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Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System
“It
is deplorable and outrageous that this state’s prisons appear to
have become a repository for a great number of its mentally ill
citizens. Persons who, with psychiatric care, could fit well into
society, are instead locked away, to become wards of the state’s
penal system. Then, in a tragically ironic twist, they may be
confined in conditions that nurture, rather than abate, their
psychoses.”- Judge William Wayne Justice,
Ruiz v. Johnson, 37 F. Supp.2d 855 (S.D. Texas, 1999)
The Problem: Incarceration is a part of life for many people with
mental illness, and jails are not treatment facilities.
·
The
rate of individuals with serious mental illness who are booked into
US jails is at least three to four times the rate of serious mental
illness in the general population.
·
16% of
the adults incarcerated in US jails and prisons have a mental
illness.
·
Jails
and prisons were never designed for or intended to accommodate
people with mental illness. Many corrections staff lack the
training to recognize symptoms of mental illness and to
appropriately handle prisoners who are symptomatic. Ill equipped
to provide the comprehensive array of services that these
individuals need, corrections administrators often watch the health
of people with mental illness deteriorate further, prompting
behavior and disciplinary infractions that only prolong
their involvement in the criminal justice system. Given the
dimensions and complexity of the issue, the demands upon the
criminal justice system to respond to this problem are overwhelming.
·
When
mental health consumers are incarcerated, people with untreated
mental illness are especially vulnerable to exploitation and
victimization by other inmates
·
There
are cases in which a person with a mental illness commits a serious,
violent crime, making his or her incarceration necessary and
appropriate. Still, almost all of these individuals will reenter the
community, and the justice system has the legal obligation (and the
obligation to the public) to prepare these individuals for a safe
and successful transition to the community.
Prompted by litigation, NJ has begun implementing
system wide prison reform and programs to attend to people with
mental illness.
Origins of the Problem:
·
Failure to provide adequate funding, support, and direction for the
community mental health system that was supposed to replace the
hospitals that were shut down as part of the
“deinstitutionalization” effort that began in the 1960’s; and
·
the
increase in punitive anti-crime efforts dramatically expanded the
number of persons brought into the criminal justice system, the
number of prison sentences given for non-violent crimes, and the
length of those sentences.
Diversion as a Response to the Problem
Diversion
programs divert non-violent offenders with mental illness away from
incarceration and into treatment:
·
Police Diversion (Pre-Booking): A person is not taken into
custody but is either taken home, to some treatment, or support
system;
·
Pretrial Diversion:
The
prosecutors may decide that bringing the full force of the justice
process to bear in a particular instance is not warranted; and
·
Jail Diversion:
A
judicial decision that pretrial or probation is more appropriate
than incarceration.
Key Elements for
Successful Diversion Programs.
·
Ongoing Cooperation:
The
single most significant common denominator shared by communities
that have successfully improved the criminal justice and mental
health systems’ response to people with mental illness, is that each
started with some degree of cooperation between at least two key
stakeholders — one from the criminal justice system and the other
from the mental health system;
·
Ongoing Commitment:
Involvement by the principals in the mental health and criminal
justice systems signals to their subordinates and other stakeholders
that the organization is committed to the initiative;
·
Increased Public Investment in Services:
For the
public mental health system to assist the criminal justice system
in addressing the needs of people with mental illness, policymakers
and community change agents need to ensure that it has sufficient
resources and public supports;
·
Immediate, Accessible, Comprehensive and Flexible Services:
If
services cannot meet the immediate needs of those who seek them, the
criminal justice officials and the public may loose confidence in
the ability to successfully engage individuals with mental illness;
·
Ongoing Collaboration:
Collaborative programs between mental health, substance abuse and
criminal justice that insure the provision of services; and
·
Diversion which occurs at the earliest possible point.
The MHANJ is in full support of A
663, sponsored by Assemblyman Frank Blee (R2) and Assemblywoman Mary
T. Previte (D6), which would establish a pilot program in three
regions of the state to divert mentally ill offenders from the jail
or prison and into treatment.
Material for this
article was drawn from Human Rights Watch, “Ill Equipped: U.S.
Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness” and from the Criminal
Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project.
Hot Topics
Helping
Consumers Secure Home Ownership Under Section 8
Assemblyman Gordon
Johnson (D37) and Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg (D37) have
introduced legislation, A 1088, which would create a program in
HMFA to assist participants in the federal Section 8 home
ownership program. In addition, this bill would establish a
pilot Disabled Home Ownership Program to:
·
Gauge interest in the program;
·
partner with agencies that work with the disabled to identify
potential purchasers;
·
publicize the program;
·
link
purchasers to resources to assist them to overcome any obstacles
to home ownership;
·
assist home purchasers in the buying process; and
·
provide post-purchase counseling and support, including case
management, budgeting and property maintenance assistance.
Though currently there is no employment requirement
for the elderly and disabled to enter the Section 8 to Homeownership
Program, some first time consumer home-buyers may need more support
to make the dream of purchasing their own home a reality. Thanks to
Assemblyman Johnson for working with Community Health Law Project,
Housing and Community Development Network of NJ, Legal Services of
NJ and MHANJ in this regard.
Thumbs Up!
Consumer
of the Month
Thanks to Dave Sedar, mental health consumer from
Camden County, for igniting the public response to a tragedy in that
county in which a friend and fellow consumer, Joel Seidel, was
murdered in his cell at the Camden County Jail on January 27, 2004.
Dave's passion was the impetus behind efforts to host a vigil and
community walk for justice on February 27, in honor of Joel.
Join
MHANJ’s Legislative Network! Contact C. Chin at 973.571.4100 Ex.
37 | 