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CURE IL is a nonprofit 501(3) c was formed to promote transparency and best practices to ensure accountability within our justice system. We strive to provide the information and tools necessary to advocate for change by educating the public so that they may advocate for change.
(A) the prisoner does not enter the prison gate destitute of all constitutional rights. — Jackson v. Hollowell, 714 F. 2d 1372, 1383 (5th Circuit, 1983)
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Ways to Stop the Criminalization of Mental Illness and to Improve Our Existing Mental Health System
By Joseph M. Jason, Chairman Criminal Justice Advocacy for the Mentally Ill
Based upon reading various books , reviewing web sites and my observations and experiences, I have come up with the following plan:
(One of those helpful books is “How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System”: by the psychiatrist Dr. E. Fuller Torrey)
1. Build forensic diversion facilities similar to the one in Florida instead of new prisons.
The program provides a sentencing alternative in cases where the offender has mental health issues. Those entering will begin in a higher-security area, more like a jail, and once stabilized move to a different part of the building for treatment.
For example. Florida presently has the following:
A)Forensic Alternative Center: Rather than going to state hospitals, severely mentally ill felons deemed
incompetent to stand trial go to an in-patient program at Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital. The focus isn’t
on preparing them for court, but for a return to the community.
B)Jail diversion: A shuttered state forensic hospital is being retooled as a jail alternative and community
center for people with mental illness.
2. Train prison officers to work with and respect mentally ill inmates, It’s a role that can change both officers and inmates prison-wide.
3. Invest in prison rehabilitation programs , which curb recidivism. Improve the reentry programs also.
4. Stop putting mentally ill people into solitary confinement. Close all supermax prisons.
5. Roll back punitive drug laws and invest in drug treatment giving people many chances to fail.
6. Train designated police officers to respond to mentally ill people in crisis(CIT)
7. Invest in housing-probably the single biggest hole in our social net- and eliminate rules that keep nonviolent and reformed offenders out of public housing. There needs to be vocational opportunities and opportunities for socialization.
8. Invest in a system of mental health that includes inpatient and outpatient services to support vulnerable people and keep them out of the criminal justice system.
9. Increase the beds in public psychiatric hospitals to 40 to 60 per 100,000. This is approximately four times the current size.
10. AOT Programs-Have a dramatic decrease in rehospitalization, victimization and incarceration in jails and prison.
Assisted Outpatient Treatment
Assisted Outpatient Treatment allows people with mental illness who are unable to cope on their own receive supervision while living in the community. This is an alternative to placing someone in an institution.
Who is eligible for Assisted Outpatient Treatment?
After a hearing, a person may be ordered to receive Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) if a court finds that he or she:
is at least 18 years of age and suffers from a mental illness and
is unlikely to survive in the community without supervision based on a clinical determination and has a history of non-compliance with treatment for mental illness which has led to 2 hospitalizations for mental illness in the preceding 3 years or resulted in at least 1 act of violence toward self or others, or threats of serious physical harm to self or others, within the preceding 4 years (time period may be extended in the event of current or recent hospitalizations) and is, as a result of his or her mental illness, unlikely to voluntarily participate in outpatient treatment that would enable him or her to live safely in the community and based on treatment history and current behavior, is in need of outpatient treatment to prevent a relapse or deterioration likely to result in serious harm to self or others and will likely benefit from Assisted Outpatient Treatment.
11. Lack of awareness of illness (anasognosia) must be considered when planning any mental illness treatment system and provision made for the implementation of some form of involuntary treatment (AOT) or conditional release for approximately 1% of all individuals with severe mental illnesses who are living in our communities.
12. Have community treatment of mentally ill individuals . They will only be successful if carried out by community mental illness centers.
13. Continuity of care, especially continuity of caregivers, is essential for good psychiatric care of individuals with serious mental illnesses.
14. For-profit funding of public mental illness services through social impact bonds and others.
15. Services for mentally ill persons must be prioritized to ensure that those who are sickest, pose the greatest risk to themselves and others will incur the greatest cost receives services first as the first priority.
16. Proper training in the issues associated with mental illness must be provided to all individuals associated with the criminal justice system.
17. For people with Autism:
1) All individuals with autism must have the right to have the condition of autism be considered first, and the implications of having autism be considered primary to any action taken by the criminal justice system prior to prosecution.
2)Individuals with autism must be protected under the American’s with Disabilities Act ensuring that their autism is not the reason for the conviction in a criminal justice action.