![]() ![]() Based on mental health assessments during booking, he said, the number in Montgomery County has doubled in the last 8 years. ![]() ![]() Overall incarceration numbers are declining in the county and nation, he said, while the number of people in jail with mental illness has substantially increased. “We have a jail population that’s harder to deal with, that’s more mentally ill,” concurred Phil Andrews, director of crime prevention initiatives for the State’s Attorney’s Office in Montgomery County, Md., who also spoke at the lecture. This population is also less likely to make bail or parole, so they sit in jail longer. jails have a diagnosed mental illness, said Roth, adding that numbers are even higher among various demographics. prisons are crowded with mentally ill people, a longstanding crisis within our criminal justice system that needs to change, argued Roth, who is currently a mental health reporter for Minnesota Public Radio. “We’ve made it a crime to have a mental illness,” said Alisa Roth, author of Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness, who spoke at a recent NIMH Director’s Innovation Speaker Series lecture at the Neuroscience Center. Another factor is how society cares for and protects them. Science is an integral part of the equation, as research continues toward new and improved medical treatments for people with mental illness. ![]() Author and reporter Alisa Roth speaks at NIH. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |