Check out this “All Things Considered” story on NPR. A larger-picture story about exchanging one institutional view of mental health (asylums) for another (no acknowledgment of the mentally ill, and having them wind up in jail and prison instead).
Hopefully Tucson’s new Behavioral Health Pavillion and Crisis Response Center can help with our version of this story.
Government officials across Pima County have acknowledged there’s a vacuum left for poor in need of mental health services, some of which they say has contributed to South Tucson’s $1.4 million jail bill, not to mention Pima County Jail’s overall status as a mental health institution, as corrections officers there have said flat-out to me during interviews.
Guess we’re not the only place dealing with this problem.
This article appears in Sep 1-7, 2011.
Great read and well worth the time to educate and build awareness into the problem of criminalizing the mentally ill because of deinstitutionalization of state prisons putting the burden of treatment on jails and prisons not funded or staffed for such challenges. In time, this will have to be done as population growth require imminent action plans to handle this problem and condition within our incarcerated populations. Taxpayers should be aware of the expensive costs associated among this clientele thus should consider alternatives to incarceration to reduce costs associated with treatment AND prison costs.. the clock is ticking
Edit on comment replace deinstitutionalization of state prisons to read state hospitals…
I have no problem with the local smell unless it is that area on I-10 between prince Orange grove peee-ewww