Prison is a revolving door for the mentally ill

Prisons often have been described as the largest mental hospitals in the country. A study confirms that perception and suggests that, without more appropriate treatment, many mentally ill inmates are the most likely criminals to be repeat offenders.

The study, published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, examined the country's largest state prison system, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Researchers, from the University of Texas Medical Branch, found that 10% of those incarcerated had been diagnosed previously with a major mental illness and were far more likely than inmates without a psychiatric disorder to be incarcerated repeatedly.

"Our findings point to the need for expanding interventions to reduce recidivism among inmates with serious mental illness," said the lead author of the study, Jacques Baillargeon, in a news release. But, he notes, although mentally ill people are sometimes diverted to community-based mental-health treatment programs, those diversion programs are generally not available to people who commit violent crimes. Alternative correctional systems with appropriate clinical treatment facilities should be considered for those mentally ill inmates, he proposed.

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Eric Paul Zamora/Associated Press

Comments

[CJaye]

Whereas I object to the term "criminals" in this news story, this subject needs our full attention. The term "criminal" brings to mind someone who WANTS to do wrong, not sick people who break laws out of a lack of understanding or control. That is what happens in the overwhelming majority of cases where mental patients wind up imprisoned over and over and over and over -- unless or until some of them does something that demands a life sentence. Can't we please do better by our sick citizens than this?

SICK PEOPLE NEED TREATMENT, NOT PRISON!

If we don't decriminalize mental illness because it is the right thing to do morally, let us consider the savings to taxpayers!

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

Join our group here on Care2 - Human Rights section. We advocate to decriminalize mental illness in America.