The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/mental-health/)
Young cops are taught that individuals threatening them with knives are as potentially dangerous as if they were carrying guns. Statistics don’t support the claim; nevertheless, it has triggered too many fatal tragedies involving people diagnosed with mental problems that could have been prevented, writes a psychologist.
“COVID has been a big tragedy in the criminal justice system,” said Luke Mulligan, an assistant federal public defender in Flagstaff, AZ. One category of delayed cases is those involving competence to stand trial.
Over half of the 7,571 jail inmates who died between 2008 to 2019 were in pretrial detention, according to a Reuters investigation. At least 2,000 were suicides.
Long before this year’s protests over police mishandling of mental health crisis calls, journalists began to examine CAHOOTS, a program in Eugene, Ore., that used community-based services as first responders in place of cops. You can read some of the most compelling accounts in the latest collection of stories about crime-reduction strategies archived by the Solutions Journalism Network.
Anyone who has experienced the dehumanizing environment of most U.S. prisons would not be surprised by the high levels of recidivism in our corrections system, says psychiatrist Dr. Christine Montross. In a conversation with TCR about her new book, Dr. Montross argues nothing will change until we treat incarcerated people with “humanity.”
Spit hoods have come under scrutiny in light of the March death of Daniel Prude, which recently led to the suspension of seven Rochester police officers.
Only 38 percent of U.S. public schools during the 2017-2018 school year provided treatment to students with mental health disorders. A study by the National Center for Education Statistics blamed inadequate funding and lack of access to licensed mental health professionals.
Documentary filmmaker Gabriel London speaks with The Crime Report about his recently released project, “The Definition of Insanity,” now streaming on PBS. The film follows participants and the team who carry out the Miami-Dade Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP) in Florida.
When hospitals don’t set clear boundaries with police, they risk losing funding and certification from national and state governments. Vermont is a surprising case study in how things can quickly go wrong.
Mental health advocates applaud changes in Portland that have shifted responsibility from police to paramedics to transport mentally ill people to hospitals. But the changes have created a host of new challenges.