The Mental-Health Mess

the mental-health mess is the increasing number of mentally ill people in jails and prisons. A recent survey found that, on any given day, there are approximately 30,700 persons with schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness among the 426,000 inmates in the nation’s local jails. Many of these mentally ill inmates have no charges whatsoever against them but are merely being held in jail awaiting transportation to, or the availability of a bed in, a state psychiatric hospital. In 17 states it is still legal to hold such mentally ill people in jail without any charges. Another large segment of the mentally ill in jails are there on minor charges, such as “dine-and-dash” (ordering a restaurant meal they cannot pay for). Sometimes police charge the mentally ill with minor crimes just to get them off the streets, a practice commonly known as “mercy bookings.” In the jail survey 69 per cent of the respondents said that the number of seriously mentally ill inmates has increased in the past ten years.

Studies in state prisons corroborate these findings. A recent summary of these studies by Dr. Ron Jemelka and his colleagues at the University of Washington concluded that 10 to 15 per cent of the 771,000 inmates in state prisons are seriously mentally ill. This would be approximately 100,000 inmates. When this number is combined with the 30,700 seriously mentally ill in local jails and the 116,000 in the homeless population, it becomes evident that, on any given day, approximately 250,000 seriously mentally ill people—a quarter of a million—are living on the streets, in public shelters, in jails, and in prisons.

About the Author

E. Fuller Torrey

Mr. Torrey, a psychiatrist, is the founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center (www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org) and the author of The Insanity Offense: How America’s Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens (W. W. Norton).

Featured Tags

the mental-health mess is the increasing number of mentally ill people in jails and prisons. A recent survey found that, on any given day, there are approximately 30,700 persons with schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness among the 426,000 inmates in the nation’s local jails. Many of these mentally ill inmates have no charges whatsoever against them but are merely being held in jail awaiting transportation to, or the availability of a bed in, a state psychiatric hospital. In 17 states it is still legal to hold such mentally ill people in jail without any charges. Another large segment of the mentally ill in jails are there on minor charges, such as “dine-and-dash” (ordering a restaurant meal they cannot pay for). Sometimes police charge the mentally ill with minor crimes just to get them off the streets, a practice commonly known as “mercy bookings.” In the jail survey 69 per cent of the respondents said that the number of seriously mentally ill inmates has increased in the past ten years.

Studies in state prisons corroborate these findings. A recent summary of these studies by Dr. Ron Jemelka and his colleagues at the University of Washington concluded that 10 to 15 per cent of the 771,000 inmates in state prisons are seriously mentally ill. This would be approximately 100,000 inmates. When this number is combined with the 30,700 seriously mentally ill in local jails and the 116,000 in the homeless population, it becomes evident that, on any given day, approximately 250,000 seriously mentally ill people—a quarter of a million—are living on the streets, in public shelters, in jails, and in prisons.

About the Author

E. Fuller Torrey

Mr. Torrey, a psychiatrist, is the founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center (www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org) and the author of The Insanity Offense: How America’s Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens (W. W. Norton).