Experience a mental illness and there is a good chance you will be put in jail – really! With a lack of community based treatment and oversight, persons experiencing a mental illness all too often wind up in jail. Reasons: They may have no place to live, or a lack of adequate care results in some minor encounter with the law. Sometimes it is an intentional offense knowing that this may be the only way to get off the streets.
A forum on the program, Public Interest, National Public Radio (NPR), April 29, 1998 which dealt with the canalization of mental illness included Dr. Andrea Wiseman who is director of Mental Health Services in the Washington D.C. jails. She protested that jail is not the place to treat mental illness, yet “in some communities, the prison psych ward may be the largest Mental Health facility in the community.” This is discrimination with a vengeance!
Church members can work for better community-based treatment, adequate residential facilities, and support for family members. Short-term we can support training our law enforcement personnel to deal with persons experiencing a mental illness.
Written by Bryan Crousore
From UCC DM Newsletter Archive
