The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/mental-health/)
The majority of police officers in 45 percent of agencies surveyed haven’t been trained to handle mental-heath crises. In Eugene, Or., a nonprofit handles such cases, amounting to 17 percent of police service calls last year.
The growing population of offenders with mental health or substance abuse issues is a nationwide problem, but it’s especially challenging in rural communities. One Wisconsin jail has risen to the challenge.
Oregon releases people found not guilty by reason of insanity from supervision and treatment more quickly than nearly every other state in the nation, but they commit far more crimes after their release than the state has previously led the public to believe, a news investigation has found.
Did the mass shooting in a California bar stem from the shooter’s combat-related post-traumatic stress? Too many reporters jumped to that conclusion, a media critic writes.
In rural Nebraska, police and medical providers have teamed up to divert troubled individuals from the justice system, but it’s still a struggle to get adequate resources.
Jail officials in rural communities frequently cope with staff shortages, overcrowding and budget shortfalls—all of which make it especially difficult to meet the needs of mentally ill inmates. One official in northeast Nebraska says the problem is the worst he can remember in nearly four decades.
The odds that mentally troubled prisoners will be sent to solitary confinement for misconduct are 36 percent higher than for those without mental illness, according to a University of Massachusetts study of data from a 2004 national survey.
Texas’ Harris County jail is considered a progressive example of being attentive to mental health needs, with a suicide rate below the national average. But the recent suicides of two inmates point to systemic gaps in how the jail system handles prisoners in solitary confinement.
New research into how the brain works is contributing to innovative strategies for reducing recidivism and developing alternatives to incarceration.
Today, states spend hundreds of millions on evaluating and restoring the “mental competency” of individuals to stand trial. But such restoration is a far cry from the comprehensive mental health treatment needed by defendants who many experts say should never have been incarcerated in the first place.