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Jailing People with Mental Illness
Senate Panel holds Hearings on the "Criminalization of Mental Illness"
by Phil Jordan
June 20, 2002
Our country is punishing people with mental illnesses for the failure of the mental health system. We used to warehouse people with mental disorders in large state institutions. Today, increasingly, we simply incarcerate them in jail. --- Chris Koyanagi, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Thirty years ago, it became clear that providing mental health services for people in the communities where they lived was a good idea. “Mental hospitals” were expensive, often ineffective, and kept people with abilities and talents locked up. A system was imagined where people received mental health services in their own community, and everyone would benefit – the individuals with mental health needs would get the services they desired and be a participant in their own treatment plans, the government would benefit by providing more effective treatment at a lower cost, and society would benefit from the contributions of citizens who were allowed to participate in their communities.
That was the vision, but it didn’t work out that way. Mental institutions were “downsized” and many of the people who were locked up were released. But somehow, community mental health services never got enough money to provide services to those who needed them. Somehow the people who were released weren’t directed to community mental health centers. Somehow jails and prisons became the places where people with mental illnesses ended up.
The Los Angeles County Jail has more than three thousand people with a serious mental illness on any given night. The Sacramento Bee says that, in effect, the jail is the largest mental institution in the United States. In fact, U.S. government reports that more than 16% of adults in jail or prison and 20% of youth who are confined, have a mental illness. Many advocacy groups believe that these percentages are actually much higher because the government figures only count individuals who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Many more individuals with mental health issues are in jail or prison have never been labeled as being “mentally ill.”
Why is this happening? When people with mental illnesses come in contact with police, they are twice as likely to be arrested as other individuals. Sometimes an arrest happens because the person commits a crime, but very often the police make an arrest because they have given up on the over-burdened community mental health system. Gary Margolis, the Chief of the University of Vermont Police, states that police often arrest people with mental illness because “police are frustrated by the lack of community-based mental health resources. . . .With nowhere else to turn, law enforcement officers often arrest these minor offenders who end up in a criminal justice system that is ill-equipped to meet their needs.”
Another reason that arrest rates are higher for individuals with mental illness may be fear. The media watchdog organization, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) reports that the media perpetuates an unreasonable prejudice against people with mental illness. Read their report.
Senate Hearings
On June 11, 2002, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings to discuss the “criminalization of mental illness.” They listened to police and prosecutors, local officials and mental health professionals, and advocates for people with mental illness. It is very rare for representatives from groups with such wide-ranging points of view to agree on an issue. But on this day, everyone was in agreement. All those who spoke echoed the sentiments of Chris Koyanagi from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law who said,
Our country is punishing people with mental illnesses for the failure of the mental health system. We used to warehouse people with mental disorders in large state institutions. Today, increasingly, we simply incarcerate them in jail. We must reverse this trend. This means forging new and continuing coordination between criminal justice and mental health agencies. It will also require improved training of law enforcement officials to recognize and respond appropriately to people with mental illnesses, expanded options for jail diversion and adequate planning and community support for inmates with mental illnesses when they are released. In the long term, we must slow the tide of people with mental illnesses who end up in the criminal justice system. We can do this only if we ensure access to mental health treatment, adequate housing, vocational help and the other forms of social support necessary for someone with a mental illness to lead an independent and dignified life.
Read the entire statement of Chris Koyanagi.
Visit the U.S. Senate web site for all the testimony given to the Judiciary Committee.
Want to learn more? Try these links:
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What are advocates and law enforcement officials doing to solve this problem? Check out The Consensus Project |
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Here's a report on the problem written by a group of criminal justice professionals (including Seattle Police Chief, Gil Kerlikowski). Read the report by the Sentencing Project (this 22 page document requires that your computer have Adobe Acrobat software. You may download this software for free if you wish from the Adobe web site.) |
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An article titled, "Panel Focuses on 'Criminalization' of Mental Illness" |
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