When Mental Illness Runs Into the Law

Please share your stories here. Maybe we can learn how to affect change in this horrible situation

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bazelon.org

Fact Sheet #3

Individuals with Mental Illnesses in Jail and Prison

Data

* Nearly two million new jail admissions are of people with mental illnesses—35,000 individuals a week.1

* At the end of 2000, nearly one million individuals with mental illnesses were in the criminal justice system.2

* More than 16% of jail inmates have a mental illness, according to the United States Department of Justice.3

* Seventy percent of jail inmates with mental illnesses are there for nonviolent offenses.4

Chart: There Are 916,000 Offenders with Mental IllnessOffenders with Mental Illness

* In Jails: 101,000 individuals with mental illnesses were inmates in local jails at year-end 2000. Of these, 63,000 had a severe mental illness.5 Jails are locally operated facilities that hold people pending arraignment or awaiting trial, conviction or sentencing. Sentencing is either to probation or incarceration in jail (generally under a year) or prison. There are 3,365 local jails.6

* In Prisons: 201,000 individuals with mental illnesses were inmates in state (191,000 or 16.2%) and federal (10,000 or 7.9%) prisons at year-end 2000. Of these, 132,000 had a severe mental illness.7 There are 1,558 adult correctional facilities housing state prisoners and 110 facilities housing federal prisoners.

* On Probation: 614,000 individuals (16%) with mental illnesses were on probation at year-end 2000. Of these, 315,000 had a severe mental illness.8 Probation represents a more moderate sanction than incarceration. It is generally given to offenders with few or no prior convictions or to those guilty of less serious offenses.

Dee

Have you checked out the NAMI website or the DSBA website, these are two groups that are very active in fighting for the rights of the mentally ill.

This is hell on earth and should be shut down now.

The plan when state hospitals were shut down was to put into place a community based program that would reach out to the MI in their communities and counties. I happen to live in a major city where a very respectable program is available. I moved here from my state's second largest city that had no program to speak of.

What resources are in the states and cities where you live?

Dee

Most of the time, the MI are in trouble for something, the Police don't realize that they are dealing with someone with mental problems, and they get dumped into the system because they don't know what to do otherwise, there should be some kind of placement program, where those with a mental illness are examined and then given the proper help, that is where groups like NAMI and DBSA are helping to fix this, although they are fighting against the government.

Very scary. I had to sit with him for 8 hours before we got help. They did give him Zyprex which knocked him out at the emergency room, and the psychiatric hospital (where we sat in the waiting room for 8 hrs) where we were referred did not even come out to check on him one time. If I had not been with him he would have wandered away. We have good insurance. So it was not a money issue.

It was a not-giving-a-damn issue on the part of the hospital.

Once he was admitted it was much better. but, boy, it was a struggle.