Criminalization of Mental Illness
Fifty years of failed mental health policy have placed law enforcement on the front lines of mental illness crisis response and turned jails and prisons into the new asylums.
Deinstitutionalization, outdated treatment laws demanding a person become violent before intervention, discriminatory federal Medicaid funding practices, and the prolonged failure by states to fund their mental health systems drive those in need of care into the criminal justice and corrections systems, rather than into the public health system where they belong.
This criminalization of mental illness has wide ranging and devastating consequences.
People with SMI are significantly more likely to die in a law enforcement encounter.
There are 10 times more individuals with SMI in jails or prison than in state psychiatric hospitals.
One-fifth of law enforcement agencies’ staff time is spent responding to and transporting people with mental illness.
Black and Hispanic Americans with mental illness are more likely to experience solitary confinement.
How is mental illness criminalized?
People with SMI get wrapped up into the criminal-legal system in a variety of ways. Once an individual becomes involved with the criminal-legal system, it can become difficult for them to escape.
- Untreated symptoms
- Some symptoms of mental illness may contribute to an individual behaving erratically, such as yelling at strangers, trespassing, or sleeping in public areas. Any of these actions can end in arrest.
- “Compassionate arrests” or “mercy bookings”
- Some law enforcement officers may arrest individuals they perceive to be in psychological distress in order to ensure they are housed and fed.
- Lack of state psychiatric beds
- Without access to inpatient treatment when needed, individuals with SMI deteriorate further in the community and are more likely to encounter law enforcement. In some areas, jail may be the only place that an individual receives any mental health treatment.
- Outdated commitment laws
- Statutes that require that the individual present an imminent danger to self or others before the state can intervene all but guarantees an interaction with law enforcement.
- Substance use
- People with SMI have a higher rate of substance use. This puts them more at risk for criminal-legal encounters.
Almost one in four people with serious mental illness will be arrested in a 10-year period.
Resources for individuals with severe mental illness in the criminal-legal system
If your loved one has become involved with the criminal-legal system as a result of mental illness, please check out our Joan C. Scott Family Resource Center for help.
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