(April 11, 2014) Given the large number of seriously mentally ill individuals in our prisons and jails and the associated, the question becomes how these individuals can be treated for mental illness.
Many of the seriously mentally ill inmates will accept medication voluntarily. Others, especially those who are not aware of their own illness (in other words, those who have anosognosia), will not accept medication voluntarily because they think there is nothing wrong with them.
Just as inmates should be treated for tuberculosis, diabetes, and hypertension, so also should they be treated for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression.
The consequences of failing to treat mentally ill inmates are “usually harmful and sometimes tragic,” according to the report, which represents the first compilation of state laws and practices governing such treatment. Without intervention, symptoms worsen, leading inmates to behave in disruptive and bizarre ways and become vulnerable to being beaten, raped or otherwise victimized, to mutilating themselves or committing suicide.
All recommendations for improving the situation begin with the general premise that individuals with severe mental disorders who are in need of treatment belong in hospitals, not in prisons and jails.
The ultimate solutions to the problems presented in this report include having an adequate number of public psychiatric beds for the stabilization of mentally ill individuals and involve a fundamental realignment of the public mental illness treatment system in which public mental health officials at the state and county level are held responsible for any failure of the treatment system. Until that is done, the following are some interim recommendations.
- Provide appropriate treatment for prison and jail inmates with serious mental illness
- Implement and promote jail diversion programs
- Promote the use of assisted outpatient treatment (AOT)
- Encourage cost studies
- Establish careful intake screening
- Mandate release planning
Excerpted from “The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails.” Read or download the complete report from our TACReports.org website.
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