(Aug. 24, 2016) Law enforcement and corrections staff working in California county jails are overwhelmed by an influx of inmates placed behind bars for petty crimes attributable to untreated mental illness rather than in an appropriate mental health facility equipped to provide proper treatment (“Report: Prisons and jails fast replacing hospitals as treatment centers for mentally ill,” CA Fwd, Aug. 23).
“As the hospitals and the secure treatment environments have diminished over time, the secure treatment environments have become the prisons and jails across America,” said Terri McDonald, retired jail administrator who's worked in Los Angeles County and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
But many question the morality of incarcerating individuals suffering with serious mental illness, arguing that this amounts to punishing them for their illness.
"When the patients would have a bad day or a difficult day or would act out in a hospital, it didn’t lead to criminal convictions, prosecutions or wrong incarceration," added McDonald. "It was understood that their behavior was based on their mental health disorder and their mental health needs.”
Those with mental illness who commit petty crimes are increasingly being locked behind bars, as jails and prisons have become de facto mental health facilities in California and across the country.
Mentally ill offenders have double the bookings than the general jail population and are in jail more than 2.5 times longer, according to the Jail Utilization Study (JUS) conducted by CA Fwd’s Justice System Change Initiative (J-SCI). Additionally, the mentally ill were found to be booked mostly for warrants and holds, not new crimes.
Punishing rather than treating these mentally ill offenders is unfair not only to them but also to the jail staff unequipped for and overwhelmed by their presence.
“Deputy Sheriffs, correctional officers are not mental health workers,” said McDonald. “So first and foremost, the type of people we’re asking to supervise and manage mentally ill inmates/patients is the wrong classification of people to do that. We should begin to teach society that mental illness is not something that we should be afraid of. It’s something to be treated and…the solution is not to bring them to jail.”
The incarceration rate for those with serious mental illnesses has reached a critical stage because many of these individuals are predisposed by their illnesses to committing minor crimes, landing in jails and racking up prolonged incarceration time awaiting a state psychiatric bed. Many of them receive no or inadequate mental health treatment during their incarceration, which worsens their conditions.
We can and must do better than this.
Read the 2016 Treatment Advocacy Center and Public Citizen report, “Individual’s with Serious Mental Illness in County Jails: A Survey of Jail Staff’s Perspectives,” to learn more.
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