The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/mental-health/)
The use of jails to house individuals with serious mental illness is contributing to the skyrocketing growth in jail populations across the U.S.—particularly in rural and small counties—experts told a conference at John Jay College Tuesday.
In Dallas County, the main outlet of psychiatric care for those with mental illness is no longer the corrections system. A five-year initiative using predictive technology is helping to divert justice-involved mentally ill individuals into effective treatment programs.
Jarrod Ramos left a years-long trail of harassment, threats and contemptuous behavior. “You can’t lock someone up because you have an inner fear about what he might do,” said Richard Barajas of the National Organization for Victim Assistance. “The criminal justice system is not designed for it. “
Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall is creating a facility to treat people who need mental health help instead of jailing them. A grand jury said that for many people needing treatment, “we seem to just throw them into the criminal justice system.”
Tennessee Waffle House shooting suspect Travis Reinking’s mental stability had been questioned for years, but few people with mental issues are committed involuntarily to hospitals.
Davidson County, TN, sheriff Daron Hall expressed his frustration with the criminal justice system after the Waffle House shooting, saying, “It cannot solve the mental health problem.” He said the case is “evidence that we have too many guns and too many mentally ill people.”
In some states, those judged to be criminally insane receive better mental health treatment than practically anybody else — including people who have never committed a crime. Four states lack an insanity defense, so mentally-ill people who are convicted go to prison.
Two weeks after New York City police officers fatally shot a mentally disturbed man they thought was armed with a gun, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a task force aimed at improving city responses to emergencies involving the mentally ill. Police responded to 160,000 calls last year involving mental illness.
The lack of adequate alternatives to jail or prison to help mentally troubled individuals who run afoul of the law is a “horrible American tragedy,” judges and prosecutors from around the country were told at a New York University School of Law conference.
For lack of alternatives, thousands of mentally ill individuals are trapped in the justice system. In a conversation with TCR, Alisa Roth, author of “Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness,” says change will only happen when we reexamine our attitudes towards mental illness.