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Report of the Presidents New Freedom Commission on Mental Health |
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Advocates Praise Efforts to Address Criminalization of People with Mental IllnessesWASHINGTON, DC (June 22, 2004) — The Campaign for Mental Health Reform — a national coalition representing people with mental illnesses, their families, mental health advocates and service providers — today praised a Congressional hearing on legislation to address the growing numbers of people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. “Far too many people with mental illnesses are ending up in our nation’s jails and prisons,” said Ron Honberg, a spokesman for the Campaign for Mental Health Reform and national director of public policy and legal affairs at NAMI. “Today’s hearing underscores the urgent need for federal legislation to address this disturbing trend.” During the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing today on “The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act” (S. 1194, H.R. 2387), committee members will hear testimony from mental health advocates, family members, law enforcement officers and federal officials on the need to enact the bill, which the Senate passed in November of 2003. Sixteen percent of all adult inmates in U.S. prisons and jails have a mental illness, according to a landmark 1999 Department of Justice report. In fact, seventy percent of people with mental illnesses in jails are there for non-violent offenses. What’s more, an astounding 80 percent of youth entering the juvenile justice system have a mental disorder, according to the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Yet, failure to meet the needs of people with mental illnesses forces criminal and juvenile justice systems to handle a population they are ill equipped to serve. “Criminalizing mental illness is a failed public policy,” said Honberg. “Often, inmates with mental illnesses receive little treatment, are subject to segregation or abuse by other prisoners, serve longer sentences and have little access to discharge services to help them transition from the criminal justice system to successful lives in the community.” The bill would create a grant program to fund collaborative efforts between the criminal justice and mental health systems at the state and local levels. “This legislation supports the development of collaborative solutions,” said Honberg. “If the nation is going to promote effective alternatives to needless and harmful incarceration, law enforcement, the courts, corrections and all levels of the mental health system must work in concert.” The President’s Commission on Mental Health highlighted the lack of coordinated service delivery as a significant national problem in its July 2003 final report. “That so many in the criminal justice world support this legislation is a reflection of the growing recognition that all segments of society pay the price for America’s broken mental health system,” said Honberg. “Hopefully, the House of Representatives will take the next step and move this important bill forward to ensure that it becomes law.” # # # 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. Its members include organizations representing millions of people with mental or emotional disorders and their families and service providers, administrators and other advocates.
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One of every two Americans who need mental health treatment do not receive it, and the rate is even lower —and the quality of care poorer—for ethnic and racial minorities. |
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©2003 Campaign for
Mental Health Reform |
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