Do the Mentally Ill in Texas Jails Get Proper Care?
U.S. jails and prisons have become “the new asylums” as serious mental illness has become increasingly prevalent. Jails aren’t designed or set up to operate as mental hospitals. So, how are detainees with mental illness doing in county and municipal jails, where they so often end up? Do those with mental disabilities pose a threat to the other detainees or vice versa?
According to an abstract published by a psychiatric association, when severely mentally ill individuals are in jails, it is an urgent problem. Detainees with severe mental illness are generally poor functioning and their mental illness is both acute and chronic. Many are homeless. Compared with the general population, a great number of severely mentally ill people are arrested and jailed.
Why Aren’t the Mentally Ill Hospitalized?
Many factors enter into the process of determining whether a mentally ill individual is arrested and taken to jail rather than to a hospital. Generally, when individuals are thought to have committed a felony, they are brought to jail regardless of the state of their mental health. If the crime a mentally ill person is accused of committing is serious, police officers and the criminal justice system agree that psychiatric hospitals may have lax security and, therefore, the person should be placed in jail. In addition, the serious criminal offense may be considered secondary to the individual’s mental illness, which could lead to the person being released to the community after a relatively brief time.
When a mentally ill person is charged with misdemeanors, the decision about where they belong is more complex. Ultimately, there is no consensus between researchers about the definition of the criminalization of mentally ill individuals.
Helping detainees in Texas jails is one of this website’s purposes. There is no intention of insinuating that any person or entity has been involved in unlawful activity.
–Guest Contributor
smchugh
smchugh