Southwest Center for Equal Justice
CRIMINALIZATION OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Brandon Goodwin, suffers from severe schizophrenia and autism. After being contacted for allegedly walking in the road he became agitated and pushed one of the officers. Although they knew he was mentally ill they threw him to the ground punching him in the head and slamming his face into the pavement.
Brandon's story is not unusual. Police around the country interact with people experiencing mental illness, developmental disabilities and temporary mental crisis on a daily basis. But their response is often aggressive and sometimes even purposefully cruel.
In Brandon's case, the arresting officers laughed at him before they threw him to the ground and later one of them told jail staff that Brandon was just "trash."
Sadly, the officer who called him trash was one of the few officers on the force of 110 who had completed the agency's Crisis Intervention Team training program-designed to improve knowledge of mental illness and methods of de-escalation. The other officer had received virtually no training on mental illness in his 15 years with the force.
"Fifty years of failed mental health policy have placed law enforcement on the front lines of mental illness crisis response and turned jails and prisons into the new asylums." Treatment Advocacy Center
Criminalization of Mental Illness in Arizona
"Everyone loses when we criminalize a person with a mental illness. People with mental illnesses experience trauma and mental health treatment is rarely adequate in jail or prison. In addition, they find it more difficult to get a job and find housing when they have a criminal record. Families suffer when their loved ones are imprisoned. Law enforcement resources are diverted when people with mental illnesses are arrested and tax dollars are misspent."
Arizona Mental Health Fact Sheet
The number of people living with mental illness in America’s jails is alarmingly high. In 44 out of 50 states, prisons and jails hold more individuals with serious mental illness than the largest state hospital. In local jails, 64% of people experience symptoms of a mental health condition, which represents over 7 million people. Additionally, 17% of jail inmates experience a serious mental illness.
Across the country, innocent people are cycling through “the system” with repeated arrests, and with a higher likelihood of being incarcerated than hospitalized, simply because they experience a mental health condition. There is an urgent need to address the gaps in the mental health and criminal justice systems. This is not simply an issue of societal compassion—it is a fundamental issue of equity and justice.
John P. Docherty, M.D., "Creating New Hope for Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System" (10/20/2017, NAMI)
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)
In a mental health crisis, people are more likely to encounter police than get medical help. As a result, 2 million people with mental illness are booked into jails each year. Nearly 15% of men and 30% of women booked into jails have a serious mental health condition.
The vast majority of the individuals are not violent criminals—most people in jails are have not yet gone to trial, so they are not yet convicted of a crime. The rest are serving short sentences for minor crimes.
What Do I Do If I Believe My Loved One Is Being Mistreated in Jail or Prison?