health and safety."

10. This prisoner must wear a mask so that he does not spit on correctional officers and doctors.

11. Employees clean and search the cell after the prisoner tried to harm himself.

12. An inmate named Bobby Slater pictured here subsequently hanged himself in his cell.

13. This prisoner spends most of the day just staring at the walls of his cell.

14. Aging behind bars.

15. 60-year-old Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Prison inmate Danny Castile, who was convicted of murder, holds drawings and notes that he believes are invaluable to the Department of Corrections and judges.