People With Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System: Answering a Cry for Help

Abstract

Each day, individuals affected by mental illness and their families call the HelpLine number for my organization, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Over the course of a year, we will talk to thousands of individuals urgently seeking assistance. As the Executive Director, I have taken many calls myself, and the ones that are most vivid in my mind are from families desperately seeking help for a loved one who has been arrested or incarcerated. As this book makes clear, partnerships are the key to justice reform. Where there has been success and innovation in changing the way that the justice system treats people with mental illness, it is because of partnerships between those within mental health systems, those within criminal justice systems, individuals living with mental illness, and their families. Reforming the criminal justice system is not enough. We must challenge the assumption that some people with mental illness are so sick they will inevitably fall through the cracks. Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the mental health system to intervene early and to provide quality and continuous care so that people don't enter the justice .system. The mental health system needs to partner with homeless services, substance use services, and other services to promote the kinds of supports (besides medical care) that people need, for example, housing, education, employment, insurance coverage, income support—all of which are essential for people who are at risk of involvement with the justice system and people who are coming out of jail or prison. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: foreword)