(June 23, 2015) A study released earlier this week has confirmed what the Treatment Advocacy Center and common sense have been saying for years: It costs more to incarcerate someone with serious mental illness than it does to provide treatment and counseling.
Nearly twenty times more, the authors concluded.
They study was commissioned by the Arkansas Public Policy Panel to analyze the costs associated with incarcerating people mental illness in Arkansas as compared to providing them with needed treatment in the community.
The authors found that treatment ultimately will “deliver the people back to their families and communities more quickly than a lengthy process of adjudication and confinement.”
The study, drew from a number of sources - including “State and Community Considerations for Demonstrating the Cost Effectiveness of AOT Services” developed by the Treatment Advocacy Center.
Treatment Advocacy Center studies such as the one cited by the Arkansas Public Policy Panel are published on a dedicated research website: TACReports.org. In addition to this report, five other major studies have been released since 2012:
• The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Jails and Prisons: A State Survey
• Mental Health Commitment Laws: A Survey of the States
• Justifiable Homicides by Law Enforcement Officers: What is the Role of Mental Illness
• Prevalence of Mental Health Diversion Practices: A Survey of the States
• No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals