Stop Using Jails as Mental Hospitals

In 1993, 15% to 17% of Los Angeles County Jail inmates--approximately 3,400 prisoners--were classified as mentally ill. The jail had become the “dumping ground” for the mentally ill, the hospital of last resort.

Since then, the county has made significant improvements by coordinating resources, contracting with private care providers and developing programs that ensure mental health professionals and law enforcement are working together. However, there is clearly much more work to be done. Even today, the new Twin Towers County Jail facility is frequently described more like a mental institution than a jail.

Police officers have frequent and violent confrontations with people who are severely mentally ill. Statistics show that the majority of these people could improve their condition and lead productive lives if they were given the opportunity for treatment and taking the appropriate medication. An estimated 7% of prison inmates--seven times the general population--have schizophrenia. Effective treatment could greatly reduce this, saving society significant costs in crime, incarceration and human suffering.

A 1996 study of California costs found the state pays between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion per year on mentally ill persons in the corrections, law enforcement and court systems. The study found the average cost to the state for comprehensive mental health care is $4,000 per patient per year, compared with annual incarceration costs of over $20,000 per patient. The study concluded that if the justice system could deal with mentally ill persons in an alternative manner, it could make room in correctional facilities for other convicted criminals.

Without treatment, the severely mentally ill get progressively worse and much too often, end up injured, dead or in jail. It simply isn’t right to think that because we cut funding for treatment of the mentally ill, they will go away. They won’t; they are left in our communities for law enforcement to control when they act out on city streets.

The answer is not putting them in jail, but insisting on a health system that provides adequate services for the mentally ill.