Mental Illness Is Not a Crime
- by: Christopher Burley
- recipient: Your US Senators and Representative
The nation's largest mental hospital is a jail, according to a heart-wrenching article in The Atlantic.
"Can you think of a worse place to put [people with a mental illness] than a jail?" asks Cook County, IL, Sheriff Tom Dart whose jail holds 9,000-11,000 inmates.
Jail officials estimate that one in three people incarcerated at the Chicago-area facility have some form of mental disorder — and that's a conservative estimate. Nationally, nearly two-thirds of jail inmates suffer from mental illness, according to the mental health advocacy group NAMI. Many of these inmates are incarcerated for “crimes of survival" like sleeping on the sidewalk.
Abuse and violence against people with mental illnesses is routine in many jails, but violence isn't the only problem. Incarceration can cause inmates' mental health to deteriorate, with potentially fatal results.
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) has introduced legislation to keep people with mental health issues out of the criminal justice system and help them find the help they need.
The legislation would especially boost services for people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system and increase mental-health training for law enforcement first responders.
Will you urge your US Senators and Member of Congress to support this important legislation?
Help protect the rights, health, and safety of Americans with mental illnesses. Please sign this petition now and urge your elected officials to support S.993 - The Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015.
I strongly urge you to support The Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015 (S.993, H.R. 1854).
As community-based mental health services and supports have continued to decline, more and more people with mental illnesses are incarcerated in the nation's jails and prisons, often for crimes of survival such as sleeping in the streets.
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The tragic death of Kalief Browder, who was arrested for stealing a backpack and then held in solitary confinement at New York's Rikers Island before killing himself in June 2015, demonstrates just how inappropriate jail is for people struggling with mental illness.
Jailing people with mental illnesses creates other problems as well, contributing to overcrowding in the corrections system and costing taxpayers billions each year.
The Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015 would help keep people with mental disorders out of the criminal justice system and find the help they need. I strongly urge you to support this important legislation.
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