For Immediate Release: September 6, 2006
Contact: Heather Cobb, 703-797-2588, hcobb@nmha.org

Mental Illness Over-Represented in Jails & Prisons

Campaign for Mental Health Reform Calls for End to Punitive Treatment of Vulnerable Americans, Increased Investment in Diversion

WASHINGTON, DC — A report released today by the United States Department of Justice shows that the number of Americans with mental illnesses incarcerated in the nation’s prisons and jails is disproportionately high.  The Campaign for Mental Health Reform, created to promote access to quality mental health services, sees the staggering figures in this report as evidence of the need for increased investment in community-based treatment and services.

The report asserts that mental health disorders affect over half of all inmates in local jails and state and federal prisons.  For most, incarceration results from a community’s lack of treatment options or other more appropriate resources.   

“These numbers confirm that the criminal justice system has become America’s de facto mental health system, inappropriately confining hundreds of thousands of youth and adults with mental disorders,” said Bill Emmet, spokesperson for the Campaign.  “Forcing people with mental illnesses into jails and prisons rather than ensuring they receive the treatment they need is barbaric – and it’s at great cost to the American taxpayer who foots the bill.”

The Justice Department report indicates that approximately one-third of all inmates receive mental health treatment in prisons and jails.  The Campaign believes that individuals with mental illnesses are better served by having access to treatment and services in the community.  Research shows that making effective services available is often far less costly than incarceration and helps reduce recidivism. Many prisons and jails are overcrowded and understaffed, and few are equipped to provide the specialized mental health care needed by individuals with mental illness.

Crime can be reduced and lives improved by providing those in need with appropriate mental health services before they reach a crisis or end up in jail and prison.  Furthermore, providing such services is an investment in communities that saves taxpayer dollars, reducing waste like the estimated $100 million spent each year holding young people as they wait for mental health services, as documented in a 2004 Congressional report.  

The Campaign strongly supports the following recommendations: 

• Increase federal and state investment in community-based services that work for people with mental illnesses –evidence-based and promising practices, such as peer services and supports and supportive housing.  The Justice Department report shows that approximately three-quarters of all prisoners with mental health problems also have co-occurring substance abuse disorders.  This demonstrates the need for vastly improved integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment in the community.  These services reduce unnecessary institutionalization and incarceration and lead to positive treatment outcomes and recovery.

• Increase investment in prevention, early-intervention and rehabilitative services for children and adults, as recommended by the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health report in 2003.  The Commission proposed that these services occur in “readily accessible, low-stigma settings, such as primary health care facilities and schools,” as well as in justice facilities. 

• Fully fund the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (P.L.. 108-414), which authorized up to $50 million annually in funding for model state and community programs that jointly engage criminal justice and mental health systems in combating the criminalization of mental illness.  This Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program would provide grant support for initiatives such as programs that would encourage diversion of minor offenders with mental illnesses into community-based treatment rather than into the criminal or juvenile justice system.

• Begin discharge planning services and linkages with mental health treatment, housing and other needed services as early as possible prior to the release of incarcerated individuals with mental illnesses.  Additionally, restore and expedite medical benefits and income supports so that these individuals can pay for treatment upon their release.

“Until we take concrete steps towards a comprehensive mental health system that brings the right services to the right people at the right time, far too many vulnerable individuals will be warehoused in American prisons and jails,” said Emmet.  “Implementation of these recommendations will ensure that people receive the help they need in the communities where they belong.”

The Campaign for Mental Health Reform continues to promote solutions to end the criminalization of people with mental illness and calls on Congress to reverse these statistics by fully realizing the Campaign recommendations.

The Campaign for Mental Health Reform has been organized as the mental health community’s united voice on federal policy. Its goal is to make access, recovery, and quality in mental health services the hallmarks of our nation’s mental health system. For more information, see www.mhreform.org.