Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness

by Alisa Roth

But for Americans with serious mental illness, it is estimated that as many as one in two will be arrested at some point in their lives.

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One in four of the nearly one thousand fatal police shootings in 2016 involved a person with mental illness, according to a study by the Washington Post. The Post estimated that mental illness was a factor in a quarter of fatal police shootings in 2017, too.12

Why is it so difficult for prisons and jails to hire staff? Although the skill set, educational background, and job orientation are radically different in each case, the shortages of both medical and security staff are at least in part a result of the same problem. In both cases it begins with highly difficult working conditions, often in inconvenient or remote locations, usually in exchange for very low pay.

However, more worrying is the perception that people with mental illness are potentially so dangerous that only police are equipped for the job of getting them under control.

police academies reveals that some spend as little as four hours on mental health training.

“fear is what keeps you safe.”

fewer people with mental illness have been shot by police after a CIT program was implemented.

Barring abolishment, a US Supreme Court decision that clearly outlines the parameters for giving the death penalty to a person with mental illness—much as it did for juveniles—would be a relatively easy fix, although there would presumably still be arguments about what constitutes sick enough and trying to decide who is, in fact, sick versus who is malingering.

Core issue over finance