Friends Committee on Legislation Education Fund
Treat Mental Illness, Don't Incarcerate
A National Consensus on minimizing incarceration of people who are mentally ill has been developed by the Council of State Governments with 46 policy recommendations:
Immediate steps for California are recommended in two well-considered reports by California's Little Hoover Commission:
The Legislature and Governor can begin to improve the chances for people who suffer mental illness, and are at risk for landing in jail or prison, as follows:
- The Governor can appoint a personal Mental Health Advocate charged with building the networks and partnerships necessary to form a Mental Health Advocacy Commission.
- The Governor's Mental Health Advocate should convene a series of mental health summits to bring business, health providers, and communities together.
- By executive order, the Governor should establish a California Council on Offenders with Special Needs.
- The Legislature should obtain an independent evaluation of contracts between the Department of Corrections and local mental health agencies to provide care to parolees, and expand the contracts that prove most successful to all counties.
- the Legislative Analyst should evaluate the way the State uses incentives to re-establish Social Security benefits for mentally ill prisoners when they are paroled, and see that those benefits are regularly made available.
Jail and prison may cause mental illness.
Former RAND researcher, Joan Petersilia notes a more subtle point about mental illness and prisons that often goes unnoticed. Mental illnesses, particularly chronic anxiety and depression, may be caused by incarceration. Psychologists believe that incarceration often breeds "global rage," an impulsive and explosive anger so great that a minor incident can trigger an uncontrolled response. See, California Policy Research Center brief, Challenges of Prisoner Reentry and Parole in California by Joan Petersilia (June, 2000).
The brief points out that inmates with mental illnesses are imprisoned at high rates and that ultimately most are released. In 1998, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) estimated that 16% of jail or prison inmates reported a mental condition or an overnight stay in a mental hospital (BJS, 1999). Few public mental health services are available in the community, and studies in Los Angeles show that even when they are available, people who need treatment often fail to get it because they fear institutionalization, deny that they are mentally ill, or distrust the mental health system (Schoeni and Koegel, 1998). People with untreated mental illnesses may engage in criminal behaviors that eventually result in arrest and conviction.
Legislation and Pilot Projects. In 1998, the Legislature established a program to fund local efforts to reduce the number of cases where jail is used as the mental helath treatment facility of last resort. Some results of this effort are begining to be seen.
FCL Newsletter Articles:
- Saving on the Mentally Ill
- Cell Therapy
Research
The seriousness of the problem, and its social as well as human costs, are well recognized by numerous state and local agencies. recognize.
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