Prison Path
Locking Up the Mentally Ill
The United States has an illness. Our prisons and jails are filled with the mentally ill. Every month, there is another investigation revealing that a substantial number of inmates incarcerated for minor crimes are suffering from mental illnesses. Channel 9’s report about Orange County Jail disclosed that one-third of the 3,000 inmates presently imprisoned have serious mental illnesses. The same individuals,having mental issues, are arrested numerous times for misdemeanors such as trespassing and disorderly conduct.
In 2013, 46,000 individuals were locked up in the Orange County jail and 8,000 were diagnosed with mental illnesses. The average time for a mentally ill inmate at the jail is 60 days with a cost of 8.9 million. The 60 day incarceration rate is twice the stay of other inmates.
State hospitals for the mentally ill started closing throughout the country in the 1960’s for a number of reasons. It was thought that local communities would be best to handle their residents with mental problems. Today, Orange County, only has 190 beds for long term care and minimal options for short term care. In the end, the mentally ill are left to the streets and eventual lock up in the local jail.
Jails and prisons have replaced the state hospitals. Correctional officers do not have the training to cope with inmates that have mental illnesses.
There are other options to resolve this national crisis. Recently in Los Angeles County, the local government approved 41 million dollars for programs to keep the mentally ill out of jail. More money will be allocated to expanding mobile support teams that help officers with individuals having mental issues. The county will open three new 24 hour urgent care centers and add 560 more beds for residential treatment.
The United states has five percent of the world’s population and twenty-five percent of the world’s inmates. This shameful statistic would change substantially if the mentally ill received appropriate health care and were not locked up for petty crimes.
By: Bradley Schwartz
Founder of prisonpath.com
the community mental health system has always been a pass/fail system. It has always functioned as a gateway function in a containment model, with the hospitals containing those the community did not want. Now if you don’t ask for help, act nice, talk nice, and keep coming back, you got to homelessness, jail, prison or death. We need to change the containment mentality.
Dear NAMI Dearest I believe we need to take an actvie role here and send the Deej letters/postcards/ communique stating how we look forward to the debate he was so clearly invited to via Lauren Tenney and Dan Hazen. Would you please post an address for him so we can each speak for ourselves? Thanks.
When I was in Oregon, another problem was police lack of knowledge on how to handle the mentally ill person who was acting aggressively. Several were killed before the police began a program training officers to intercede when a mentally ill person became involved with law enforcement.
By: Marj.–deacon
Locking up the mentally ill isn’t the answer; they need treatment and the jails are not equipped from my research.
By: Willie
Money could be better spent giving treatment than warehousing them in prison.
By: Phillip
This is morally wrong!
By:Dennis
Mental illness is a serious illness that is being mistreated from the standpoint of providing the proper care. It is a problem for the prison industry and the community over all. The facilities that once was available to house and treat this segment of our population is now closed. So do we have is an over crowding of our prisons that is ill equipped to treat and or service the mentally ill. This is a travesty of injustice. They are people too and deserve better.
By:Willie
When I was in Oregon, another problem was police lack of knowledge on how to handle the mentally ill person who was acting aggressively. Several were killed before the police began a program training officers to intercede when a mentally ill person became involved with law enforcement.
By Marj–Chaplain
Locking up the mentally ill isn’t the answer; they need treatment and the jails are not equipped from my research.
By Willie
Money could be better spent giving treatment than warehousing them in prison.
By Phillip
Mental illness is a serious illness that is being mistreated from the standpoint of providing the proper care. It is a problem for the prison industry and the community over all. The facilities that once was available to house and treat this segment of our population is now closed. So do we have is an over crowding of our prisons that is ill equipped to treat and or service the mentally ill. This is a travesty of injustice. They are people too and deserve better.
By Willie
I believe the mental illness must be addressed first. Without proper treatment of the inmate’s mental illness that person will re-offend. Prayerfully our court judges will comprehend mental illness is at the core of crimes committed and changes will be made. I am not excusing the crime committed, however is justice really served without mental health intervention?
By Canzata