NCJ Number
209165
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 67 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2005 Pages: 22-24
Date Published
February 2005
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article briefly examines the issue of the increased criminalization of individuals with mental illness in the United States and the responsibilities of the mental health system in responding to those they are charged with serving and reducing the number of individuals with serious mental illnesses entering the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The extent to which mental health systems across the United States have failed those that they are intended to serve is best illustrated by more people with serious mental illnesses incarcerated in the Nation’s jails, prisons, and juvenile justice facilities than in psychiatric treatment facilities. According to a 1999 Bureau of Justice Statistics report, an estimated 16 percent, or more than 300,000 adult inmates in United States’ jails and prisons, suffer from serious mental illness. This is compared to 5.4 percent of the adult American population that is considered to have a serious mental illness. The get tough on crime-punitive philosophy, with the imposition of mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses has resulted in a growing prevalence of both youths and adults with mental illnesses entering the criminal justice system. This article briefly discusses the inadequacies of the criminal justice system, the lack of crisis-response, the disappearing inpatient bed, and the non-adherence to treatment for those with serious mental illnesses. However, due to an increased awareness that jails are not the place to treat offenders with mental illness, there is an emergence of innovations and alternatives being developed by mental health systems. The widespread criminalization of people with mental illnesses must come from transforming the mental health systems and making them more responsive to the people they are charged with serving. 5 Endnotes