NCJ Number
186712
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 62 Issue: 7 Dated: December 2000 Pages: 70-78
Date Published
December 2000
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article examines the plight of mentally ill persons in prisons and jails.
Abstract
The United States currently has more mentally ill men and women in jails and prisons than in all State hospitals combined. Up to 15 percent of incarcerated men and women have severe acute and chronic mental illnesses. Jails and prisons are poorly equipped to recognize and treat these inmates and it often takes the threat of a lawsuit before enough resources are allocated to correctional institutions to adequately care for mentally ill offenders. The article suggests that the first step in addressing the crisis in mental health care is to end the stigmatization and discrimination that surround mental illness. Further, to make mental health care more accessible, and to provide timely care to a small subset of the severely mentally ill will require rewriting civil commitment laws. Many States are implementing outpatient commitment procedures that allow some mentally ill persons to live freely in their communities, with provisions for rapid intervention if they begin to deteriorate. In addition, some communities are developing alliances between their mental health and criminal justice systems and jail diversion programs which provide both legal sanctions and appropriate mental health care to mentally ill offenders. Notes