May 9, 2016

Getting the Mentally Ill Out of Jail and Off the Streets

Introduction

An inmate in the psychiatric ward of a state penitentiary. Joe Tierney/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, via Associated Press

The federal government has accused South Dakota of unconstitutionally warehousing the mentally ill and disabled in nursing homes. Meanwhile, at least 16 percent of the nation’s jail and prison inmates are estimated to be mentally ill and about 40 percent of the mentally ill have been incarcerated. Many of the homeless are also mentally ill.

Deinstitutionalization, which began decades ago, was supposed to improve treatment, but was not followed by funding for better care.

Do we need to return to mental hospitals and other forms of institutional commitment to treat those with severe mental illness? Or are there other, more effective means of treatment?

Read the Discussion »

Debaters

Psychiatric Institutions Are a Necessity

Dominic Sisti, professor of medical ethics

High quality, ethically administered psychiatric asylums would provide the seriously mentally ill with a place to stabilize and recover.
It’s Best That Mental Asylums Were Abandoned

Tom Burns, social psychiatry professor

The mentally ill need skilled case managers in their communities. Alternatives are fig-leaves to cover the failure to provide decent care.
Addiction Cannot Be Ignored

Ayesha Delany-Brumsey and Chelsea Davis, Vera Institute

Mental illness goes hand-in-hand with drug use, either because substance use exacerbates symptoms or because drugs are used to self-medicate.
The Mentally Ill Need Supportive Affordable Housing

Ann-Marie Louison, CASES

A small number of individuals with serious mental illnesses need long-term hospital care, but no one should need this level of care forever.
Keep Them From Getting Behind Bars

Jamie Fellner, Human Rights Watch

The police must be able to recognize the symptoms of mental health crises, and need facilities other than jails to which they can take people in such crises.
We Need Better Funding for Mental Health Services

Fred Osher, Council of State Governments Justice Center

The answer is not simply to build more psychiatric facilities, but rather to fulfill the promise of deinstitutionalization by providing effective treatment.