Mental Health in Prisons
 PrintAs mentally ill offenders fill US prisons...The number of incarcerated mentally ill men and women is a growing trend in the United States. Today, the percentage of prisoners with mental disease outweighs the percentage of the general population that struggles with similar maladies. Reasons for this trend include gradual deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and inadequate community mental health services. Moreover, a social mindset that declares that mentally unstable people should be behind bars has also contributed to making overcrowded U.S. prisons the primary place of mental treatment—at a significant cost taxpayers....they encounter abusive conditions and limited treatment.This development has led to numerous challenges for mentally ill people in the criminal justice system. Insufficient mental health screening and lack of collaboration between the public and prison health systems exacerbate mentally ill prisoners’ conditions by inhibiting treatment. Mentally ill offenders are subject to poor medical practices due to lower in-prison standards of mental health care. Ill inmates are managed by staff members who are insufficiently trained in treating mental illnesses, and they suffer abuse from fellow inmates when mixed with the general prison population. Upon release, reentry planning often excludes access to medical insurance and fails to connect inmates with community treatment facilities, further threatening offenders’ chances of avoiding re-arrest.Justice Fellowship calls for compassionate, competent care.Justice Fellowship believes that successful treatment of mentally ill offenders entails quality medical attention; trained prison staff; universal, performance-based prison health care standards that mirror those outside prisons; separate facilities to protect the mentally ill from abuse; and using community or family-based rehabilitation programs in lieu of correctional institutions when possible. To this end, Justice Fellowship endorsed the passage of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act in 2004, which authorized $50 million for grants to states and localities to set up mental health courts and treatment programs for offenders. Justice Fellowship also advocated for the Second Chance Act of 2007, which authorizes additional grants for mental treatment programs. Pursuing these objectives gives mentally ill offenders the respect they are due and increases the chances for complete and effective restoration.Justice eReportsHouse Passes Second Chance Act, 347-62November 2007, Vol. 6, No. 12 Report on Violence and Abuse in Prisons June 2006, Vol. 5, No. 5 Two New Laws Provide Important Justice Reform October 2004, Vol. 3, No. 27
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