Mental Illness
Over-Represented in Jails & Prisons
Campaign for Mental Health Reform Calls for End to Punitive
Treatment of Vulnerable Americans, Increased Investment in Diversion
WASHINGTON, DC — A report released today
by the United States Department of Justice shows that the number of
Americans with mental illnesses incarcerated in the nation’s prisons and
jails is disproportionately high. The Campaign for Mental Health
Reform, created to promote access to quality mental health services,
sees the staggering figures in this report as evidence of the need for
increased investment in community-based treatment and services.
The report asserts that mental health
disorders affect over half of all inmates in local jails and state and
federal prisons. For most, incarceration results from a community’s
lack of treatment options or other more appropriate resources.
“These numbers confirm that the criminal
justice system has become America’s de facto mental health system,
inappropriately confining hundreds of thousands of youth and adults with
mental disorders,” said Bill Emmet, spokesperson for the Campaign.
“Forcing people with mental illnesses into jails and prisons rather than
ensuring they receive the treatment they need is barbaric – and it’s at
great cost to the American taxpayer who foots the bill.”
The Justice Department report indicates
that approximately one-third of all inmates receive mental health
treatment in prisons and jails. The Campaign believes that individuals
with mental illnesses are better served by having access to treatment
and services in the community. Research shows that making effective
services available is often far less costly than incarceration and helps
reduce recidivism. Many prisons and jails are overcrowded and
understaffed, and few are equipped to provide the specialized mental
health care needed by individuals with mental illness.
Crime can be reduced and lives improved
by providing those in need with appropriate mental health services
before they reach a crisis or end up in jail and prison.
Furthermore, providing such services is an investment in communities
that saves taxpayer dollars, reducing waste like the estimated $100
million spent each year holding young people as they wait for mental
health services, as documented in a 2004 Congressional report.
The Campaign strongly supports the
following recommendations:
- Increase federal and state investment
in community-based services that work for people with mental illnesses
–evidence-based and promising practices, such as peer services and
supports and supportive housing. The Justice Department report shows
that approximately three-quarters of all prisoners with mental health
problems also have co-occurring substance abuse disorders. This
demonstrates the need for vastly improved integrated mental health and
substance abuse treatment in the community. These services reduce
unnecessary institutionalization and incarceration and lead to
positive treatment outcomes and recovery.
- Increase investment in prevention,
early-intervention and rehabilitative services for children and
adults, as recommended by the President’s New Freedom Commission on
Mental Health report in 2003. The Commission proposed that these
services occur in “readily accessible, low-stigma settings, such as
primary health care facilities and schools,” as well as in justice
facilities.
- Fully fund the Mentally Ill Offender
Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (P.L.. 108-414), which
authorized up to $50 million annually in funding for model state and
community programs that jointly engage criminal justice and mental
health systems in combating the criminalization of mental illness.
This Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program would provide
grant support for initiatives such as programs that would encourage
diversion of minor offenders with mental illnesses into
community-based treatment rather than into the criminal or juvenile
justice system.
- Begin discharge planning services and
linkages with mental health treatment, housing and other needed
services as early as possible prior to the release of incarcerated
individuals with mental illnesses. Additionally, restore and expedite
medical benefits and income supports so that these individuals can pay
for treatment upon their release.
“Until we take concrete steps towards a
comprehensive mental health system that brings the right services to the
right people at the right time, far too many vulnerable individuals will
be warehoused in American prisons and jails,” said Emmet.
“Implementation of these recommendations will ensure that people receive
the help they need in the communities where they belong.”
The Campaign for Mental Health Reform
continues to promote solutions to end the criminalization of people with
mental illness and calls on Congress to reverse these statistics by
fully realizing the Campaign recommendations.
The Campaign for Mental
Health Reform has been organized as the mental health community’s united
voice on federal policy. Its goal is to make access,
recovery, and quality in mental health services the hallmarks of our
nation’s mental health system. For more information, see
www.mhreform.org.
©2003
Campaign for Mental Health Reform
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